Captain Billy's Whiz Bang, June 1922 · page 65 of 68
Captain Billy's Whiz Bang #34 — page 65: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page from the 1920s satirical magazine contains several short jokes targeting contemporary social trends: **"See What We Mean?"** references women wearing shorter skirts (a scandalous fashion change of the era) and implies their public transit choices reveal willingness to be observed. **Prohibition-era joke**: Home brewing (illegal alcohol production) flourished during Prohibition, so bootleggers' losses supposedly benefited gas companies—unclear if this references fuel for stills or something else. **"The Radio Lover"** uses radio technology (then novel) as metaphor for romantic miscommunication—she has a faulty "receiving set," he must find her "Galena" (a crystal used in early radio receivers), making a double entendre about physical intimacy. **"He and She Joke"** plays on "rolled down stockings" (fashionable in the 1920s) with "calves are grazing"—a crude joke about women's exposed legs. These represent typical Roaring Twenties humor mocking modernizing fashion, Prohibition, and changing gender relations.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Captain Billy's Whiz Bang 63 See What We Mean? If a short-skirted lady uses the “L” instead of the subway it apparently means that she doesn’t object to the stares. * * * Everything in this life balances. Thus in home brew-ing, the bootleggers’ loss is the gas companies’ gain. * * * On Fifth Avenue “Ladies before gentlemen,” said the young man as he made way for the young lady to climb to the top of the bus. * * * The Radio Lover He kept his high Antenna hot, With messages of love—but yet She could not hear because there was Some flaw in her receiving set. It needed some adjustments and He promised her: “I’ll fix it, Lena,” He did; he merely had to find The proper spot of her Galena. * * * A He and She Joke Miss Flap—“These rolled down stockings are not too comfortable. They chafe just a little.” Mr. Flop—“Ah! Your calves are grazing!” * * * “I found her wrapped in thought.” “What do you mean?” “Oh—nothing.”