Captain Billy's Whiz Bang, August 1922 · page 13 of 67
Captain Billy's Whiz Bang #36 — page 13: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a satirical humor column from *Whiz Bang*, a 1920s American comedy magazine. The page collects brief jokes and observations mocking contemporary social trends: **Jeffries/Ferris joke**: References boxer James J. Jeffries and an associate creating a "liberal religion" allowing wine, tobacco, and dancing. The joke satirizes both the loosening of Prohibition-era restrictions and the commercialization of religion. **Flapper fashion**: Mocks rural readers' unfamiliarity with 1920s women's fashion (the "flapper" bobbed-hair, short-skirt look), suggesting farms were culturally isolated from urban trends. **College money-asking**: Humorously suggests colleges teach young men to extract money from parents so skillfully that parents feel honored to give it. **Hair net**: The final quip compares romantic entanglement to catching fish—a woman's "hair net" (attraction) catches foolish men. Overall, the column reflects *Whiz Bang's* rural American perspective, mixing nostalgia for farm life with gentle mockery of modern urban fashions, religious practices, and generational dynamics.
📄 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 11 JAMES J. JEFFRIES' and Dick Ferris' new religion is certainly liberal enough, with wine, tobacco and dancing allowed. Now if only they will announce "no collections," the empty church problem will be solved. Here's hoping Whiz Bang readers will soon address me as "Apostle Bill." My application for Minnesota Apostolic appointment is wait-ing approval of Messrs. Jeffries and Ferris, et al. * * * MINNEAPOLIS clothier is advertising suits for small boys "with the pants cut wide at the bottom 'flapper style.'" If it hadn't been for the advertisement some of us hicks from the farms and small towns wouldn't know to this day just what kind the flappers are wearing. * * * WE ARE contemplating a boxing tourna-ment on our farm with a "beautiful lamp" as a trophy. * * * THE modern American college should be given credit for teaching our young men the proper system for asking for money from home in such a diplomatic manner that we old codgers consider it an honor to give it to them. * * * IT MAY be called a hair net but a lot of poor fish get caught in it.