Captain Billy's Whiz Bang, August 1922 · page 66 of 67
Captain Billy's Whiz Bang #36 — page 66: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a humor column of fake reader responses to submitted letters. The satire targets early 1920s social attitudes: **Woman's suffrage** (Jack Ascertain): Mocks the recent 19th Amendment by suggesting women voters have made "strange bedfellows" phrase obsolete—a political joke about changed social dynamics. **Platonic love** (Asa Nine): Sarcastically defines it as kissing someone while denying her personhood—commentary on men's contradictory attitudes toward women. **Baseball humor** (Biblical Student): A pun suggesting Genesis was written "in the big inning"—wordplay typical of 1920s magazines. **Romantic misadventures** (Cleopatra, Reginald): Joke answers to readers about physical marks from dating—flirtation-era humor. The column's framing as "rural mail box" letters creates satirical distance, allowing the magazine to mock contemporary social pretenses and gender relations under the guise of humorous advice. The tone is lighthearted but gently critical of modern dating and political conventions.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
64 Captain Billy's Whiz Bang Our Rural Mail Box Miss Khoa Boate—You are entirely wrong. *** Jack Ascertain—Since the passage of woman's suffrage, it is highly improper to say that “politics make strange bedfellows.” *** Reginald—Would suggest ending your poem with this beautiful phrase: “The sun fell with a thud on her neck and she became sunburned.” *** Cleopatra—The red mark on your shoulder after the dance probably was caused by the biting cold. *** Biblical Student—We are sorry to confess we are rusty on our bible but the story of the creation probably was written by a baseball reporter. It starts out “In the big inning.” *** Asa Nine—Platonic Love means that you can kiss her all you want to and forget she is a woman. *** Dear May—Yes, some men are always right —never seem to pull a “bloomer.”