Captain Billy's Whiz Bang, April 1923 · page 16 of 68
Captain Billy's Whiz Bang #44 — page 16: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a humorous advice column from *Captain Billy's Whiz Bang*, a popular early-20th-century satirical magazine. The format features readers asking "Captain Billy" (the editor) absurd questions, which he answers with punny or irreverent one-liners. The jokes rely on wordplay and double meanings. For example, a sleepwalker would make "a good policeman" (playing on "walking the beat"). A lazy man should "join the navy" where Navy personnel will force him to work. The recurring character "Pedro" appears to be an in-house joke—a bull on the magazine's farm who symbolizes the editorial standard for acceptable humor. The final quip about automobile horsepower is a straightforward gag about the questioner's car having a weak engine. The closing advice about café butter is unrelated moralizing, typical of the magazine's casual, miscellaneous tone. This represents early 1900s American magazine humor: irreverent, pun-heavy, and reliant on shared knowledge of the publication's running jokes.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
16 Captain Billy's Whiz Bang Dear Bill—What shall I do? I'm worried because I walk in my sleep.—Bobby Enright. You'd make a good policeman. * * * Dear Skipper Billy—How can a big, healthy, ruddy-faced young man overcome laziness?—Percy Doolittle. Join the navy, Percy. Some of the old Jack Tars will make you work all right. * * * Dear Captain Billy—Before joining the ranks of the Whiz Bang volunteer associate editors, I'd like to know how you word the rejection slip that accompanies returned manuscripts.—Ole Ander. Gus is the final judge on rejected jokes and he usually scratches this terse notation: “This joke doesn't quite tickle Pedro's funny bone.” * * * Dear Farmer Bill—If Pedro is a bull on the Whiz Bang farm, who is the chief of police of Robbinsdale?—Jimmy James. Constable Bloberger says he'll show you who's chief if you just start any monkey-doodle business here. * * * Dear Captain Billy—How can I tell the horse power of my automobile?—Belle Hoppe. Look under your hood. All I can find in mine is six plugs. * * * Hazel—Always bear in mind that a cafe that is stingy with its butter gets few customers.