Captain Billy's Whiz Bang, April 1923 · page 56 of 68
Captain Billy's Whiz Bang #44 — page 56: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains a series of brief satirical jokes typical of 1920s humor magazines. Key points: **"Welcome Bigamists"**: The classified ad joke mocks permissive morality by advertising lodging for "man and wife or two"—openly advertising accommodations for bigamy. **Temperance Union story**: Satirizes abstinence advocates. They pressure a 100-year-old man to credit longevity to never drinking, but the punchline reveals his *father* (presumably much older) is drunk and destructive—undercutting the temperance message with absurdist humor. **Piano chaperon/banana seeds jokes**: Light observational humor about social propriety and peculiar personal habits. **Minneapolis gambling den**: Jokes that the Irish setters (dogs) are "broken in" by the gambling environment—implying corruption. **Final item**: Satirizes masculine honor codes that protect women from gossip, treating it as a social absurdity. The overall tone is irreverent toward Prohibition, traditional morality, and social conventions—typical of this era's satirical publications.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
56 Captain Billy's Whiz Bang Welcome Bigamists (Kansas City Journal) Denver 2741—Board and room; man and wife or two; modern home; half block from car line. * * * The Temperance Union called on an old man on his 100th birthday to get him to sign a statement to the effect that he owed his long life to the fact that he never touched liquor in any form. He was very old and feeble but complied with their request. Suddenly an awful commotion in the next room—someone swearing—breaking furniture and kicking over the stove. Ladies frightened—"Mercy, what's that?" Old man (feeble)—"Oh, it's only my father—he's drunk again." * * * Gus says his girl is so good she wouldn't even accompany a man on the piano without a chaperon. * * * In the palmy days of Minneapolis some twenty years ago, a gentleman dropped into one of the gambling joints, of which there were rather many, and the first thing he noticed in the room was a pair of fine red Irish setters. "Fine dogs these," he said to the dealer, "are they broke?" "I guess not. They haven't been in here five minutes yet." * * * Providence is always on the side of the best fighters. * * * Gus won't eat bananas because he says the seeds are too large. * * * Our national code of honor prohibits telling on a woman who has sensitive and athletic brothers.