Captain Billy's Whiz Bang, April 1923 · page 60 of 68
Captain Billy's Whiz Bang #44 — page 60: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains humor vignettes typical of 1920s satirical magazines. The jokes target: **Horse Trading**: A practical joke about inspecting a horse—the buyer complains about the horse's "pants" (likely meaning its condition or appearance), a humorous deflation of a sales pitch. **Prohibition**: "Wild Oscar" satirizes Prohibition enforcement by noting Turks (from Turkey, a Muslim-majority nation with its own alcohol restrictions) as ironic exemplars—mocking American hypocrisy about the new 1920 law. **Military Life**: A rookie questions hardtack rations; the sergeant cites Caesar's army eating the same. The joke plays on the "old stuff" pun—both ancient and stale. **Gender Double Standards**: A man justifies thrashing another for kissing his wife while having kissed the man's wife himself, treating infidelity as a male "business affair." **Race Humor**: The final anecdote uses dialect humor (common but now offensive) about an enslaved or formerly enslaved woman's aspirations for her deceased husband, mixing pathos with condescension. These reflect period entertainment conventions rather than sophisticated satire.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
60 Captain Billy's Whiz Bang Whiz Bang Note Book The Life of an Egyptian Archaeologist by Sir Ches- terfield Cholmondelay is just out. This highly important literary masterpiece and the new Whiz Bang Winter Annual to be published this coming fall, are expected to be the two best sellers of 1923. * * * Gus was trying to sell Timmy Callahan a wind-broke horse and was trotting him around for Timmy's inspection. He stroked the horse's back and drew attention to his lovely coat. “His coat's all right,” said Timmy, “but I don't like his pants.” * * * From the Cynical Notebook of Wild Oscar: Of all the exponents of Prohibition the most illustrious are— the Turks. * * * Mebbe Sergeant is Buying Ford “I don't like hard-tack,” said the rookie at Mitchel Field. “Don't you know that Caeser's army lived on this hard- tack?” said the mess sergeant. “I thought it was old stuff,” replied the rookie. * * * Many insects make over 200 strokes of their wings in one second. * * * “I thrashed Smith last night for kissing my wife.” “But you have kissed his.” “Well, it's his business to thrash me for that. That's his affair; I haven't anything to do with it.” * * * When in Savannah, I saw an old colored woman standing over the grave of her husband. “Poo' Alexandah!” she moaned. “He allus wanted to be king ob de United States! Ah hope dey crowns him on de odder side.” comicbooks.com