Captain Billy's Whiz Bang, March 1924 · page 28 of 71
Captain Billy's Whiz Bang #57 — page 28: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page from *Captain Billy's Whiz Bang* (a humor magazine, circa 1920s) contains several short jokes and anecdotes typical of the era's satirical content: **"Adjusting Her Curriculum"**: A mild joke about a model candidate whose profile may only be visible from certain angles—suggesting vanity or physical insecurity. **"Henry Lee" poem**: A dark humor piece about someone drowning while pursuing a fish, where his companions couldn't swim either. **"Dialogue of the End Men"**: Uses period-dialect humor (offensive by modern standards) depicting a boastful altercation with exaggerated speech patterns. **"Olaf Says It Can't Be Done"**: An absurdist riddle-joke playing on logical impossibilities (how can disabled people perform these actions?). **"She Told It With Flowers"**: Wordplay humor about someone literally wearing an Easter lily as a hat instead of buying one. **"Who are you?"**: A crude joke about introducing crabs (the parasitic infestation) into crab-apples. The humor relies on wordplay, absurdism, and physical comedy rather than sophisticated satire of specific political figures or events.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
26 Captain Billy's Whiz Bang Adjusting Her Curriculum Levon Fairchild West, one of the staff artists for True Confessions magazine, was question- ing an applicant for the position of a model. “You have a wonderful profile,” West re- marked to the young lady. “Oh, have I?” said the fair one as she ad- justed her skirt. “And does it show now?” * * * * Ring out, wild bells, and mournfully Proclaim the end of Henry Lee Who lost a fish—jumped after him— Just one of them knew how to swim. * * * * Dialogue of the End Men “Niggah, you can’t hit ha’d ’nuff to knock ME down.” “Boy, Ah may not be able to knock you down, but Ah’ll hit you so ha’d Ah’ll make you do some PECULIAR things standin’ up.” * * * * Olaf Says It Can’t Be Done Four men came floating down the river on a marble slab. One was blind, one armless, one legless and the other naked. The blind man saw a duck, the armless man shot it, the legless man went after it, and the naked man put it in his pocket. * * * * She Told It With Flowers Little Sally was so silly When she went to buy a hat, She chose a full-blown Easter lily, And went to walk in that. * * * * Who are you? I’m the guy who put the crabs in the crab-apples.