Captain Billy's Whiz Bang, March 1924 · page 32 of 71
Captain Billy's Whiz Bang #57 — page 32: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains three separate jokes from an early 20th-century satirical magazine: **"Billy-aches"**: A child's misunderstanding of the Adam and Eve creation story leads to physical comedy—Billy interprets his side pain as the beginning of wife-creation, echoing the Sunday school lesson about Adam's rib. **King Tut reference**: A topical joke. The 1922 discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb created massive public fascination ("King Tut craze"). Gus humorously wishes they'd instead excavate "September Morn"—likely referring to Paul Chabas's 1912 nude painting, which caused scandal and censorship battles in America, suggesting he'd prefer that controversy over the Egyptian obsession. **Prohibition-era joke**: The "hootch from a blind pig" is slang for illegal alcohol from an unlicensed speakeasy during Prohibition (1920-1933). The joke plays on offering legitimate milk versus the speaker's preference for contraband liquor—commentary on widespread defiance of alcohol laws.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
30 Captain Billy's Whiz Bang Another One of Those Billy-aches Very carefully the Sunday-school teacher explained to little Billy that Adam, after spend- ing a lonely day, lay down to sleep, and that while he was sleeping an angel came and extracted one of his ribs and laid it alongside of him. And when Adam awoke in the morning he was surprised to find that the rib had been changed into a wife for him, whom he called Eve. Billy went home that day and explained the tale to his parents. That afternoon, after he had been running about playing, he developed a pain in his side, and when his mother found him he was lying on his bed, crying bitterly. “What’s the matter with my little boy?” asked his mother. “Gee, mom,” was the sobbing reply, “I’m get- ting a wife!” NOW THAT THIS KING TUT CRAZE IS OVER, GUS SAYS HE HOPES THEY DIG UP SEPTEMBER MORN. Whiz Bang’s Ancient History Lesson A Coat of Mail was worn as a Knight Shirt in Ye Olden Days. She— “Would you like to have a glass of milk from a fresh cow?” He— “No, but I’d love to have a glass of hootch from a blind pig.”