Captain Billy's Whiz Bang, December 1924 · page 50 of 71
Captain Billy's Whiz Bang #67 — page 50: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page features humorous newspaper reprints—a common Whiz-Bang format—highlighting absurd or unintentionally funny news items from regional papers. The scarecrow illustration serves as a thematic header. The jokes exploit **awkward phrasing and unintended implications**: - "This Rapid World" mocks an announcement's confusing wording (announcing a birth "of Mr. and Mrs." rather than "to"). - "Grounds For Pardon" darkly notes a man pardoned for murdering his mother-in-law and wounding his wife—presenting the absurdity that such crimes warrant pardon. - "Cut Her Visit" plays on the ambiguous phrase "had an operation on her visit" (implying surgery occurred *during* the visit). - "Thoroughly Qualified" satirizes someone opening an art school whose only credential is painting signs on trash boxes. These represent **journalistic blunders**—unintentional humor created by poor word choice or dubious qualifications. The satire targets newspapers' careless reporting rather than specific individuals or politics.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
SCARECROWS This Rapid World (From the Ohio State Journal) Mr. and Mrs. Fred White, 2496 Louden Avenue, announce the birth of Mr. and Mrs. Corwin Mendenhall. * * * Grounds For Pardon (From the Chicago Tribune) Walter E. Barnes, was pardoned from the Joliet penitentiary in 1920 for murdering his mother-in-law and seriously wounding his wife. * * * Cut Her Visit (From the Ottawa County (Ohio) Exponent) Ida Tasch, who has been spending the past week with Mrs. Lester Mehlow, had an operation on her visit, and is improving rapidly. * * * Thoroughly Qualified (From the Fayetteville (Ark.) Democrat) “The Fayetteville School of Fine and Applied Arts” is the name given to a new art school to be opened here within a week by E. C. Aumick. Mr. Aumick has been engaged in commercial art for some time, having had charge of the painting of signs on the trash boxes recently placed on the sidewalks on the square in big towns and in Sauler. [45]