Captain Billy's Whiz Bang, December 1924 · page 67 of 71
Captain Billy's Whiz Bang #67 — page 67: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page from *Whiz Bang*, a 1920s-era humor magazine, collects six brief jokes with minimal visual elements—mostly text-based comedy. The opening "Slight Mistake" is a pun joke: Deacon Miller forgets his church sign specifications and asks his wife to wire them. A clerk, unaware of context, receives a wire saying a child will be "6 feet long and 2 feet wide"—absurdly describing a newborn's dimensions as if it were furniture, causing her to faint. "Some One Ought to Lick 'Er" is wordplay on "Virginia reel" (a dance) mixed with innuendo about a woman named Virginia and hard cider. The remaining jokes are brief one-liners: a cynical marriage joke, observations about competition and inevitability, and cat humor playing on the phrase "that kind of cat" (meaning behavior type). These represent typical lowbrow humor of the era—puns, double entendre, and simple observational comedy aimed at working-class readers.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
=[Captain Billy's Whiz Bang]= Slight Mistake Deacon Miller was going to Chicago on business and while there was to purchase a new sign which was to be hung up in the front of the church advertising a new religious movement. He copied the motto and dimen- sions of the sign, but went to Chicago and left the paper in his coat at home. When he discovered that he had left the paper at home, he wired his wife: “Send motto and dimensions.” An hour later a message came over the wire and the young lady clerk who had just come from lunch and knew nothing of the previous wire, fainted. When they looked at the message she had just taken they read: “Unto us a child is born, 6 feet long and 2 feet wide.” * * * Some One Ought to Lick 'Er Virginia had a little quart Of cider hard as steel, And everywhere she went 'twas sport To watch Virginia reel. * * * Don't Let Wifie Read This One “I feel awful sad, old man. I tell you it's hard to lose a wife.” “Hard? It's doggone near impossible!” * * * The early bird catches the worm. By the time the later bird appears the worm doesn't have to be caught. * * * First Kitten—“Do you like to climb poles?” Second Kitten—“No, I'm not that kind of a cat.” =[62]=