On 'Gag' Cartoons of the '40's

Dissecting Humour

In this post, I'd like to take a semiotic look at 'gag' cartoons from the late 40's, back when there was a time when it was conceivable that one could earn a living as a 'gag' cartoonist. To our sophisticated tastes in this time, we might find the following cartoons, well, not 'funny'. I'll comment on the drawings in question and walk you all through the 'humour' part of it...

1) See, it's funny 'cause she's about to be brutally raped and humiliated by her boss, and because she's a stupid woman, she has to look up what her training manual has to say about it. Probably something like, "It IS kind of romantic, in a way... Lie back and enjoy it, and maybe your superior will make you his mistress or something, dear!" Haw! Stupid whore... (to be fair, the actual drawing isn't too bad...)

2) This one's funny cause he's supposed to be having sexual intercourse with his wife since it's their wedding, but--get this--he wants to go to sleep! What's even funnier is that look of disappointment on his wife's face as she realizes she's married a sexless oaf and is now trapped in a loveless marriage. Tee-Hee!

3) The humour in this one stems from the fact that she's much younger and more attractive then her decrepit, senile husband, and will soon be engaging in carnal relations with 'Joe', the moving van owner. Possibly in front of her cuckolded husband, who's shame and humiliation will manifest themselves as hot tears streaming down his face onto his exposed, withered genitals...

4) While the casual viewer might be inclined to think the humour in this stems from callous child battery, the resemblance between the painter and the battered child leads one to conclude that the child is in fact, his precious 'fruit', and his failure as a father is reflected in his look of mild bewilderment...

5) This one's pretty straight-forward. His wife fucked a black guy! Next!

6) The cartoon in question juxtaposes the mythical 'mermaid' creation with a pathetic failure of a man who lives in a boarding house with other sub-indigents. We find humour in the nonsensical pairing of a genetic atrocity without any apparent genitalia with an unattractive bachelor who ordinarily would lead a solitary life of desperate masturbation, and the occasional sordid back-alley couplings with clapped-out prostitutes...

I am left to conclude that the era in which these 'gag' cartoons were created was a joyless, hate-filled, racist, misogynistic time better confined to the dustbins of history. Also, the term, 'gag', in referring to these cartoons, meant the involuntary reflex action taken by one's stomach when viewing these drawings. As well as the act of stuffing the 'artist's' own feces-filled entrails down their gaping maws in an attempt to 'gag' their breathing and prevent them from sullying the world further with their 'gag' cartoons...