Captain Billy's Whiz Bang, Vol. 3, No. 29, January, 1922

This is a time capsule in paper form. The January 1922 issue of Captain Billy's Whiz Bang captures American humor at its most unrepentantly vulgar, when a good joke didn't need to apologize for being bawdy. W.H. Fawcett's humor magazine was a cultural force, the kind of thing that made readers laugh out loud in barbershops and living rooms across the country, and it would eventually birth the empire that gave the world Captain Marvel. Within these 64 pages you'll find jokes, witty verses, and humor pieces with titles like 'The Flesh Pots of Egypt' and 'Blistering Broadway,' alongside regular departments like Drippings from the Fawcett and Smokehouse Poetry. James Whitcomb Riley contributes a poem titled 'Lost.' This is slapstick and wordplay from a pre-censorship era, when humor went straight for the gut. It's a window into what Americans found funny a century ago, and a reminder that the urge to laugh hasn't changed nearly as much as we'd think.