Missed Opportunities in Humorama

[web-ed]

I know I'm walking a fine line here - sexual innuendo is even further from spanking than the "Behind in Jeopardy" stuff - and yet I find it at least a little interesting to peruse these old cartoons. I think for me it's mostly trying to understand how these humor magazines finally reached the apex of their development with spanking cartoons, and eventually I'll do a special on the course of that development with I hope mostly cartoons we haven't seen before, but for now let's take a look at some admittedly rather questionable efforts with a variety of weaknesses which I will duly point out.

First we have two cartoons from Gerald Green, whose primary weakness is that his gags are, well, weak (he draws terrible behinds, also). They are quite similar, with "Bob" in the first apparently evolving sometime later into Nifty Nick, the mascot of Nifty.


From Smiles #64 - I forgot to note the year, if I ever knew it. The only humor elements here are the girl's nudity and Bob's lascivious nature.


From Nifty (November 1955).

They're both water-themed gags, with the second being a little better and featuring the familiar "goosing" motif we also saw recently with Touring Tessie down on the farm. A lengthy commentary is unnecessary here, but Nick was always a bit seedy-looking. This suited Green's drawing style, and if you wanted a portrayal of decadence, say an illustration of the Kit Kat Club in Berlin during the waning days of the Weimar Republic (from the musical Cabaret and its predecessors, I am a Camera and the stories of Christopher Isherwood, of course), Green would have been your guy. But for rollicking humor, sexy girls, or sizzling eroticism? Not hardly.

[hugob00m]

Hi, Web-ed.

These are a couple of odd ones this week.

First one: "I never wear a swimsuit, Bob... I don't know how to swim!" Then, why is she in the water? I guess it's so the artist can imply nudity without drawing the woman's nipples and risking censorship.

Bob's facial expression is hard to decipher. Is it angry, happy, frustrated? I think maybe it's supposed to be lustful, but it doesn't communicate clearly.

Second one: "I said I'd let you give me a ducking... not a goosing!" She'd rather have her head held underwater than get a friendly little pinch on her rear? That doesn't make much sense to me.

Thanks for posting them.

[willjohn]

A sensitive lady from Worcester
At a ball met a fellow who gorcester;
A wild-looking guy,
With blood in his uy,
So she ducked out before he sedorcester.

[web-ed]

Not a bad limerick, Willjohn. Now let's see one more reference to goosing, even if we don't really need to at this point:


Just what we needed - another "goosing" reference! Nifty Nick is taking a chance here as the boyfriend just might decide to punch him out, but then again, he was often shown taking a beating, usually from the girls he was getting fresh with. From the January 1955 issue of Nifty, art by Gerald Green.

I'm not sure how Nifty Nick made out at the beach, but here he is two months earlier with his hands groping toward an obvious objective:


Gotta kill the time somehow, I guess. From the November 1954 issue of Nifty, art by Gerald Green.

Nothing to write home about with either of these, but they may provide a moment's amusement and they do help convey the flavor of the Wolf Books at this time. We're going to get some relief from Nick for a brief while, but we'll see him again next week when I plan to post some more risque material than this (in fact it borders on the raunchy). First, though, I have some rather dubious stuff to get through, and we'll see it in the next post as soon as I get some rest.

[willjohn]

I remember Richie and his friends used to talk about the submarine races at Inspiration Point in early episodes of "Happy Days."

[web-ed]

I remember Richie and his friends used to talk about the submarine races at Inspiration Point in early episodes of "Happy Days."

I didn't watch that show much so I don't remember that, but maybe the writers got their "inspiration" from a cartoon like this one. Although now that I think about it, "Inspiration Point" may have been some kind of shorthand for any place kids went to make out, because Lorenz Hart used it as part of an interior rhyme in one of the verses of the song "Manhattan" (1925):

A short vacation
On Inspiration
Point we'll spend
And in the station house we'll end
But civic virtue cannot destroy
The dreams of a girl and boy
We'll turn Manhattan into an isle of joy

And then of course there's the little matter of how you're supposed to watch submarine races when the contestants are under water and can't be seen. I suspect the answer that you don't, thus forcing the two of you to find something else to do... Did any girls ever fall for that, I wonder?

[web-ed]

O.K., we come now to some very weak sexual innuendo in the form of strip poker. Yes, I know, and I don't blame anyone for rolling their eyes at something so juvenile. "Is the ol' Web-Ed so low on good material he has to dredge this stuff up?" you might ask. Strip poker might seem exciting if you're still in junior high school, but to grizzled veterans of the sexual facts of life like us here at CSR...well, "Been there, done that" might well be the polite (and bored) response.

My reasons for presenting these five examples are threefold: one, they're mostly by artists familiar to us who have also done spanking cartoons; two, they probably did seem a little risque at the time and thus represent the growing eroticism of 1950s humor cartoons as they moved toward the big prize of actual spankings; and three, some of them at least suggest some missed opportunities that invite further comment. So here we go with examples #1 and 2, both by Jack O'Brien who did the "Beatnik Bongo Spanking" we saw recently in the Rivals of Humorama Series in the Humor Gallery on the main site:


From Army Navy Fun Parade (August 1953). Are there really some fellows who would cheat at strip poker just to get a girl naked?


From Zip (May 1958).

The second cartoon from Technical Sgt. O'Brien (remember, apart from "Beatnik Bongo Spanking" and three spanking cartoons for Humorama he was also the long time artist on the military-themed comic Sad Sack) is a little more interesting. Empty liquor bottles suggest that the female's inhibitions may have been lowered somewhat by the consumption of alcohol, and she doesn't seem to know when to quit. In this situation, a devious sort of man might be tempted to suggest that since she's already naked, if she loses the next hand she must pay her forfeit by accepting a spanking - on her bare bottom of course. Yes, a devious sort might think like that...

[web-ed]

From Lou Magila, who did all those crazy cartoons for Humorama (including two spankings), comes this crazy cartoon from the May 1956 issue of Mirth:



And one year later in May 1956, also from Mirth we have this rather intriguing effort by Jack Lohr:



This one may be the most suggestive of the bunch as the woman is undoing her bra, and her rationalization ("It's not really gambling, is it?") is interesting psychologically. Women often need some reassurance that it's o.k. for them to have erotic desires, and it would surprise me if there weren't some female spankos who fantasize about losing a bet (or a hand of poker) and having to submit to a spanking as the stakes. The element of compulsion, although it usually takes other forms (e.g. deserved punishment for misbehavior - the disciplinary spanking), is the key. Lohr's losing player here has a nicely-shaped rear end for spanking, also.

In fact I did once meet a woman at a spanking party who carried a pack of cards in her toy bag (she was really into it), and I can only imagine she used them for that purpose. My approach with her was to bypass the whole question of card games and simply bend her over for swats from one of my paddles! I'm sure it did her a lot of good.

[web-ed]

We come at last to the end of our rather silly strip poker series with a 1949 effort from Bill Wenzel, well known to all of us at CSR:


Packy's got more up his sleeve than his armpit in this fine Wenzel cartoon from Pack O' Fun (July 1949).

Cheating at cards is entirely in character for Packy, who would do anything when it comes to women. I'm not sure when Packy took over as the mascot of Pack O' Fun because I forgot to record the date properly when I had that issue, but it doesn't matter much. Of interest is that in these early years Wenzel drew his women a little slimmer than he did later. The poor girl here is also buck naked which is a little unusual for 1949, but as I have remarked before, publishers must have felt they could get away with more in cartoon form than with photographs.

And lastly, from the same issue of Hello Buddies in which Wenzel drew the secretary spanking I'm featuring over on the main site this week (it's numbered A7 for reference in the Humor Gallery) we have a simple Behind in Jeopardy from Lowell Hoppes:


From Hello Buddies #77 (September 1955)

"Mister Hoskins" has pretty good aim if you ask me, but if he's that good with a ping-pong paddle, shouldn't he have applied it directly to his female opponent's ample bottom? Truly a missed opportunity!

[hugob00m]

Hi, Web-ed

I'm not good at card games... but I can see plenty of opportunities for those who are.

First he wins big in a game of strip poker, and then he offers her one more bet... all of her clothes back if she wins the next hand vs. a spanking if she loses.

Maybe a bet like that could be made in a game of ping-pong. The paddles are already there!

[web-ed]

Even though I'm not posting more from Humorama's rivals over on the main site right how, I see no reason not to exhaust my remaining non-spanking "rival" material here, so let's see two more examples now.

First up is a voyeur who reverses the usual direction of sight-seeing from a glass-bottom boat:


From the January 1955 issue of Nifty.

The girl thoughtfully bends over to view the aquatic life. It seems like there should be some kind of play on the word "glass-bottom" here, but I can't think of one. Perhaps "That bottom ain't made of glass" or some such.

The artist is unknown, but looks a lot like the guy who did that "Billy Goat Butting" I posted under this topic on 10/12/2023 (see the preceding page - no link here because of the board's two-link/image limit). His name might be "Glynn". You can see the resemblance of our skin-diver's face here to that of "Elmer" in the earlier cartoon.

Our innuendo in the next one consists solely of the singer's apparent exhibitionistic tendencies. Theoretically, this is a mighty weak gag, but in practice we accept it because of her outstanding bosom! The artist is named "Jan" and seems to model his women on those of Stanley Rayon: it will be noticed that the singer here possesses a full and spankable bottom in addition to her full bosom. Like Rayon, Jan's method seems to be to present a very sexy female and let the rest of the cartoon take care of itself.


From Good Humor (Vol. 1 #28, Summer 1954). The pianist seems nonplussed, but he needn't worry since as soon as her top comes off no one is likely to be paying any attention to his playing anyway .

[hugob00m]

Hi, Web-ed.

First up is a voyeur who reverses the usual direction of sight-seeing from a glass-bottom boat:

That guy should be wearing scuba gear! That way he could stay down below the boat and enjoy the view a lot longer. If he could hold his breath as long as Ricou Browning, it wouldn't be enough.

Our innuendo in the next one consists solely of the singer's apparent exhibitionistic tendencies. Theoretically, this is a mighty weak gag, but in practice we accept it because of her outstanding bosom! The artist is named "Jan" and seems to model his women on those of Stanley Rayon: it will be noticed that the singer here possesses a full and spankable bottom in addition to her full bosom.

The gag doesn't seem to lend itself well to a spanking-related theme... but the way the woman is drawn does! And. as you point out, she has a strong resemblance to some of Stanley Rayon's ladies. And even from a 3/4 front view, the shape of her posterior is compelling! Maybe the piano player should spank her for upstaging him!

[hugob00m]

I have a Dan DeCarlo cartoon that seems like a missed opportunity.

dan decarlo melons.jpg (238.37 KiB) Viewed 7613 times

The sign clearly says, (although misspelled) "Do not handle the merchandize"! The fact that she's been caught in the act squeezing melons surely means she's in for a spanking... doesn't it? Maybe not, and don't call me Shirley! We can see something from our viewpoint that the grocery-boy doesn't"The lady has a fantastically spankable rear end!

If any of us could be in that boy's place, the lady would be guaranteed a spanking!

[web-ed]

Thanks for posting this one, B00m! I'm pretty sure DeCarlo did another one using the "melons" motif, but I can't lay my hands on it now. It may have been in the collection of DeCarlo's Humorama work Fantagraphics published a long time ago. I'm not even sure I own it any more, as I've sold off a lot of stuff. I believe in the cartoon I'm thinking of it was a male customer who handled the "melons" in question .

[web-ed]

Let's see two more examples from Humorama's Rivals, these being somewhat more blatant.

This first one is from Martin Filchock, who also did a fly-swatter spanking we're going to see shortly in the "Rivals of Humorama" series over in the Humor Gallery. Groping had to be implied rather than actually shown at this time (1955), but the implication is pretty obvious here:


From Nifty, January 1955

For an even more obvious example of intended groping we have our old acquaintance Touring Tessie from Wham!, whom we saw recently being literally taken to the woodshed. This scene occurred six months earlier in October 1954. Our ballplayer is ready to proceed to "second base" (see what I mean about "blatant"?), and if Tessie isn't careful, he just might steal home...


From Wham!, October 1954. Art by George Wolfe (Tessie's usual artist).

[butch46163@yahoo.com]

Hot drawings

[web-ed]

No, it's not spanking, but it's on the right track - sort of. Here are two more examples from Humorama's rivals to accompany our ongoing series over on the main site.

First up: it's no surprise that sailors are supposed to be good with knots, although this probably isn't the use the U.S. Navy had in mind for such "knot-ical" knowledge. The art is by Vic Herman, who may have drawn that Winnie the Waitress paddling in 1949 (see it in Comics Gallery 2). This cartoon is even earlier, from 1945, and it's a little surprising to see such obvious bondage at this early date until we remember what a stink Dr. Fredric Wertham was making around this time (from 1947-54). We think the examples from comics were a little more subtle, but maybe not that much (see e.g. Wonder Woman and Phantom Lady).


From Fun Parade Vol. 4 No. 1 (1945)

Then we return to the seedy doings of Nifty Nick, Nifty's mascot, who restrains his date using croquet wickets:


From Nifty (November 1952), art by Gerald Green (unsigned) who confused the game of croquet with the French deep-fried roll, croquette.

That may not be the way to play croquet, but Nick seems to think he's on track for a good time anyway.

Believe it or not, the sexual innuendo got even more blatant (and was in even more questionable taste) than this, as we'll see in our final two examples next time.

[butch46163@yahoo.com]

Nick showing her a new way to play nice find

[web-ed]

Before getting to what I thought were the last of my "sexual innuendo" Missed Opportunities, because I was reminded this week that I had a second folder of MOs I'm going to post what I hope is the last of my "Strip Poker" cartoons along with one that's more than a little odd.

First, let's see Felix Andrews' take on the Strip Poker theme, published exactly fifty years ago this month(!). Andrews, it may be recalled, did a spanking cartoon for Adam in which the spankee is over an army corporal's knee receiving (of course) "corporal" punishment, and he may have done a 2nd "spanker" I'm going to be posting soon (the signature is illegible or missing).


Art by Felix Andrews, from the February, 1974 issue of Joker.

So our losing poker player doesn't believe in playing cards for money? In that case (and I'm sure we're all thinking the same thing here), why doesn't she put her fanny on the line and agree to a spanking if (when!) she loses the next hand? (Without checking, I'm sure B00m suggested as much when I posted those earlier strip poker cartoons a few weeks ago). Andrews' emphasis is on her ample bosom, but from what we can see it looks like she's got a spankable bottom, too.

Now for that strange one. This is earlier, from 1957, and it's by G (George?) Lubway, an artist we haven't seen before. I think it probably first caught my eye because the girl seated at the dressing table is holding a large hand-mirror that looks quite a bit like a paddle, while the second girl is rather purposefully bending over, but there's more:


From Army-Navy Fun Parade #83 (1957). Art by G Lubway.

So what the hell was actually going on here? O.K., so the mirror isn't a paddle and Girl #2 isn't requesting a spanking (if that's what popped into my over-active spanko imagination), but the caption specifically mentions "liniment," and it isn't clear why Girl #2 (the two look enough alike to be sisters) would be bending over unless that "liniment" needed to be applied to her behind. And wouldn't that imply a spanking from her boyfriend rather than his "squeezing every bit of happiness"? Or is he supposed to have pinched her? Or am I just missing something obvious?

If it was a spanking (and I'm sure we all hope it was ), why be so coy about it? This is 1957, for Heaven's sake, and Humorama is running its greatest spanking cartoons on a monthly basis at this time, Playboy is finally about to show a bare-bottomed Playmate of the Month, plus this mag was intended for personnel in the Armed Services - were they such snowflakes (like today's mis-educated youth) that they were in danger of fainting when exposed to anything mildly suggestive? I have to believe that Lubway, whoever he was, had provided a different caption, one that probably did involved a reference to spanking, and that it was changed by the editor for some reason, although if that's the case I don't know why there are no "stinging effect" lines visible.

This one's a mystery however you look at it. Any other ideas?

[hugob00m]

Hi. Web-ed.

Concerning the George Ludway cartoon: I'm at a loss too! Her boyfriend is "squeezing every bit of happiness out of life"... and she needs a liniment? It's a cute picture though, The women are pretty and there seems to be something suggestive in the way the one in the foreground is bending over, The woman sitting looks like she's holding a paddle alright (even though it's probably just her hand-mirror) The sitting woman also looks like she's either bored or tired.

I don't care much for F/F spankings... but still... an alternative caption occurs to me: "Since I broke up with my boyfriend, I haven't gotten a good spanking in almost a month! Would'ja mind giving me a couple of whacks?"

Now, about the poker-playing couple... I'm sure that if the lady runs out of clothes to take off and then loses another hand, the man would gladly accept an offer of an alternative penalty!