It has been a while since we enjoyed a quiz together. Here are some references to bygone bits of popular culture which sprang up in the selling of vintage postcards. (It is easier to sell a joke if you understand why somebody thought it was funny, once upon a time. This does not mean anyone will laugh, but that’s part of the pity of it all.)
QUESTIONS
1.This gag relies on you knowing what that shop sign just to the left of his head. What do the three balls signify?
2.You could probably figure out what these restroom signs signify without catching the reference. What comic strip’s main characters were so well known to the general public that the strip was sometimes simply called “Maggie and Jiggs”?
3.This folksong may go back to the seventeenth century. For generations, it was performed traditionally for what occasion?
4.“Why Aren’t You at the Front?” was not so much a question as an insult. What did it mean?
5.We covered this in a previous lesson. This postcard makes fun of what company’s slogan?
6.And while we’re at it, NOW we’re making fun of someone else’s ad campaign. Whose?
7.The book the skunk is holding misquotes the title of what twentieth century bestseller by which author?
8.Another pop song reference: in the original song, what would the man’s wife not allow him to do?
9.Gaumont, which put its name underfoot for this couple, published lots of postcards, but is more famous for what product?
10.Which Greek philosopher’s slogan…that is, philosophical demonstration, is applied here to an old maid?
11.Look look: TWO pieces of obsolete tech in one joke! What devices are these people using?
ANSWERS
1.Going back to medieval Italy, this sign indicates a pawn shop
2.Bringing Up Father: Jiggs was “Father”
3.When soldiers or sailors were leaving for assignments and/or w
4.During both World Wars, busybodies used this to suggest that the person asked was a slacker who should be in uniform and on the battlefield
5.Coca-Cola
6.Pepsi-Cola
7.Dale Carnegie, one of the giants of motivational writing, created an immortal title with How to Win friends and Influence People in 1936)
8.In the song “Waiting at the Church”, popularized in British musical halls around 1906, a young bride is left standing at the altar when she receives a note from the groom saying he can’t come marry her because…you get it
9.Gaumont is the oldest surviving motion picture company.
10.Diogenes, nicknamed “Socrates Gone Mad” by some of his rivals, famously walked around the city in broad daylight with a lantern on this mission, thereby making a point and possibly pioneering modern advertising stunts
11.The man at left is fishing for a coin in a PAY PHONE, accidentally molesting the young lady at the SWITCHBOARD
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