Rube Goldberg’s Foolish Questions
Jan 26th, 2016 by bachmann
Rube Goldberg (1883-1970) is well known for his cartoons of zany convoluted contraptions offering unnecessary complex solutions for carrying out simple tasks. His work becoming so well known in early 20th century that his own name became an entry in dictionaries by 1931. The first of his invention series was printed in 1914 and involved an “Automatic Weight Reducing Machine”. These comical inventions appeared once or twice a month in syndicated newspapers and captured the public’s interest. Before creating this popular cartoon genre that eventually became his signature style, he created a series of popular one panel comics entitled “Foolish Question” in 1908. It is estimated that he did a staggering 50,000 cartoons in his lifetime.
Foolish Questions was a long-running newspaper single-panel comic in which people ask ‘foolish’ questions and are given sarcastic answers. It appeared in the New York Evening Mail and became so popular, that the readers starting sending in their own questions for Goldberg to answer. Goldberg observed a universality of human stupidity with people generally asking dumb or pointless questions when they already knew the answer. After gaining a popular readership, a hardcover compilation of Foolish Questions was published 1909, being one of the very first cartoon collections published in America.
This compilation of Goldberg’s foolish question comic was a crowd-pleaser, but it was not appreciated by all. There were surprising number of naysayers, partially taking aim at Goldberg’s work but also towards comics as an artform.
“R. L. Goldberg’s illustrated “Foolish Questions” may have been amusing when issued singly in the daily press, but thrust upon one en masse they become nauseating. Which reminds us why do American humorists, alleged an otherwise, adhere to one wretched theme until it is worn to a frazzle? Is it a test of endurance—for the public?” The Bellman 1909
“Some of them are very funny, but a long array palls on the mind. The illustrations are funny because they are so atrociously drawn by a man who could not do any better if he tried. Now, that really is not funny at all. It is sad! However, this book is bound to sell well because it is drawn and written right to the level of the average intelligence of the great People.” Overland Monthly, 1909
- Description:
- Goldberg, Rube. Foolish questions. Boston : Small, Maynard, c1909.
- Persistent Link:
- http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:FHCL:2173916
- Repository:
- Widener Library
- Institution:
- Harvard University