Oh, how the twins wish they could date a hottie like Mr. Green! But he only has eyes for Aunt Ollie, Margaret Dumont’s glamorous cousin, in her cunning little hat and mink coat, and her pre-Mamie Eisenhower bangs.
Naturally, the twins want to know how you can attract guys like Mr. Green. They know it isn’t just those Mamie bangs and a disturbingly bright stare. Could it be that Aunt Ollie is vamping like an elderly Theda Bara? Or could it be that she actually wore something other than a bathrobe?
Why, no. It is Aunt Ollie’s breakfast cereal, Pep. We know, say the twins when they learn this amazing secret, you’ve been getting all your vitamins!
To which Aunt Ollie, queen of the subtle put-downs, replies: Plenty of vitamins wouldn’t do you two any harm at all. You two bathrobed sadsacks, garnished lightly with curlers.
Plenty of vitamins? Auntie means really means too many vitamins. And perhaps some other secret ingredients, too. Just get a load of her in the last panel – she’s practically going into orbit.
From Life, February 6, 1940; big version is here.
Pep Cereal: Now with 50% more Amphetamines!
Auntie looks positively amped up! Those psycho eyes…won't be long before she does something regrettable to those twins…
No doubt that there is a meth to her madness.
She kind of reminds me of The Joker in the last panel. Scary. Could be why Pep cereal didn't catch on.
LOL, Mimi!!!
There are soooo many 'vitamins' in Aunt Ollie's cereal that the poor love thinks she's dating Mr Green when really he's about to take her off to rehab.
What sort of household is this?My skewed worldview and suspicious nature cause me to believe that "Aunt" Ollie is the madam of a bawdy house, and the twins are two of her "girls."Mr. Green is the silent partner with the front money, and the drugs are smuggled in the cereal boxes.I've been watching too much film noir.