[crashryan]

I don't think this is very funny, but I am curious about the concept. What exactly is the writer making fun of? At first I thought the guys were Englishmen, but it becomes clear that they're putting on the accents to seem classy. But why the lisping? Was it a fad for urban swells to lisp and say "Bah Jove"? Or is it a veiled suggestion that the men are a gay couple? They live together, have matching pajamas, and behave in ways a 1905 audience might consider effeminate. And a lisp was long a stereotyped attribute of homosexuals. Does anyone know something about this strip?

Link to the book: Dippy Dudes

[Andrew999]

The lisp where an 'R' sounds like a 'W' and the phrase 'By Jove' or 'Bah Jove' as it is here - is more associated with the traditional upper class in Britain. Prince Charles, for example, suffers a little from this affectation if you listen to him carefully - poor man.

Not really to do with being gay - although there is an unfair view amongst some working class men that the 'toffs' (upper class) are a bunch of useless worthless ........  - you get my meaning.

The author is making fun of the upper class, their attitudes, their sheltered lifestyles and their inabilities. It's not all that funny but amusing in parts