All grow fat from laughter

Vintage catalog advertisement for the Laughing Camera No. 2, priced at 23 cents, showing an engraved illustration of a grinning man holding a small optical device up to his face. The ad copy promises grotesque, distorted views of passersby, comparing the effect to funhouse convex mirrors.

I very much enjoy A Most Amusing Bot, a Mastodon bot by Andy Lundell which regularly posts scanned newsprint ads of novelty gadgets from the 19th and 20th centuries. And I like the very eerie note that this one ends on.

2026-06-24

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This particular page was last modified: Sat Jun 27 11:54:39 2026