Content note: Three figures are drawn as black silhouettes with exaggerated grins and white eyes, in a caricature style of the period. This object is shown as it was published. Why
Good gag? Not here! Don't waste food
Cartoon food-waste poster in two panels. Above, three dark silhouetted figures with wide grins and white eyes laugh at a screen cartoon of a man hit by a pie. Below, a pie hits a garbage can beside a bitten apple, with the words 'Not here! Don't waste food'. The technique is faint: it borrows the laughter of a slapstick gag and turns it against wasting food.
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1944
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- U.S. Navy (artist Dyer, USNR; issuing office not printed)
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- Military
- Regime
- Roosevelt Administration
- Leader
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Audience
- Own forces
- Purpose
- Mobilize or secure compliance
- Themes
- Home front, War and the military
- Event
- World War II
- Regime
- Roosevelt administration
- Leader
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Record Group 44, World War II Posters, retrieved October 4, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (U.S. government work)
U.S. Navy (artist Dyer, USNR; issuing office not printed). National Archives and Records Administration, RG 44, 44-PA-909 (NAID 514414).
Text on the object
GOOD GAG? –NOT HERE! Don't Waste Food [signature:] DYER USNR [imprint:] U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE : 1944—O—620967
