Content note: Verse uses the period term 'Jap'; the Japanese pilot is drawn as a racial caricature with exaggerated teeth. A cartoon soldier is shown in a bare-midriff burlesque costume made of ammunition belts. This object is shown as it was published. Why
Joe Dope thinks it funny to play Lovely Lola, The Charmer this way
Ordnance Department cartoon poster for servicemen: a soldier wears twisted ammunition belts like a dancer's costume while two men laugh, then a gunner's gun jams ('CLICK') and a Japanese pilot, drawn with exaggerated teeth, escapes. The verse says kinked belts 'help a Jap get away'. Name-calling of 'Joe Dope' plus a stereotyped enemy as the cost.
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1943
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- Ordnance Department, U.S. Army; artist Will Eisner
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- Military
- Regime
- Roosevelt Administration
- Leader
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Audience
- Own forces
- Purpose
- Warn or inform
- Theme
- 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)
Ordnance Department, U.S. Army. National Archives and Records Administration, RG 44, 44-PA-1143S (NAID 514719).
Text on the object
Joe Dope thinks it funny to play "Lovely Lola, The Charmer" this way But the gun-jamming kinks That he puts in the links Of the belt help a Jap get away! CLICK @!*?*#@!! %!@#!!*!. THAT JOE DOPE !!!! [signature: W.O. Will Eisner ORDNANCE] ORDNANCE DEPARTMENT, U.S. ARMY [imprint:] U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE : 1943-O-518000
