---
title: Joe Dope takes a constant vacation from checking his tires' inflation
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/joe-dope-takes-a-constant-vacation-1941/
description: 'Folded two-panel cartoon for soldiers: at night a soldier kneels to change a jeep tire under a lamp while grinning enemy soldiers with knives.'
section: Collection
---

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2. [Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)
3. Joe Dope takes a constant vacation from checking his tires' inflation

**Content note:** Grinning, caricatured enemy soldiers with knives and a pistol lurk in the trees at night. This object is shown as it was published. [Why](https://propagandaarchive.org/about/#as-it-was)

[![Joe Dope takes a constant vacation from checking his tires' inflation, 1941 US poster: Folded two-panel cartoon for soldiers](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/joe-dope-takes-a-constant-vacation-1941.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/joe-dope-takes-a-constant-vacation-1941.jpg)

# Joe Dope takes a constant vacation from checking his tires' inflation

Folded two-panel cartoon for soldiers: at night a soldier kneels to change a jeep tire under a lamp while grinning enemy soldiers with knives, a pistol and a tank wait in the dark trees. The threat of an ambush during a roadside delay is a fear-appeal, with 'Don't be a dope' as name-calling. The enemy soldiers are drawn as caricatures.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Fear appeal](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/fear-appeal/) [Name-calling](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/name-calling/)

## Text on the object

Original (English) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
Joe Dope takes a constant vacation
From checking his tires' inflation-
But with pressure way low
Soon the tires may go
At a time that involves complication!
Don't be
a dope!
HANDLE EQUIPMENT RIGHT!
[signature:] w/o Will Eisner and H. G. Miner, Ordnance
[imprint:] ORDNANCE DEPARTMENT, U S ARMY PREVENTIVE MAINTENANCE PROGRAM
```

[← Joe Dope cleaned his rifle, oh yes](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/joe-dope-rifle-cleaning-1941/) [Oh high over enemy soil the guns can't be cocked or recoil - the lubricants froze - and the gunner now knows Joe Dope used the wrong kind of oil →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/joe-dope-wrong-oil-froze-guns-1941/)

## More propaganda examples that use the same techniques

- [Miniature of Pope Urban II at the Council of Clermont, Les Passages d'outremer (BnF Fr. 5594, fol. 19r)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/passages-doutremer-council-of-clermont-colombe-1474/) (France · 1474 · Testimonial, Fear appeal). Content note: Medieval religious imagery and a French text describing alleged killings and captivity of eastern Christians, as used to argue for the First Crusade; the text is shown as written.
- [Anacoana fut pendue sans raison (engraving in Le miroir de la cruelle et horrible tyrannie espagnole)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/anacoana-hanged-miroir-tyrannie-espagnole-1620/) (Dutch Republic · 1620 · Fear appeal, Name-calling). Content note: Engraving of a hanged, bare-breasted Taino woman, burning huts and people being killed by Spanish soldiers.
- [Der Warner (broadsheet lampoon on the Jesuits after Breitenfeld and Rain)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/der-warner-anti-jesuit-broadsheet-1632/) (Holy Roman Empire · 1632 · Scapegoating, Fear appeal)
- [Sans-Culottes, feeding Europe with the Bread of Liberty (James Gillray)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sans-culottes-bread-of-liberty-gillray-1793/) (Kingdom of Great Britain · Jan 12, 1793 · Fear appeal, Name-calling)
- [Proclamation de Sonthonax en créole, Cap-Français (Proclamation of Commissioner Sonthonax in Creole)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sonthonax-proclamation-creole-1793/) (France · Aug 29, 1793 · Fear appeal, Scapegoating). Content note: Colonial-era proclamation on slavery and emancipation in Saint-Domingue; speaks of slaves, whips and 'Nègues' in period terms.
- [Gazette of the United States, "The Jeffersoniad" no. VIII, 14 August 1800](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/gazette-us-jeffersoniad-1800/) (United States · Aug 14, 1800 · Name-calling, Fear appeal)
- [Tyrants Prostrate, Liberty Triumphant (pro-Polk cartoon on Dorr), 1844](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/tyrants-prostrate-liberty-triumphant-polk-1844/) (United States · 1844 · Name-calling, Fear appeal). Content note: Speech balloons contain anti-Catholic and nativist wording ('the ruins of Popery') in the mouths of the Whig figures, written by a Democratic cartoonist and shown unaltered.
- [Brolej Žemajčiaj! (Brothers Samogitians!): hand-painted broken-cross poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/brolej-zemajciaj-broken-cross-1862/) (Russian Empire · 1862 · Fear appeal, Transfer)