August, 1931. The Great Depression is in full swing. Still over a year until the 1932 election. The New Yorker has always had a subscriber base with a richer demographic than average, but these cartoons from the 7/4/31 and 7/11/31 don’t show much awareness of the Great Depression.
Another ping-pong related cartoon. Was there a ping-pong boom in 1931?
What is that device?
Comics I Don't Understand 
Wow. I think I understood three of those.
The “masses are not intelligent” one is just a riff on the terrible attitude of some of the idle rich.
“Miss Plunkett” is upset because it looks like the table tennis player is peeking up her skirt.
“That device” is a Fisher brush, a pre-electric domestic labor-saving device, only the cartoon is mocking them by having it be over-elaborate and clearly useless.
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