Dog Toby.

Are Punch and Judy Shows under threat these days?

No. Mr. Punch - the UK's National Puppet - has been newsworthy for centuries. The occasional story about the 'banning' of Punch and Judy by various councils represent exceptions not the rule and are statistically insignificant. Punch is an imp of mischief whose brand of knockabout nonsense has its roots deep in world folk drama and yet is adored by countless children of all ages today. No stranger to controversy, there have always been those puritanical guardians of public morality who regard his flouting of society's rules as an outrage. Currently the argument is clothed in the jargon of political correctness. But Mr. Punch has not been carried down the centuries dependent on the approval of academics, pundits, commentators and leaders. He is 'of the people' and has been truly kept alive by popular acclaim. There are probably more performers nowadays than ever before. Once perceived as a hereditary occupation (or a secretive one), the Punch and Judy societies of today actively encourage new blood entering the old tradition. This is both Mr. Punch's strength and his achilles heel. He is in the public domain. Anyone can take the show up - thus Punch is very vulnerable to poor performers getting him and his tradition a bad name. No Punch performer wants to prevent anyone else from taking up the show, but there is a widespread public assumption that all Punch and Judy shows are the same. This is no more true than to assume that all musicians, clowns, or any other creative performers are the same. You can have poor musicians and unfunny clowns - and Mr. Punch can have an inept performer working him. An inept performer performing a potentially controversial show is like sending a first day driver up the motorway on a Harley Davidson. The power to inflict damage is enormous - and any damage to Mr. Punch's reputation affects ALL performers. Look in any Yellow Pages and you will find either a Punch & Judy performer or an entertainment agency with performers on their books. Not all the shows are of equal standard and whilst the Punch & Judy College of Professors will always defend Mr. Punch and his tradition this is not the same as defending every Punch and Judy Show under every set of circumstances. Some of the recent Punch contoversies have - at bottom - been more about the individual performer than about the Punch & Judy Show. For further details see Hits and Myths.

Punch and Judy are to domestic violence what Tom and Jerry are to animal cruelty and the Keystone Cops are to police brutality. That stick Mr. Punch wields is the very slapstick that gave its name to the whole genre of broad physical comedy. You need to have a particularly puritanical view of humour if you wish to find slapstick comedy unacceptable on ground of Political Correctness.
Those who attack the Punch & Judy Show for allegedly promoting domestic violence are trivialising the very real issue they are supporting. It is on a par with alcohol abuse campaigners targetting wine gums or anti-road rage campaigners seeking a ban on clown cars. The Punch and Judy Show is a folk drama still capable of reducing young - and not so young - audiences to paroxysms of helpless laughter by its topsy-turvey look at normal behaviour. There's a great deal of moral instruction contained within deceptively simple folk tales and traditional stories - and if you take away Mr. Punch's slapstick he won't be able to defeat the Devil (which, after all, is the traditional ending to the show). Do-gooders may try to censor works of art they think don't follow their own moral code - and the Punch & Judy Show is as much a work of art as any in the field of folk art - but society wisely rejects these attempts unless strong evidence is produced that they are indeed harmful.
Mr. Punch is also mindful that Political Correctness tends to get a much worse press than he does and believes that attacks on his role as a little wooden Lord of Misrule only strengthens this viewpoint. There are those- too - who believe that Harry Potter leads to Black Magic and that Trick or Treating leads to Satanism. It is only a fundamentalist viewpoint such as this which can equate Punch and Judy with being ambassadors of violence. Profs see Punch & Judy in the same overall tradition as The Simpsons - an arena of surreal animated comedy in which in which a bizarre family is used as vehicle for grotesque visual comedy and a sideways look at contemporary society. For a detailed discussion document by a leading Punch 'Prof' on the topic of Punch & Political Correctness take a look at Clive Chandler's contribution to the Slapstick Symposium Papers.

Only to the extent that the Great British Seaside Holiday isn't what it once was. Commentators who assume the decline of seaside Punch is the same as the decline of Punch have missed the point. We don't say that the Press is in decline because it's no longer in Fleet Street. It's thriving elsewhere - and so is Punch. His time at the seaside was an interlude for a show that was originally associated with the great agricultural fairs of Old England. When huge towns sprang up after the Industrial Revolution he became a street entertainer and when the Victorian social revolution made day trips to the seaside a reality Mr. Punch got on the new fangled railways and followed the crowds. He had a good stay there and became fixed in the national consciousness as a seaside attraction along with Minstrel Shows, donkey rides and the rest. He's not there so much nowadays because neither are the crowds. Some beaches still support a Punch show as there are Profs determined to keep this part of the tradition alive - but neglect by local councils (who may charge a whopping rent for being on the beach) coupled with the harsh economics of busking make it an uphill struggle. Mr. Punch makes his money as a paid entertainer elsewhere - including Shopping Malls. In other words the wheel has gone full circle and he's back amongst trade and commerce just as he was at the agricultural fairs of yore.

Childrens' parties are a mainstay of many a Prof's income, performed alongside magic, ballon modelling and other entertainments. There are always enquiries for shows for Weddings, Pub Fun Days, School Victorian Celebrations, Xmas Parties, Birthday Parties, Corporate Entertainment Events, Street Parties, Village fetes, Local Carnivals, Charity Events, Steam Rallies, Hertitage Events, Holiday Camps, Puppet Festivals, Street Theatre Festivals, Late Night Shopping Events, In Store Promotions, Half Term Holiday Events, Playgroups, Summer Playschemes, Mother & Toddler Groups, Museums, Castles and Stately Homes, Craft Fairs, Christmas Fayres, Christmas Shopping Events, Tourist Promotional Events and Bank Holiday Events.
Many of these are private events and even the public ones may not be advertised much beyond the location where they will take place. The chances of happening to come across a Punch & Judy Show unplanned are thus more slender than in former times when busking was Mr. Punch's prime means of survival. He's classed as an attraction these days and engaged to perform just as are the other performers - clowns, magicians, face painters, jugglers, fire-eaters etc - he often works alongside. He's still very busy, however, and he's still thriving.

Regular performances in the Millennium Dome throughout 2000 (organised by the Punch & Judy Fellowship); Millennium Punch & Judy Jamboree at the Midlands Arts Centre, Cannon Hill Park, Birmingham (organised by PuppetLink Ltd. with a grant from the Millennium Festival Fund), The Great Midlands Millennium Puppet Party at the Museum of Cannock Chase, Staffs (organised by PuppetLink Ltd. with a grant from the Millennium Festival Fund); appearances at The Lancaster Maritime Festival (organised by Lancaster City Council Tourist Development Office) Herne Bay Punch & Judy Day (organised by Canterbury City Council Events Office); Lichfield Cathedral Mediaeval Faire (organised by Lichfield International Arts Festival); Worcester Arts Festival Week (organised by Worcester City Council Cultural & Community Services); The Bath Puppet Festival (organised by the Theatre Royal, Bath); appearances at Nottingham Castle (in connection with the Carnivalesque touring art exhibition) Stamps 2000 (Exhibition at Earls Court, London); Puppets-a-Plenty Festival, Walsall W. Mids (funded by West Midlands Arts and Walsall Metropolitan Borough Council); guest appearance in Disney's 102 Dalmatians courtesy of College member John Styles; regular May Festivals in Birmingham and at twice yearly festivals in Covent Garden, London; International Punch and Judy Festivals in 2001 and 2002 (funded by Aberystwyth Town Council with assistance from the Arts Council of Wales and local sponsors), appearances at 2002 Golden Jubilee Celebrations for numerous Jubilee comittees, regular performances for local authorities around England at street festivals, arts centres and museums and very many performances for schools. Here is what just one school had to say about the show: "we are a large infant school with 360 pupils on roll. The majority of our pupils are of Pakistani origin and are Punjabi speakers but we also have children with African Caribbean, Bangladeshi, Malaysian and English origins. More recently two Swedish speaking Somalie children joined us. We are indeed a "multi-cultural" school. All of the children and staff enjoyed the show and teachers particularly commented on the obvious enjoyment of the children" Head Teacher Xmas 2001." Mr. Punch's regular schedule of bookings also takes him to humbler - but no less important - events than the above. He is pleased to entertain the crowds on beaches, street corners, village greens and at childrens' parties as he has done for generations.

The following stories have appeared in the press during the past few years. Here they are again PLUS the full story for the record.