PUNCH PhD

PLEASED AS PUNCH TO BE NOMINATED AS AN ICON

PC TIDE EBBS FROM PUNCH

A story in the Daily Telegraph (5.8.05) headlined YES, IT'S THE RETURN OF THE PUNCH AND JUDY SHOW confirmed what Punch performers have known for some time. Today's audiences have moved on from the rigid PC attitudes of the late 20th Century and want to see the traditional show in action more and more. Far from the attitude of Bodmin Town Council which found itself a national laughing stock last year for allegedly banning Mr. Punch from a Summer event, Jane Seddon, Director of Services at Blackpool Town Council has voiced the opinion most commonly heard by Punch's Profs from their audiences. Quoted in The Telegraph she says "Ten to fifteen years ago there was a concern that Punch and Judy might provoke violence and there were moves to ban it but times have changed and children have moved on. It is now seen as the innocent entertainment it was always meant to be. I watch programmes such as Power Rangers on television with my children and it is more violent and sinister." Thus was Mr. Punch welcomed back to Blackpool beach. The Telegraph story also quoted entertainment agency boss Karl Evans as saying "There are more and more people asking for Punch and Judy Shows and people are glad to see it coming back". Well, for those of us working daily with Mr. Punch he never went away - but there was a sense of his being under attack from fundamentalist PC diehards. This news story - along with the widely expressed derision that recently greeted Thanet Council for banning pantomime villain puppets of Saddam and Osama in a Broadstairs Punch and Judy Show - sends a clear public signal that the PC tide which lapped around Mr. Punch has now turned and is on the way out (barring minor squalls), leaving him to continue enjoying his long run as an iconic purveyor of pure classic slapstick. Mr. Punch will wave to his fundamentalist PC critics from the shore as the tide of public opinion casts them adrift. Being made of wood, however, he is unlikely to shed any tears over them.. (The original story is at The Telegraph's online pages)

SADDAM SHAME AT BROADSTAIRS

'NO BAN' BODMIN JOINS PILTDOWN-ON-SEA

NO BAN ON PUNCH

PRESS COMPLAINTS COMMISSION HELPS SET RECORD STRAIGHT

May 2004

PUNCH HELPS MUSEUM TO HERITAGE AWARD

Feb 2004

Jan 2004

PUNCH'S HISTORY IN A NUTSHELL

Historians generally accept that Mr. Punch is descended from the Italian clown Pulcinella who was a character in the Commedia Dell' Arte tradition of the 15th Century. Puppet plays featuring the character subsequently toured Europe and one troupe - led by a 'Signor Bologna' - was seen in Covent Garden by Samuel Pepys on May 9th 1662 during the festivities surrounding the wedding of Charles II following his Restoration to the throne. This date is today considered 'Punch's Birthday'. London crowds transformed the puppets name to the more pronounceable Punchinello before shortening it to Mr. Punch. This new irreverent wooden star (at this time a marionette, worked by pulling strings) was taken up by British puppeteers and he traveled the country for the next century. By 1800, however, he had (for reasons historians argue about) become a hand puppet in the little street corner stage we still know today. He had acquired a wife called Judy and once again taken to using his clown's slapstick. (Marionettes can't wield slapsticks as their real-life actor counterparts had done - but it's what hand puppets do best.) This colourful knockabout 'Punch and Judy Show' enjoyed a huge following which - as the century wore on - took him to the seaside as crowds flocked there on the newfangled railway excursions. He even spread to Australia and America - where he can still be found. Familiarity gradually saw him transform into a children entertainer in which role he saw out the end of the 19th Century and the entire 20th Century. He's now still going strong 342 years after Samuel Pepys first saw him. His European odyssey saw him become Polichinelle in France and Petrushka in Russia. Historian's trace his pre-Commedia roots to the farce players of Ancient Greece and to the archetypal 'Trickster' figure from world folklore. He is an aspect of the Lord of Misrule - which is why he appeals to those for whom there are just too many rules and too many authority figures.

URBAN MYTH PUNCH CLICHÉS

PUNCH HAS BEEN BANNED BY...... By whom? There are no recorded instances of an outright ban being successfully imposed on the Punch and Judy tradition by any local authority. No one has to book a Punch and Judy Show any more than they have to book a standup comedian, a karaoke or a ballet troupe. Not booking something is not the same as banning it. One is down to the personal taste of the person in charge of a particular event, the other seeks to use authority to impose that personal taste on a wider setting. Occasionally Mr. Punch suspects that the former argument is deliberately being used as a Trojan Horse for the latter ((see the 'No Ban' Bodmin press release above) and the College makes this plain on his behalf. The exceptionally rare attempts at genuine banning are sufficiently newsworthy to interest local media - and occasionally the interest spreads further. But the truth is that these misguided attempts have always petered out. Newsclip databases will have the original story but are unlikely to have the less newsworthy follow on. Thus the original charge gets recycled like stale air conditioning. (For the follow up stories to some recent scare headlines follow the link (left) to FAQ's and look for the 'Hits and Myths' section) A school, too, may occasionally hit the headlines for 'banning' Punch and Judy - but then schools 'ban' a lot of things from chewing gum to jewelry and fashion hair cuts. It rather depends on the viewpoint of the head teacher. He or she may rule the roost within their grounds - but they don't speak for their Local Education Authority or anyone else. Mr. Punch is proud to visit countless schools where he's welcomed with open arms as a piece of living history. As far as public censorship is concerned the 'ban' on Punch is a myth.

THE NEW LICENSING BILL WILL KILL OFF PUNCH AND JUDY...... No it won't. What is will do is add miles of red tape to the act of casual busking with Punch and Judy at the seaside and in other public spaces. This will have an impact on the tiny handful of performers who still work this way and may cause some (especially the amateurs and hobbyists) to give up. It is quite likely that less than 1% of performers will be affected - of whom only a fraction may be deterred. Still, most bureaucracy is anathema to Mr. Punch and he's none to happy to have those figures of fun The Men From The Ministry (and - indeed- the Women from the Ministry) poking their noses into his little stripey tent. Mr. Punch, however, earns most of his money these days as a paid entertainer rather than having to pass the hat round as in days of yore. Nevertheless, to show their disdain for this bureaucratic meddling the Punch and Judy organisations of Great Britain joined together in an unprecedented initiative in 2004 to formally dedicate the red stripe in the classic red and white striped Punch nnd Judy stage to be henceforth considered an outward symbol of the red tape that was increasingly being wound around this - and other - age-old traditions.

 

POLITICAL CORRECTNESS HAS SEEN OFF MR. PUNCH...... No. He's now officially seen off the challenge. See Top Story above. Mr. Punch has lived through great shifts in public attitude spanning Restoration Bawdiness, Victorian Values, the Naughty Nineties, Edwardian Imperialism, the Roaring Twenties, the Depression, the War Years, the Fifties, the Swinging Sixties, The Flared Trouser Years and the Yuppy Years. To him the late 20th C. Political Correctness Period is just another of those phases. He's been fighting petty censorship from the self-elected guardians of public morality for most of his career. Puritan blue noses yesterday, PC fundamentalists today. Same arguments - different words. His progress, however, remains unchecked. For a summary of the views of Punch performers see Punch's View of Political Correctness below.

 

PUNCH AND JUDY IS IN DECLINE. No. See Top Story above. Regular Punch and Judy pitches at the seaside went into decline when the Great British Seaside Holiday went into decline. But Punch was only at the seaside in the first place to make money from the trippers. When their numbers dropped he followed his nose to where the crowds were. You'll find him at Street Parties, Village fetes, local Carnivals, Pub Fun Days, School Victorian Celebrations, Xmas Parties, Birthday Parties, Weddings, Corporate Entertainment Events, Charity Events, Steam Rallies, Heritage Events, Holiday Camps, Puppet Festivals, Street Theatre Festivals. Late Night Shopping Events, In Store Promotions, Playgroups, Holiday Playschemes, Mother & Toddler groups, Museums, Castles, Stately Homes, Craft Fairs, Christmas fayres, Christmas Shopping Events, Tourist Promotion Events and Bank Holiday Events. You'll even catch him back at the seaside a lot more now that an increasing number of resorts mount Punch and Judy Festivals as a crowd-boosting Summer attraction. And - of course - there are some beaches he never left and which can still boast having a regular Punch and Judy Show just like on those old nostalgic postcards from yesteryear.

PUNCH'S VIEW OF POLITICAL CORRECTNESS

True Punch performers adapt their show to the spirit of the age. A celebrated Victorian showman lamented that his audiences had become genteel and wanted the Ghost and the Coffin dropped from the show. He blamed "the march of h'intellect" for this change in taste. Today's audiences have no problems with Ghosts or Coffins because society's concerns now run along different lines and today's performers will take this on board. However if the simplistic argument is put to them that "Punch and Judy promote domestic violence" they will reply that it is an argument akin to saying that Romeo and Juliet promotes teenage suicide, that Tom and Jerry promote cruelty to animals, that Guy Fawkes celebrations promote the burning of Catholics, that Hallowe'en promotes Satanism or that Goldilocks promotes squatting. It is quite likely that there are people who believe all these things but Mr. Punch has a keen nose for spotting humourless fundamentalists peddling flawed logic - and his opinion of them is as low as theirs is of him. Still it's a free country and you pays your money and you takes your choice. A proper Punch and Judy Show is, none the less, a world class work of folk art and part of Britain's rich and culturally diverse heritage. It makes no more sense to start combing through it looking to censor examples of "inappropriate behaviour" than it would to do the same to the works of Shakespeare, the Mahabarata, or the highly lurid plots of much classic opera. To do so is absurd and trivialises legitimate concerns about the real ills in a society which Mr. Punch's world parodies. The effect is similar to alcohol abuse campaigners targeting wine gums. The former Chairman of the Board of Film Censorship, the late James Ferman, expressed a view to which Punch performers subscribe when he said "Great art is, like religion, concerned with moral imperfections, but in can be perfectly moral in confronting them". (A commercially released video of a Punch and Judy Show was indeed given a 'U' certificate by the Censorship Board in 1994.) Mr. Punch also reminds critics that his slapstick is the very weapon that gave its name to the whole genre of broad physical comedy. It is a clown's weapon used by them for assaulting each other - and the dignity of opponents of high and low degree. For a detailed and deeper look at the whole issue by one of the College Professors click on the Slapstick Symposium link (left) and see the paper on Punch and Political Correctness.

PUNCH'S 21st CENTURY TRIUMPHS

Mr. Punch has strutted into the 21st Century with his head held high. There were daily regular Punch and Judy Shows in the Millennium Dome (which at least one critic said were the best part of the whole thing), there was an International Punch and Judy Jamboree paid for the Millennium Festival Fund, there was a set of stamps bearing the likeness of himself and his cast which were issued by the Royal Mail (calling itself Consignia at the time), the Queen's Golden Jubilee celebrations saw him very much in demand, and in addition to the two regular festivals held each year in his honour in Covent Garden there have been three International Punch and Judy Festivals held at the seaside by invitation of Aberystwyth Town Council. And to set the official seal of approval on Mr. Punch at an even more distinguished level Professor John Styles (a founder member of the College) was honoured in the 2004 Queen's Birthday Honours list when he was awarded the MBE "For services to the arts. Especially Punch and Judy". (See Press Release above). Meanwhile Mr. Punch's normal routine has been the 'business as usual' unsung round of engagements in his centuries old role as a public entertainer in the hands of numerous Profs at countless functions up and down the land, making literally millions of people laugh and feel happy.

THE 'MEANING' OF PUNCH AND JUDY

You could write a book on this topic - and several people have. (For full details see the bibliography at the end of the Punch and Judy History main section which can be accessed via the link at the top of the page). The simplest way of thinking of it is as a centuries old forerunner of something like The Simpsons. It offers a grotesque parody of family life, with excursions into the surreal, and uses the format to take a sideways look at the society which gave it birth. If you fast-forward The Simpsons a few centuries, adding add a few references that have crept in along the way, you'd face a similar problem in trying to work out 'the meaning' of the show. There are, however, some eternal themes embedded in both, and both too are grounded in the conventions of broad physical humour shared by cartoons and puppet shows alike. In Mr. Punch's case his message is one of anarchic nonconformity and defiance of convention. It leads him on his path to confronting - and defeating - the Devil. Punch has ancestry, too, in the Trickster traditions of world culture. (As defined in the online Wikipedia, the Trickster figure in a culture is the one "who breaks the rules of the gods or nature, somtimes maliciously but usually with ultimate positive effects.....they are often very funny even when the are considered sacred and are performing important cultural tasks"). But of course, as children know even if adults sometimes forget, it's all make believe. Whatever reactions it provokes amongst its audience it fails if it doesn't provoke laughter which - as we all know - is one of the best medicines. Punch's little knockabout drama has succeeded for centuries because of the satisfaction it delivers. Whatever your problems, the sight of Mr. Punch dealing so outrageously with his goes some way to easing the burden for a short while. See also 'Punch's Home Truths' in the Slapstick Symposium papers (left)

QUOTABLE QUOTES

"Great art is, like religion, concerned with moral imperfections, but in can be perfectly moral in confronting them" James Ferman, former Chairman of the British Board of Film Censors, quoted in his obituary in The Independent, Feb 17th 2003.

"I think causing offense is important and beneficial to humanity. People whould be offended three times a week and twice on Sundays" Sir John Mortimer, creator of 'Rumpole of the Bailey' quoted in the Sunday Times, Feb 9th 2003.

"Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of the truth" Albert Einstein (quoted as 'Thought for the Day' in The Independent)

"In my opinion the Street Punch is one of those extravagant reliefs from the realities of life.....I regard it as quite harmless in its influence and as an outrageous joke which no one in existence would think of regarding as a model for any kind of conduct" Charles Dickens (The Letters of Charles Dickens Vol V, 1847 - 1849. Clarendon Press 1981. Letter dates Nov 6th.)

"Pinocchio is rewarded for his docility by being turned into a little boy. True comedy makes the child in us want to turn into Mr. Punch" John Kerrigan, English Comedy. Cambridge University Press 1994.

"Punch's sequential victories can be read as affirming the inextinguishable vigour of Everyman against all comers including Death". Marina Warner. No Go The Bogeyman. Chatto & Windus 1998.

 

Mr. Punch has been around a long time now. He's looked out from his little stage onto all kinds of changes in public attitudes spanning Restoration Bawdiness, Victorian Values, Edwardian Imperialism, the War Years, the Swinging Sixties and the Yuppy Years. To him the Political Correctness Period is just another of those phases, one in which old arguments are clothed in new words. He's always had his detractors among the self-elected guardians of public morality, a minority who just don't approve of him, and the grounds for their disapproval have changed according to the fashions of the time: Puritan blue noses yesterday, PC fundamentalists today. Charles Dickens (a huge fan of Mr. Punch) penned the definitive put-down when approached by a woman enlisting his support in her claim that Punch was an instrument of the Devil. He wrote "In my opinion the Street Punch is one of those extravagant reliefs from the realities of life.....I regard it as quite harmless in its influence and as an outrageous joke which no one in existence would think of regarding as a model for any kind of conduct". What fun Dickens might have had today in creating an embodiment of fanatical political correctness to sit alongside such immortal caricatures as Wackford Squeers or Ebeneezer Scrooge.

There is, of course, more to Punch than meets the eye - which is a trap that Bodmin Town Council recently fell into when they endorsed a complaint which complained that the show concerned "a man, woman and child whose only interaction with each other is based on violence". (Yes of course - and 'Snow White' is about seven little men living in a strange house in the woods with a young girl. What kind of example is this to set before young minds? Alert Social Services! Boycott Disney!) A closer look at that stick Mr. Punch wields will reveal it to be a slapstick. It's the very theatrical prop that gave us the term 'slapstick comedy' and which in one form or another has been a principal weapon in the clown's armoury for centuries. It is the same approach to physical comedy you find in the madcap cartoon world of 'Tom and Jerry' and 'Bugs Bunny'. You've got to be pretty humourless (a condition, alas, which often goes hand-in-hand with fundamentalism) to hear the accompanying roars of laughter as endorsements of gratuitous violence. And don't let anyone alarm you with tales of "men in make-up routinely humiliating each other within a context of communal violence" that will just be a well meaning Town Council trying to describe a clowns custard-pie fight.

Not only is Mr. Punch, of course, a clown (that red nose is a bit of a giveaway) but he's descended from a whole line of clowns. Historians generally accept that he's descended from the Italian clown Pulcinella who was a character in the Commedia Dell' Arte tradition of the 15th Century. It's the same theatrical tradition that gave us the now half-familiar names of Harlequin, Columbine, Pierrot, Scaramouche, Pantaloon and many others. In England its two descendants are Pantomime and the Punch and Judy Show. A puppet play featuring Pulcinella later toured Europe and was seen in Covent Garden by Samuel Pepys on May 9th 1662 during the festivities surrounding the wedding of Charles II following his Restoration to the throne. The London crowds transformed the puppets name to the more pronounceable Punchinello before shortening it to Mr. Punch. This new irreverent wooden star was taken up by British puppeteers and he travelled the country for the next century before settling down around 1800 into the little street corner stage we are familiar with today. Meanwhile he'd also established himself half way round the world too, for there have been Punch and Judy Shows in Australia since the early 1800s; whilst in America not only was Mr. Punch was performing long before they built the White House, he's still to be seen there on the eve of the current Presidential election.

And there's more. Historian's trace the comic DNA back from Pulcinella to the farce players of Ancient Greece and down to one of the basic characters of world folklore: the Trickster - a kind of Lord of Misrule created by cultures to put things in a topsy-turvy way so that society can confront its demons and laugh itself back to health. Laughter has long been proverbially known as being the best medicine - and it's the remedy that Mr. Punch purveys. It's a weapon (along with his slapstick) that in the traditional version of the show he uses on the Devil himself to vanquish Old Nick once and for all. Now that's as powerful a moral as you'll find in any tale and certainly an outcome Faust never managed. As feminist cultural historian Marina Warner puts it in her book 'No Go the Bogeyman' "Punch's sequential victories can be read as affirming the inextinguishable vigour of Everyman against all comers including Death". You can also look at the show (no two are the same) as a centuries old forerunner of The Simpsons offering a bizarre parody of family life, with excursions into the surreal, and using a basic comic format to take a sideways look at the society which gave it birth.

Either way it's with laughter that Mr. Punch generally responds to his critics, for it is the humourless fundamentalist who is his most blinkered detractor. He won't change their view any more than they will change his - but he can put them to scorn and diminish their power. So as you go about your Hallow'eening, Mr. Punch's advice is to take no notice of those who tell you that you are promoting Satanism, eat up your wine gums in defiance of any politically correct Alcohol Abuse campaigners claiming you're setting a bad example, and if anyone comes up to you with a scare story about fat old men breaking into children's' bedrooms at night remember it's probably just Bodmin Town Council finally discovering Santa.

ABOUT THE COLLEGE

The Punch and Judy College of Professors is an organisation of leading Punch & Judy performers in Great Britain, adept at the tradional skills of the age-old drama. College membership criteria are based upon the exacting standards of the Inner Magic Circle and membership is open to any Punch Professor who satisfies the entry conditions. The College has a particularly robust attitude to upholding the reputation of Mr. Punch as a national icon of mischief and argues his case with vigour. For further information follow the link All About The College (left).