Re: The Pages of Punch

1939: At the psychiatrist

The joke here is that a mental condition is going to be treated as a physical condition.

By the way there is a factual error here. The bust of Freud on top of the bookcase shows that the psychiatrist is a Freudian. However Freudians always referred to the unconscious. It was the Jungians who called it the subconscious.

Re: The Pages of Punch

1937: Knowing his place

The gardener naturally chats with the children of the big house. He could hardly refuse to talk to them. He refers quite reverentially to their grandfather who kept his distance from the ‘lower orders’.

Re: The Pages of Punch

1939: Put down in the beauty salon

It does look harsh but how else can she be told that her presence is not welcome? By just being there she is lowering the tone of the place.

Re: The Pages of Punch

1938: Unwelcome visitors all at once

This apparently is what an upper middle class woman is doing when she is not expecting any visitors.

Re: The Pages of Punch

1939: War is coming … soon

These agriculture labourers were speaking for most. Soon most people would understand the point of these warplanes.

Re: The Pages of Punch

1939: The phoney war

The war has now started but we are now looking at the ‘phoney war’. Not much had changed … yet. Some businesses located out of the cities to avoid the bombing that was expected. It came, but much later. There was some action in the air and at sea but during this stage evacuation and relocation was the big story.

A lot of people would continue to compare the current state of affairs with what had happened 25 years earlier.

Re: The Pages of Punch

1939: Sarcasm

There is some class content in this joke. The private being addressed has a double-barrelled surname. This makes him fair game for the sergeant’s sarcasm. It isn’t just a tradition in one regiment. It is the way that the army functions.

Re: The Pages of Punch

1940: Tanks in the phoney war

Anton is making a little joke about the technology of war. It is a form of humour quite at home with the phoney war. It would not be thought appropriate when the ‘shooting war’ took over.

Re: The Pages of Punch

1939: Misunderstanding the function of an air raid shelter

If Winnie can fall through it wouldn’t be of any use.

I have spent a lot of time in a shelter like this during WW2.

Re: The Pages of Punch

1940: More phoney war experience

These changes were meant to deal with the challenges that had not yet materialised. When they did jokes like this ceased to appear.

The civilians are carrying a gasmask in a box draped over their shoulders. I can’t remember when we stopped carrying them but I think it was fairly early in 1940.