Re: The Pages of Punch

Ah memories. Most school teachers were forbidding in those days ...and respected for it

Re: The Pages of Punch

Normal service has now been resumed...

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1935: A Scientific Experiment at the Seaside

At the cost of an extra penny the young woman on the scales has demonstrated that the machine is quite incapable of reading her character accurately. No doubt the weight has been accurately measured but the rest is just a fraud.

Re: The Pages of Punch

1935: Pacifism Up To a Point

This cartoon mocks the genuine pacifism of the people desperate to get on the last bus. When it comes to it they can be quite aggressive in their own way.

Pacifism was a big issue in the mid 1930s. Faced with Germany’s rapid rearming there was not much appetite here to follow suit. Winston Churchill was not at all popular when he demanded that Britain should do so. Indeed he was in danger of being deselected as Conservative MP for Epping.

The reason was not for any love for Hitler but because of a vivid memory of the horrors of the Great War. Whereas Hitler could promise his people revenge for the defeat of 1918 the general mood in Britain was ‘never again’.

With hindsight this was a big mistake. The country was ill prepared when eventually even Neville Chamberlain realised that war could not be avoided. During World War Two there was much condemnation of ‘appeasement’ but I think that the pacifists of 1935 were well intentioned though ultimately wrong.

Re: The Pages of Punch

1935: A Light-Hearted View of Children’s Pocket Money

The cartoonist surely doesn’t expect us to take any of this literally. There is though just a hint of the tension that the subject might arouse in a financially secure household.

I wonder what might have been thought an appropriate amount in those far-off days. Could it have been six old pennies? I rather think you could have bought quite a lot of sweets and things for that amount.

Re: The Pages of Punch

1935: Speaking in Different Languages

If this is a joke then it is in decidedly poor taste. I am quite surprised to see it at all in Punch in 1935. The Great Depression was causing misery to millions of people. The well-fed cigar-smoking businessman is accosted by one of the many long-term unemployed at a time when there was very little indeed by way of welfare available. The rich man’s question is phrased in terms of company accounts, which would be meaningless to the unfortunate man asking for a handout.

No doubt the well-off individual is the butt of the joke but it hardly counts as humour.

Re: The Pages of Punch

1935: Playing at Being Grown Ups

Many of the jokes about children playing at being grownups reveal something about the parents of the young actors. This one shows how children sometimes get something wrong while acting out their games. ‘Better late then never’ makes sense but ‘better late than early’ clearly does not.

I have a vague impression that educationalists and child psychologists regard this kind of role playing to be really beneficial for the children’s intellectual development.

Re: The Pages of Punch

1935: Harnessing the New Innovation

Belisha beacons were still new in 1935. We are being treated here to an excellent portrayal of a busy city street. The survival of horse-drawn vehicles is quite authentic.

The word ‘belisha’ is no longer in general use. The crossings are now called ‘zebra crossings’. They had been named after the high-profile Minister of Transport in the 1930s called Leslie Hore-Belisha.

Re: The Pages of Punch

1935: Force of Habit

Here George Belcher treats us to an example of a frequently appearing joke where in a fit of absent-mindedness the reader of the lesson in church lapses into an idiom from his profession. (What today would certainly be called his day job.)

Re: The Pages of Punch

1935: Joining the Club!

Because they are now both members of an exclusive golf club they are both lugging a set of irons around with them. But it seems that that it is bridge that they really want to play. So why did they join the golf club? I suppose the reason is that the golf club is well appointed and there is no equally spacious organisation for people who just want to play bridge.

That’s my theory anyway.

Re: The Pages of Punch

1935: Poor Excuse

This is not a burglary joke but a would-be burglary joke. I doubt whether the magistrate would fall for this excuse. On the other hand perhaps the rozzer will just let him off with a warning since no offence had yet been committed.