Re: The Pages of Punch

That one is very funny

Re: The Pages of Punch

1960: How Does She Do It?

She doesn’t need to ‘read’ his palm to know that.

Re: The Pages of Punch

1960: Jury Persons

I rather think that it then was still necessary to own property in order to be eligible for Jury Service. The likelihood is that these two ladies were the only females in that jury room. (I served on a jury at the Old Bailey in 1973 and I rather think it was all-male. The judge and the barristers were also men.) The point of the joke is that the women are not thinking about the evidence as they should.

Clearly political correctness had not yet kicked in and when it did, Punch would hardly have been a place in which to find it.

Re: The Pages of Punch

1960: Not What They Used to be

They wouldn’t have been in need of the treatment before the war.

Re: The Pages of Punch

Yes, I'd say that they're flogging a dead horse at their age!

Re: The Pages of Punch

1960: A Puzzle

With no narrative to help us we are obliged to create our own scenarios to account for this picture.

I start off with the general perception voiced at the time that the ‘master criminals’ were a lot smarter than people like the police and prison guards. So we are not surprised to see the uniformed types looking helplessly at a railway line leading straight into what seems to be a prison. It doesn’t really matter whether it was a break-in or a break-out. The cons have triumphed over the screws.

Re: The Pages of Punch

1960: One Way Communication

The dog’s feelings are crystal clear. Although, unlike the pet, the owner does possess the power of speech his words will carry absolutely no meaning to the sorrowful animal.

Re: The Pages of Punch

1960: Upper Class Conventions

This type of joke tends to be called ‘gallows humour’ and is rarely to be found in the pages of Punch. Is the butler short sighted or does he feel obliged to ask this traditional question in spite of his master’s suicide? We will never know.

Re: The Pages of Punch

1960: Prejudice from a Bygone Era?

Due to my complete ignorance of golf I can only guess that Eileen has not made a good shot at all and it seems to me that every scene on this page consists of a put down. 1960 is already 56 years ago but to me it feels more recent than that because I was already 29 years old at the time. It makes me wonder if this really was the prevailing attitude at the time. Did I in fact share it? I don’t think so but I continue to wonder.

Re: The Pages of Punch

1960: Surprisingly Topical Cartoon

He clearly doesn’t have an off-shore tax haven in the Cayman Islands nor an accountant to advise him on becoming ‘tax efficient’. David Cameron’s father was setting up these fiddles aka 'initiatives for prudent tax planning' sometime after 1960.

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There will now be a few days in which there will be no Punch cartoons. Normal service should resume in a week’s time.