Re: The Pages of Punch

1933: Duke’s Younger Son Joins the Communist Party

Here is a reminder of an almost forgotten piece of twentieth century history. This sort of thing would become unthinkable during the Cold War. But in the 1930s Punch thought it quite plausible.

The Cambridge spies and many others like them in the 1930s became communists for idealistic reasons. What had prompted them was a combination of the miseries caused by the Great Depression and a faulty piece of logic which went like this:

Capitalism is bad.
Communism is opposed to capitalism.
Therefore communism is good.

Twenty years later this would embarrass them though they would not have to face Senator McCarthy and his sidekick, Richard Nixon.

Re: The Pages of Punch

1936: Jibe at a Press Baron

Murdoch belongs to a long line of press barons. Northcliffe, Rothermere, Beaverbrook and Maxwell come readily to mind. In their day they were probably just as ruthless and domineering but technology gave Rupert some extra weapons not available to his predecessors.

Re: The Pages of Punch

1933: Those Ignorant Americans!

Laughing at the naïveté of Americans is nothing new. This joke was no doubt very much to the taste of the readers of Punch. They would have instantly recognised the Yank’s mistake. What he took for a typical ‘British’ squire was obviously a profiteer, that is newly rich. Although he was wealthy he was not a gentleman at all. The American’s companion clearly is a lady and is wondering how she can talk him out of such an error.

The profiteer looks like a prototype for that rank outsider Mr Bott, father of the irritating Violet Elizabeth.

Re: The Pages of Punch

1934: The Idle Rich

The Great Depression was still destroying more people’s lives in 1934. Most, if not all, the readers of Punch would have been well aware of its effects. Even if their own lives were not greatly affected they would have known others who had suffered severely. Joking about those with more money than sense would have given some sense of relief. The grande dame in this picture is probably the widow of a man who had invested more wisely than most.

Jobs were hard to find. So Perkins knows when he is well off. So does the maid, standing in military attention ready to carry out madame’s suitcase out to the waiting Bentley where the uniformed chauffeur will take charge of it.

Re: The Pages of Punch

1933: A Commentary on the Age

This cartoon is not intended to be a joke. It is merely chronicling one of the ways in which life had changed since the days of Queen Victoria.

In 1933 many of Punch’s female readers would remember the role of the local ‘little dressmakers’ in their families’ lives. By 1933 these useful workers had become rare and, of course, by now they are as obsolete as lorimers and wheelwrights.

Re: The Pages of Punch

1933: A Message from the Empire

In 1933 the British Empire still seemed to be in full working order. There were very few obvious signs of its imminent end. In India in particular it was still possible for the Raj to believe that Nehru and Gandhi’s Congress Party represented only a tiny minority of the population at large. In many parts of the globe administrators, army officers and traders (and their respective wives) would frequently peruse out of date copies of Punch and the Illustrated London News in order to keep in touch with what was happening ‘back home’.

In view of this surprisingly few references to the Empire found their way into the pages of Punch. Usually the jokes were fairly crude, based on the ‘natives’ mistaking English words or British concepts. This example is subtly different.

To his credit the General is trying to address the members of the ultra loyal delegation in their own language. Understandably he isn’t too good at it. People would not have been likely to tell him that he was making mistakes. But there was a bigger problem than the use of the correct words. He was making a modest self-deprecating reply. British officers would have understood immediately and assured him that his new status was entirely deserved. Even if the words had been accurate this show of modesty would have made no sense to the delegation. The Senior Indian Officer’s reaction was simply - if in doubt agree with the Huzor (which roughly means ‘lord’.)

So the General is told to his face that he didn’t deserve his knighthood and there is nothing he can do about it. This time the joke was on the General.

Re: The Pages of Punch

1933: The Power of Fashion

She dare not look the window display in the eye. She imagines that the dummies are all sneering at her and that is how the artist has drawn them.

Such was (and still is) the power of fashion.

Re: The Pages of Punch

Re: The Pages of Punch

1931: Not a Gentleman

For all the rings on his sleeve the Merchant Navy skipper belongs to the lower orders. His well-heeled passengers are aghast at the suggestion that they are less valuable than some pedigree cattle.

Re: The Pages of Punch

Pedigree Cattle in this case could be the titled "Ladies"!!