Re: The Pages of Punch

1938: Repeat of a Burglary Joke

This is not a new joke. I have drawn attention to a number of burglary jokes in Punch in different years. No doubt this was drawn afresh but asking the victim to decide on the share out of the loot has appeared in a previous cartoon. I suppose the editor just didn’t spot it.

Re: The Pages of Punch

1938: What Does It Mean?

Surely the senior beautician isn’t saying that Madam is wasting her time (and her husband’s money) in seeking to avoid the effect of time on her appearance? This would be quite unlikely at any time and especially so in 1938.

The alternative explanation is that she is talking in abstract terms and when she says ‘man’ she really means ‘mankind’. That too would be rather implausibly philosophic but would have the merit of being quite amusing under the circumstances.

Re: The Pages of Punch

1938: A No Way Street

Anton has dreamt up a fanciful scenario which permits the inhabitants of this narrow street to have ample floral displays outside their front doors.

Re: The Pages of Punch

1938: Village Cricket

A scene in which toffs and plebs democratically play cricket together appears in many books and films in the first half of the Twentieth Century. The example that comes most immediately to my mind is in The Go-Between.

Re: The Pages of Punch

1938: Life Among the Avant Garde

C.B. Cochran was the Andrew Lloyd Webber of his day. We see here a view of the ‘media’ folk of the time. It is not particularly flattering. Everything adds up to a view of ‘modern’ young men. They smoke and drink and don’t do very much. Their clothes and the scruffy prints of contemporary art on the wall suggest that their artistic pretensions are just a façade.

The point about Cochran is that if the speaker were sure of success then he would certainly buck up his idea and do the work.

Re: The Pages of Punch

1938: Left Hand Bad, Right Hand Good

It was then normal to persuade left handed children to write with their right hand. Cases are recorded of children having their left arm strapped to their sides to encourage them to write ‘correctly’.

I don’t know this for a fact but I have the impression that this attitude is no longer considered correct. Left-handed Presidents of the United States have included Harry S. Truman, Gerald Ford, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.

Statistically it is quite likely that a number of people on this forum are also left-handed. Does anyone care to comment?

Re: The Pages of Punch

That's where the word 'sinister' got its meaning.

(I'm right-handed, of course!)

Re: The Pages of Punch

1938: Who is Really in Command Here?

Peters does not relish having to decide whether it is preferable to annoy the General or his wife. I suspect that the General is the one who is going to be annoyed. We see at least five house maids waiting to serve the lunch. There seems to be a war scene being illustrated on the wall behind them. In it, it is presumably the General himself (in his younger days) who we see on horseback (during World War One!) charging the enemy with sword in hand with the Tommies following behind. This serves as a contrast to his now subordinate status.

Re: The Pages of Punch

1938: Encounter at Sea

Presumably the Royal Navy does not concern itself with such trifles as the fisherman’s livelihood. Such incidents would be more common with World War Two which was just round the corner.

Re: The Pages of Punch

1938: Taking the Wanting out of Waiting

This well–upholstered diner must have eaten a lot of rolls if even he now feels full.