That's the way to do it - a Punch & Judy show

[lauraxsynthesis]

Went to the local fete on Saturday and saw my first ever Punch & Judy show. I've been looking out for one since reading Riddley Walker and thinking about that gave it an extra layer, and fortunately it was also a really well-done show. Loads of kiddies aged around 5-7 were enthralled and participating and one would need a heart of stone to not enjoy their enjoyment. This one was done by Professor Imperius who has a few videos online though of course they don't really give the flavour of the real thing.

Participation
It seemed the parents started off the traditional shouts like "behind you!" and "oh, yes you did!", but the children shouting and pointing and generally responding was totally unprompted. A few of them kept trying to jump up and touch/grab the puppets and props but they were just out of reach which I imagine isn't accidental and the practitioners know how high to make the stage for the relevant age group. The sausages however were meant to be grabbed and pulled offstage, it turns out, because then they could be fed by a child to the crocodile! Occasionally a younger child would go around the back of the stage to see where all the magic was coming from.

Politics
I was worried about domestic violence and Judy did get hit a bit with a stick, but there was lots of violence and hitting with sticks all round and it didn't massively offend me. What was very odd was that the Doctor was very camp and gay. Maybe it was inspired by the Carry Ons, or maybe just as a preamble to giving Punch mouth to mouth. I wondered who the performance was aimed at in the audience because when he appeared he kept addressing the "boys" who being 6 or whatever weren't going to get the joke. Seemed out of place to say the least. There was a joke at the expense of Trump but I can't remember what it was. 

Comedy
For me, most of the laughs were at the child audience's antics, but there were some silly surprises that got me. I don't know if gags involving water are traditional, but there were a couple of them including Punch saying offstage he needed a wee and water spraying out all over the audience.

Characters
Punch, Judy, the Baby, the Doctor, the Policeman, the Devil (he said "that's the way to do it" in this show), the crocodile, a monkey, King Charles, Prince Harry/William. Rather a lot went on in a show that lasted less than half an hour.

I expected 30 years ago that P&J would have died out by now, but increasingly I'm noticing shows included in fetes and fairs and there's even the occasional young professor. I like a bit of theatrical and comedy tradition so rather pleased about it, really.

[Poirots BigGarlickyCorpse]

Traditional Wife-Beating Display

I miss Modern Toss.

[hamfist]

The Swiss version of Punch & Judy is called "Chasperlitheater" and is along similar lines but different characters.

They recorded audio to some of the stories, and they're delightfully batshit.

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1eq8mJdRMYHxGB5mR82D89?si=X8V4tDAuSGGlMwU5XR5GdQ&pi=e-Leuq3qyLQwGR

Titles like "The devil louse-fur and the old mushroom lady", "Sneezy and his crocodile", "The carrot thief", or "The pirate & the poodle".

[bgmnts]

Probably my favourite artistic representation of domestic abuse.

[Shaxberd]

It's not domestic abuse, though, is it, it's slapstick. Punch is a mad little fucker who hits everyone with a stick - including his baby, not that people usually remember the 'child abuse' aspect - but it's ok because, as Brian Conley would put it, "it's a puppet!"

It would be grim watching a play with human actors and realistic injuries where a man systematically brutalises his wife, child, a policeman and a crocodile, but it's stylised. Like Laurel and Hardy, or Tom and Jerry, violence is funny when you take the consequences away.

Anyway, pleased to hear it's not dead yet and kids still enjoy it. The great thing about folk stories is that they belong to everyone - no franchise, no IP, no tie in merchandise, just a story that gets told and retold and changed as needed, and in that way can endure for centuries.

[Bigfella]

A lot of it would be hilarious at the time, horrific if out of context.  "The baby's in the dustbin!" is a line which has stuck with me for God knows how many years.  The artists behind it are probably quite cool in real life, though for Hi de Hi veterans it might be a letdown if they weren't child-hating alcoholic misanthropes like Mr Partridge.

[Caprain Peacock]

I really like the fact that even in the 21st century, with all the hi-tech gadgets and technology available to us, that some adults still bother to tit about just to entertain children in the same way they have for centuries. You can imagine a cave man putting on stupid voices and making funny faces to get their kids to laugh.

[There Be Rumblings]

Lucy Punch and Judy Love should form a double act.

And call it (I) Love Lucy.

[Matthew Dawkins Jub Jub]

Yep, I hold Punch and Judy shows in pretty high regard, all told. Nothing wrong with a nice puppet show or magic show, or a children's entertainer telling stories. Fun for the family, like going to watch reenactors do jousting and such.

[Rolf Lundgren]

Punch saying offstage he needed a wee and water spraying out all over the audience.

That will never not be funny.

[hamfist]

That will never not be funny.

Especially when the puppeteer shrieks "Urgh I'm cumming" in the punch voice

[her?]

I was in a pub garden at a seaside town about five year's ago when a punch & judy guy set up his little theatre near us. We watched the show and I was finding it fairly entertaining and when the devil came out I took a few photos and then had a quick check of them on my phone. The guy then stopped doing the show, told me to stop looking at my phone and started a rant about how phones were destroying traditional entertainment. I put my phone away and turned back to my family and my beer.

At the end of the show the guy came out from the back and lectured us all on how punch and judy shows would die out soon if we kept using phones. I shouted "at least I'm not glorifying domestic abuse" at him which made him quite angry and he started hitting me with a stick. Unfortunately the audience had become so desensitized to violence thanks to Mr punch's behaviour that nobody did anything to help. When the beating was over, I was left lying on the ground, badly bruised and bleeding. He grabbed my phone and kicked it into the sea. "That's the way to do it" he grunted, before tearing off his shirt and kind of riverdancing off into some bushes.

All in all, not a bad day out. 8/10

[thenoise]

Chap did a very 'trad' version at our village fireworks night year before last. Liked it well enough, but the children were in hysterics, including mine.

Nastiest bit of violence was Mr Punch declaring he was going to throw the baby down the stairs, chucking it behind the curtain and then a thump-thump-thump noise from offstage. Kids found it funny tho, so what do I know?

Does anyone know how far back the traditional Mr Punch squeaky voice goes?

[Matthew Dawkins Jub Jub]

Ahw-AH-haHA-haHAAA!

[Ignatius_S]

Chap did a very 'trad' version at our village fireworks night year before last. Liked it well enough, but the children were in hysterics, including mine.

Nastiest bit of violence was Mr Punch declaring he was going to throw the baby down the stairs, chucking it behind the curtain and then a thump-thump-thump noise from offstage. Kids found it funny tho, so what do I know?

Does anyone know how far back the traditional Mr Punch squeaky voice goes?

Ever since the shows started - the device used to get the effect is known in a swazzle in Britain but has other names in Europe.

The V&A has a good overview of the show's history - https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/thats-the-way-to-do-it-a-history-of-punch-and-judy

[Ignatius_S]

The Marx Brothers film, Monkey Business, has a lovely scene involving a show.

[jobotic]

If the kids are laughing get some hooden horses out. That'll shit 'em up.

[lauraxsynthesis]

The annual Hop Hoodening is in Canterbury this Saturday but I can't go. Hoping to get to one of the Kent hoodening events at some point though.

[Hobo With A Shit Pun]

Does anyone know how far back the traditional Mr Punch squeaky voice goes?

Any further than the epiglottis, and you're in trouble.

I bought a swazzle online years ago, but singularly failed to get it to work.

[jobotic]

The annual Hop Hoodening is in Canterbury this Saturday but I can't go. Hoping to get to one of the Kent hoodening events at some point though.

Is it? Oh I must go to that one day. Went to a really good Hooden Horse exhibition in Maidstone Museum last year. I love 'em. The creepy fuckers.

[whatabulb]

mr punch:  just what the fuck is his problem

i think his enduring nature is due to the embodiment of a fairly central archetype, something to do with trickster gods, mischief, amorality.  punchinello is about 300 years old but he taps into something much older imo.

is he evil? the doctor and policeman certainly think so.  but not really; he just does precisely what he wants without consequence, which (as none of us can do) fascinates.  people saying "it's bad to throw a baby down the stairs", while obviously not incorrect, miss the point.

also i have to comment in a thread that mentions riddley walker.  i'm spending the weekend walking in the area that book is set in, very atmospheric.  read it 15 years ago and still think about it all the time.  gutted to have missed that hopshead thing last weekend, never heard of it.  bit of hey nonny and that.

[whatabulb]

also - punch occupies that same space as european folklore in general.  kind of inscrutable, from a modern moral framework.  when you look into the eyes of the green man do you see compassion?  not really, more Nature with a capital N which is rightly unsettling.

[lauraxsynthesis]

mr punch:  just what the fuck is his problem


also i have to comment in a thread that mentions riddley walker.  i'm spending the weekend walking in the area that book is set in, very atmospheric.  read it 15 years ago and still think about it all the time.  gutted to have missed that hopshead thing last weekend, never heard of it.  bit of hey nonny and that.

Last summer I stopped by Mr Clevvers Roaling Place which was beautiful. Also had a look at the painting in the cathedral obvs. I needed one of the volunteers to help me find it.

[The Bumlord]

Don't like Punch at all. Scary little freak with a horrid voice from Hell.

[Mobbd]

"I AM MR PUNCH AND I WILL CUT OFF YOUR EYELIDS"

[Billy]

Haven't seen one of these since about 1998ish, with the closing punchline being the policeman banishing Punch to somewhere he'll never be seen again, followed by a "That's right - Channel 5!" which to be fair got us kids laughing.