Punch

[Alison]

Did you ever buy a copy ? (I didn't)

[LeMartinPecheur]

No.

This looks set to be a very exciting thread...

[Bryn]

Way back in my youth, I did buy a few copies, but mostly I read it in waiting rooms. It had its good times but was flagging by the time Ingrams and co. launched Private Eye.

[Alison]

A bit of a closed question maybe but I like it when some of the oldies start reminiscing . . .

[teamsaint]

didn't people just catch up every 6 months at the dentists ?

[french frank]

I can only remember the 'glossy' later era. I think I can remember earlier ones but I can't really: it's just that they have become legendary:

[Alison]

The title closed in 1992 before being revived in 1996 for six years.

[Bryn]

The title closed in 1992 before being revived in 1996 for six years.

It was very pale shadow of its former self long before 1992, indeed it was pretty much on borrowed time from the mid-'60s, as I recall.

[Alison]

Love the picture, Frankie.

[jean]

I didn't see the legendary cartoons when they first appeared, of course, but my O level history textbook was copiously illustrated with them - like this one:

[Alison]

No Punch for Caliban ?

[Richard Tarleton]

Basil Boothroyd was editor for many years. This quote from his Wiki entry helps explain why the humour was so gentle, and didn't stand a chance when the Eye came along. Other distinguished writers for it were Alan Coren and Miles Kington, but I always thought they were much funnier on Radio 4. Like most of the above I only read it in waiting rooms.

One of the schools I did time at had bound copies of Victorian and Edwardian Punches - it probably felt much more subversive 100 years ago. I remember an early 20th century cartoon : members of a fox hunt on horses before a muddy gateway. Elegant lady on horse: "Why do farmers always put gates in the muddiest part of the field?". Not bad, almost Matt standard.

[french frank]

No Punch for Caliban ?

I understand he will occasionally partake of a glass of Sangría - in the right circumstances (i.e. nothing stronger on offer) ...

On RT's comments about it being more subversive in the earlier days, I was looking through a whole load of cartoons last night and some of them had a lurking edge: the Duke's son who announces that he's going to join the communist party, the fine lady who changed her small dog's name from Fritz to Fi-Fi. Though I wonder whether there was an innocence to them, that at the moment they were published they didn't hold quite the danger that we would perceive in retrospect.

[Pabmusic]

I've never bought Punch (and I don't think I ever will). But It's had some famous moments. Here's one that spawned a common English expression:

[scottycelt]

Yes, when a slender youth, I did once out of curiosity (buy a copy), as I understood it was supposed to be hilariously amusing ... well, that information was according to my adult mentors, mostly schoolteachers.

Suffice to say, I'm slightly more saddened at the now imminent demise of The Dandy.