Punch

[jean]

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:

Which, curiously, enshrines a misunderstanding of the original - the 'curate's eggs' we talk about really are good in parts, but the original curate's most definitely wasn't.

[gurnemanz]

One of our English teachers at school regularly used to win the Punch writing competition and we used to read it out of curiosity. I used to buy it fairly often in the late 60s and early 70s especially enjoying Alan Coren before he became editor. I preferred Private Eye which I started with as a student and have bought ever since.

[Pabmusic]

Which, curiously, enshrines a misunderstanding of the original - the 'curate's eggs' we talk about really are good in parts, but the original curate's most definitely wasn't.

Yes, odd that. I suppose that, as soon as people forget the original context, they substitute what seems to be the most sensible meaning. Consider 'beg the question' or 'the exception proves the rule', which almost no-one uses in their original senses because we no longer study logic, so they acquire 'modern' meanings.

[jean]

...Consider...'the exception proves the rule'....

That's the worst, because people who know it doesn't mean what other people think it means give it a new explanation on the basis of a a different understanding of prove, and it's still wrong!

[Osborn]

No Punch for Caliban ?

Too busy with a pritt stick at the moment, gluing sparkly stars, pints of beer, magic wands, paperchains, roses etc on the pile of messages he's sending us today?

[Pabmusic]

That's the worst, because people who know it doesn't mean what other people think it means give it a new explanation on the basis of a a different understanding of prove, and it's still wrong!

Yes. It's all rationalisation.

[Serial_Apologist]

That's the worst, because people who know it doesn't mean what other people think it means give it a new explanation on the basis of a a different understanding of prove, and it's still wrong!

As in "No brainer", which I logically took as meaning totally stupid when it came out.

[amateur51]

Too busy with a pritt stick at the moment, gluing sparkly stars, pints of beer, magic wands, paperchains, roses etc on the pile of messages he's sending us today?

Ooooh biatch!

[Alison]

Thanks for some good answers. One wonders who bought the magazine in sufficient quantities to keep it going for so long.

[Serial_Apologist]

Thanks for some good answers. One wonders who bought the magazine in sufficient quantities to keep it going for so long.

My dad, for one! He used it as a stick with which to berate poor Mum, who could seldom "get" the jokes, at which he would roar totally disproportionately with laughter, as one among many ways to make her feel stupid. Dad was quite bereft when the mag stopped coming out, and re-ordered it during the brief period production resumed in the early '90s. I cut out many of the funner cartoons and put them in a folder, and now and again I bring them out to cheer myself up. One which I find particularly amusing depicts large numbers of identical besuited men descending on parachutes; beneath, the caption reads, "Mormons invade Poland" .

[Alison]

Goodness me, having done a bit of research, I don't realise that Miles Kington had died.