They got to Mr Punch
We went to a surprisingly subdued Punch and Judy show this weekend. It was missing several key elements. Punch didn’t have his distinctive squeaky voice (made by one of those mouth-whistle things like they used to sell in the comic books for ventriloquism) and his slap stick, which is just what it sounds like.
Even worse, there wasn’t a single murder. Punch didn’t clobber Judy, or the policeman. The baby didn’t fall into the sausage machine. The policeman didn’t brain Punch. And nobody at all got hanged.
To be fair, no Punch and Judy show includes all those elements, and almost none of them do the hanging these days. I’m willing to put most of that down to a less than polished performer (‘the Professor’ as a Punch and Judy showman is always called), but I have a feeling the shocking lack of violence was deliberate.
What is the world coming to?
p.s. sorry about the terse post last night. I was pissed. That was a lot of work to go through to end up with a saucepan full of FAIL.
July 24, 2019 — 8:13 pm
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