CREATING LAUGHTER

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 50, Issue 150, 7 April 1930, Page 8

CREATING LAUGHTER

machine-made jokes. BIG BRITISH INDUSTRY. One of tlib most curious and least known industries in the United Kingdom is entirely devoted to fooling Englishmen, says a writer in am English paper. You will search Bdard 1 of Trade blue books and all the text books of our commerce in vain for any reference to it. Yet it has its factories and they have had to increase output because of 'the increasing popularity of the busilieWe may have thought that the Bright Young Things formed just a small exclusive cult in West End society circles. But Britain is full of bright young things, according to these manufacturers who produce quaint articles for fooling grown-ups. If you happen to be taking afternoon tea and notice a fly on a lump of sugar, don’t judge by appearances. Thousands of lumps of sugar with artificial flies are sola in the course of a year. Thev are purchased by persons who love a joke, and are left about the sugar basin on. the table, and invariably cause, a thaw in the most frigid tea party. One of the leaders in this amusing all-British industry of innocent practical jokes told me that there was one which enjoyed a great sale among commercial travellers and holiday makers who go to stay in boarding houses. We all know how landladies blaze up at the sight of am ink stain on a snowwhite tablecloth. Here is a very realistic large blot. When it has been surreptitiously laid on a cloth with an inkstand placed nearby, the deception is complete. The legend about squeaky boots is that they have not been paid for. No one knows bow it arose and,'of course, ij is nonsense. But for this, and better reasons, we. do not much care to wear squeaky boots. Yet one of the popular products of these “fooling Englishmen ’ factories is a little attachment which makes boots squeak. The pedestrian using it makes an uncanny noise. It is more like the fading wail of Hamlet’s ghostly father than a squeak. One’s friends md neighbours are completely puzzled' as to where the sound is coming from. It seems that this joke is highly popular with playful guests in our big •hotels.

Matches are like pencils. Thousands jf quite honest people cannot keep their hands off them when they find them lying about. More than, ten thousand boxes of matches were sold in one week, but they did not contain a single match between them. They are a wonderful bit of British ingenuity from our fooling factories. A box of matches with the familiar yellow safety label appears to have been left lying about. But whoever picks it up drops it instantly. Like the hot brick of immortal memory. •Something, like a clockwork bomb goes ',ff inside and the holder gets a shock. Having visited one of these factories [ will never, never again be hurriedly sympathetic to any person who shows i cut finger. For hundreds of fake blood-stained fingers, with appropriate blood-stained bandages, are sold. This industry thrives on" the truth of the adage that mem were deceivers ever. It is proved by the immense sales of a bit of foolery among married men. Wives may tolerate smoking, but we ill know that careful wives have a worrying dread of singed tablecloths jr a burnt hole in the carpet." But the singe may be imaginary. The heartless husband may have deliberatey laid down a little patch which gives the appearance of a hole having been burnt iro the fabric, with damning little sprays of tobacco asli to give realistic clues.

Most of these domestic practical jokes are the invention and manufacture of ex-service men, and their versatility is amazing. The articles are sold all over the world, and most of the buyers are grown-up*.