A NATIONAL HUMORIST.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 252, 24 October 1932, Page 6

A NATIONAL HUMORIST.

It is curious that while few people could give the name of the editor of the "Times" or the "Daily Telegraph," most readers of "Punch" know Sir Owen Seaman, whose retirement from the editorship is announced to-day. The initials "0.5.," over parodies, light verse and stinging satire, are known throughout the Empire. "Punch" has always stood for the best type of English humour. It has been clean humour, in contrast to much which passes for humour on the Continent, and it has been characterised by the good temper that is a national trait. It has sometimes been objected that the tone of the paper inclines to snobbishness, and that what is quite permissible in the upper classes is sometimes considered to be humorous in humbler circles. The servants are generally represented as talking in a ■way their employers expect tliem to talk rather than in the way they actually do talk. There is some truth in this criticism, but "Punch" circulates mainly among those who arrogate to themselves the title of the upper classes, and it respects their foibles and delusions. Some characters, such as the butler and the parlour maid, are always cast in the same mould, and there is a certain sameness about the fashionable society man and woman. Perhaps this is due to the fact that readers like something to which they are used. They know then what to expect, and generally tbm are not disappointed. It is doubtful if *Punch" would ever be really popular with the masses —at any rate in its present form. Some of the humour, especially that dealing with mistakes in classical, literary or historical allusions, is often beyond the ken of the ordinary man. Indeed, there have been some Greek allusions that would have puzzled even fair Greek scholars. These savour of the day when a mistake in the classics was regarded' as the worst form of solecism, and a false quantity was something to be shuddered at. Some of the cartoons in "Punch" have become historically famous. Others have been on the tame side, and have rather missed the point, but generally the "Punch" cartoon has represented the view of the average Briton. "Punch" is something more than a humorous weekly; it is an institution. It represents a certain type of English humour, which is a very high type, albeit with limitations. "Punch" remains unique, and its popularity is a tribute to the fact that the Englishman appreciates a clean, good-natured, humorous outlook on life, and can always detect something a little funny even in the drab pomposity of politics and the most cherished manners and customs of the day.