Old Jokes

Dominion, Volume 26, Issue 112, 4 February 1933, Page 16

Old Jokes

The fact is that the people comic artists used to make fun of—policemen, yokels, housemaids, Irishmen, Scotsmen, plumbers and their mates — are all much wiser and much more sophisticated than they used to be,” says Mr. E. A r . Knox, the new editor of “Punch,” in the “Observer.”

‘‘They know too much about the ways of the world and how other people live to make the mistakes we used to think funny. There are, however, still the politicians, and the Bright Young Thing, who does not seem to have changed much —though she would probably hate to think so—since Leech’s or Du Maurier’s day.

“AVhen these disappear—though I have hopes of eternal life for the politician in the pages of the comic journals—there will be no more humorous papers as we know them to-day.

“I believe, however, that some of the ohl jokes are still the best, and that jokes likewise are often better for being old, provided, of course, that they are carefully handled.

“AA’e may know what is coining, but we get our amusement from speculating as to how the dear old thing is going to come out in this particular version. That, for instance, is the secret of the great Scotch joke. It Is as old as the mountains, but in a new dress it seems fresher than ever.”