JOKES AND CARTOONS

Taranaki Daily News, 1 August 1931, Page 1 (Supplement)

JOKES AND CARTOONS

AS SEEN IN PUNCH

IBy

T.C.L.)

Punch has a system of indexing its jokes and cartoons, rendered necessary by the many attempts to repeat and victimise the paper. The editors have developed a keen instinct for an oid joke, identifying the spurious article as easily as an expert detects counterfeit money. Yet occasionally they are victimised. This is not surprising, considering the tens of thousands of jokes, real and alleged, that are printed. The editor of an ordinary journal knows how difficult it is, in the rush and tear of production, to avoid mis-. takes. A newspaper is “fair game.” If a slip is made some “Constant Reader” will surely detect it and remind the paper of it. But the editor of a humorous paper has a far more difficult row to hoe. He is supposed to be a wit and a humorist, with a knowledge of every witticism that ever was made. For him to allow an old joke to be retold in the pages of his journal is an offence almost amounting to 1 a crime. So he must be ever on his guard. The genealogy of jokes aijd twists of humour is an interesting study. Prob-' ably a great proportion of them have their origin in the Middle Ages, or it may be the origin is lost in. the recesses of the dim past. For- jokes are as adaptable to times and circumstances as the human race itself, and to identify them and pin them down would- try the knowledge, the memory and the instinct even of a Punch editor. Even if he possesses these attributes, he has still to guard against the contributor, on whom he is to a considerable extent dependent. The jest purveyor may be honest when he unwittingly sends in a joke that has already gone, the rounds, and has appeared perhaps in some obscure paper, or he may be deliberately dishonest, or he may simply be. impatient at not seeing his contribution printed, and may send it off elsewhere, anticipating its publication in-the paper of his original choice. ■ Or a group of jokes may form the stock-in-trade of a newly accepted contributor. And then there are recurring events that naturally give recurring birth to jokes they almost necessarily suggest. Thus there is no standard, no system of identification for the thousand disguises in which a* joke may lurk. . So it can be seen that unconscious plagiarism and repetition deserve greater indulgence than they commonly receive. One of the most prolific punsters on the staff of Punch once wrote to a contributor “For goodness sake, send no more puns; they have all been, made!” A double “faux pas” was once perpetrated by Punch. An-excellent child story had been printed in Vanity Fair. A little girl at a Sunday school class was asked to define a .parable. '“Please, iniss/’ replies the child, “a parable’s a ’eavenly story with no earthly meaning!” A fortnight later Punch, which had 'been victimised, had the misfortune not only to come out with the same joke but by a typographical slip to spoil it iby making the child define a parable as “a heavenly story with an earthly meaning!” . Another 'Punch baiter complained that an American paper printed a joke which Punch duly.used as a “social,” and which had been revived as follows: “Harriet Hosmer tells of an incident which occurred in her studio, where her statue of Apollo rested. An old lady was 'being shown around, a Mrs. Raggles, and she paused for a long time before this masterpiece. Finally, she exclaimed, ‘So that’s Apoller, is it?’ iShe was assured that it was. ‘Supposed to be the handsomest man in the world, warn’t he?’ The surmise was assented to. Then turning away, disgustedly, ‘Wai,’ she said, Tve seen Apoller and I’ve seen Raggles—-an’ I say, give me Raggles!”’ There is an old story of Baron Rothschild, who, when very busy, received the visit of a business acquaintance. “Take a chair,” quoth the Baron. “Can’t,” said his visitor, “I’m in a hurry.” “Then take two chairs,” suggested the 'Baron, still engrossed. Later the same joke was sent into Punch, in a v remodelled, form-and duly published. “Call me a cab!” says an excited gentleman. “You’re too late, sir,” replied the servant; “a cab couldn’t do it.” “Confound, you!” cries the other, “pall two ca/bs, then!” - ■ •' In a drawing by du Maurier a visitor calls to inquire after the condition of a-, 'liappy mother. “And the ba'be, is it a noy?” “No,” says the page. . “Ah, a girl.” “No,” repeats the lad. /‘What is it, then?” asks the startled visitor. “If. you please,” replies the intelligent retainer, “the doctor, said it was a heir!” . ■ > The English farmer, who under no circumstances'can be satisfied, or happy was depicted by Leech in a cartoon wherein the farmer was represented as looking at a splendid field of heavy golden corn, but was not satisfied even then. “Ah!” he grumbles, “see what it’ll cost to. get in!’’ Keene later drew a similar picture and Punch published it, and 11 years later, so tickled with it was he that the same cartoonist served it up again! ' . In “The Arrow,” a clever rival that existed years ago, Punch was severely handled for “plagearising” two of that journal’s jokes two or three weeks after their original publication. One of these had reference tp the “Fight with Face,” which was then being played at the Surrey Theatre, and as fatty Mr. Banting and his famous cure were then the talk of the town, “The Arroyz” suggested a revised' version, “A fight with fat,” with a disciple of Mr. Banting as the chief character. Punch followed suit with the entire idea. Thereupon the rival editor apostrophised Mr. Banting thus:

“Take mental exertion, fight shy of diversion / (Remember, the proverb says ‘Laugh and grow fat’). You may venture securely on Punch, because surely, There can’t be much fear of your laughing at that.”

“What do you mean by coming home at this time of night?” asks an indignant wife of her tipsy husband. “My dear,” replies the prodigal, with a generous attempt at candour and conciliation, “all other places shu’rup!” This was the caption of a picture 'by Keene, but a few years later du Maurier drew the same scene quite delightfully and Punch innocently reproduced it. These and many more examples of unconscious receptivity and reproduction by professional humorists impress and interest the visitor to Punch’’ files and exhibition of original cartoons that have adorned its pages over tho past 90 years.