Punch+and+Judy

=**Punch and Judy** =  A Tragical Comedy or Comical Tragedy?



__**Origins**__
 If you ask a person on the street what country Punch and Judy comes from they will probably say England. Of course this was where the Punch and Judy shows reached their greatest popularity and documentation. But actually, Punch and Judy originated in Italy. Documented records of Punch and Judy in Italy go back at far as the 16th century in Naples. Though not commonly thought, the dress and acting style of the puppets relate to the commedia dell'arte style. Stock characters that are static throughout the show are characteristics of commedia and Punch and Judy and there are many simularities between Punch and Harlequin (the sly and deceiving character of commedia). Prints of Punch and Harlequin are seen below:



Beginning in the 17th century street puppet shows staring Mr. Punch and his wife Judy, including a vast array of characters (including a live dog) started appearing in the public scene in England. Almost instantly these Punch and Judy shows became one of the most loved and most recognized images in England at the time and now. Performed primarily on beaches along the Thames River, over its entire length as it travels through England. The shows were incredibly violent. Almost every show included physical marital conflict between Punch and his wife. This conflict is at the core of the iconic image of Punch beating on Judy with a long thin stick.



__**Characters**__
 The faces of Punch and Judy are some of the most recognizable in puppetry, probably only second to Kermit the Frog in the modern century. The most prominent feature of the characters is the large nose and bright red face. This feature is present in every traditional character that is involved with the show, including the police man and devil. Even Punch and Judy's baby has the characteristic red cheeks, maybe from being thrown out of the puppet theater one too many times by punch. With this over the top visual representation of the character, the Punch and Judy puppets pronounce that they are not real people, any audience will have every chance to dismiss the show as farce and satire.

__**Social Commentary**__
One of the main features of Punch and Judy that made it so popular to the English people during the 17th century was that it catered directly to the working class. The bourgeois theater that was cropping up in Paris and Russia was not on the docket on English soil. Joe Green, an English man that continues to perform Punch and Judy shows in Blackpool, a coastal town in Lancashire, describes the shows as a “rough, outdoor show geared towards the working class northerners out of the spree.” Punch and Judy is written for and performed by the working class, no doubt the raunchy and violent content of the shows would make the upper classes turn up their nose.

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The shows came into being during the creation of the working class during the industrial revolution, so it follows that they would take ownership over the genre. Punch and Judy allowed the impoverished people to have a creative outlet, entertainment and most importantly, a voice in English culture that was quickly changing around them. The words echoing from the mouth of Mr. Punch were often the collective silenced voices of the lower classes, speaking their opinions about the way the country was run. Robert Leach compares the violence in Punch and Judy shows: “Punch clobbered his wife, defied or tricked the Beadle or Hangman, and did down the very devil himself in what was probably a rough satirical protest against the coercive institutionalism.” Though the stark reality of the shows for the common people has been lost since the decline of the industrial revolution, Punch still mocks the orthodoxies and norms of society as a whole. In the political sphere that Punch and Judy was conceived, there existed a tension between the entertainment and the political elements of the show. The masses were to be entertained by these shows and allowed to escape the drudgery of everyday life into a fantastical world of large noses and ruffled dogs where the good guy always wins. But because of the political commentary in the show, the audience was looking into a mirror of their own society. The escapism merely brought them to look at themselves in the context of their society.

__**Modern Reincarnations**__
Punch and Judy shows are still performed today in English parks and beaches. The content remains very close to what it was when the shows first became popular. Punch still throws the baby out the window and Judy still berates him for it. A people still watch. Below is a link for a pedestrian video taken on holiday in Weymouth.

[|Modern Punch and Judy]

The characters Punch and Judy have also been molded by theater makers even in the 20th century. Jan Svankmajer, a premiere artist working in claymation and early stop motion created a work based on Punch. Though the title of the piece is "Punch and Judy," Judy is absent from the film. Svankmajer instead focuses on the violence of the Punch and Judy shows.

[|Punch and Judy - Jan Svankmajer 1966]

[|Mr Punch - A Modern Punch and Judy]

__Sources__ Collier, John Payne, ed. //Punch and Judy//. Illus. George Cruikshank. 6th ed. London: G. Bell & sons, 1881. N. pag. Print. Crone, Rosalind. //Mr and Mrs Punch in Nineteenth-Century England//. The Historical Journal, 49, 4 (2006), pp. 1055–1082 //f// 2006 Cambridge University Press Leach, Robert. // Punch and Judy and Oral Tradition //. Folklore, Vol. 94, No. 1 (1983), pp. 75-85  page by Katherine Clanton

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