Should Punch and Judy be banned at public events?
Punch and Judy shows have been going for 350 years after one was first performed at Covent Garden in London in 1662.
They reached their peak in the 1960s on beaches throughout the UK, but interest soon dropped off when families abandoned ‘bucket and spade’ holidays in favour of package trips abroad.
The original story of Mr Punch and his wife Judy originated in 1832 and while it is considered a children’s entertainment it is actually quite a violent story, in much the same way as Tom and Jerry cartoons are.
In more recent years Punch and Judy shows have faced a new threat in the form of political correctness campaigners.
In 2004 Bodmin council in Cornwall banned a Punch and Judy show following complaints that it promoted domestic violence.
Some performers have fought back by introducing a health and safety official into the show to play the villain.
With only a handful of the traditional beach performances still on offer in the UK, is it time for curtains for Punch and Judy?
What are your views? Did you watch Punch & Judy as a child? Have you taken your own children or grandchildren to a show? Do you think that Punch and Judy shows should continue in their present form? Or do you think it is time to say ‘that’s not the way to do it’ and give it the chop!?
Should Punch and Judy be banned at public events?
313 people have already voted, what's your opinion? Yes - it promotes domestic violence No - it's political correctness gone mad!What are your views?
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Send all Grey thinking Bureaucrats on a holiday where they will be forced to watch Punch and Judy 24/7.
Far more harm is being done by letting youngsters become engrossed in mindless and often very violent, computer games which appear to be more lifelike and realistic to them.
(so do I at 76)
Sooty, Sweep and Sue, the eternal threesome,?
Our children's minds have been irreparably damaged by the smut that the BBC churns out. I'm going to refuse to buy a licence in protest.
I'll take the latter place in this rather beguilging question since Punch and Judy, of itself, is neither here nor there. But this heavy hand does illuminate a darker place inhabited by our Civil Servants - so called guardians of the morality of the nation. Mmmm. I'd question that!
State control of elements of this nation began with Lloyd George in the 1914/1918 war. Then it was necessary, but after the end of that war, these controls were not relinquished. Of necessity, it must be said, Churchill took more controls over the population, control over many matters in the early days of the Second World War. Again, these control were never relinqished. State control had begun, but with avengence.
Today state control affects every area of our lives; it's insidiious, we barely notice it, so accustomed have we become to someone else knowing better than we do! But who are these people; these people, so caring of us? What are their qualifications, their experience of life, salaries and more impprtant perhaps, what are their real motives? Did we ever vote for them? No. And yet these faceless people shape the lives we lead.
Of a sudden a game of conkers is illegal, we may not have a firework party and Christmas is now a Winterfest. There's much more, so much more but the point is made.
Shutting down Punch and Judy is but a small symptom of a much deeper and virulent disease in our society. Unlike evidence based medicine (sorry jeanmark) we must go beyond the symptom and kill the root.
What is the root?
PC.
Jeanmark, I think you would agree we have seldom been at odds on this forum, the only place we've ever met. And I have written here my deep and abiding respect for you as a very long serving nurse. That does not change. But your post below betrays you. Did you need to apologise to cross-dressers? I'm left a little bewildered; it's quite unlike you.
And there you are! The person you portray yourself as, well, it is there, described almost three thousand years ago! And that with some warnings and a few words about that person's end.
So I thank you Celt, for showing me that book, the Bible, is as up to date as the day it was written.
Well done!
I wouldn't disagree with the body of what you have written however as to the 'conker' issue, the HSE made it clear it was not a H&S issue, just schools being over cautious and I am aware of at least 1 school sued by a parent after 'little Jonny' was hit whilst playing conkers!
More to the underlying point I was getting at above, wouldn't it be easier for us all if we lightened up a little? By that I mean we're all to serious about ourselves, so many are trying to be special cases, individuals. The all pervading ME gets in the way of everything.
According to a post you made on a thread about M & S a few weeks ago, I'm just an inch taller; add to that duck's disease and the fact I'm a Jew, although a Christian by conviction. Jeanmark, I think you'll see there's much for me to laugh about and I've heard just about every joke possible, sometimes delivered in rancour, and over the years have learned to laugh at myself. If ever you've heard a Jewish joke it was probably written by a Jew. We laugh at ourselves. Self deprecation.
What does that do for us? Well, if one may laugh at oneself, it keeps the 'self' in check. We're no longer a special case. The ego is suppressed.
Wouldn't that be a better way forward?
I would like to think I had better things to do than complain about Punch and Judy.
Last year Punch & Judy was on at a local event but the violence, hitting the croc with sausages and the policeman with a truncheon, had been removed so as not to scare the kids, my two grandkids still talk about how silly that was.