Editing Punch and Judy (section)

==Story==
[[File:Mr-Punch-by-Guy-Higgins.jpg|thumb|Mr. Punch]]Glyn Edwards has likened the story of Punch and Judy to the story of [[Cinderella]].<ref name="Edwards Glyn Successful">Edwards, Glyn. (2000) ''Successful Punch and Judy'', Second Edition 2011. Worthing: The Fedora Group. {{ISBN|9780956718914}}. p. 19.</ref> He points out that there are parts of the Cinderella story which everyone knows, namely the cruel step sisters, the invitation to the ball, the handsome prince, the fairy godmother, Cinderella's dress turning to rags at midnight, the glass slipper left behind, the prince searching for its owner, and the happy ending. None of these elements can be omitted and the famous story still be told. The same principle applies to Punch and Judy. Everyone knows that Punch mishandles the baby, that Punch and Judy quarrel and fight, that a policeman comes for Punch and gets a taste of his stick, that Punch has a gleeful run-in with a variety of other figures and takes his stick to them all, that eventually he faces his final foe (which might be a hangman, the devil, a crocodile, or a ghost). Edwards contends that a proper Punch and Judy show requires these elements or the audience will feel let down.<ref name="Edwards Glyn Successful" />

Peter Fraser writes, "the drama developed as a succession of incidents which the audience could join or leave at any time, and much of the show was impromptu."<ref>Fraser, Peter (1970) ''Punch and Judy''. London: B.T Batsford. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Company. {{ISBN|0-7134-2284-X}}. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 71-110085. p. 8.</ref> This was elaborated by [[George Speaight]], who explained that the plotline "is like a story compiled in a parlour game of [[Consequences (game)|Consequences]]&nbsp;... the show should, indeed, not be regarded as a story at all but a succession of encounters."<ref>Speaight, George. (1955) ''Punch and Judy: A History'', Revised Edition 1970. London: Studio Vista Ltd. {{ISBN|0-289-79785-3}}. p. 78.</ref> Robert Leach makes it clear that "the story is a conceptual entity, not a set text: the means of telling it, therefore, are always variable."<ref>Leach, Robert. (1985) ''The Punch & Judy Show: History, Tradition and Meaning''. London: Batsford Academic and Educational; Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia Press. {{ISBN|0713447842}}</ref> Rosalind Crone asserts that the story needed to be episodic so that passersby on the street could easily join or leave the audience during a performance.<ref name="Crone, Rosalind 2006">Crone, Rosalind (2006). "Mr and Mrs Punch in Nineteenth-Century England." ''The Historical Journal'', 49(4) pp. 1055–1082.</ref>

Much emphasis is often placed on the first printed script of Punch and Judy, in 1827. It was based on a show by travelling performer Giovanni Piccini, illustrated by [[George Cruikshank]], and written by [[John Payne Collier]]. This is the only surviving script of a performance, and its accuracy is questioned. The performance was stopped frequently to allow Collier and Cruikshank to write and sketch and, in the words of Speaight, Collier is someone of whom "the full list of his forgeries has not yet been reckoned, and the myths he propagated are still being repeated. (His) 'Punch and Judy' is to be warmly welcomed as the first history of puppets in England, but it is also sadly to be examined as the first experiment of a literary criminal."<ref>Speaight (1970), p. 82.</ref>

The tale of Punch and Judy varies from puppeteer to puppeteer, as previously with Punchinello and Joan, and it has changed over time. Nonetheless, the skeletal outline is often recognizable. It typically involves Punch behaving outrageously, struggling with his wife Judy and the baby, and then triumphing in a series of encounters with the forces of law and order (and often the supernatural), interspersed with jokes and songs.

===Typical 21st-century performance===
A typical show as performed currently in the UK will start with the arrival of Mr. Punch, followed by the introduction of Judy. They may well kiss and dance before Judy requests Mr. Punch to look after the baby. Punch will fail to carry out this task appropriately. It is rare for Punch to hit his baby these days, but he may well sit on it in a failed attempt to "babysit", or drop it, or even let it go through a sausage machine. In any event, Judy will return, will be outraged, will fetch a stick, and the knockabout will commence. A policeman will arrive in response to the mayhem and will himself be felled by Punch's stick. All this is carried out at breakneck farcical speed with much involvement from a gleefully shouting audience. From here on anything goes.

Joey the Clown might appear and suggest, "It's dinner time." This will lead to the production of a string of sausages, which Mr. Punch must look after, although the audience will know that this really signals the arrival of a crocodile whom Mr. Punch might not see until the audience shouts out and lets him know. Punch's subsequent comic struggle with the crocodile might then leave him in need of a Doctor who will arrive and attempt to treat Punch by walloping him with a stick until Punch turns the tables on him. Punch may next pause to count his "victims" by laying puppets on the stage, only for Joey the Clown to move them about behind his back in order to frustrate him. A ghost might then appear and give Mr. Punch a fright before it too is chased off with a stick.

In older productions, a hangman would arrive to punish Mr. Punch, only to himself be tricked into sticking his head in the noose.<ref name="History">{{cite news |title="That's the way to do it!" A history of Punch & Judy |url=https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/thats-the-way-to-do-it-a-history-of-punch-and-judy |access-date=4 June 2024 |work=V&A}}</ref> "Do you do the hanging?" is a question often asked of performers. Some will include it where circumstances warrant (such as for an adult audience) but most do not. Finally, the show will often end with the Devil arriving for Mr. Punch (and possibly threatening his audience as well). Punch—in his final gleefully triumphant moment—will win his fight with the Devil, bring the show to a rousing conclusion, and earn a round of applause.

===Plots reflect their own era===

[[File:Hitler Punch and Judy Show.jpg|thumb|A traditional Punch and Judy show dating from [[World War II]] with the addition of a [[Hitler]] character as a figure of derision to reflect the times. Taken at the History On Wheels Museum, [[Eton Wick]], UK.]]
Punch and Judy might follow no fixed storyline, as with the tales of [[Robin Hood]], but there are episodes common to many recorded versions. It is these set piece encounters or "routines" which are used by performers to construct their own Punch and Judy shows. A visit to a Punch and Judy Festival at Punch's "birthplace" in London's Covent Garden will reveal a whole variety of changes that are rung by puppeteers from this basic material. Scripts have been published at different times since the early 19th century, but none can be claimed as the definitive traditional script of Punch and Judy. Each printed script reflects the era in which it was performed and the circumstances under which it was printed.

The various episodes of the show are performed in the spirit of outrageous comedy—often provoking shocked laughter—and are dominated by the anarchic clowning of Mr. Punch. Just as the Victorian version of the show drew on the morality of its day, so also the Punch & Judy College of Professors considers that the 20th- and 21st-century versions of the tale is used as a vehicle for grotesque visual comedy and a sideways look at contemporary society.

{{Blockquote|In my opinion the street Punch is one of those extravagant reliefs from the realities of life which would lose its hold upon the people if it were made moral and instructive. I regard it as quite harmless in its influence, and as an outrageous joke which no one in existence would think of regarding as an incentive to any kind of action or as a model for any kind of conduct. It is possible, I think, that one secret source of pleasure very generally derived from this performance… is the satisfaction the spectator feels in the circumstance that likenesses of men and women can be so knocked about, without any pain or suffering.|[[Charles Dickens]]|Letter to Mary Tyler, 6 November 1849, from ''The [[Letters of Charles Dickens]] Vol V, 1847–1849''.<ref name="History"/>}}

An awareness of the prevalence of [[Domestic violence|domestic abuse]], and how Punch and Judy could be seen to make light of this, has caused changes in Punch and Judy performances in the UK and other English-speaking countries.<ref>{{cite news |title=Puppet show faces knockout punch? |work=BBC News |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/502752.stm |access-date=3 September 2008 |date=8 November 1999 |location=London}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite news |last=Barnett |first=David |date=2024-05-11 |title=Judy stands up to Punch as classic puppet show gets modern makeover |url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/article/2024/may/11/punch-and-judy-project-puppets-modern-makeover |access-date=2024-05-26 |work=The Observer |language=en-GB |issn=0029-7712}}</ref> The show continues to be seen<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.punchandjudyworld.org/wwfbloggem/?itemid=134 |title=around the world with mr. punch » Silly-Season-On-Sea |publisher=Punchandjudyworld.org |date=14 August 2008 |access-date=2 August 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120223201406/http://www.punchandjudyworld.org/wwfbloggem/?itemid=134 |archive-date=23 February 2012 |df=dmy-all}}</ref> in [[England]], [[Wales]], and [[Ireland]]—and also in [[Canada]], the [[United States]], the [[Caribbean]] and [[Puerto Rico]], [[Australia]], [[New Zealand]], and [[South Africa]]. In 2001, the characters were honoured in the UK with a set of [[Great Britain commemorative stamps 2000–09|British commemorative postage stamps]] issued by the [[Royal Mail]].<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/1500372.stm |title="Stamp of Approval for Punch and Judy", BBC News, 20 August 2001 |work=BBC News |date=20 August 2001 |access-date=2 August 2012}}</ref> In a 2006 UK poll, the public voted Punch and Judy onto the list of icons of England.<ref>{{cite news|title=New icons of Englishness unveiled|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/4952920.stm|agency=BBC News|issue=27 April 2006|date=11 June 2015}}</ref> In 2024, a new version of the show was staged at London's [[Covent Garden]].<ref name=":1" /> It was developed as part of the Judy Project,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Performance – The Judy Project |url=https://thejudyproject.exeter.ac.uk/performance/ |access-date=2024-05-26 |language=en-GB}}</ref> a three year study of the roles that women have played in the tradition of puppetry, by a [[University of Exeter]] team. The violence in this version of the show is directed more towards institutions of authority rather than any individuals, and Judy questions the treatment she has received from Punch over hundreds of years.<ref name=":2" />