This Reminds Me of our Wedding Night, 1894

Comedy vegetables. Never not funny. I see these as a staple of British humour. Medieval peasants surely found most of their laughs from rude veg, and thanks to Blackadder and That’s Life, they reached a certain cultural highlight in the 1980s. The Victorians, despite their dour reputation, were often as skittish as the next man, and they were no exception to the delights of the naughty tuber.

There was a series in The Strand magazine celebrating them. Baldrick would be proud of the turnip below. Especially the second picture of the same turnip with a hat on.

And here are some potatoes:

(Although I suspect Mr Fox’s “duck potato” is ever so slightly doctored.)