Tag: Humour

Humorous Judge, 1936

Post author By Estelle
Post date March 29, 2017

Hartlepool Northern Daily Mail, 8th July 1936

This judge from 1936 appears to be a frustrated comedian. Mr Justice Charles of Leeds Assizes was disappointed that two potentially interesting cases had been withdrawn.

In the first, Tadcaster Rural District Council were due to defend against a claim of pollution of a water course. “Oh dear!” exclaimed Mr Justice Charles. “That was one of the few cases that was not for personal injuries. I think it would have been interesting. I had hoped to see experts drinking the effluent although I myself did not contemplate joining in the orgy.”

The second settled case concerned a breach of promise of marriage – an old fashioned lawsuit, finally abolished in 1971, and which always makes me think of Gilbert and Sullivan’s Trial by Jury. It’s such a Gilbert and Sullivan-y phrase. “Worse and worse”, said the Judge, “I am sorry this is going to be settled. I should have got some fun out of it.”

It turns out that it was the reporter who got the fun out of it, ending the article with the beautifully withering “Mr Justice Charles is a bachelor.”

Tags 1936, Humour, Justice

1950-1999

Russell Harty Plus Frankie Howerd, 1974

Post author By Estelle
Post date March 11, 2015
2 Comments on Russell Harty Plus Frankie Howerd, 1974

Another interview transcript from Russell Harty Plus, 1974. An absolute riot of an interview here with Frankie Howerd.

It’s so vivid you can practically hear it as you read…
(screams of laughter)

Oh, isn’t the internet marvellous? It’s only just occurred to me that someone’s probably put all these Russell Harty interviews on Youtube, and of course they have. Here’s an edited version of the interview – I see the transcript took out a whole bit about Howerd’s house in Malta and it’s all a bit less screamy that I imagined.

Here you go, witness Russell’s strangely carpeted studio:

Tags 1970s, 1974, Frankie Howerd, Humour, interview, Russell Harty Plus

1950-1999

Arthur Askey and the Diddymen, 1974

Post author By Estelle
Post date January 16, 2015

Did you know that Ken Dodd didn’t invent the Diddymen? Arthur Askey, another Liverpudlian comic, talked about them, treacle mines and all, in the early years of his act in the 1920s. But he didn’t invent them either, they’d been part of local folklore in this part of the country for much longer. I don’t have any more information about their origins though, I would love to know more.

Here’s a 1974 Arthur Askey interview from Russell Harty Plus, where he mentions the Diddymen and sounds ever so slightly ticked off that Ken Dodd was much more successful with them.

He was told when he went to London as a young comedian,

“We think you’re going to be very good, Arthur, but you must drop that Liverpool accent. You must get rid of your accent and you mustn’t talk about Diddy Men or jam butty factories or treacle mines.” Of course, Ken Dodd comes along thirty-odd years later and, through radio and television, they know what he’s talking about. But in those days I was doing missionary work, you know!”

Oh, and I like the sound of his untheatrical wife, who he claims had barely any idea of what he did for a living,

“My wife – I always used to say that she thought I was a burglar. She knew I went out at night to do something, but she wasn’t quite sure what it was. When I got my O.B.E. (I must drag that in), I said to my wife: “Do come along to Buckingham Palace to see me get this.” And she said: “What time is it?” I said, “Half past ten”. She said: “I can’t go at half past ten. I’ve got my work to do. It’s all right for the Queen, she’s got staff.”

Tags 1970s, 1974, Arthur Askey, comics, Diddymen, Humour, Ken Dodd, Liverpool, Russell Harty Plus

Victorian Victorian Slang

Victorian Slang of the Week – Funking the Cobbler

Post author By Estelle
Post date November 11, 2014

Funking the cobbler – a kid’s trick involving the pungent spice asafoetida, also known as Devil’s Dung (nice). The spice was stuffed with cotton into a cow’s horn (everyone had a cow’s horn to hand in the nineteenth century), set alight, and the smoke blown through a keyhole or into the aforementioned cobbler’s stall.

In short, it’s an early kind of stinkbomb, perenially popular with schoolboys. I feel safe in this gender assumption having sat on a fair number of buses that have fallen victim to a gang of lads chucking a stinkbomb on just before the doors close, while we poor saps sit there choking for the rest of the journey. This is especially great if you’re pregnant and your sense of smell has basically become a superpower.

Grrrr! *shakes fist in the manner of an annoyed cobbler*

Tags 1865, childhood, Humour, The slang dictionary, Victorian, Victorian children, Victorian slang

Victorian Victorian Slang

Victorian Slang of the Week – Quockerwodger

Post author By Estelle
Post date October 6, 2014
1 Comment on Victorian Slang of the Week – Quockerwodger

One of my top ten best words this week – Quockerwodger. It almost doesn’t matter what it means, really. I’m appreciating the lip-exercising qualities of it right now. Go on, say it out loud.

It’s also good because you get to use it to insult politicians. It means a kind of marionette puppet, and, by extension, it came to mean a politician who was having his strings pulled by someone else.

And, in keeping with my personal theory that anything can be illustrated by a sketch from Monty Python, Fry and Laurie or the Armando Iannucci Shows, here is a demonstration of a Quockerwodger and Quockerwodgee (not sure what the puppet master was called. This seems as good a word as any).

Tags 1865, A bit of Fry and Laurie, Humour, The slang dictionary, Victorian, Victorian slang

Victorian

This Reminds Me of our Wedding Night, 1894

Post author By Estelle
Post date June 25, 2014
2 Comments on 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.