the scripts are too faint - how annoying - removes 70% of the fun!
Gumbud
Sorry you couldn’t read it all. Here is my transcription of the entire cartoon.
Top row – first pic
Marry? Why not providing everything is OK?
Top row – second pic
Of course she would have to be very piquant -
Top row - third pic
and lively –
Top row – fourth pic
and have intelligence –
Second row – first pic
though not too much of it. Naturally.
Second row – second pic
She’d have to be thoroughly capable -
Second row – third pic
and domesticated –
Second row – fourth pic
in more ways than one.
Third row – first pic
She’d need to be sporting -
Third row – second pic
and reposeful.
Third row – third pic
Then she he’d have to do me credit on special occasions –
Third row – fourth pic
have a useful income of her own and be generous with it -
Fourth row – first pic
and when I want a change know how to pack properly
Fourth row – second pic
and unpack it on my return.
Fourth row – third pic
Children? Yes, she’d have to provide a few to look after my comfort when the years begin to tell.
charming I’m sure!!
http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h8/S22904945/actor.jpg
1935: A Precarious Profession
The actor, who is an old hand at this, knows that the manager is putting an optimistic gloss on a dire audience reaction. He simply wants to know how much he is going to get paid and when the play is going to close.
1935: Media Derived ‘Information’
Charles Laughton won the Oscar as Best Actor in 1933 for his starring role in the Private Life of Henry VIII. It was still being talked about in 1940 when I heard about Laughton in the role of Henry eating a chicken with his hands and throwing the bones on the floor.
To the schoolboy it is Laughton who is real, not Henry VIII. This kind of misunderstanding is now much more common than in 1935. Apparently there are still many people who think that the sinking of the Titanic is just fiction.
1935: Removing the Vicar
In 1935 even mere vicars tended to be rather grand as this cartoon illustrates. This goes for their wives too. The joke here is that the obsequious tradesman doesn’t want to be insulting but that is exactly what he is doing.
1935: Nostalgia for the Great War?
The drill procedure being executed by the municipal road sweeper (using his broom instead of a rifle) is the General Salute, which is only made in the presence of an officer of that exalted rank. This seems to suggest that this had once been the status of that benevolent looking elderly gent complete with umbrella, bowler hat and spats.
One way of looking at this cartoon is to say that is nonsense. A general would sit in comfort at a chateau well behind the lines. The road sweeper would have been in the infantry risking his life on a daily basis standing up to his waist in freezing contaminated water whilst manning his section of the trenches. Any suggestion of comradeship might appeal to the upper class readers of Punch but bore no relationship to reality during that conflict.
Another way of seeing it is rather different. The disparity of risk and conditions is of course true. Even so the war had ended some 17 years previously. For both the two men in the drawing there could now be a somewhat rose-tinted memory of a time when there had been a common purpose across all ranks. The former general, no doubt now a company director accepts the salute with some recognition of what the sweeper had previously had to endure.
Personally I prefer the second interpretation.
1935: It’s Not Only the Map that’s No Good
They don’t seem to be on the best of terms. He is obviously lost. She isn’t trying to help with the map reading. Indeed she isn’t showing any interest in his forlorn attempt to make sense of where they are.
Far from admitting his incompetence he blames first the map and then her for not ‘asking someone’.
It would be rash to anticipate an early reconciliation.
1935: Hiking with George Belcher
The amply proportioned hiker would be well advised to heed the farmer’s veiled warning.
In 1935 the vast Victorian network of branch lines was still reaching into every part of the countryside. It was destined to remain more or less intact until the mid 1960s when the Beeching Axe fell after which such a conversation could not have taken place.
1935: Ship’s Crew Summoned as Witnesses
No doubt the case concerned Divorce rather than Probate or even Admiralty. Some hanky panky has been taking place on a pleasure cruise (surprise, surprise) and the stewards have had to tell the court what they saw. Not having been fed on a diet of courtroom TV dramas the speaker in the cartoon is quite unfamiliar with the art of cross-examination.
This particular barrister does not look the pleasure cruise type so he is unlikely to find himself as an ‘accidental’ victim of having scalding hot tea poured onto his lap.
1935: There’s One Thing He Hasn’t Noticed
His footwear is robust and hers isn’t. She may well be wondering about the future of their relationship.
1935: Return of the Erratic Driver Son
Reginald’s mother welcomes the evidence that her dear boy has returned home. His father’s thoughts also involve the word ‘dear’ but the context is rather different.
1935: Public Access to Professional Staff
Nowadays there are well-trained people on hand to protect people like the man in the cartoon from having to speak to the little boy’s mother. I do wonder if even then it would have been possible.
The view of the generator has an impressive futuristic look about it.
1935: Looking for an Official Seal of Approval
The woman doesn’t want to waste her time on inferior speakers. Surely that nice reliable policeman can save her the trouble of finding the best. The bobby looks as though he wouldn’t want to listen to any of them though that isn’t what he is allowed to say.
We do however get a splendid view of Speakers Corner at that time. According to Wikipedia the one at Hyde Park is still a going concern though it is now over 60 years since I last visited it.
1935: Another Variation on a Frequently Told Joke
This is yet another way of answering the usher’s traditional question at a wedding. We get the impression that this guest feels sorry for the groom.
1935: A Waste of Money
There are plenty of worthless certificates and diplomas being dished out nowadays. (With modern software you can do it yourself fake documents.) It seems that this is a long established practice.
1935: What Else is a Bottle For?
It hasn’t occurred to him that a bottle, presented as a prize, can contain something that you don’t drink. His wife makes sure that it isn’t only Miss Simpkins who is embarrassed by his mistake.
1935: Why Can’t She Just Laugh it Off?
He may think his sense of humour is ‘devastating’ but not many people would agree with him. She certainly doesn’t.
1935: A Good Career for a Girl?
We suppose that Beryl has been listening in to adult conversation and come to the understandable conclusion that it is best not only to marry a rich man but that’s also desirable that he should then conveniently die.
I wonder whether the readers of Punch agreed with Beryl or would they just laugh at her youthful ignorance?
1935: Maintaining Standards
Surely Madam is at the receiving end of this joke. It can’t matter to Unwin whether her cap is on or off. Even by 1935 standards her employer is shown to be a stickler for pointless rules.