Category:Punch
Title: Punch
Editor: Sir Francis Cowley Burnand
Publisher: Bradbury, Agnew, & Co. (1880-1906); Francis Bernand; Charles Shirley Brooks (1870 -?); Charles William Brooks (1870); William Shirley Brooks (assistant editor 1851 - 1870, editor 1870 - 1874); Mark Lemon (1841 - 1870); Tom Taylor (1874 - 1880).
Punch is a weekly social commentary. The first issue was published and distributed on July 17, 1841. Punch features satires on politics, fashion, music and drama. Its authors write on a wide variety of topics such as police news, book and media reviews, the fine arts, and sports. As J. Jefferson Farjeon said about his death in his short story, the Deth of Smith Minor, “if it was written at all”, meaning his death, “it wouldn’t be published in Punch, wich dose not go in for sad things, but always tries to help this rather gloomby world by being cheerful”. Punch is written specifically to make people happy. One of its purposes is to target the gloomy aspects of British society, and find the humor in them, so as to lift the gloom and make the world “cheerful”. Punch’s audience is anyone who feels inclined to laugh at themselves and enjoys finding humor in British society. Throughout the journal, Punch is actually a character who appears in comics and stories as a sort of jester. His purpose is to promote social reforms through ridiculing and exposing the ridiculous and unacceptable aspects of society. It “has a touch of something above mere vulgar laughter, and is worthy of wise men’s perusal."[1]
Notes
Submitted by: Carrington, Ashton: section 1, Fall 2008
Articles in category "Punch"
The following 8 pages are in this category, out of 8 total.
