Punch

As you sat in any dentists waiting room about any time from 10 to thirty years ago one of the few pleasures about waiting would have been that there would be an old copy of Punch on the table. In it there was some really funny articles from top comic writers like Alan Coren with cartoons from some of the best exponents of the art like Bill Tidy. Nowadays my local dentist has the de rigeur fish tank and copies of OK and Hello to while away the minutes of anticipation. Having recently got a copy of Punch I am not sorry the dentist no longer has it available. As you may be aware Punch magazine was rescued by Mohammed Al Fayed at a time when it looked like Punch ...

When I was doing A-Level history we often used the political cartoons of Punch magazine as a reference point for public opinion in any given historical period - but today it represents the views not of the Great British public but of a single businessman of dubious morals - namely Mohammed Al-Fayed. As a humourous or satirical publiction it is virtually worthless, it hard to even raise a wry smile at anything in it. In direct contrast to Private Eye the cartoons lack insight or humour and it cannot even rely on 'in-jokes' in the way Private Eye can since it now has such a low circulation. The problem is that whereas it was once in the hands of ...