Punch (Punch)

Member Name: polydeuces

Product:	Punch
Date:	15/06/08 (22 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: 5

Disadvantages: 5

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 would cease publication after over 200 years. However such is the poor state of the publication now that many people may wish to think it better it went under. The Punch of today is very poor compared with the magazine I remember and I will give my opinion as to why that is.
Firstly the ownership of the magazine gives Mohammed Al Fayed the platform for a litany of anti-establishment comments through his column 'The Thoughts Of Chairman Mo'. His column contains numerous references to the government having 'cronies', 'pals', 'rich friends' and being 'oily operators' and many people may think this is rich given his propensity to use cash to obtain what he wants over the last few years. He also laments the lack of help being given to working class and 'ordinary' people. There is a huge bitterness in what Al Fayed writes. I sympathise with him for the loss of his son and have questioned the decision not to grant him a British passport but this unsavoury attack on all sections of the political, royal and judicial fabric of Britain is not warranted and will win him few friends.

Punch sadly is now a dire magazine with only 40 pages for £1.50. It is true there few advertisements but given the apparently poor circulation this is to be expected. There are no columnists in the magazine worth reading. Mary Kenny is a dire old reactionary who wrote in the issue I read a diatribe which included how she would not raise her arm to raise a taxi in case someone attacks her with a needle to give her AIDS. Unbelievable! Michael Cole who was Al Fayed's press secretary at Harrods also has an article published about celebrities in adverts but this read more like a dull list.
There is a column about entertainment and celebrities but this was a collection of cheap jibes against such celebrities as Madonna, Jeffrey Archer and even Prince Edward who I felt sorry for for the first time. Jerry Hayes contributes a column which really was poorly written but with a nasty little edge to it. Hayes is a politician who was rejected at the last election and his piece was bitter and unfunny.

The arts section contains reviews of records, theatre, books and the web. On the whole this was better than much of the other material but hardly good enough to recommend it. An investigation also featured about the support of large UK businesses into the elections in the USA and the UK. Again the article read like a list and the sums of money involved were very small. Ultimately this seemed a non-story and misplaced in a magazine like Punch. Perhaps it can be argued that Punch is a satirical magazine but with satire you expect some degree of humour and sadly there was none to find in Punch.

Summary: 5