thumb|upright=1.1|A traditional Punch and Judy booth, at [[Swanage, Dorset, England. Punch is pictured to the left, Judy to the right.]]

thumb|upright=1.1|Punch and Judy at an English [[Fête|fete]]

Punch and Judy is a traditional English puppet show featuring Mr Punch and his wife Judy. The performance consists of a sequence of short scenes, each depicting an interaction between two characters, most typically the anarchic Mr Punch and one other character who usually falls victim to the intentional violence of Punch's slapstick. First appearing in England in 1662, Punch and Judy was called by The Daily Telegraph "a staple of the British seaside scene".

The show is performed by a single puppeteer inside the booth, known since Victorian times as a "professor" or "punchman", and assisted sometimes by a "bottler" who corrals the audience outside the booth, introduces the performance, and collects the money ("the bottle"). The bottler might also play accompanying music or sound effects on a drum or guitar, and engage in back chat with the puppets, sometimes repeating lines that may have been difficult for the audience to understand. In the Victorian era, the drum and pan pipes were the instruments of choice. Today, most professors work solo, since the need for a bottler became less important when street performing gave way to paid engagements at private parties or public events. In modern shows the audience is encouraged to participate, calling out to the characters on the stage—typically shouting "He's behind you!"—to warn them of danger or clue them in to what is going on behind their backs. The figure of Punch is derived from the Neapolitan stock character of Pulcinella, which was anglicised to Punchinello. He is a variation on the same themes as the Lord of Misrule and the many Trickster figures found in mythologies across the world. Punch's wife was originally called "Joan".

The figure who became the anarchic Mr Punch made his first recorded appearance in England on 9 May 1662, which is traditionally reckoned as Punch's UK birthday. Punch and Judy began to emerge during the Restoration Period (beginning in 1660), a period during which art and theatre thrived. King Charles II took the throne in 1660 and replaced Puritan leaders Oliver Cromwell and Richard Cromwell, and theatre culture was revived. Cromwell strictly adhered to the Puritan belief that theatre was immoral and should be banned, resulting in their closure in 1642. The repressive regime also saw street entertainers jailed. William Langley of The Telegraph writes Punch and Judy "owes much of its original success to the bleak killjoyism of Cromwell's England. Charles II's resumption of the throne in 1660 unleashed a huge public demand for popular entertainment". The diarist Samuel Pepys observed a marionette show featuring an early version of the Punch character in Covent Garden in London. It was performed by Italian puppet showman Pietro Gimonde, a.k.a. "Signor Bologna", one of many entertainers from continental Europe who came to England following the restoration.

In the Punch and Judy show, Punch speaks in a distinctive squawking voice, produced by a contrivance known as a swazzle or swatchel which the professor holds in his mouth, transmitting his gleeful cackle. This gives Punch a vocal quality as though he were speaking through a kazoo. Joan's name was changed to Judy because "Judy" was easier to enunciate with the swazzle than "Joan". Glove puppets were often operated by placing the thumb in one arm, the middle, ring, and little fingers in the other arm, and the index finger in the head.

thumb|[[Punch or May Day, 1829 painting by Benjamin Robert Haydon depicting a street scene in London including a Punch and Judy show]]

In the early 18th century, the puppet theatre starring Punch was at its height, with showman Martin Powell attracting sizable crowds at both his Punch's Theatre at Covent Garden and earlier in provincial Bath, Somerset. In 1721, a puppet theatre opened in Dublin that ran for decades. The cross-dressing actress Charlotte Charke ran the successful but short-lived Punch's Theatre in the Old Tennis Court at St. James's, Westminster, presenting adaptations of Shakespeare as well as plays by herself, her father Colley Cibber, and her friend Henry Fielding. Fielding eventually ran his own puppet theatre under the pseudonym Madame de la Nash to avoid the censorship concomitant with the theatre Licensing Act 1737.

Punch was extremely popular in Paris and, by the end of the 18th century, he was also playing in Britain's former American colonies, where George Washington, a fan of the show, bought tickets.

A more substantial change came over time to the show's target audience. The show was originally intended for adults, but it changed into primarily a children's entertainment in the late Victorian era. Ancient members of the show's cast ceased to be included, such as the Devil and Punch's mistress "Pretty Polly", when they came to be seen as inappropriate for young audiences. birthday parties, and other celebratory occasions. The association of Punch with the seaside, however, is still very strong, as demonstrated by Wisbech Town council's annual Wis-BEACH day each summer: "all the seaside favourites are on show, including a donkey, deck chairs, Punch and Judy and fish and chips".

Characters

thumb|Punch and Judy, taken in [[Islington, north London]]

thumb|Punch and Judy characters, Sydney, 1940

The characters in a Punch and Judy show are not fixed. They are similar to the cast of a soap opera or a folk tale such as Robin Hood: the principal characters must appear, but the lesser characters are included at the discretion of the performer. New cast may be added and older cast dropped as the tradition changes.

Along with Punch and Judy, the cast of characters usually includes their baby, a hungry crocodile, a clown, an officious policeman, and a prop string of sausages. The devil and the generic hangman Jack Ketch may still make their appearances but, if so, Punch will always get the better of them. The cast of a typical Punch and Judy show today will include:

  • Mr Punch
  • Judy
  • The Babe
  • The Constable (a.k.a. Policeman Jack)
  • Joey the Clown
  • The Crocodile
  • The Skeleton
  • The Doctor

Characters once regular but now occasional include:

  • Toby the Dog
  • The Ghost
  • The Lawyer
  • Hector the Horse
  • Pretty Polly
  • The Hangman (a.k.a. Jack Ketch)
  • The Devil
  • The Beadle
  • Jim Crow ("The Black Man")
  • Mr Scaramouche
  • The Servant (or "The Minstrel")
  • The Blind Man

Other characters included Boxers, Chinese Plate Spinners, topical figures, a trick puppet with an extending neck (the "Courtier"), and a monkey. A live Toby the Dog was once a regular featured novelty routine, sitting on the playboard and performing "with" the puppets.

Punch wears a brightly coloured (traditionally red) jester's motley and sugarloaf hat with a tassel. He is a hunchback whose hooked nose almost meets his curved, jutting chin. He carries a stick (called a slapstick) as large as himself, which he freely uses upon most of the other characters in the show. Judy wears an apron, a blue dress, and a bonnet and frequently tries to tell Punch off when he uses the slapstick.

Story

thumb|Mr. PunchGlyn Edwards has likened the story of Punch and Judy to the story of Cinderella. He points out that there are parts of the Cinderella story which everyone knows, namely the cruel step sisters, the invitation to the ball, the handsome prince, the fairy godmother, Cinderella's dress turning to rags at midnight, the glass slipper left behind, the prince searching for its owner, and the happy ending. None of these elements can be omitted and the famous story still be told. The same principle applies to Punch and Judy. Everyone knows that Punch mishandles the baby, that Punch and Judy quarrel and fight, that a policeman comes for Punch and gets a taste of his stick, that Punch has a gleeful run-in with a variety of other figures and takes his stick to them all, that eventually he faces his final foe (which might be a hangman, the devil, a crocodile, or a ghost). Edwards contends that a proper Punch and Judy show requires these elements or the audience will feel let down. This was elaborated by George Speaight, who explained that the plotline "is like a story compiled in a parlour game of Consequences ... the show should, indeed, not be regarded as a story at all but a succession of encounters." Robert Leach makes it clear that "the story is a conceptual entity, not a set text: the means of telling it, therefore, are always variable." Rosalind Crone asserts that the story needed to be episodic so that passersby on the street could easily join or leave the audience during a performance.

Much emphasis is often placed on the first printed script of Punch and Judy, in 1827. It was based on a show by travelling performer Giovanni Piccini, illustrated by George Cruikshank, and written by John Payne Collier. This is the only surviving script of a performance, and its accuracy is questioned. The performance was stopped frequently to allow Collier and Cruikshank to write and sketch and, in the words of Speaight, Collier is someone of whom "the full list of his forgeries has not yet been reckoned, and the myths he propagated are still being repeated. (His) 'Punch and Judy' is to be warmly welcomed as the first history of puppets in England, but it is also sadly to be examined as the first experiment of a literary criminal."

The tale of Punch and Judy varies from puppeteer to puppeteer, as previously with Punchinello and Joan, and it has changed over time. Nonetheless, the skeletal outline is often recognizable. It typically involves Punch behaving outrageously, struggling with his wife Judy and the baby, and then triumphing in a series of encounters with the forces of law and order (and often the supernatural), interspersed with jokes and songs.

Typical 21st-century performance

A typical show as performed currently in the UK will start with the arrival of Mr. Punch, followed by the introduction of Judy. They may well hug, kiss, and dance before Judy requests Mr. Punch to look after the baby while she is away. Punch will fail to carry out this task appropriately. It is rare for Punch to hit his baby these days, but he may well sit on it in a failed attempt to "babysit", or drop it, or even let it go through a sausage machine. In any event, Judy will return, will be outraged, will fetch a stick, and the knockabout will commence. A policeman will arrive in response to the mayhem and will himself be felled by Punch's stick. All this is carried out at breakneck farcical speed with much involvement from a gleefully shouting audience. From here on anything goes.

Joey the Clown might appear and suggest, "It's dinner time." or tease Mr. Punch. This will lead to the production of a string of sausages, which Mr. Punch must look after, although the audience will know that this really signals the arrival of a crocodile whom Mr. Punch might not see until the audience shouts out and lets him know. Punch's subsequent comic struggle with the crocodile might then leave him in need of a Doctor who will arrive and attempt to treat Punch by walloping him with a stick until Punch turns the tables on him. Punch may next pause to count his "victims" by laying puppets on the stage, only for Joey the Clown to move them about behind his back in order to frustrate him. A ghost might then appear and give Mr. Punch a fright before it too is chased off with a stick.

In older productions, a hangman would arrive to punish Mr. Punch, only to himself be tricked into sticking his head in the noose. "Do you do the hanging?" is a question often asked of performers. Some will include it where circumstances warrant (such as for an adult audience) but most do not. Finally, the show will often end with the Devil arriving for Mr. Punch (and possibly threatening his audience as well). Punch—in his final gleefully triumphant moment—will win his fight with the Devil, bring the show to a rousing conclusion, and earn a round of applause.

Plots reflect their own era

thumb|A traditional Punch and Judy show dating from [[World War II with the addition of a Hitler character as a figure of derision to reflect the times. Taken at the History On Wheels Museum, Eton Wick, England.]]

Punch and Judy might follow no fixed storyline, as with the tales of Robin Hood, but there are episodes common to many recorded versions. It is these set piece encounters or "routines" which are used by performers to construct their own Punch and Judy shows. A visit to a Punch and Judy Festival at Punch's "birthplace" in London's Covent Garden will reveal a whole variety of changes that are wrung by puppeteers from this basic material. Scripts have been published at different times since the early 19th century, but none can be claimed as the definitive traditional script of Punch and Judy. Each printed script reflects the era in which it was performed and the circumstances under which it was printed.

The various episodes of the show are performed in the spirit of outrageous comedy—often provoking shocked laughter—and are dominated by the anarchic clowning of Mr. Punch. Just as the Victorian version of the show drew on the morality of its day, so also the Punch & Judy College of Professors considers that the 20th- and 21st-century versions of the tale is used as a vehicle for grotesque visual comedy and a sideways look at contemporary society.