thumb|[[Michael "Olga" Algar of punk pathetique band Toy Dolls on stage in 2005]]
Punk pathetique is a subgenre of British punk rock (principally active circa 1980–1982) that involved humour and working-class cultural themes.
Origin
The name of the genre was coined by Sounds journalist Garry Bushell, who actively championed many of its exponents. Punk pathetique was initially an attempt to characterize a group of London bands that embodied Cockney culture with a Dickensian working class attitude. Musically, it was related to (and had crossover with) the Oi! subgenre. The cover of the 1980 Bushell/Sounds compilation album Oi! The Album described the record as featuring "ruck 'n' rollers and punk pathetiques". In contrast to harder-edged Oi! bands with more serious lyrics, punk pathetique bands focused on the naughty, silly and trivial. Max Splodge of Splodgenessabounds said: "The pathetique bands are the other side of Oi! We're working class too, only whereas some bands sing about prison and the dole, we sing about pilchards and bums. The audience is the same".
Other punk pathetique bands included Television Personalities, Half Man Half Biscuit, the Shapes, the Gonads, the Adicts, Notsensibles, Auntie Pus, the Postmen, Desert Island Joe, the Hoopers, Pierre the Poet (Garry Butterfield), Paul Devine, Lord Waistrel & the Cosh Boys, Stephen Louis Knoche Jr & His Raging Cronies, the Alaska Cowboys, Patronage, Percy Throwers Man Eating Plans, SexyCows, the Orgasm Guerrillas, the Implications, and Doughnut & the Donor. Later, the mantle was inherited by the Bus Station Loonies, Monkish and Macc Lads, who performed comic punk singalongs in very much the same style. Toy Dolls, Peter and the Test Tube Babies, the Gonads, Splodgenessabounds and Auntie Pus & The Men From Uncle continue to tour and record.
Fun-Punk
In Germany, the similar Fun-Punk genre emerged in the mid-1980s as a response to hardcore punk, which at that time was marked by political correctness and negative imagery. Fun-punk often dealt with absurd themes or alcohol and drug excesses. An early pioneer was Normahl, later followed by Die Ärzte, Die Goldenen Zitronen, Die Kassierer, and Wizo. According to Ox-Fanzine, Die Goldenen Zitronen's music was distinguished from the "testosterone-fueled, often sexually discriminatory" music of bands like .
References
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