What is "punch and judy"

Punch \Punch\, n. [Abbrev, fr. punchinello.] The buffoon or harlequin of a puppet show.

Punch and Judy, a puppet show in which a comical little hunchbacked Punch, with a large nose, engages in altercation with his wife Judy.

Punch and Judy is a traditional, popular, and usually very violent puppet show featuring Pulcinella (Mr. Punch) and his wife Judy. The performance consists of a sequence of short scenes, each depicting an interaction between two characters, most typically Mr. Punch and one other character (who usually falls victim to Mr. Punch's club). It is often associated with traditional British seaside culture. The various episodes of Punch and Judy are performed in the spirit of outrageous comedy — often provoking shocked laughter — and are dominated by the clowning of Mr. Punch.

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 Victorian times, the drum and pan pipes were the instruments of choice. Today, the audience is also encouraged to participate, calling out to the characters on the stage to warn them of danger or clue them in to what is going on behind their backs. Also nowadays, most professors work solo, since the need for a bottler became less important when busking with the show gave way to paid engagements at private parties or public events.

Punch and Judy may refer to:

• Punch and Judy, a puppet show
• Punch and Judy (opera), an opera by Harrison Birtwistle
• "Punch and Judy", a song released by Marillion in 1984
• The Punch and Judy Man, a 1962 British comedy film
• "Punch and Judy", a song by The Stranglers from their 1984 album Aural Sculpture
• "Punch and Judy", a song by Elliott Smith from his 1997 album Either/Or
• Punch and Judy, a pair of re-occurring characters in the anime Cowboy Bebop
• Punch and Judy, two major characters in Girl Genius
• Punch and Judy Comics

Mr. Punch redirects here. It may refer to:

The Tragical Comedy or Comical Tragedy of Mr. Punch, a graphic novel by Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean

"Punch and Judy" is a song by the British neo-progressive rock band Marillion. It was the first single from their second studio album Fugazi. The lyrics of the song are about a marriage gone bad.

The single reached no. 29 on the UK singles charts in February 1984. This was the only single during the band's EMI years that no music video was shot for.

A CD replica of the single was also part of a collectors box-set released in July 2000, which contained Marillion's first twelve singles and was re-issued as a 3-CD set in 2009 (see The Singles '82-'88).

Punch and Judy is an opera with music by Harrison Birtwistle and a libretto by Stephen Pruslin, based on the puppet figures of the same names. Birtwistle wrote the score from 1966 to 1967. The opera was first performed at the Aldeburgh Festival, which had commissioned the work, on 8 June 1968, with David Atherton conducting the English Opera Group. The premiere cast included John Cameron as Mr Punch.

The work caused great controversy with members of the audience, because of the violence of the plot and the nature of the music. Benjamin Britten was reported to have left the premiere at the interval. The first US performance was in Minneapolis, and the first New York performance took place in 1988. The first performance in Austria was in 1991, by Wien Modern, with Birtwistle supervising the production. Birtwistle directed a revival of the opera at Aldeburgh in June 1991.

With reference to the ballet of Igor Stravinsky, Paul Griffiths has characterized Mr Punch as "the exact contrary of Petrushka: a human being behaving as a puppet". David Wright has summarized how Birtwistle and Pruslin attempted to treat the characters and music in an archetypal manner to write what they have described as a "source opera". Jonathan Cross has published a detailed analysis of the opera.

Punch and Judy were a pair of dogs who received the Dickin Medal from the People's Dispensary for Sick Animals for bravery in service in Israel in 1946. The commendation notes: "saved the lives of two British Officers... [by warning them of and] attacking an armed terrorist who was stealing upon them unawares." Both dogs were severely wounded.

The Dickin Medal is often referred to as the animal metaphorical equivalent of the Victoria Cross.