Punch and Judy - Allusions in Other Media

Allusions in Other Media

• Punch, the former British humour magazine, was named after Mr. Punch.
• In the Marx Brothers' 1931 comedy Monkey Business, Harpo joins a live Punch & Judy show (performed by an uncredited Al Flosso, a famous American Punchman) while trying to avoid capture by the crew members of the ship he has stowed away on.
• Riddley Walker, a 1980 novel by Russell Hoban, utilizes Punch and Judy characters as quasi-political symbols.
• The Old Curiosity Shop, an 1841 novel by Charles Dickens, features the Punch and Judy performing partners Mr. Codlin and Short Trotters.
• Punch and Judy inspired an opera of the same name by Harrison Birtwistle in 1967.
• The Tragical Comedy or Comical Tragedy of Mr. Punch, a 1994 graphic novel by writer Neil Gaiman and artist Dave McKean, explores a boy's memories triggered by a Punch and Judy show.
• The American vocal group The Cascades had a song released in 1963 entitled "Punch and Judy" about a girl who always makes a fool of her boyfriend.
• The band Marillion had a #29 hit in the UK in 1984 with a song entitled "Punch and Judy", satirising marital strife.
• The band The Stranglers included a song on their 1984 album Aural Sculpture called "Punch & Judy."
• The band Lightning Seeds' album Jollification features a song called "Punch and Judy", that deals with issues of domestic violence.
• In the film Time Bandits, a Punch and Judy show is seen when the characters are transported back in time.
• The Punch cigar brand was named after Mr. Punch, and features him on the label.
• The 1963 Ingmar Bergman film The Silence (or Tystnaden) features a boy, Johan, who plays with Punch and Judy dolls.
• In the 1980 children's novel The Magicians of Caprona, by Diana Wynne Jones, a Punch and Judy show is a part of an important series of events.
• Early concepts of Pink Floyd's rock opera The Wall centered on the characters of Punch and Judy. These later became Pink and his unnamed wife.
• In FoxTrot, an American comic strip, character Jason Fox plays a prank on his sister Paige by pretending to do a Punch and Judy show using only Judy. When Paige asked, "Where's Punch?" Jason had the Judy puppet "punch" Paige in the nose.
• The 1987 horror film Dolls by director Stuart Gordon features a young girl named Judy, who is gifted with a Punch doll that comes to life and protects her.
• In The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers, the clown-magician Horrabin is introduced performing a morbid version of the Punch story.
• "Punch and Judy" is the eighth track on the album Either/Or by Elliott Smith.
• The DC Comics villains Punch and Jewellee, wearing greasepaint and harlequin clothing styled after Punch and Judy puppets, appeared regularly in the pages of Suicide Squad.
• In Midnight Riot (UK title Rivers of London) by Ben Aaronovitch the main antagonist is the ghost of Mr. Punch and murders in a style that mirrors the Punch and Judy story.
• Game designer John Tynes created a role-playing game called Puppetland based on the Punch and Judy shows and stories.
• Two characters, one named Punch and one named Judy, appeared in nine episodes of The Batman as henchmen of the Joker.
• One of the killers in the movie Screamtime was a puppeteer, who used a Mr Punch doll.
• Punch and Judy are Agatha's adoptive parents in Girl Genius. The characters Punch and Judy are also a popular feature in the traveling circus Agatha joins.
• In the Doctor Who serial Snakedance, A Punch and Judy show is briefly recreated despite the alien setting. The only difference to the traditional show is that the Crocodile is replaced with the snake-like alien Mara.
• A Punch & Judy professor is an important character in "Destroying Angel", the 15th episode of the "Midsomer Murders" series (2000).
• XTC wrote a song entitled "Punch and Judy" during recording sessions for their album "English Settlement".
• in the Japanese anime Cowboy Bebop the presenters of the Big shot TV show are named Punch and Judy.
• In the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, the raucous exchange of accusations and insults between rival Members, especially at Prime Minister's Questions, has become known as "Punch and Judy politics". David Cameron famously used the phrase in a December 2005 speech.
• In February 2012 a London based Theatre company Improbable performed a string of shows at the Barbican Theatre London, called "The Devil & Mr Punch" which is an adaptation of the Punch & Judy story.
• The Punch and Judy show is popular in the town of Mejis in Steven King's The Dark Tower series.
• The Terry Pratchett novel Dodger (novel), Punch and Judy is mentioned several times, usually with nothing but disgust from the titular character, who finds no humour from something he has seen play out many times in the rookeries of Dickensian London.