Two members of Lathan's "family," Nop and Nam Nopnam, are meant to invoke Punch and Judy of British (by way of Italian) tradition. Punch is known for his high, cackling voice, his stick (as large as the puppet), and for his catch phrase "That's the way you do it!"
Until late Victorian times the Punch and Judy show was intended for adult audiences; sexual innuendo was common, and violence crucial, to the show's plots. Since its first recorded staging (the late 1600s) the show, and Punch's character in particular, were renounced as undermining bourgeouis values. True enough: these puppet shows, at their finest, used sight gags and subversive humor to satirize political and moral sensibilities. It's not hard to see why Punch's traditional disdain for social and religious conventions (he regularly abuses police officers and the devil) would appeal to Lathan.
The excerpts below offer critical and historical context for Punch and Judy shows:
“’Master Punch’ must, as it were, singlehandedly face down a broad spectrum of bourgeouis values – education, moral improvement, aesthetic reform, disdain for the low, and . . . [Punch is] construed as healthy voice of common sense silenced by the obsessive demands of middle-class distinction.”
--Scott Cutler Shershow, Puppets and "Popular" Culture
"In my opinion the street Punch is one of those extravagant reliefs from the realities of life which would lose its hold upon the people if it were made moral and instructive. I regard it as quite harmless in its influence, and as an outrageous joke which no one in existence would think of regarding as an incentive to any kind of action or as a model for any kind of conduct..."
--Charles Dickens, The Letters of Charles Dickens Vol V, 1847 - 1849
The website The Punch Page presents a pdf file(1.9MB)facsimile of the script and illustrations from an 1832 edition of the original book published by S. Prowett in
And here is a video recording of a traditional Punch and Judy show.
