British Humour and the Second World War

This book skilfully combines cutting-edge historical research by leading and emerging researchers in the field to investigate the utilization of British humour during the Second World War as well as its legacy in British popular culture.Juliette Pattinson and Linsey Robb bring together case studies that address a variety of situations in which humour was generated, including wartime jokes, films, radio, cartoons and private drawings, as well as post-war recollections, museum exhibitions and television comedy. By adopting an original interpretative framework of various wartime and post-war sites, this books opens up the possibility for a more variegated, richer analysis of Britain's wartime experience and its place thereafter in the cultural imagination.Through the lens of humour, this book promises to add critical nuance to our understanding of the functioning of British wartime society. Covering sources such as The British Cartoon Archive, BBC World War II People's War Archive and The Ministry of Information, and including analysis of the lasting role of comedy in Britain's memories and depictions of the war, the result is a rich addition to existing literature of use to students and scholars studying the cultural history of war.

1. 'Few Things in Life are Less Funny than War': Reclaiming the Humour in the Horror, Juliette Pattinson and Linsey Robb2. Observational Comedy: Mass-Observation and the Wartime Joke, 1939-1945, Chris Smith3. 'Good-Natured as any Folk in the World': The Ministry of Information Film and British Humour during the Second World War, Linsey Robb4. Making People Laugh on the Wartime BBC, Siân Nicholas5. 'I couldn't get a parrot, dear, so I brought a wren!: The British Cartoon Archive and Wartime Visual Culture', Juliette Pattinson6. "'E's a Funny Doctor": Dickie Orpen and the Visual Humour of the Second World War Reconstructive Surgery Ward, Christine Slobogin7. Taking 'the jagged edges off': British Naval Humour during the Second World War, Frances Houghton8. 'Divided between ITMA and a sense of terror': Humour and Remembering the War for the BBC People's War Archive, Corinna Peniston-Bird9. Exploring The Real Dad's Army in the Imperial War Museum, London, Kasia Tomasiewicz10. Listening Very Carefully to 'Allo 'Allo: British Comedy and the Path to Brexit, Gavin Schaffer