Punch-and-Judy show

American  

[puhnch-uhn-joo-dee] / ˈpʌntʃ ənˈdʒu di /

noun

1. a puppet show having a conventional plot consisting chiefly of slapstick humor and the tragicomic misadventures of the grotesque, hook-nosed, humpback buffoon Punch and his wife Judy.

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Etymology

Origin of Punch-and-Judy show

First recorded in 1875–80

Example Sentences

But isn’t there also a side effect, an off-label one if you will, of making the audience giggle along at this postmodern Punch-and-Judy show?

From Slate • Jan. 6, 2016

Pussycat is as old as the Punch-and-Judy show and as new as Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, and the evening is filled with good, healthy, vulgar, neurotic laughter.

From Time Magazine Archive

But before accepting the hula ki'i as a product indigenous to Hawaii, I asked myself: Might not this be a performance in imitation of the Punch-and-Judy show familiar to Europe and America?

From Unwritten Literature of Hawaii The Sacred Songs of the Hula by Emerson, Nathaniel Bright

The road was thick with people and lined with sweet-standings; and by the near end of the bridge a Punch-and-Judy show had just closed a performance.

From The Delectable Duchy by Quiller-Couch, Arthur Thomas, Sir

Every one of them was apparelled in black: they were, in fact, the people I had seen gaping at the Punch-and-Judy show.

From The Delectable Duchy by Quiller-Couch, Arthur Thomas, Sir

Related Words

• puppetry