Right then… Smutty Victorian joke anyone?

05Oct12

Summer’s over (OK, never started). Everyone back to school, back to work.

Just to see where it takes us (though it’s not like anyone but me should care) I hereby pledge to update blog twice a week minimum, with a lot of stuff on history, a bit of stuff on Bristol, and some occasional sf.

We’ll start as we mean to continue with a mucky joke. As Victorian gags go, this is quite an exotic specimen in the sense that it’s actually funny (well I thought it was). More to the point, most Victorian smut is grotesquely, horribly, disgustingly misogynistic. Here’s a rare exception:

A gentleman was in the habit, whenever attending a public dinner, of always when called upon for a toast of giving “The Church”. His wife, who was rather deaf, got tired of this continual repetition, and told him that the next time he gave it she would expose him. The husband taking the hint upon the next occasion gave “The Ladies”.

The wife mistaking this for the old toast astonished the company by rising and saying – “I told my husband that if he again gave this toast I would expose him – I assure you that he has not been in one for a very long time, and the last time he was, he came out before it was half over.”