Podcast Summary: Terrible puns and filthy limericks: the Victorian sense of humour

HistoryExtra Podcast – February 13, 2026
Host: David Musgrove
Guest: Dr. Bob Nicholson (Lecturer in 19th-century history, Edge Hill University)

Main Theme Overview

This episode explores the diverse and often misunderstood world of Victorian humour. Dr. Bob Nicholson dives into what made 19th-century Britons laugh, challenging stereotypes of Victorian prudishness. The discussion navigates terrible puns, conundrum competitions, the clandestine world of filthy limericks, and the circulation of jokes across classes and continents, ultimately revealing a comic scene as lively and varied as our own.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Defining the "Victorian Sense of Humour"

• Hard to Define: Victorian humour was as broad and varied as today’s, ranging from highbrow satire to slapstick and vulgar jokes.
• Obsession with Puns: Puns (“laboured, torturous puns”) were especially loved, often taking the form of “conundrum jokes” that acted as both puzzles and entertainment ([01:16]).
  • Quote: “They absolutely love wordplay to a degree that I think for us now we would look at and think, blimey, these are some pretty laboured, torturous puns.” — Bob Nicholson ([01:24])

Examples of Victorian Pun Jokes ([02:21–03:14])

• “When do we possess a vegetable timepiece? When we get a potato clock.”

• “If he were to kill a conversational goose, what vegetable would it allude to? Asparagus [as-per-a-goose].”

• Conundrum competitions (akin to talent shows) were popular; townsfolk would submit their best puns to be judged and awarded, with winners published in newspapers.

2. Victorians and Bodily Humour – Respectability vs. Private Vice

• Victorian reputation for prudishness is nuanced:
  • Publicly, humour about bodily functions became taboo compared to the openly bawdy Georgian era.
  • Joke books and mainstream media were heavily edited for decency.
  • Example: Successive Victorian editions of Joe Miller’s Jests cut jokes about sex, urination, and other bodily matters ([06:42–12:49]).

Notable (Censored) Examples:

• Joke about lovers being caught in a field (“no harm, we are only going to propagate”).

• The classic “a little thing” will make us laugh (implied penis joke).

• In private, however, Victorians did tell lewd jokes — dinner parties among elites and publications like The Pearl (a pornographic magazine) preserved filthy limericks.

  • Filthy Limerick Example ([12:51–14:05]):

    • “There was a young lady of Hitchin / Who was scratching her C--- in the kitchen...”

  • Bob: “The idea of [Victorians] joking about those kind of things... seems so unfamiliar to us, how we imagine the Victorians...” ([13:41])

3. Humour Across Social Classes and Genders

• Most surviving evidence is from middle-class, male, London-centric sources (e.g., Punch).
• Humour reflected and reinforced class boundaries; Punch often "punched down" at working-class subjects, while magazines like Titbits mocked the upper class.
• Gendered humour: Many jokes about women’s fashion, but also men as butts of jokes.
• The folk humour of women and working classes is harder to reconstruct due to lack of surviving sources ([18:36], [25:45]).

4. Sources, Preservation, and Performance of Humour

• Main Sources: Newspapers (industrial-scale joke publishing), magazines, private diaries, and rare early phonograph recordings ([18:36–21:25]).
• Music Hall & Comic Lectures:
  • The music hall featured performers blending comic songs and spoken jokes (early form of stand-up).
  • “Comic lectures” used lectures as a format for joke-filled performances—precursors to modern PowerPoint comedy. Artemus Ward is cited as a pioneer ([21:37–24:07]).
  • Quote: “Joke telling was everywhere. It isn’t just contained into these sort of small areas that we might think of as comedy.” — Bob Nicholson ([24:37])

5. Debunking Queen Victoria’s "Not Amused" Reputation

• The famous line “we are not amused” is, at best, apocryphal.

• Her diaries reveal she laughed frequently at physical mishaps and dinner table anecdotes ([27:47]).

  • Memorable Moment: Admiral’s ship-wreck story misheard as a comment on his sister’s “barnacles” — left Victoria “in hysterics... shoulders shaking, weeping with laughter” ([29:18]).

• Public persona required “dignity of a sovereign”; private Victoria enjoyed ordinary, even crude, humour.

6. Social Boundaries, Censorship, and "Victorian Cancellation"

• Jokes about bodily functions, scurrilous gossip, and “improper company” could get you censured.
• Music hall stars skirted the line with innuendo and faced suppression by censors and organizations for “public morals.”
  • Victorian “cancellation” played out as suppression of acts or printed material ([31:32]).

7. Going "Viral" in the Victorian Age: Transatlantic Humour

• Jokes spread via “cut and paste” in newspapers—akin to retweets.

• American humour columns were a staple of British periodicals; “viral” jokes could travel the world, crossing cultures and being adapted locally ([33:18]).

  • Example: “You kick the bucket, we do the rest.” (mining town undertaker; parody of Kodak’s “You press the button, we do the rest.”) — spread from America across Britain and into political speeches.

• Quote: “Comedy circulates on a global scale in the 19th century.” — Bob Nicholson ([33:18])

• American humour was seen as fresh and highbrow; British humour, as more laboured and slapstick.

  • Over time, these perceptions flipped ([36:53]).

8. Victorian Humour vs. Other Eras

• Major themes (mother-in-law jokes, lawyers, romance mishaps) persisted through the Edwardian era and beyond.
• Some stock figures changed: e.g., the “milkman” as swindler (Victorian) vs. sexual predator (20th century).
• Over time, postwar society shed the most rigid respectability, humour becoming more direct and less mannered.
• Famous Cartoons Highlighting Change: Retelling of “the curate’s egg” joke, with modern bluntness replacing Victorian diplomacy ([39:25]).

9. Closing: Favourite Victorian Joke

• Poet Joke (43:14):
  • “A man visits a pub, sees a poet being fed like a king, asks why. Landlord replies, ‘Hasn’t been published; won’t be until after he dies. We’re keeping him alive as long as we can.’”

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments (with timestamps)

• “You kind of got to admire the dexterity of it, right, to construct puns like that.” — Bob Nicholson ([03:14])
• “Farts have been funny... throughout human history.” — Bob Nicholson ([06:45])
• “Those jokes were circulating... but they are not the kind of stuff you would hear in a mainstream musical or read in a magazine.” — Bob Nicholson ([13:41])
• “Comedy is such an ephemeral thing... when actually it’s really culturally important. We just haven’t always kept it.” — Bob Nicholson ([18:36])
• “The idea of them using that kind of language, joking about those kind of things... seems so unfamiliar to us, how we imagine the Victorians...” — Bob Nicholson ([13:41])
• “She supposedly, in that moment, is absolutely in hysterics... embarrassing moment for this admiral. But, I mean, you know, if that happened to me, I would laugh my head off at that...” — Bob Nicholson ([29:18])
• “American humour was considered more witty, more like black humour, whereas British humour was a bit more kind of laboured and slapstick at this point.” — Bob Nicholson ([36:53])
• “Humour does change, as it continues to change now. But... the things we laugh at in many cases are the same and they endure.” — Bob Nicholson ([42:09])

Key Timestamps for Important Segments

• Victorian Obsession with Puns: [01:16–04:48]
• Victorian Taboo and Joke Book Censorship: [06:42–12:49]
• Filthy Victorian Limericks and Private Humour: [12:51–14:05]
• Sources and Recording Comedy: [18:36–21:25]
• Entertainment Venues and Pre-stand-up Comedy: [21:37–24:07]
• Queen Victoria’s True Sense of Humour: [27:47–31:03]
• Victorian Era "Cancellation"/Censorship: [31:32–33:06]
• Jokes Going Viral & US-UK Humour Exchange: [33:18–36:53]
• Evolution of Humour (Victorian to Modern): [39:25–42:09]
• Favourite Joke to Close: [43:14]

Tone & Language

• The episode is lively, witty, and conversational, filled with historical anecdotes, personal asides, and plenty of groan-worthy puns. Dr. Nicholson shares both scholarly perspective and comic relief, while David Musgrove interjects with questions and (sometimes) appreciation for the jokes.

For further exploration:

• Dr. Bob Nicholson (@DigiVictorian) researches 19th-century British and American popular culture.
• Listen for references to The Tiger Tamer Who Went to Sea and more on the HistoryExtra archive for related historical curiosities.