Victorian sense of humour
March 28, 2016 5:34 PM   Subscribe

How would you react if you received one of these weirdly wonderful Easter or Christmas cards? The BBC shows us a collection of the cards that were exchanged during Victorian times.
posted by cynical pinnacle (27 comments total) 33 users marked this as a favorite
 
Something about the rabbits in a line all dressed in colored eggs strikes me as being very Achewood
posted by DoctorFedora at 5:55 PM on March 28, 2016 [3 favorites]


Could someone please tell me what the ever loving heck is wishing me a Happy New Year?
posted by Dr. Zira at 5:55 PM on March 28, 2016 [2 favorites]


Could someone please tell me what the ever loving heck is wishing me a Happy New Year?

Looks like a potato to me. It's got several telltale protuberances around its belly.
posted by cynical pinnacle at 6:07 PM on March 28, 2016 [2 favorites]


"jewish egg bar"? What? Gotta be antisemitic in some way but I can not make the cultural leap.
posted by sammyo at 6:09 PM on March 28, 2016


Are the eyes on that potato's belly supposed to look like baby seals?
posted by Dr. Zira at 6:09 PM on March 28, 2016


"jewish egg bar"? What? Gotta be antisemitic in some way but I can not make the cultural leap.

The chick coming to the bar appears to be a wounded veteran. I wonder what war it's supposed to be referencing?
posted by Sangermaine at 6:20 PM on March 28, 2016


I can't help but suspect they smoked a lot of opium back then.
posted by tommyD at 6:43 PM on March 28, 2016 [1 favorite]


I'm enjoying the article's captions almost as much as the cards. "What could be more seasonal than a child boiled in a teapot?"

Also, in the Christmas article, is that clown about to stuff that red-hot poker up the policeman's nethers? (And how often do we get to ask that question.)
posted by theatro at 6:47 PM on March 28, 2016 [2 favorites]


These are cool. I have some similar ones inherited from relatives.
posted by DaddyNewt at 6:56 PM on March 28, 2016 [1 favorite]


Something about the rabbits in a line all dressed in colored eggs strikes me as being very Achewood

I had the exact same thought! I think the left rabbit is doing Gothic Dance moves maybe
posted by prize bull octorok at 6:57 PM on March 28, 2016


"jewish egg bar"? What? Gotta be antisemitic in some way but I can not make the cultural leap.


I am a Victorianist who is also Jewish.

...And yet, I am completely unable to be of any use here.
posted by thomas j wise at 7:21 PM on March 28, 2016 [20 favorites]


I actually kinda love that mouse riding a lobster. I mean I don't frickin' understand it, but I love it.
posted by arha at 7:21 PM on March 28, 2016 [7 favorites]


(More seriously, the Victorians did know about exchanging red eggs as part of Easter in the Eastern Orthodox tradition, but...I've still got nothing. Or, rather, I have an inkling of an idea, but I would have to know when the card was printed.)
posted by thomas j wise at 7:25 PM on March 28, 2016 [1 favorite]


I wonder if the Jewish egg bar is actually a Passover card. Passover - Pesach - falls around Easter and is linked to for historical reasons. Reform Jews in the USA and possibly elsewhere even called it Easter, either because they thought it was the same thing or out of a desire to fit in.
posted by Joe in Australia at 7:47 PM on March 28, 2016 [1 favorite]


I like these, am I wrong?
posted by bongo_x at 8:16 PM on March 28, 2016


These are delightfully weird, much like the Victorians themselves, it seems.
posted by Klaxon Aoooogah at 8:38 PM on March 28, 2016


the Christmas one with the frog who's just been stabbed in the heart and robbed...I don't...
posted by billiebee at 1:27 AM on March 29, 2016


Some of my best friends are pipe-smoking, oversize-yarmulka-wearing, red-egg-bartending-in, Jewish chicks. And if I ever came to their establishment on crutches, I have no dobt that they would give me a slight price break on a glass of wine from their barside barrel.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 1:43 AM on March 29, 2016


I don't think that's a potato. It looks more like a mandrake root, tbh.
posted by Segundus at 2:27 AM on March 29, 2016


I recall that Victorian Valentine's cards were often malicious or abusive (ha ha, no-one wants you, you cross-eyed old hag). If we let go of the idea that cards are supposed to express goodwill, some of these might make more sense. Hope you get stabbed this year, lol. Hope you break your leg this Easter, you drunken Jew. Wishing that a big bearded policeman catches up on your poker-wielding antics, you clown... OK, maybe not that one.
posted by Segundus at 2:46 AM on March 29, 2016


As well as the frog-murder card, I was particularly struck by the one with the dead robin… or perhaps it’s just resting?

A link from the Christmas Cards article led me to another on the curious subject of Victorian ‘Vinegar Valentines’ (‘still a chance to make someone blush, but with humiliation and hurt’).
posted by misteraitch at 2:49 AM on March 29, 2016


Could someone please tell me what the ever loving heck is wishing me a Happy New Year?

"Rosy-faced children gathered round a decorated tree might be seen on a card - but so might a dead robin or a turnip wearing a hat"

So the answer would seem to be - as is so often the case in life - a turnip wearing a hat.
posted by billiebee at 3:10 AM on March 29, 2016 [1 favorite]


There's even a heavy metal umlaut over the y in Merry Christmas on the frog-on-frog murder card.

I'm put in mind of Tenniel's illustrations for Alice, but only a bit. Otherwise, consider me baffled.
posted by Devonian at 4:49 AM on March 29, 2016


"Rosy-faced children gathered round a decorated tree might be seen on a card - but so might a dead robin or a turnip wearing a hat"
It looks like a Mangelwurzel to me. As a protean hipster of Victorian times, you'd be wanting your mangelwurzel at Christmas to turn into booze - and you might have one left over from Punkie Night.
posted by rongorongo at 6:08 AM on March 29, 2016 [1 favorite]


Wrens used to be killed on St. Stephen's Day, December 26th, because it's a Christianized druid custom. It eventually became a robin, for some reason. It's still weird.
posted by blnkfrnk at 6:34 AM on March 29, 2016


Toronto Public Library has also posted a collection of vintage Easter cards. Haughty chicks driving a sporty car c.1908 is the best.
posted by Paid In Full at 6:36 AM on March 29, 2016


I narticularly annreciated the "A Hanny Eastertide." nostcard.
posted by Rock Steady at 7:02 AM on March 29, 2016 [1 favorite]


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