# Brits, tell us about "Panto"

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-tell-us-about-panto/544099>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [June 22, 2010, 7:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-tell-us-about-panto/544099 "2010-06-22T07:46:06Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 14\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\
**Post date:** [June 23, 2010, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-tell-us-about-panto/544099/21 "2010-06-23T05:57:56Z")

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I noticed in Australia when they do “pantos” on their TV series it involves interaction with the audience. Of course on _Prisoner_(_Prisoner: Cell Block H_) the panto usually involved a coverup for an escape including the “Great Tunnel Escape.”

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**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\
**Post date:** [June 23, 2010, 7:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-tell-us-about-panto/544099/22 "2010-06-23T07:51:30Z")

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I’ve never heard of Dick Wittington.

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**Author:** ![TWDuke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e495f1/32.png) [@TWDuke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TWDuke)\
**Post date:** [June 23, 2010, 8:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-tell-us-about-panto/544099/23 "2010-06-23T08:11:28Z")

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That’s all right, he’s never heard of you either.

[http://www.digibib.tu-bs.de/view\_page.php?page=2&nav=+|\<+&minpage=1&max\_page=16&suffix=jpg&url=http%3A%2F%2Frzbl04.biblio.etc.tu-bs.de%2Fdocportal%2Fservlets%2FMCRFileNodeServlet%2FDocPortal\_derivate\_00000293&offset=0](http://www.digibib.tu-bs.de/view_page.php?page=2&nav=+%7C%3C+&minpage=1&max_page=16&suffix=jpg&url=http%3A%2F%2Frzbl04.biblio.etc.tu-bs.de%2Fdocportal%2Fservlets%2FMCRFileNodeServlet%2FDocPortal_derivate_00000293&offset=0)

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**Author:** ![Mk\_VII](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Mk\_VII](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mk_VII)\
**Post date:** [June 23, 2010, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-tell-us-about-panto/544099/24 "2010-06-23T13:05:29Z")

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_Dick Whittington And His Wonderful Cat_ is a rags-to-riches story of the traditional kind, purporting to show that application and persistence can lead to fortune and happiness. It might be dismissed as just a fairy tale but research shows that Sir Richard Whittington was a boy from Gloucestershire who was apprenticed to a mercer in the City of London and became a wealthy and prosperous mercer who supplied the court with cloth and later wool, did an export and import trade, was elected Lord Mayor three times, and also loaned money to the King. He appears to have been a popular, respected, honest and trustworthy official and when he died in 1423 he left substantial legacies to the City to be used for the benefit of the citizens. The almshouse he established, Whittington College, is still administered by the Mercers’ Company. The legend attached to his name appears as far back as the early 17th c.

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**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\
**Post date:** [June 23, 2010, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-tell-us-about-panto/544099/25 "2010-06-23T13:45:06Z")

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[John Inman](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Inman) (Mr. Humphries in _Are You Being Served?_) became one of the more prolific pantomime Dames (appearing in more than 40 pantos) after that show ended. I can remember it being mentioned in his obituary a few years ago.

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**Author:** ![Galanthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Galanthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Galanthus)\
**Post date:** [June 23, 2010, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-tell-us-about-panto/544099/26 "2010-06-23T15:36:16Z")

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Panto actually has more of a history and a place in the English theatre culture than most people know. It’s been around since the 18th century and is a direct descendant of Commedia dell’arte which is a sixteenth century Italian form …

[Commedia dell’arte](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comedia_del_art)

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**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\
**Post date:** [June 23, 2010, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-tell-us-about-panto/544099/27 "2010-06-23T16:01:56Z")

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> [@TWDuke](#):
>
> That’s all right, he’s never heard of you either.
> 
> [http://www.digibib.tu-bs.de/view\_page.php?page=2&nav=+|\<+&minpage=1&max\_page=16&suffix=jpg&url=http%3A%2F%2Frzbl04.biblio.etc.tu-bs.de%2Fdocportal%2Fservlets%2FMCRFileNodeServlet%2FDocPortal\_derivate\_00000293&offset=0](http://www.digibib.tu-bs.de/view_page.php?page=2&nav=+%7C%3C+&minpage=1&max_page=16&suffix=jpg&url=http%3A%2F%2Frzbl04.biblio.etc.tu-bs.de%2Fdocportal%2Fservlets%2FMCRFileNodeServlet%2FDocPortal_derivate_00000293&offset=0)

Boy, I’ll bet that part about selling your pussy in Morocco gets played for all it’s worth.

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**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\
**Post date:** [June 23, 2010, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-tell-us-about-panto/544099/28 "2010-06-23T16:27:31Z")

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The daughter giving Dick her pussy is just too easy.

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**Author:** ![Staggerlee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/staggerlee/32/3134_2.png) [@Staggerlee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Staggerlee)\
**Post date:** [June 24, 2010, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-tell-us-about-panto/544099/29 "2010-06-24T15:55:05Z")

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As well as talking to the audience, there is often (always?) a part where they look for a child ‘volunteer’ (or several) to go up on stage. Or some of the cast have a chase through the audience.

At least those are the bits seared into my mind through pure fear, 25 years later.

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**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\
**Post date:** [June 25, 2010, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-tell-us-about-panto/544099/30 "2010-06-25T03:30:40Z")

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> [@Quartz](#):
>
> Basically Panto is a play, but with outrageous costumes, audience interaction (“He’s behind you!”), over-the-top acting, and gender reversals and double-entendres galore. For instance, in Dick Whittington, Dick is usually played by a girl; in Cinderella, the Ugly Sisters are played by men. It’s ostensibly aimed at children, but there’s enough there to engage the adults too.

> [@njtt](#):
>
> From the economic perspective it is, but as a form of live entertainment panto could hardly be more different from the Nutcracker (let alone any other ballet). Panto revels in its vulgarity. Also, I would guess that a far higher proportion of Brits go to a panto at Christmas than Americans actually go to the Nutcracker.

These two quotes don’t make sense together to me as an American. How can something be both vulgar and aimed at children?

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**Author:** ![dwyr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dwyr/32/363_2.png) [@dwyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dwyr)\
**Post date:** [June 25, 2010, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-tell-us-about-panto/544099/31 "2010-06-25T06:14:05Z")

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Vulgar-common, coarse, crude-sounds about right for the kids I know. My nephews would love it.

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**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\
**Post date:** [June 25, 2010, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-tell-us-about-panto/544099/32 "2010-06-25T12:38:26Z")

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> [@BigT](#):
>
> These two quotes don’t make sense together to me as an American. How can something be both vulgar and aimed at children?

Not vulgar as in sex and dirty words. Vulgar as in “not high culture”. Ballet is high culture…you don’t find a lot of working-class people going to see the Ballet Russe. Panto is low-culture, like clowns and slapstick and getting hit in the face with a bladder.

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**Author:** ![MarcusF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/67e7ee/32.png) [@MarcusF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MarcusF)\
**Post date:** [June 25, 2010, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-tell-us-about-panto/544099/33 "2010-06-25T13:32:13Z")

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> [@BigT](#):
>
> These two quotes don’t make sense together to me as an American. How can something be both vulgar and aimed at children?

As others have said, vulgar in the sense of not high culture but there will be plenty of inuendo, double entendres, etc that hopefully the children won’t catch. 😃

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**Author:** ![Meurglys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/258eb7/32.png) [@Meurglys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meurglys)\
**Post date:** [June 25, 2010, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-tell-us-about-panto/544099/34 "2010-06-25T15:38:25Z")

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In Cinderella the carriage to take her to the Ball is sometimes pulled by real shetland ponies all done up with ribbons in ther manes, etc. The show about comes to a stop as everybody admires teh cuteness as they’re led around the stage!

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