News Mockery in the English Civil War and Interregnum Press

This article is in the volume "The Funniest Pages: International Perspectives on Humor in Journalism" (2016) edited by David Swick and Richard Keeble. Abstract: For much of the seventeenth century the periodical English press devoted little or no attention to humour. Editorial attention was instead focused on hard news. This is seen in the 1620s and 1630s corantos―the first exemplars of English periodical news―and the London Gazette that acquired more or less monopolistic status from its founding in 1665 up until the lapse of the Licensing Act in 1695. It was only in the 1640s and 1650s that we see humour become a feature in some of the periodical press. In the 1640s much of the humour is associated with the pamphlet wars as varying parliamentarian and royalist publications mocked and lampooned their adversaries in the English Civil Wars. Whilst much of this humour has not travelled well over time―for modern readers it often comes across as little more than unimaginative smut―we do find passages that are not just amusing but insightful too. Some such passages and commentary relate to the contemporary world of news, and the various discourse, printing and commercial practices associated with it. In my chapter I illustrate and examine how some of the best and wittiest news writers of the times portrayed news values and practices of the early English press.