Friday Fun: A Surreal Czech Mr. Punch

I first shared this bit of weirdness with all of you in 2010, but I felt it was time to trot it our again...

Jan Švankmajer, 1966

I really should call this “Friday Freakiness” in this particular instance. This is weird. It’s not weird in a crying-in-the-corner kind of way. It’s weird in a “Hey, it’s 1966 and look how surreal we can be,” kind of way. Odd, yes, it is, but nevertheless fascinating.


This short film from 1966 entitled Punch and Judy(though Judy is nowhere to be seen) is the work of famed Czech surrealist Jan Švankmajer who credits much of his artistic sensibility to the puppets he played with as a child. It really is an interesting film in a very 1966 kind of way. It just seems to me to be an awful lot of trouble over a Guinnea Pig.