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Patients and staff have made jokes about the NHS throughout time. However, it is very hard to locate and to understand these.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://peopleshistorynhs.org/encyclopaedia/humour-and-the-nhs-is-laughter-the-best-medicine-or-perhaps-nhs-policy-a-sick-joke/|title=Humour and the NHS: Is ‘laughter the best medicine’? Is NHS policy a ‘sick joke’?|newspaper=People's History of the NHS|access-date=2016-11-22}}</ref> Sometimes 'everyday' jokes about the NHS are mentioned in passing in newspaper coverage. For example, one letter published by the ''Daily Mail'' in October 1988 described the experiences of an NHS secretary who 'seethed with anger' when hearing a consultant joke about spending his days on a golf course.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Anonymous|first=|year=4 October 1988|title=A sick way to treat a patient|url=|journal=Daily Mail|volume=|pages=34|via=}}</ref>
Patients and staff have made jokes about the NHS throughout time. However, it is very hard to locate and to understand these.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://peopleshistorynhs.org/encyclopaedia/humour-and-the-nhs-is-laughter-the-best-medicine-or-perhaps-nhs-policy-a-sick-joke/|title=Humour and the NHS: Is ‘laughter the best medicine’? Is NHS policy a ‘sick joke’?|newspaper=People's History of the NHS|access-date=2016-11-22}}</ref> Sometimes 'everyday' jokes about the NHS are mentioned in passing in newspaper coverage. For example, one letter published by the ''Daily Mail'' in October 1988 described the experiences of an NHS secretary who 'seethed with anger' when hearing a consultant joke about spending his days on a golf course.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Anonymous|first=|year=4 October 1988|title=A sick way to treat a patient|url=|journal=Daily Mail|volume=|pages=34|via=}}</ref>


There is also some hope from researchers and clinicians that humour and laughter may be able to be used to improve human health. One experiment from 2011, led by researchers at the University of Oxford, suggested that watching comedy videos may raise people's pain thresholds, when watched in a group. This effect did not hold when videos were watched alone, or if research participants watched videos such as scenes of nature.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Dunbar|first=R. I. M.|last2=Baron|first2=Rebecca|last3=Frangou|first3=Anna|last4=Pearce|first4=Eiluned|last5=Leeuwin|first5=Edwin J. C. van|last6=Stow|first6=Julie|last7=Partridge|first7=Giselle|last8=MacDonald|first8=Ian|last9=Barra|first9=Vincent|date=2011-09-14|title=Social laughter is correlated with an elevated pain threshold|url=http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/early/2011/09/12/rspb.2011.1373|journal=Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B: Biological Sciences|language=en|pages=rspb20111373|doi=10.1098/rspb.2011.1373|issn=0962-8452|pmc=3267132|pmid=21920973}}</ref>
There is also some hope from researchers and clinicians that humour and laughter may be able to be used to improve human health. One experiment from 2011, led by researchers at the University of Oxford, suggested that watching comedy videos may raise people's pain thresholds, when watched in a group. This effect did not hold when videos were watched alone, or if research participants watched videos such as scenes of nature.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Dunbar|first=R. I. M.|last2=Baron|first2=Rebecca|last3=Frangou|first3=Anna|last4=Pearce|first4=Eiluned|last5=Leeuwin|first5=Edwin J. C. van|last6=Stow|first6=Julie|last7=Partridge|first7=Giselle|last8=MacDonald|first8=Ian|last9=Barra|first9=Vincent|date=2011-09-14|title=Social laughter is correlated with an elevated pain threshold|url=http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/early/2011/09/12/rspb.2011.1373|journal=Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B: Biological Sciences|language=en|pages=rspb20111373|doi=10.1098/rspb.2011.1373|issn=0962-8452|pmc=3267132|pmid=21920973}}</ref> In 2003, the artist Nicola Green and film-maker Lara Agnew created a 'laughter booth' at the Royal Brompton Hospital. In this booth, patients and staff could watch videos of people laughing.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3075191.stm|title=BBC NEWS {{!}} Health {{!}} NHS stories: The laughter tonic|website=news.bbc.co.uk|access-date=2016-11-22}}</ref> The idea of laughter as healing has also influenced language, through the phrase 'laughter is the best medicine'.

Revision as of 15:02, 22 November 2016

Comedy

Comedy films, books, and cartoons have been produced about the NHS. These have shaped as well as reflected how people think about this institution.[1]

Cartoons

There were lots of cartoons about the NHS from as soon as it was launched. The historian Bernard Zeitlyn has analysed these cartoons in Punch magazine. Zeitlyn argues that the cartoons 'centred on the bonanza of free spectacles, beards and trips abroad' that the NHS would bring, and also its 'bureaucratic consequences'.[2] Cartoonists also portrayed free wigs. For example in January 1949 Joseph Lee showed an irate man chasing a child, asking, 'Who's been practising Home Perms on my free National Health Service wig?'[3]

Before the NHS was launched, the British Medical Association were opposed to the idea of doctors becoming state employees on fixed salaries.[4] Cartoonists made their opinions about this conflict known. David Low, a famous cartoonist, published a cartoon in the Evening Standard on the 14 December 1944 showing Charles Hill, BMA Secretary, being examined by a doctor. The doctor states, 'Don't be alarmed. Whatever's the trouble, you're not going to die from enlargement of the social conscience.'[5] Cartoons also showed how people responded to the NHS being free at the point of access. One cartoon, published in 1951 by Antonia Yeoman, portrayed women in a doctor's waiting room, one of whom stated that she had seen eighteen doctors and seven psychiatrists. Eventually, she had been diagnosed with a 'deep-seated guilt about getting things free from the National Health Service.'[6]

From the 1960s, cartoons were also used to criticise government policies about the NHS. In December 1960, cartoonist Victor Weisz drew an image for the Evening Standard showing Minister for Health Enoch Powell as a surgeon covered in blood, accusing him of making too many cuts to the NHS.[7] For the Daily Mail in 1968, John Musgrave-Wood drew a man to portray the NHS, who was wearing a dunce's cap and being fed 'Defence Cuts'.[8]

Many cartoons have been very interested in portraying NHS staff. The cartoonist Carl Giles, who often drew for the Daily Express, was very interested in drawing nurses in particular. Historian Jack Saunders has argued that Giles' presentation shifted from presenting nurses from 'caring and sexualised' to 'bolshie and assertive'.[9] Giles sent a cartoon of nurses stealing peas from patients directly to the East Suffolk Nurses League. On the cartoon, Giles wrote 'with deepest sympathy', referring to the cutting of food allowances.[10]

Everyday humour

Patients and staff have made jokes about the NHS throughout time. However, it is very hard to locate and to understand these.[11] Sometimes 'everyday' jokes about the NHS are mentioned in passing in newspaper coverage. For example, one letter published by the Daily Mail in October 1988 described the experiences of an NHS secretary who 'seethed with anger' when hearing a consultant joke about spending his days on a golf course.[12]

There is also some hope from researchers and clinicians that humour and laughter may be able to be used to improve human health. One experiment from 2011, led by researchers at the University of Oxford, suggested that watching comedy videos may raise people's pain thresholds, when watched in a group. This effect did not hold when videos were watched alone, or if research participants watched videos such as scenes of nature.[13] In 2003, the artist Nicola Green and film-maker Lara Agnew created a 'laughter booth' at the Royal Brompton Hospital. In this booth, patients and staff could watch videos of people laughing.[14] The idea of laughter as healing has also influenced language, through the phrase 'laughter is the best medicine'.

  1. ^ Crane, Jenny (10 November 2016). "'Humour and the NHS: Is 'laughter the best medicine'? Is NHS policy a 'sick joke'?". peopleshistorynhs.org. Retrieved 22 November 2016.
  2. ^ Zeitlyn, Bernard (1972). "'Jokes and the Doctor-Patient Relationship'". History of Medicine. 4: 10–12.
  3. ^ Lee, Joseph (11 January 1949). "London Laughs: Free NHS Wig". British Cartoon Archive. Retrieved 22 November 2016.
  4. ^ "British Medical Association". People's History of the NHS. Retrieved 2016-11-22.
  5. ^ Low, David (14 December 1944). British Cartoon Archive http://archives.cartoons.ac.uk/GetMultimedia.ashx?db=Catalog&type=default&fname=LSE1173.jpg. Retrieved 22 November 2016. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  6. ^ "Punch Cartoons by Anton | PUNCH Magazine Cartoon Archive". punch.photoshelter.com. Retrieved 2016-11-22.
  7. ^ Weisz, Victor (5 December 1960). "National Health Service: Operating Theatre".
  8. ^ Musgrave-Wood, John (9 January 1968). "The Hypochondriac". British Cartoon Archive. Retrieved 22 November 1968. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |access-date= (help)
  9. ^ "Nurses' Christmas, 1963". People's History of the NHS. Retrieved 2016-11-22.
  10. ^ "Pinching Peas, 1969". People's History of the NHS. Retrieved 2016-11-22.
  11. ^ "Humour and the NHS: Is 'laughter the best medicine'? Is NHS policy a 'sick joke'?". People's History of the NHS. Retrieved 2016-11-22.
  12. ^ Anonymous (4 October 1988). "A sick way to treat a patient". Daily Mail: 34.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: year (link)
  13. ^ Dunbar, R. I. M.; Baron, Rebecca; Frangou, Anna; Pearce, Eiluned; Leeuwin, Edwin J. C. van; Stow, Julie; Partridge, Giselle; MacDonald, Ian; Barra, Vincent (2011-09-14). "Social laughter is correlated with an elevated pain threshold". Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B: Biological Sciences: rspb20111373. doi:10.1098/rspb.2011.1373. ISSN 0962-8452. PMC 3267132. PMID 21920973.
  14. ^ "BBC NEWS | Health | NHS stories: The laughter tonic". news.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 2016-11-22.
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