“I Will Meet the World with a Smile and a Joke” Canadian Soldiers' Humour In

Canadian Military History Volume 22 Issue 2 Article 5 2013 “I will meet the world with a smile and a joke” Canadian Soldiers’ Humour in the Great War Tim Cook Follow this and additional works at: https://scholars.wlu.ca/cmh Part of the Military History Commons Recommended Citation Tim Cook "“I will meet the world with a smile and a joke” Canadian Soldiers’ Humour in the Great War." Canadian Military History 22, 2 (2013) This Canadian War Museum is brought to you for free and open access by Scholars Commons @ Laurier. It has been accepted for inclusion in Canadian Military History by an authorized editor of Scholars Commons @ Laurier. For more information, please contact [email protected]. : “I will meet the world with a smile and a joke” Canadian Soldiers’ Humour in the Great War Canadian War Museum 19830594-007 Canadian War THINGS THAT MATTER. Colonel Fritz-Shrapnel receives the following message from “G.H.Q.” “Please let us know, as soon as possible, the number of tins of raspberry jam issued to you last Friday.” Published48 by Scholars Commons @ Laurier, 2013 1 Canadian Military History, Vol. 22 [2013], Iss. 2, Art. 5 “I will meet the world with a smile and a joke” Canadian Soldiers’ Humour in the Great War Tim Cook he Great War of 1914-1918 a belief that a lost generation was the crushing psychological strain. Twas a tragedy of monumental forced to flounder in the mud of Humour remained an important proportions. This cataclysm of world Flanders or the slime of the Somme, safety valve for soldiers attempting history left more than nine million eking out a grim existence with rats, to endure the destruction at the front. dead with Canada adding more lice, and unburied corpses, until some Lieutenant Clifford Wells had a laugh than 60,000 to that butcher’s bill. homicidal, septuagenarian general as he censored a letter from a ranker The memory of the Great War is ordered the infantry over the top in who advised his wife to prepare the mired in the mud and misery of a slow, methodical march into the house for his arrival home at war’s the Western Front. It is the cries of mouth of the waiting guns. This is end in 1925; Wells wrote to his own anguish that resonate through the the most resilient strand of memory loved ones, “The men have a sense tragic memory of the war. British emanating from the war, and it is of humour which goes far towards soldier-poet Siegfried Sassoon wrote difficult for writers, film-makers, and lightening their burdens.”3 in his angry poem “Suicide in the historians to construct a narrative in Soldiers’ humour has no Trenches” that the Western Front was disjunction to this.2 If we do not use uniformity. There are pieces of “The hell where youth and laughter the language of suffering, what are buffoonery mixed with maudlin go.”1 we left with? The language of the war – so In the Great War for civilization, Résumé : Le langage de la guerre, brilliantly captured by the war poets – where the allies claimed that liberal consigné et créé par les poètes de guerre, présente un souvenir construit de la is of suffering, pity, and trauma. The values were pitted against unfettered Grande Guerre, imprégné de souffrance, constructed memory is built upon militarism, was there time for de pitié et d’événements traumatisants. laughter? In fact, was laughter in Il est quasi blasphématoire de suggérer Abstract: The language of war captured war not an insult to the legions of que les combattants des tranchées and created by the war poets presents dead? It seems almost blasphemous riaient et plaisantaient, jouaient des a constructed memory of the Great War tours et chantaient des chansons that is infused with suffering, pity, and to suggest that trench warriors drôles, dressaient des caricatures trauma. It seems almost blasphemous giggled and joked, played pranks grinçantes et faisant des calembours to suggest that trench warriors giggled and sang merry tunes, satirized odieux. Mais c’est ce qu’ils faisaient. and joked, played pranks and sang merry and punned mercilessly. But of L’humour était une importante soupape tunes, satirized and punned mercilessly. course they did. Reading the de surpression pour les soldats qui But of course they did. Humour remained cherchaient à endurer la destruction an important safety valve for soldiers vast discourse of published and dont ils étaient témoin au front. Cet attempting to endure the destruction unpublished memoirs, diaries, or article examine comment les soldats at the front. This article examines how letters reveals countless examples canadiens refusaient de se laisser Canadian soldiers refused to be broken of soldiers’ humour. Jocularity and détruire par la machine de guerre in the machine of war and how they used wit were outlets for soldiers and et comment ils utilisaient la culture low-brow culture and social interactions primaire et les interactions sociales to survive on the Western Front. one of the ways they staved off pour survivre sur le Front occidental. https://scholars.wlu.ca/cmh/vol22/iss2/5© Canadian Military History, Volume 22, Number 2, Spring 2013, pp.48-62. 49 2 : “I will meet the world with a smile and a joke” Canadian Soldiers’ Humour in the Great War the horror of the 1917 Battle of Passchendaele that he had done his duty and would not let his personal sense of disillusionment cause his vol.1, p.127 vol.1, “comrades to be downhearted. So I will meet the world with a smile and a joke and trust that smile to carry me through.”7 In this war of endurance, laughter was armour, the Canada in Khaki, joke was a crutch, and the song was a shield. Gentle or jagged, humour was everywhere. * * * * * he Canadian Expeditionary TForce was an army of civilian- soldiers. It drew its strength from across Canadian society, representing all regions, all classes, and all occupations. With only a tiny prewar cadre of professional soldiers sentimentality, of biting wit and a satirical yarn among a group of numbering around 3,000, the overseas groan-inducing ditties, of sardonic men in a dugout after a snort of rum Canadian Expeditionary Force would satire and simple quips. The soldiers’ had a different tenor than two bored eventually climb to over 450,000 by humour was enigmatic and must be soldiers trading jokes to keep each war’s end. The vast majority of these understood within the context of other occupied. While the historian soldiers were drawn from the ranks creation, message, and audiences. can reconstruct the circumstance and of bankers and farmers, clerks and The power of the soldiers’ humour place of the joke, he or she must often miners, and while they would be was its ability to adapt to changing rely on the surviving printed word. remade into infantrymen, gunners, or circumstances, to meet the needs This is an acknowledged limitation engineers, they carried their prewar of divergent groups, and to push but one can still hear the echo from culture with them into the forces. against the system but not to break soldiers’ humour. The first Canadian division arrived it. This article will look at the jokes, The role of humour among on the Western Front in February pranks, and quips, but not songs or soldiers in the Great War is a little 1915, and it was joined by three theatre shows, where humour was explored topic, and this article others, which would eventually form the key in connecting with soldier attempts to address that gap by the Canadian Corps, although there audiences.4 examining the multi-faceted role that were other cavalry and ancillary Jokes are infused with symbols. jokes played in helping Canadians forces in Western Europe. While The language employed in the joke endure and cope on the Western the Canadians fought as part of was important, as well as intangible Front.6 It is important to stress that the British Expeditionary Force, supporting actions like facial the war of the trenches was not throughout the war there was an gestures and tone of voice. The use some happy-go-lucky event where emerging distinct identity among the of familiar slang, the reinforcement everyone danced in the mud and formation and its soldiers.8 With the of stereotypes or in playing against offered wise-cracks like some half- Canadian Corps firmly anchored on them, all situate humour within the hour television sitcom. However, the Western Front, it was that strange context of the time, place, or culture. the story of soldiers in the Great wasteland that most deeply shaped Both the telling and reception of War is one of resiliency rather than the soldiers’ wartime experiences. the joke are important, but it is resignation. Comedy and humour The Western Front was a vast, challenging to recreate, or even allowed for the soldiers to exert underground city of trenches, saps, place, the “topography of where some control over their wartime and dugouts. With the battlefield jokes were told.”5 The mimicking experience, which was profoundly swept by murderous small-arms of an officer’s tone of voice or a discombobulating, unsettling, and fire and shells, the only place of sergeant’s affectation personalized terrifying. Infantryman Harold relative safety was below the ground. a joke for a select audience. Telling Simpson wrote to his mother after Here the armies on both sides faced Published50 by Scholars Commons @ Laurier, 2013 3 Canadian Military History, Vol. 22 [2013], Iss. 2, Art. 5 off across no-man’s-land. Trench behind the lines.9 The soldiers, too, and sergeant-major, and wounding fighting was about digging a hole played a part.

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