Over the last few years while searching for Love on the Dole material, I chanced upon what seemed to me a surprising number of comic (or would-be comic?) texts about unemployment and the dole. This seemed so odd (in that I couldn’t see that the dole was likely to be in any way a humorous topic) that in the end I decided I should explore these pieces more systematically.
This is the result: it is a long article because I found a lot of forgotten ‘comic dole texts’, as I have labelled them, and also felt I should compare how Greenwood and Gow used humour and comedy in their work on unemployment. The article is divided into sections (and maybe should be read as a serial!). So there is:
Introduction – Doleful Humour?
History and Meanings of the Word ‘Dole’
The Serious Business of the Dole and Unemployment Benefits between the Wars
Comic Dole Revues
A Comic Dole Film: George Formby’s Off the Dole (1935)
Two Comic Dole Postcards by Donald McGill (1930s)
Comedy in Love on the Dole; Novel, Play, Film (1933, 1934/5, 1941)
Some Conclusions on Doleful Humour.
There are lots of illustrations and audio and film clips too, to help the prose along!
See: Doleful Humour: Laughing Off Unemployment Between the Wars? *
Enjoy! – best wishes Chris.
Walter Greenwood: Not Just Love on the Dole 