Street Comedy

The culture of the street includes politics and promotion, commerce and transport, romance and comedy. My unofficial entry to this year’s Melbourne Comedy Festival.

There is comedy behind a lot of street art; artists like Cel One, the late Sime Thornton and others specialise in that comic images. There are joke posters and other pranks. 

However, it is a humourless mistake to analyse a joke unless you are Sigmund Freud, whose book Humour and Jokes is a surprisingly good read, although the section on black humour is far too brief. So I will post and not comment.

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Sime Thornton

I’m sorry to learn that Sime Thornton died earlier this year. A funny guy with humour that didn’t put people down but gave them joy. His cartoons entertained many who saw them on the streets.

He listed his skills on Linkedin as “Taking a pen for a wander. Smashing ideas together like lumps of play-doh. Smashing ideas together like lumps of play-doh. Making innocent bystanders smile. Enlistment officer for Royal Melbourne Flying Monkey Corps.”

I did not have the pleasure of Thornton’s acquaintance, but I was familiar with his insightful and humorous cartoons. A clear and concise line often commented on the street artists around him. Drawn in ink and stuck them up in many of Melbourne’s prime street art locations. Often they are on canvas or wood for greater durability (they will last even longer online). BYST

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P.S. 22/5/2023 Walking along Flinders Lane when I spotted this tiny piece of street art, handwritten on a scrap of wood. “Historical @ Marker On this spot on 2020 the artist Sime Thornton did this.”