Sausage Eating Crocodial

[scumonkey]

After what seems like forever, I finally acquired a nice used crocodile puppet (by Teddy Corden) that can actually eat the sausages...
trouble is- I can't seam to figure out how to pull them through the hole in the mouth (without an extra hand)?!
Anyone here have any helpful hints/tips on how to pull this stunt off gracefully?
Thank you!

[Chris]

You have the wrong idea if you seek anything graceful in Punch and Judy!

How you use your croc varies with the context. One way is for the croc to grab the sausages. Mr Punch dives and grabs the croc's snout in an attempt to stop him eating them. This steadies the croc and allows you to remove your hand from the croc in order to pull the sausages through. Meanwhile Mr Punch is hanging onto the croc's upper jaw screaming protests as the croc opens and closes his mouth (apparently chewing) as the sausages disappear. In actual fact Mr. Punch is raising and lowering the upper jaw. To make this more convincing you must get your hand back into the jaw as quickly as possible and continue the same opening and closing as you move the croc away from Punch.

Personally I don't bother to actually swallow the sausages. It's just as much fun to grab them and disappear with them still dangling from the jaws. I save the swallowing for Mr Punch's stick - which is heavy enough to not need pulling through.

[scumonkey]

Thank you, I had not thought to use punch to work the jaws like that...time to go practice,
then practice some more!

[BookEmDanno]

I put two spherical fishing weights in one end of the sausages. Possibly about an ounce each.

It requires Mr Punch to 'feed' the croc (weights first), but the weight enables the sausages to get a good start down the croc's throat. I find I can then use my thumb to assist gravity. The croc is looking upwards during this sequence.

I find with my Teddy Corden croc the material in the lower jaw must be pushed down in order to give the sausages a start.

It works for me, but Mr Punch may have to get involved to stop the sausages flopping out of the jaws sideways.

As the top of the playboard hanging is slightly higher than the playboard, I find the weights do not cause the sausages to slide off.

[Tony James]

Like everyone I only know what I know and that croc looks difficult and awkward to use. Someone please tell me - is this a normal sort of construction?

It looks like there are two wood blocks, one each in the upper and lower jaws and hinged together at the back where I can't see, thus blocking the throat and causing the sausages to have to pass under the lower block. Seems a daft arrangement to me.

I only know my Tickner croc. There is no hinged block or blocks and the lower jaw is solid wood, hollowed out along its length. There is no fabric covered under-jaw. The upper and lower jaws are side hinged with home made plate hinges, one each side, connecting the jaws together. The sleeve body terminates on the head (as this one appears to) and straight down under the lower jaw.

It is a simple handling action and the sausages and anything else travel straight through and down unimpeded by anything other than your own hand which, as Chris describes, is drawn back into the sleeve whilst Punch holds the head steady.

.Fred cut his hinges from aluminium which worked well at first but aluminium is soft and with heavy work they tend to bend sideways so eventually the lower jaw will slide slightly from side to side. Perhaps he should have used a thicker plate. At least they don't go rusty in wet weather. I replaced mine with galvanised thin steel plate using Fred's original as a template.

I don't know if the croc illustrated can be adapted - it looks like it may have no wood bottom to the lower jaw - but if it can I would certainly suggest considering side hinges as they work very simply and easily as anyone else using a Tickner croc can confirm

[Chris]

But Tony, hundreds of others seem to manage with a Corden/Kent/Clarke crocodile. And after all, the chap has bought his croc and was asking how to use it. You remind me of the yokel who when asked directions to a nearby town replied: "Well I wouldn't start from here...."

[Tony James]

Chris – thanks for that. As I said, I only know what I know and what I know about crocodiles is Fred Tickner. As Edwin used Wal Kent figures I would therefore expect Joe Parsonage and Tony Green crocs produced for Supreme to be a similar design. I’d never appreciated that this style was in modern terms ‘the standard’. I’m glad I asked.

Do you think the Tickner style reflects an older pre-war standard design? I wouldn’t have expected Fred to be the only person to have produced crocs in this way.

But, going back to what I said and based on my experience of using this style I would still suggest that side hinging is a far simpler and easier way of attaching the lower jaw and incidentally, easier to produce than the gathered material masking the under jaw and forming an access to the body.

Yet if it is easier what are the advantages of the Kent style?

A side hinge like Fred’s is a simple triangular plate with the top point cut off and three holes drilled to fix. The two in-line bottom holes are screwed to the side of the lower jaw. There is not that much depth of timber at the back of the lower jaw but sufficient. At that point the throat end is concealed behind the front edge of the sleeve body. Fred left that part uncarved so each side is straight and square for an inch or so. I use round head screws as they sit flat and tight against the metal.

The top hole works best with a slightly larger and longer, pan head screw. This is the pivot point of the hinge screwed into the head where there is a great deal of timber available to screw into. Obviously the pan head screw is the pivot and is screwed in less tightly or the pivot wouldn’t swing easily. Occasionally – once every few years – that screw may need slightly tightening, especially if it’s short. But there is more than enough head timber to take a longer screw. The body which masks the hinges needs to be fitted to the head and lower jaw in such a way that you have access to the hinges by turning the body inside out.

Hope this helps anyone out there who isn’t familiar with this method which, from what you say Chris, is likely as the other style is so common.

And now for a story. In 1993 I was working in Dublin and Helen was flying out to join me so I set off to meet her following signs for Dublin Airport.. No satnav in those days! On the outskirts of Dublin I came to a T junction with a sign in front of me saying Airport to the right and Airport to the left!!! I was on the last minute so I asked a passerby which was the quicker way.

I couldn’t believe what he said: ‘If I was you Sur I wouldn’t start from here at all. Go back half a mile……………’ and I never heard the rest. I was howling with laughter. I couldn’t see for tears. I became conscious of a car horn behind and a policeman got out and came to see if I was alright.

I told him what had happened and he didn’t find it at all funny. In fact he said the man was correct and repeated the directions.

So much for yokels Chris!

[Chris]

Astounding, I changed the irishman of the classic joke into a yokel, and it turns out that the story, long believed to be apocryphal, actually did happen! And to Tony James, of course.

[Chris]

Have found this clip which illustrates the sausage eating using Punch to move the croc's jaws.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MGfa2MdPto

[scumonkey]

Thank YOU for that, it really helps a lot to actually see someone performing this feat!
As BookEmDanno stated, I too find that I need to make sure the fabric is pushed down
before getting them sausages started on their way...time for even MORE practice!


PS
just reading the latest comments by him again, it's so sad to hear about Tony

[Chris]

It always seems a bit laboured to me. I prefer to grab the sausages in the jaws, lower the croc beneath the playboard for half a second as you drop the sausages, pop him back up, throw his head back and burp. Then the stick can be swallowed similarly - grab the stick (actually carefully placed) throw the head back and allow the stick to disappear sword swallower fashion. Punch: "Where's my stick?" Crocodile: "Burp!"