A Boring Slide
The slide included two pieces of glass, one stationary and one that slid sideways. (The horizontal movement of the glass is why these slides are often referred to as “slippers.”) The piece of glass that remained stationary featured a butcher carrying a plate. While the butcher’s clothes were brightly colored, the area just above the butcher’s shoulders and above the plate were left unpainted. The area around these figures was painted with opaque black paint. In scriptural material, this compositional feature created a sense of presence, which I have described in detail here. However, comic slippers used opaque paint for more logistical reasons, for the paint masked the material on the moving piece of glass. In the case of the slide above, the slipping piece of glass contains three heads: the first two, the butcher’s and the boar’s, are visible when the slide is in its original position. Outside of the frame is a third head, a repeat of the butcher’s. When the slide moves sideways, the boar’s head and the butcher’s appear to swap.
Such a slide would have been accompanied by narration that presented the slide as a visual pun. For example, the video below, which contains sound, plays on the fact that “pear” and “pair” are homophones.
As Artemis Willis has observed, these kinds of slide relied on bodily displacement for comic effect. Both the boar’s head slipper and the lovely pair use mechanical movement to create bodies on screen that are physically impossible.[2] The narration supplements the humor of this absurd reassemblage of the body. In most cases, the narration for these slides is improvised, showcasing the creativity and wit of the presenter.
As evidenced by the repairs and modifications, this particular iteration of the boar’s head slide has had a long working life. It was originally designed to fit in a toy-sized lantern, but wooden supports were added so that it could fit into a professional biunial lantern. As part of the repertoire of the American Magic Lantern Theatre, Terry Borton presented this as a religious slide, for it created an opportunity to sing the popular English Christmas tune the “Boar’s Head Carol.”[3] In the nineteenth-century, the boar’s head slipper most likely relies on a pun on someone being borish or piggish.
However, the humor of this slide was lost in translation because most of the local chiefs who were present at the show spoke Igbo, Bonny, or pidgin English. Though the Bishop was fluent in Igbo, most of the narration for the scriptural material was provided by Oko Jumbo, one of King Pepple’s most powerful chiefs, who explained the scenes to the other chiefs. The language barrier did not prevent the Crowther’s audience from providing an alternate narration for the boar’s head slipper. Among the members of the audience was a “patron of the temple of skulls.” The “Ju-Ju house,” like the one pictured here, was portrayed as the site for the ritual consumption of human sacrifices, for they displayed skulls prominently. Though these accounts are likely to be sensationalized, the implication is that the “patron” was a cannibal. According to Bishop Crowther, the boar’s head slide prompted the cannibal to exclaim
This interpretation of the slide follows the moralizing logic of the scriptural slides, but it hijacks the missionaries’ message in order to call for a return to West African spiritual practice. The narration emphasizes the man’s head on a plate as an good model to follow. To borrow a phrase from an episode of the Twilight Zone, the cannibal’s exclamation argues that it is a pleasure to serve man. It’s unclear whether “patron” made this comment in earnest or if it was designed to be a subversive joke, but Crowther’s report suggests that it contributed to the lantern show’s overall tone as an entertainment. Crowthers writes “they were all highly amused at the shew,” though it’s unclear if the audience were laughing at the cannibal or with him.This is a big proverb
[1] All quotes from this page are from the following document: “Letter to Henry Venn, 27 February 1867,” Church Missionary Society Archive, University of Birmingham Special Collections, CMS/B/OMS/C A3/O4 226, 10 May 2017, pp. 9-10.
[2] “Anatomy of a Lantern Gag,” Viscera, Skin, and Physical Form: Corporeality and Early Cinema, 14th International Domitor Conference, 14 June 2016, Stockholm, Sweden.
[3] It is impossible to fully render the comedic effect of this rendition in text. When presented by Terry Borton, the line “Bedeck'd with bays and rosemary” is sung with particular relish, holding the final “raiiiiiiii” for as long as possible. When the slide is moved, the comedic effect of the head swap is punctuated by “oHHHhHhH!” The example of the boar's head slipper, as well as the pear/pair pun, are presented here thanks to the generosity of Terry and Debbie Borton.
