"The worst person I know": Representations of the mother-in-law in twentieth-century British popular entertainment

[Extract] There have always been jokes and tongue-in-cheek stories about the mother-in- law. There is no evidence (as far as I am aware) to show that these things existed in biblical or pre-biblical times; but certainly classical scholars, researchers, and others have since revealed that there were a small number of satirical works and various plays, pertinent to the various times and specific cultures, written about the mother-in-law in antiquity. Nevertheless, the popularly held views of the mother-in-law figure, as propagated by British popular entertainment of the nineteenth century, took a slightly different turn from the various representations modelled in previous centuries and hit a peak in the British music hall atmosphere of the 1800s, the influences of which have sent echoes into westernized popular culture entertainment, even into the present day. Not only were these more "modem" views represented in various entertainment categories normal to the times, they were also promoted by popular artworks depicted in mass-produced post-cards and similar items.