Spike Milligan's first book "Puckoon" left nothing untouched, from religion to how tall people were. The story is set against the background of the partition of Ireland in 1920, as the Boundary Commissioners from the two sides struggle over the fixing of the new border. Today, things have changed. The border, both psychological and physical, has lost a few barbs. With his comic genius Milligan satirises many issues of the time in which this book was set. .
Relationships are a major facet of the novel; they are one of the many things that are easily satirised by Milligan's Comic Genius. The tension during this time, with the Protestants and the Catholics was rarely satirised, however Milligan seems to have no restraint in doing so. "God save us from protestant thunder" page 41.
Among many issues satirised was that of marriage, of course divorce was very rarely an issue, due to the fact the church frowned upon it, once your married you stay married, which allows for relationships to be extremely bad. "Like all men in Puckoon, he was married but single after six at night" Page 32. Marriages are so bad, yet people are persisting to stay married. "By God, I tink we got him there, I know for sure he wasn't the father of me last child!" .
"From the opposite wall, two humans stared unwinking at each other, eyes chocked with mutual hate, fury and frustration She was Mrs Cafferty, he was known to her as Mr Cafferty, and there's no divorce in Ireland". Page 43.
Milligan is exposing the obvious flaws the church adopted, and the general morals and values of the time. "He fled into the countryside and later was found dead of indecent exposure" page 139. A classic example of how ignorant people actually were, possibly a result of the church's "ideal" way of living. Spike Milligan played on the fact that religion caused more arguments and trouble than anything else. The whole novel revolves around the trouble caused by these two groups, as a result of their hypocritical way of living.
