As pleased as punch

It's one of those phrases! We trot them out, heedlessly, and then sometimes, in reflective mood, we think "Why did I say that? What did it mean?" Where do these sayings originate? Who was the first person to be as pleased as punch - and why?

Back in the days of our youth (not long ago really)... we were famous for the odd lovers' tiff. These we executed with passion and panache, with cries of "what about the neighbours?", followed by "s.. the neighbours!" It was colourful, it was dramatic and then it was over. Making up was fun. Back in those heady days we were once christened 'Punch and Judy' by a group of delightful young people we helped to escort on a youth camp. Hilarious, eh? Well, not at the time...

So am I as pleased as Mr. Punch? Am I happy, like Punch, to entertain the children on seaside proms along with the wife, the dog and Mr. Plod? Was Punch pleased? Did it make him deliriously happy to wield a policeman's truncheon and terrorise the wife, the dog and the policeman and then threaten the audience? And, anyway, whoever allowed a tale of domestic violence, grievious bodily harm and cruelty to animals, let alone acts of aggression against the police force, to become holiday viewing for kids? They seem to have found it good, harmless fun for more than a century - the precursor to 'Home Alone', I guess.

Maybe it has something to do with the current festivities and that innocent little cocktail brewed up with an indeterminate number of bottles of stuff, of varying potency, together with deceptively healthy-looking pieces of fruit floating in it? Pleased as punch? Drunk with punch? Punchdrunk? Drunk as a skunk, perhaps? Now, there's another one...