Rag Rag

The Rag Rag was first published by the Students' Union in 1924, and lasted until 2003. It was released during Rag week and sold to members of the public to raise money which was donated to local medical charities. It contained jokes, cartoons and stories, and later editions included details of the Rag parade route. The Rag also raised money through ‘ragvertising’, printing large numbers of comedic advertisements, some of which were produced by Manchester students for local businesses. The early magazines were notable for their bright covers, adorned with an illustration which usually incorporated the snake and sun from the University's coat of arms. From the late 1940s the Rag became smaller in size, and jokes and cartoons came to predominate over humorous and satirical stories.

The Rag Rags’ attempts at humour often centred on negative or demeaning representations of those considered ‘other’ by the authors and artists as a result of their nationality, race, class, gender, sexuality or abilities. The context of this content is explored further in the ‘Our Rag Rags in Context’ blog post.

This Rag Rag digital collection consists of 41 volumes held in the University Archives and University Heritage Collection. It includes Rag Rags 1928-1967 (no magazines were published during 1943-1945). A more complete physical collection of the Rag Rags is available to readers in the Student Union Archive, reference GB 133 SUA/7.