Mirror punishment a song satirizing mirror punishment. For example: The refrain line "to let the punishment fit the crime" has sometimes been quoted in the course of British political debates, though the concept predates Gilbert. For instance, episode 80 of the television series "Magnum, P.I.", entitled "Let the Punishment Fit the Crime", features bits of several songs from "The Mikado". The phrase and the Mikado's song also are featured in the "Dad's Army" episode, "A Soldier's Farewell." In "The Parent Trap" (1961), the camp director quotes the phrase before sentencing the twins to the isolation cabin together. Mirror punishment A mirror punishment
Gilbert and Sullivan [The words'] precise degree of levity and distance from reality ... seemed to be expressed ... in the very notes of the music; almost ... in the note of the laughter that followed it." In 1957, a review in "The Times" gave this rationale for "the continued vitality of the Savoy operas": Because of the unusual success of the operas, the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company were able, from the start, to license the works to other professional companies, such as the J. C. Williamson Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Company, and to amateur troupes. For almost a century, until the British