A Sporting Jaunt is a surreal black comedy blending sadistic brutality with the manners and mores of the English upper class in the first decades of the twentieth century. The story is spare, with emphasis on dialogue, action taking place over the course of one day in a single outdoors location. No background is offered for the characters or setting, which is distinctly Edwardian. The humour is mainly derived from the contrast of horrific, motiveless violence with refined dress and eloquent, colourful dialogue consisting of phrases, speech patterns and slang terms from that period.