I have a cunning plan...

[Purple Sage]

Would the Americans appreciate it?
British humour doesn't always travel well.

I loved Blackadder, but confess to not being the biggest Python fan in the world. So, yes and yes.

 

[SnoopDog]

Exsqueeze me, gents! But I happen to be American and I adore British humor and I also happen to own every Monty Python episode...on DVD! Thank you, very much for your confidence in the American funny bone.

Forgive me, but of course there areexceptions. I was talking about general likes and silikes and I bet if you showed it on cbs prime time it would probably fail to please.

Of couurse, I KNOW that you have a good sense of humour.

Snoopy

 

[shereads]

Shereads, I used to think Benny Hilll sucked. Recently, my parent got some DVDs and I loved them- that old-style vaudeville humor. Suddenly I understand it.
Does this mean I've grown up, or... regressed?

It could mean that you are entering a second adolescence, or that you are ready for the next step: French humor (Jerry Lewis).

 

[Guest]

Aw, Snoop, you've ruined my budget for this month. I bought the BA series for my younger son years ago (on vhs) but really it was for me. I loved watching it with him and can still hear his pre-voice change larfs. Since he and his brother moved to another state I've been tempted to get the dvd set for myself and you've pushed me over the edge.

Baldrick on my mind is utter fun.

Perdita

p.s. It must be a Mexican gene thing . I oft' wondered why my pre-adolescent sons 'got' and loved Black Adder, and even Absolutely Fabulous. Picture me and two young boys cracking up at the antics of Eddy and Patsy (for the first couple times we couldn't even understand much of the 'language'!)

 

[Guest]

p.s.

Sher, "French humor". Good one.

Perdita

 

[SnoopDog]

Aw, Snoop, you've ruined my budget for this month. I bought the BA series for my younger son years ago (on vhs) but really it was for me. I loved watching it with him and can still hear his pre-voice change larfs. Since he and his brother moved to another state I've been tempted to get the dvd set for myself and you've pushed me over the edge.

Baldrick on my mind is utter fun.

Perdita

p.s. It must be a Mexican gene thing . I oft' wondered why my pre-adolescent sons 'got' and loved Black Adder, and even Absolutely Fabulous. Picture me and two young boys cracking up at the antics of Eddy and Patsy (for the first couple times we couldn't even understand much of the 'language'!)

Well, if you ask me, I did a good thing then.

Snoopy

 

[Svenskaflicka]

Aw, Snoop, you've ruined my budget for this month. I bought the BA series for my younger son years ago (on vhs) but really it was for me. I loved watching it with him and can still hear his pre-voice change larfs. Since he and his brother moved to another state I've been tempted to get the dvd set for myself and you've pushed me over the edge.

Baldrick on my mind is utter fun.

Perdita

p.s. It must be a Mexican gene thing . I oft' wondered why my pre-adolescent sons 'got' and loved Black Adder, and even Absolutely Fabulous. Picture me and two young boys cracking up at the antics of Eddy and Patsy (for the first couple times we couldn't even understand much of the 'language'!)

You HAVE seen the Christmas Special, where BlackAdder sees into the future and there's Baldrick as a slave with nothing but a leather banana hammock and a leash, right? *rofl*

 

[shereads]

You HAVE seen the Christmas Special, where BlackAdder sees into the future and there's Baldrick as a slave with nothing but a leather banana hammock and a leash, right? *rofl*

Yes. I loved it. Glad to see it's included in the DVD set.

 

[SnoopDog]

JUST RECEIVED IT. YAY !!!!!!!!!!!

Snoopy, happy Beagle

 

[Guest]

JUST RECEIVED IT. YAY !!!!!!!!!!!

Snoopy, happy Beagle

That's how I'll feel in a few days (but not like a beagle ). P.

 

[kendo1]

I didn't mean to offend.
It was a serious question.
Humour sometimes doesn't cross frontiers well. A lot (well some) of American humour isn't considered funny over here. Sometimes it's just funnier in your own backyard.


British comedies tend to be written by one or two writers, and they don't (too much) have to bother about offending people. ( In Chewing the Fat they call an asian shopkeeper a Paki bastard, it doesn't offend when it is taken in context- the asian is one of the writers! Can you get away with that type of racist humour in the US? - Another serious question. )
American ones tend to be written by a panel of writers.

 

[shereads]

Favorite Blackadder: butler to the Prince Regent.

Least favorite: the first series.

For me, the character of Blackadder didn't gel until he was a courtier to Queen Elizabeth I. The earlier Blackadder - which i admit, I wasn't patient enough to spend much time with - I remember as less intelligent, more bumbling, and nowhere near as stylish as future generations of scheming failures.


Your turn.

 

[shereads]

I didn't mean to offend.
It was a serious question.
Humour sometimes doesn't cross frontiers well. A lot (well some) of American humour isn't considered funny over here. Sometimes it's just funnier in your own backyard.


British comedies tend to be written by one or two writers, and they don't (too much) have to bother about offending people. ( In Chewing the Fat they call an asian shopkeeper a Paki bastard, it doesn't offend when it is taken in context- the asian is one of the writers! Can you get away with that type of racist humour in the US? - Another serious question. )
American ones tend to be written by a panel of writers.

1. No offense taken. I suspect that America's smarter TV shows are not the ones that get watched overseas, because they are too topical and rely too much on American pop culture and current events.

EDITED TO ADD: Of course, it goes without saying that Homer Simpson dropping his donut and crying, 'Doh!" is universally funny. It just is.

2. Commercial television has to curry the favor of the sponsors whose advertising pays for it, so the major broadcast networks are reactionary as all get out. They will take a certain amount of risk as long as no one objects. God forbid, someone starts a boycott, or Congress investigates Janet Jackson's nipple. The next thing you know, 'ER' is editing out a woman's breast in an episode about breast cancer.

The closest equivalent to non-commercial TV is Public Broadcasting, which is paid for by donations and subsidized by an ever-smaller sliver of the federal budget. The sliver gets smaller anytime enough people write their Congressmen to complain that something offended them.

Cable networks, like Comedy Central, are more likely to risk a little controversy, because unlike the traditional broadcast networks, they don't have to please local affiliate stations, who in turn are licensed by the Federal Communications Commission.

The Fed's job was originally to control the use of different radio frequencies; they have the theoretical power to take away a radio or TV station's broadcast license for violating "decency" rules, like Howard Stern's bad language or Janet Jackson's infamous nipple. Where there's a lot of public scrutiny, they're not likely to revoke your license to broadcaset, but will impose a fine and maybe order you to appear before Congress for questioning.

("Senator, as you see in this slow-motion replay, the actual nipple - by which I mean the pointy bit - was covered by a decorative 'pastie,' with which you are familiar if you have spent much time among exotic dancers. The exposed portion, indicated by this circle I'm drawing with my laser pen, is not Ms. Jackson's nipple but her areola...")

Did I over-answer? Maybe you just wanted to know if we're allowed to say "Paki bastard" on TV. I suppose we could, but there hasn't been much demand for it. We are all about sexual innuendo.

 

[Guest]

Maybe you just wanted to know if we're allowed to say "Paki bastard" on TV.

Most U.S. viewers woudn't know what it meant.

I love the first series, Sher, it has a raw grittiness and levels of blasphemy that became lost as the series 'progressed'. However, Hugh Laurie as the prince regent makes me fall down laughing no matter how many times I see the shows.

Perdita

p.s. Yes, you over-answered, but that is expected.

 

[Vincent E]

Blackadder: Oh, God, God, God! What on earth was I drinking last night? My head feels like there's a Frenchman living in it.

Blackadder: She's known to have the worst disposition in all of Germany. And as you can imagine, that's up against some pretty stiff competition.

Percy: Don't be ridiculous, Baldrick. You know me. I mean, I laugh in the face of fear and tweak the nose of the dreadful spindly killer fish.

Blackadder: I've just been hearing about your work in Taunton. Imagine that - every single person in the village having an affair with the same duck.

Blackadder: I have erred and strayed like a lost ox... I have coveted my father's adultery... I have not always honoured my neighbours ass.

Flashheart: She's got a tongue like an electric eel and she likes the taste of a man's tonsils.

Blackadder: Baldrick, believe me, eternity in the company of Beelzebub and all his hellish instruments of death will be a picnic compared to five minutes with me and this pencil if we can't replace this dictionary.

Flashheart: 'If word gets out that I'm missing, 500 girls will kill themselves and I wouldn't want them on my conscience - not when they ought to be on my face!'

Blackadder: 'I've no desire to hang around with a bunch of upper-class delinquents, do twenty minutes' work and then spend the rest of the day loafing about in Paris drinking gallons of champagne and having dozens of moist, pink, highly experienced French peasant girls galloping up and down my - hang on...'

George: Crikey, sir. I'm looking forward to today. Up diddly up, down diddly down, whoops, poop, twiddly dee - decent scrap with the fiendish Red Baron - bit of a jolly old crash landing behind enemy lines - capture, torture, escape, and then back home in time for tea and medals.

Blackadder: You see, the thing about heaven is that heaven is for people who like the sort of things that go on in heaven. Like, well, singing, talking to God, watering pot plants.

Peasant: "I didn't expect a kind of Spanish Inquisition."
Cardinal Ximinez: "Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition! Our chief weapon is surprise...surprise and fear...fear and surprise.... Our two weapons are fear and surprise...and ruthless efficiency.... Our three weapons are fear, surprise, and ruthless efficiency...and an almost fanatical devotion to the Pope.... Our four...no... Amongst our weapons.... Amongst our weaponry...are such elements as fear, surprise.... I'll come in again."

Wait a minute. How did that last one get in there?

 

[York]

Ah Blackadder, how many hours have I sat and laughed at thee!

-----------------------------------------

Flasheart: The first thing to remember is… always treat your kite like you treat your woman.
George: Hah! How do you mean, sir? You mean, um… you mean, take her home over the weekend to meet your mother?
Flasheart: No. I mean, get inside her 5 times a day and take her to heaven and back!

-----------------------------------------

Blackadder (To woman pretending to be boy) Euh, euh, I like you young Bob. You've got balls.

-----------------------------------------

Blackadder: I spy with my bored little eye… something beginning with 'T'.
Baldrick: Breakfast!
Blackadder: What?!
Baldrick: My breakfast always begins with tea. Then, I have a little sausage. Then, a egg with some little soldiers.

-----------------------------------------

But best of all:

(Baldrick enters, carrying the front door)
Blackadder: Baldrick, I advise you to make the explanation you are about to give phenomenally good.
Baldrick: You said, 'Get the door'.
Blackadder: Not good enough. You're fired.
Baldrick: But my lord, I've been in your family since 1532!
Blackadder: So has syphillis, now get out.

 

[shereads]

Blackadder: Baldrick, believe me, eternity in the company of Beelzebub and all his hellish instruments of death will be a picnic compared to five minutes with me and this pencil if we can't replace this dictionary.

Thank you. I finally know what comes after "pencil."

I watched this episode so many times I ruined the tape, and never got all the way through this sentence without exhaling Diet Coke through my nose.

 

[kendo1]

Mainly thanks to Ben Elton, if memory serves me right.


Baldrick: It's funny, cause I've got a thingy that's shaped like a turnip.

 

[Vincent E]

Blackadder: Baldrick, do you even know what irony is?
Baldrick: Yes. It's like goldy and silvery, but it's made of iron.

Blackadder: Right, good morning team. My name is Edmund Blackadder and I'm the new minister in charge of religious genocide.

Blackadder: Right Baldrick, let's try again shall we? This is called adding. If I have two beans, and then I add two more beans, what do I have?
Baldrick: Some beans.
Blackadder: Yes...and no. Let's try again shall we? I have two beans, then I add two more beans. What does that make?
Baldrick: A very small casserole.
Blackadder: Baldrick, the ape creatures of the Indus have mastered this. Now try again. One, two, three, four. So how many are there?
Baldrick: Three
Blackadder: What?
Baldrick: And that one.
Blackadder: Three and that one. So if I add that one to the three what will I have?
Baldrick: Oh! Some beans.
Blackadder: Yes. To you Baldrick, the renaissance was just something that happened to other people wasn't it?

Blackadder: To you it's a potato, to me it's a potato. But to Sir Walter Bloody Raleigh it's country estates, fine carriages, and as many girls as his tongue can cope with. He's making a fortune out of the things; people are smoking them, building houses out of them. They'll be eating them next.

 

[Guest]

Blackadder: Baldrick, do you even know what irony is?
Baldrick: Yes. It's like goldy and silvery, but it's made of iron.

Vincenzo, bello. I miss our irony chats .

Good to see you, Perdita

 

[silverwhisper]

not all yanks don't get british humor, folks. :>

although here's a question: which rowan atkinson work do you prefer, blackadder or mr. bean?

ed

 

[Vincent E]

To most Americans, Rowan Atkinson is "That Mr. Bean Guy" who was in a few other things as well. For me, and most of us posting on this thread, he is undoubtedly Blackadder. I always liked Bean, the episode where he puts on his bathing suit at the beach is rare hilarity for instance.

Muchos gracias, Seniora Perdita. The feeling is mutual. (Yeah, if only )