Separated by a Common Language?

[Sundae]

For me the best episode is "Head", from the second series.
It could never read as well as it plays - you have to be able to hear Rowan Atkinson and Tim McInnerny to appreciate it in full. Aside - I have always maintained that the best comedy (ie what I like) can be listened to on the radio with little or no amendment. Frasier for example.

There are a number of scenes which delight me in this ep, but this is my favourite.
I still say, "We're not at home to Mr Cockup." But no-one gets what I mean

Percy is trying not to let Lady Farrow into the gaol because in fact they have already cut Lord Farrow's head off (to save time). Blackadder is about to try to impersonate Lord Farrow so that she doesn't find out.

Percy: Well, yes, there are a couple of other things.

Lady Farrow: I am prepared for the fact that he may have lost some weight.

Percy: Yes, and some height. That's the interesting thing, aaaah, you'll probably hardly recognise him at all actually.

Lady Farrow: You'll be telling me his arm's grown back next.

Percy: Aaaaaah, excuse just for a sec. [running back into the gaol]He's only got one arm!!!

MRP: Ah yes!

Blackadder: Oh well I shall just have to stick it inside the shirt. Which one? Which one?

Percy: Aaaaah, aaaaah, hang on! Em hang on! [back outside] Em, em, eh, how do we know you're his wife?

Lady Farrow: What?
Percy: Em, well, you know, you could be a gloater.

Lady Farrow: I beg pardon!?

Percy: You know, a gloater, aaaah, come to gloat over the condemned man! I mean we're up to our ears in gloaters here. "Can I come in for a gloat?" they shout and we shout back "Oh you heartless gloaters!"

Lady Farrow: (cries)

Percy: All right, all right, I tell you what. I'll believe you're not a gloater if you tell me which arm he hasn't got.

Lady Farrow: His left of course! Now let me see my husband!

Percy: [running back in] Right! it's the left. Good luck!

Blackadder: Gloaters. You really are a pratt aren't you Percy? Right, don't forget in two minutes you interrupt me all right? And no more than two minutes otherwise I'm in real trouble, and don't forget because..?

Baldrick: ...because we're not at home to Mr. Cockup!

[DanaC]

For me it's a toss up between series 2 and series 4: BlackAdder Goes Forth was a work of genius imo. Yes it was funny, but it was also sharp and deeply sad. It got me interested in the First World War and brilliantly portrayed, through satire, the futility and stupidity of the conflict; the naivete of some of the soldiers who were fooled into laying down their lives; the criminal incompetance of the generals in charge : Lions led by donkeys indeed.

[Clodfobble]

Originally Posted by Beest

Clod, maybe you just caughts ome of series I and were turned off, the comedy style in Blackadder I is different to II-IV, personally I is weak II-IV pretty much golden beginning to end.

It was all Season 1, Mr. Clod was watching from the very beginning on Netflix. Perhaps I will tell him to try again with season 2 sometime. Perhaps.

[DanaC]

Series 1 is totally distinct. Different writers, entirely different styles and characterisations. Blackadder is the 'idiot' in series 1. But he's the clever bastard in the rest.

[Pie]

"I may be as thick as a whale omelette, but..."

That phrase alone makes me crack up.

[Undertoad]

According to this vote

http://web.archive.org/web/200503170...ackadder/vote/

The poignant final episode Goodbyeee (4) wins best episode with 31%

followed by (year):

13% Beer (2)
10% Private Plane (4)
6% Bells (2)
5% Ink and Incompatibility (3)
4% Potato (2)
4% Money (2)
3% Chains (2)
3% Corporal Punishment (4)

The finale gives 4 the edge, otherwise 2 is the preferred season, followed by 3, followed by 1.

[DanaC]

A clip from the second series:



And some from Blackadder Goes Forth:

)a word of explanation: baldrick's 'coffee' is not really coffee...the sugar is..something fairly revolting and the less said about the milk the better. They ran out of actual coffe and milk long ago :P

[squirell nutkin]

I'd think that the Brits, who are so much more adept at humor that the US, would have left out the awful laugh track that is stepping on every line.

It comes in too early as though the viewers were psychic and knew what the line was before it was spoken.

I'd pay extra for a "clean" version.

[toranokaze]

Originally Posted by squirell nutkin

I'd think that the Brits, who are so much more adept at humor that the US, would have left out the awful laugh track that is stepping on every line.

It comes in too early as though the viewers were psychic and knew what the line was before it was spoken.

I'd pay extra for a "clean" version.

Laugh tracks are the bane of all great humor. I hated it in MASH and it is poorly used here.

[DanaC]

That's because they do know what the line is before it comes :p Or rather they think they do. Many of these jokes are running jokes. It was recorded in a studio in front of a live audience. Only in the first series of Blackadder did they shoot on location and then play the tape to an audience for the laughter track.


[eta] oftne they're laughing because ofthe build-up to a joke, it's an expectant laugh. Like with Captain Darling and the coffee: that was the 'punchline' to a joke that had taken the first half of the show to build. Or just because they find the expressions of the characters funny. Often they're laughing at stuff going on in the background: the expression on the face of one of the characters who isn't speaking. It's conspiratorial laugher: they're in on the joke in a way that Captain Darling and General Melchiord isnt.

[Sundae]

And of course some of it is simply the tone of Blackadder's voice. Or something as simple as the way Melchett says "Darling".

[squirell nutkin]

Thank you! I finally get a witness!

[DanaC]

It'd be a bit difficult wouldn't it to remove laughter that was there in the original recording (as opposed to laid on afterwards)?

[monster]

Oh Dana, Beest had that Merkin Red Dwarf pilot on. I feel your pain, it just didn't work.... and the guy they had for Lister -all wrong. But I see why they tried.

And here's a bit more on that -this may be a first, and may not be an academic paper on the matter, but I think it's a valid point, so I'm going to quote Jilly Cooper (from her novel Rivals) A young American TV producer talking about buying a British TV series:

The dialogue's far too sophisticated. If you're going to appeal to Alabama blacks, Mexican peasants and Russian Jews in the same programme, you can't have a vocab bigger than three hundred words

The UK is tiny and old. We have many many accents and dialects, but as a nation, we have pretty much shared the same history and backgrounds for hundreds of years and we have probably all met someone from most corners of the country. America is huge, most people's families have only been here for a few generations and they have come from all over the world. Very little shared history, vocab, colloquialisms etc. Even less chance of contact with Brits and their background. Fair enough, I hear you cry, but why the need to make it appeal to everyone? Because almost all TV here is commercial. Advertisers want their commercials to be seen by as many people as possible. Very few would be interested in time during a show watched by a handful of anglophiles and expats. No advertising revenue = no money to buy the show. It needs to be understood by a wider range of people to be worth buying. So it gets Americanized.

Also, I remember hearing there's something to do with the actor's union too, but I can't remember exactly what that was and can't find any corroboration right now. Maybe Clodfobble or UG could help on that?

[squirell nutkin]

Originally Posted by monster

The UK is tiny and old. We have many many accents and dialects, but as a nation, we have pretty much shared the same history and backgrounds for hundreds of years and we have probably all met someone from most corners of the country. America is huge, most people's families have only been here for a few generations and they have come from all over the world. Very little shared history, vocab, colloquialisms etc. Even less chance of contact with Brits and their background. Fair enough, I hear you cry, but why the need to make it appeal to everyone? Because almost all TV here is commercial. Advertisers want their commercials to be seen by as many people as possible. Very few would be interested in time during a show watched by a handful of anglophiles and expats. No advertising revenue = no money to buy the show. It needs to be understood by a wider range of people to be worth buying. So it gets Americanized.

Also, I remember hearing there's something to do with the actor's union too, but I can't remember exactly what that was and can't find any corroboration right now. Maybe Clodfobble or UG could help on that?

Excellent observations, Monster. I am still surprised by the successful translation of The Office. Into a dozen languages or summat? innit? I think it must have something to do with the universality of that type of awfulness.