How To Disappear Completely

Blackadder

I was inspired to hunt up this television series from the library because 1) Linnea recommended it and 2) it's got Hugh Laurie, who is my back-up plan if ever Lord Peter Wimsey gives me the throw-over.

All five seasons happen to be in the library, but I obtained the first and the fourth.

Being prone to chronological methodology, I naturally started with the first season. And was somewhat confused. First because there was no sign of Hugh Laurie anywhere, and secondly the humor belongs to the madcap variety found only in Monty Python sketches, which much as I may enjoy it, takes some warming up to. But season four is making me happy. First, because Hugh Laurie has a prominent role and secondly because the humor has suddenly upscaled to the Jeeves and Wooster standards, the overstuffy, facetious, and pompous. Since the seasons progress through various historical time periods, perhaps the shift in humor also traces a "progression" of British humor. Or at least a genealogy of humor. Blackadder also gets progressively smarter though out the ages, too.

Blackadder (when he finds that he and his sidekick have landed behind enemy lines during WWI): Yes, Baldrick. The Teutonic reputation for brutality is well-founded. Their operas last three or four days. Prepare to die like a man.

Monologuing in a German prison: for us the Great War is finito, a war that would be a damn sight simpler if we simply stayed in England and shot 50,000 of our men a week. No more mud, rats, bombs, shrapnel, barbed wire, and those bloody awful songs that have the word "whoops!" in the title.