Last weekend the kids and I watched Blackadder: Back and Forth which E and I had seen at Vera's over the summer. The gist is that the modern-day Blackadder (Rowan Atkinson) has Baldrick build a fake time machine from Da Vinci's plans to con his friends by betting on whether he could bring back certain items form the past (from his very full basement, for which there is a trapdoor under the so-called machine. Well, the machine actually works, and Blackadder and Baldrick go back in time to visit some of the high points of British history, including running into Shakespeare (played by Colin Firth, one of my favorite actors). E and I slowed down the DVD and I made a transcript of the scene for your enjoyment and mine.
[Blackadder and Shakespeare collide in a hallway; Shakespeare's papers fly everywhere, and Blackadder helps him collect them. Blackadder then holds up a piece of paper on which "The Tragedie of Macbeth" is written. As both men come to their feet.....]
[Blackadder punches Shakespeare HARD in the face; Shakespeare falls to the floor.]
Blackadder: And that's for every schoolboy and schoolgirl for the next 400 years! have you any idea of how much suffering you are going to cause? Hours spent at school desks trying to find a single joke in A Midsummer's Night's Dream? Years wearing stupid tights in school plays and saying things like "What ho, my lord" and "Oh, look, here comes a fellow talking total crap as usual...."
[Blackadder kicks the still-down Shakespeare]
Blackadder: And THAT is for Ken Branagh's endless uncut four-hour version of Hamlet.
Shakespeare: [still sitting on floor, replies dazedly] Who is Ken Branagh?
Blackadder: I'll tell him you said that. And I think he'll be very hurt.
Obviously it's much more enjoyable to watch it, but the lines are so keen. I am a fan of all three: Blackadder, Shakespeare, Colin Firth, and Kenneth Branagh. Wait, that's four ... ah, well.
Little thoughts from my mind to yours about living a contemplative life in a far too busy world.
2 comments:
Never heard of Blackadder, but this was funny. :)
It's a BBC comedy set in different time periods each season with basically the same cast of characters, including Rowan Atkinson, Steven Frye, Miranda Richardson, and Hugh Laurie. It's very British with much potty humor and innuendos ... but hilarious. It ran in the mid-to-late 80s.
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