There have been subversive mutterings amongst the men. You'll recall the French army last year in Verdun where the upper echelons suffered from horrendous uprisings from the bottom! Yes sir, but surely that was traced to a shipment of garlic eclairs? Nonsense Blackadder, it was bolshiness, plain bolshiness! It's no good crushing a revolution over here only to get back home to Blighty and find everyone's wearing overalls and breaking wind in the palaces of the mighty!
In answer to David’s question, it changed in 1916 because they had had to start recruiting men so young they couldn’t grow the regulation moustache, and also it interfered with gas masks, which had become necessary in how trench ware fare had evolved.
Captain Blackadder: I wouldn't be too hopeful. Any reasonably impartial judge is bound to let me off. Captain Darling: Well yes. Captain Blackadder: Who is the judge by the way? General Melchett: BAAH! Captain Blackadder: I'm dead.
Captain Blackadder: I can assure you, sir, that the pooh-poohing was purely circumstantial. General Melchett: Well, I hope so, Blackadder. You know, if there's one thing I've learnt from being in the Army, it's never ignore a pooh-pooh. I knew a Major, who got pooh-poohed, made the mistake of ignoring the pooh-pooh. He pooh-poohed it! Fatal error! 'Cos it turned out all along that the soldier who pooh-poohed him had been pooh-poohing a lot of other officers who pooh-poohed their pooh-poohs. In the end, we had to disband the regiment. Morale totally destroyed... by pooh-pooh!
General Melchett: "Everybody now where's my map, come on" Darling: "Sir." *hands Melchett the map* Melchett: "Thank you." *rolls out map* "God! It's a barren featureless desert out there!" Darlin: "The other side, Sir."
I think he has let a few more short "meeeh" out during his stint at QI, just some really short that were quickly "passed by". He has got so many arrows in his quiver tho, so he doesn't need to repeat himself often 😁
Stephen knows how to deal with his audience - always leave them wanting more. If the general came out more often, it wouldn't feel as special when he did.
Recently, I was reading Agatha Christie’s “Murder at the Vicarage”. There’s a character called “Colonel Melchett”. Even though he’s described as a small, sniveling man, I kept thinking of Stephen Fry’s character.
ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-7R38kZN7kgc.html Too killing. Its transplendently euphorbic phantasmagoricality is surpassed only by its pepeluxiac synchromaphonical zestibulosity. Cheers!
"You know they say that somewhere there's a bullet with your name on it.." "Yyyyeeeah.." "Well, I thought, if I *_owned_* the bullet, then I'd never get hit."
That’s not the only thing that’s very small indeed. Your brain for instance is so minute Baldric, that if a hungry cannibal cracked your head open there wouldn’t be enough inside to cover a small water biscuit.
My Dad didn't have a shave until he was 26. This helped while he spent 3.5yrs in POW camps. The other POW's had to shave using cold water, no soap and blunt blades. Dad avoided all this inconvenience.
Not quite right a mustache would not interfere with a Resperator " we don't call them gas masks " only a beard gets in the way, 18 years in the Army taught me that. It was made a matter of personell choice
24919344 - Nope, they were called gas masks and those 18 years did not include WWI. There was a no facial hair rule in US military during WWI because of gas masks but in the British military the banned side burns and long moustaches. It is believed Hitler used the moustache he did after service in WWI. A long tash could create a hazard when using a gas mask. The full face respirators they wear now are completely different in design.
24919344 I'd say mustaches were definitley a problem for some soldiers in those days. If it had been a universal problem, I guess the army would have mandated shaving. In any event, the famous Hitler mustache was apparently created due to the gasmask. Hitler, who was a corporal in WWI previously preferred the Prussian style with the twirly ends. But those had to go and that's how he got his iconic mustache...
Until I heard that bit about the moustaches being mandatory in the British Army I didn't realize how many movies have got it wrong with the face fungus. Zulu and Zulu Dawn for two off the top of my head.
"Have you seen any German spies?" "Nein." "Nine?!" (Just in case: "Nein" is German for "No" and is pronounced (almost) exactly like the English word "Nine")
Sending Captain Blackadder to the hospital to 'winkle out the spy' General Melchett said 'If you come back with the information, Captain Darling will pump you thoroughly in the de briefing room'. 'Not while have my strength he won't' answers Blackadder. Brilliant brilliant stuff.
"Your Commanding Officer would have to be stark raving mad to refuse you" [two weeks leave] "You are my Commanding Officer, sir." "Well?" "Can I have two weeks leave to recuperate?" "Certainly NOT!" "Thank you, sir." "Baaaaa"
Soldiering is traditionally a man’s job, so to accentuate that manliness, soldiers in the British army were required to wear their mustache, something that women could not do. The same requirement however did not apply to French soldiers because French women can sport a mustache as good as their husbands.
During the First World War, my grandad was charge-sheeted for not growing a moustache. He managed to speak to his CO and get the charge-sheet removed, since he was too young to grow a moustache.
Melchett: If you’re willing to join the twenty minuters then you’re alright by me and welcome to marry my sister any day. Darling: Are you sure about this sir? Melchett: Certainly, you should hear the noise she makes when she eats a boiled egg. I'll be glad to get her out of the house.
Is this also the episode where Stephen brought out a moustache-specific hair net and put it on over the fake mustache? That may have been the hardest I've ever laughed in my life, especially since the panelists were calling it turn-of-the-century fetish wear. Good Times.
The number of young soldiers had increased rapidly, may of whom may have been too young to grow a moustache. It's unlikely to be the gas as that was first used in 1915, 7 months after the war started
@spl569 In WWI, a British gas mask resembled a flour bag with protective eye holes. As all chemical weapons used at that time were non-persistant (heavier than air), a facial seal wasn't required. It wasn't until non-persistant (lighter than air) chemicals were used that a gas mask (respirator) that sealed fully onto the face was required. All modern respirators seal onto the full face; (chin to forehead); so a moustache never has been, or is today a problem, just beard's.
Actually, there was a lot of common sense to this rule. In the Boer war, if soldiers cut themselves, the wound would get infected and because there were no antibiotics in those days, the cut would be fatal. They were dropping like flies,so facial hair was really a way of protecting the soldiers from a fatal infection.
