Rowan Atkinson and Colin Firth in Blackadder Back and Forth. " -Oh...that is for Ken Branagh's endless uncut 4 hour version of "Hamlet. -Who is Ken Branagh? -I'll tell him, you've said that. And I think he will be very hurt."
My favorite line related to this appears later in the show, when Blackadder returns to the present, shows his friends Shakespeare's autograph, and no one is impressed. They don't know who Shakespeare is. Finally the Steven Fry character remembers: "Oh you know--he's the chap that invented the ball point pen."
It gets worse than that. Surprisingly many Brits haven't heard of Mark Twain (really??) but 4 generations if American schoolboys have had exams in Huckleberry Finn. Mark Twain, who could see the future but couldn't prevent it, gave over a full page of his book (for the naughty pleasures of naughty schoolboys like me) to the following warning to teachers: NOTICE _______ PERSONS attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot. BY ORDER OF THE AUTHOR, Per G.G., Chief of Ordnance.
Think of all the literature that is now standard in most schools: Mark Twain, F. Scott Fitzgerald, John Steinbeck, Harper Lee. I'm sure none of them ever considered that kid's would one day be studying their work
@@johnmulligan455 Yeah, I think it's cool how popular The Bible is. 😂 Guys, roast this! Let's honor blackadder with some jokes at the expense of the whole goddamn bible. Believe or not (so long as youre not a humorless boring seething antisem) roast my people's greatest literary product.
I'm assuming someone locks rhe door and beats someone else? P.S. In America we thankfully get less shakespeare in school so we still enjoy watching his plays performed (in New York City parks and parking lots).
Richard Curtis had been trying for ages to get Colin Firth to appear in one of his films. When Colin finally agreed to appear, Curtis took revenge on all the previous turndowns by giving him a good beating up.
@@youtubeistryingtocensorme Ive seen it twice on the big screen with Roadshow presentation and an intermission. You know it's a great movie, otherwise you wouldn't make that joke.... Lol.
@@youtubeistryingtocensorme it is. not for the modern common rifraf offcourse. But it is. it's got too few special effects and black people and lgbt propaganda i know but its still a masterpiece
Grew up with Blackadder and have watched this episode an uncountable number of times. I'm an hour and fifteen minutes into Ken Branaugh's Hamlet right now and just remembered this scene. Blackadder missed the mark entirely here. Shakespeare is fantastic generally and Branaugh's Hamlet is incredible. And Midsummer Night's Dream is chock-full of jokes.
When I was in Primary School, I had to sit through Macbeth at the theatre. In secondary school, we studied Romeo and Juliet. And in college we studied Titus Andronicus. All of them tediously dull. I don't blame Blackadder here, I probably would've punched Shakespeare as well.
Just think: in 400 years, they'll be saying the same thing about Tennessee Williams, Marsha Norman, David Mamet, and maybe Andrew Lloyd Webber... Actually, they already do talk like that about Sir Andrew.
I felt rather sorry for Shakespeare but I think it was really because it was Colin Firth. But yeah back in year nine I'll never forget my wonderful teacher making us all watch Kenneth Brannagh's uncut version of Hamlet and then Much ado about nothing. Which as its title suggests bugger all happens.
Hello, as a matter of fact this is a part of the "Blackadder Back and Forth." I wanted to write here a link with details, but I didn't managed. So this is on the site imdb.com imdb.com/title/tt0212579/
He's credited with inventing a quarter of the words in the English language and his plays contain all the dramatic archetypes used ever since. Never mind the fact his dialogue is utterly incomprehensible...
Shakespeare is good...but as a PLAY! This is how religion works: One generation gets really excited about something (usually for good logical reasons) and then they oass on their excitement for it to their children snd eventually the meaning is lost and it twists into some weird shit -- like making 13 year old boys decipher julius caesar FROM THE STAGENOTES! Trust me though, when you see him performed by world class television actors LIVE in central park you still feel the pathos in his speeches and the humor in his rat a tat chat.
I love reading literature, and yet I can honestly say that Shakespeare is the main reason I avoided taking up art back in senior high. I bought a copy of Hamlet to try but never finished the second page, chose Sciences instead.
It's infinitely better on stage or screen. One of the big mistakes people make about Shakespeare (particularly the education system in the English-speaking world) is to treat his work as literature rather than performing arts.
I must admit finding all these negative comments is funny considering that a good 2/3 of them are using words, images and phrases that Shakespeare brought into the English language.
Hi kalozpepi, I really enjoyed watching your video and would like to include it in one of my lessons in my teaching exam. We have really strict regulations regarding permissions ... therefore I need the exact details of who created the video to ask him for permission to show this video... Could you help me in this matter?
It’s funny, if we hadn’t been forced to waste so many hours trying to learn his gibberish I probably wouldn’t hate him. Even as an adult I really don’t get what all the fuss is about. Romeo and Juliette for example. That shit is depressing, not fun. If I ever wanted to hear about people dying stupidly and pointlessly I’d just turn on my TV and switch to the news channel. I don’t need more depressing shit in fiction as well.
@SuperPippoInzaghi90 Nay, I can read(it's a great hobby of mine), it's just a complicated book. I think I'll probably read it when I get somewhat older.
(Shakespeare is lying on the ground, alone, winching in pain and cradling his shin) "Men dressing as women sure is funny. I should write 10,000 plays about that funny, funny idea. Hi my name is William Shakespeare. Please travel back in time and kill me with a Terminator."
@rockhammer85 nobody writes for money. But I see your point. Shakespeare wasn't all bad though and he definitely got plot twists down. I think because we're forced to like him so much we end up hating him. Taken by himself however, he's not so bad. But this video is hilarious! :D
Perhaps, in 400 years, students will be studying poems like "Norwegian Wood." -- Can you see it now? Students having to stand up in class and read in dead monotone, line by line: "I once had a girl,; or should I say? She once had me." Students having to write papers, explaining the meaning of "Norwegian wood" in the poem by "John Lannen" (1940?-1998). Ah, the joys of fame!
Blackadder put William Shakespeare off of writing. When Blackadder returned to the future, none of Shakespeare's plays existed, as Blackadder told Shakespeare that he was going to cause loads of school children to suffer. Instead, William Shakespeare claimed that he was the man who invented the ball point pen.
That’s the thing. I didn’t hate Shakespeare for the stories and whatnot except for the depressing end to Romeo and Juliette… I hated it because it was incomprehensible gibberish. I might have liked some of it if I had been translated to modern English.
@@SandraDodd - And it appears nobody noticed the quizzical look on Shakespeare's face when presented with a ball point pen and Brannagh and Firth have known each other for decades. Humour too subtle I guess.
@kalozpepi I know it's a joke, lol! I was just saying how I felt the scene is slightly missing the point. Berating a guy for just writing the work seems a bit dumb. If Rowan had punched some Bard-pushing English teacher - that would have been much funnier, and made more sense! And I would never justify Shakespeare's works! He boring, vague, bizzarre, cheesy and overrated. But - he never said we had to read him. Other jerks are to blame for that.
He shouldn't have taken his frustration out on Shakespeare, though. The guy was boring and obscure, but he was probably just writing for money and not even thinking of the all future generations that might get screwed over. The teachers, educationalists, 'sensitive types', etc., who keep pushing him down our throats because of their man-crush for him and for every little thing he wrote are the ones who really need the punch. Such asses to presume what they like is what we should like.
Btw this is a comedy and not a reality tv show where an arrogant smat arse adopts a troll from under a bridge to stop him bothering the sheeps and gets his little brain to build something that was thought to be imposible.
