Benedict Cumberbatch reads George Bernard Shaw's hilariously grumpy letters
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- Опубликовано: 28 дек 2022
- Irish playwright and critic George Bernard Shaw sent somewhere in the region of 250,000 letters and postcards during his lifetime, the majority in response to strangers seeking either advice, money, a photograph, an autograph, or Shaw’s presence at an event. Despite his hectic schedule, Shaw generously took time to personally turn down the vast majority, grumpily and with barely any tact.
Benedict Cumberbatch read just a few of Shaw's replies at Letters Live at the Royal Albert Hall in October 2022. 
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My favorite quote of Shaw "The problem with communication is the illusion it has taken place."
Profound! Marshall Rosenberg would have agreed!
haha
Absolutely spot on accurate for too many instances of alleged conversations! 🥸👍😆
I have that quote as a tagline on my Teams for work. Communication is often an illusion there. Lol
Just like this letter…
Love that Mr Cumberbatch is reading letters with “ horrible, grumpy and violent” wording with a badge on his lapel that says “Choose Love”👍😂❤️…..🥂
Benedict Cumberbatch makes him sound like a leprechaun gardener, but George Bernard Shaw's personality is irrepressible anyway.
🤣👏
Watching BC laugh was half the fun!
There is a great compilation book of grumpy letters: "Dear sir, drop dead"
Shortest grumpy letter was from Voltaire to Rousseau:
"Dear sir, I sit here in the smallest room with your letter before me. Soon it will be behind me"
GBS in it as well
that's pretty good
What's the name of the book?
@@sjattemptstodraw7937 Dear Sir, Drop Dead
@@sjattemptstodraw7937
"Dear Sir, Drop Dead! Hate Mail Through The Ages"
(Collected, I assume)
By Donald Carroll
😹 If I didn't already ❤ George Bernard Shaw before for his wit and sarcasm, I do now for his compassion towards animals and vegetarianism! Thank you, Mr. Cumberbatch, your readings of letters are always tops!
Unfortunately he had no compassion for his fellow man..
ruclips.net/video/B-Ljkoh_vmE/видео.htmlsi=85kre5eK2zIx0uyk
I know very very little about George Bernard Shaw, unfortunately for me, but Cumberbatch does such a good job of adding some color to those quotes that one gets a sense of what he’d be like.
My favourite Shaw story is when he sent 2 tickets to Winston Churchill with a note that read "Have enclosed 2 tickets for the opening night of my new play. Bring a friend if you have one."
Churchill returned the tickets with a note that read "Regretfully unable to attend opening night. Please send 2 tickets for second night, if you have one."
nice
Savage lol
Fun story, apocryphal unfortunately ;-)
To which he replied, " Sorry. Sold out".
Somebody asked Shaw if they could print that story once. He corrected the grammar in the letter and responded:
"The above is not only a flat lie but a political libel which may possibly damage me. Publish it at your peril"
I love that he's cracking up. 😂
I cannot handle this dude, especially being read by Benedict Cumberbatch 🤣 What a legend
Always a pleasure watching Mr Cumberbatch, using the voices of those whom of which he is reading.
'whom of which'?
“In a violently controversial way!” 😂
Love the joy that Benedict brings with him when he reads these letters and I love his badge 'Choose Love' always relevant and present, thank you x
Your laughs are contagious Mr. Cumberbatch!! Very very good!!
I knew there was a reason I loved his plays.
This may be my favorite reading of all!
Some of these look like people sending him mail expecting these kinds of replies. Also, he was a long time vegetarian so his refusal of the dinner invitation is on point.
Also, Bendydick Cummerbund does a good job with these.
So philosophical joins the word penguin in words BC has trouble with!😂
He sounds like he’s channeling Rex Harrison’s Henry Higgins 😂
You just killed it...
Yeap! Exactly.
😂😂😂😂😂
Brilliant. And by the way, there are recordings of GBS and Cumberbatch imitates him very. Shaw had a high, sort of squeaky voice and had left Dublin many years before, so it's a very different accent.
I love you so much Benedict.. I am a big fan of yours. I hope I will meet you someday since I live in London 🥰❤️😃
absolutely love it.
All of my emails henceforth will be in the style of the Notorious GBS.
His letter capture my first, second, and third thoughts on many things. It often takes time to find a civilized response.
This made my month. Possibly my year thus year.
I think I may be the reincarnation of GBS. Minus the talent.
So funny! Great graham Norton impression 😃
Yes!
Well, now I see the famous quote about the unreasonable man in a new light. 😅😂🤣
Just wonderful
🥰🥰🥰🤗🤗🤗🤗😍😍❤️❤️
Accents may not be his strongest skill, but he is so charming and adorable, and a great actor, that that imperfection becomes not do important, imho🥰🥰🥰
I've never heard of George Bernard Shaw before but I love him now
The only man who received an Oscar and a Nobel prize for literature and you never heard of him. I am quite sure he never heard of you, too. 😉
@@biancaenera2500 Well yeah, probably not, I'm not an international celebrity and expecting him to have heard of me, much like expecting anyone else to have, say, heard of every famous person ever, would be a pretty stupid thing to do, too. 😉
@@ApexOceanPredator of course but in this case is something like to say I never heard of who Albert Einstein was... is a little bit weird 🤷♀️ 😂😘
@@biancaenera2500 Well, he's long dead so I assume he hasn't heard of any of us.
The prefaces to his plays are little discussions in themselves and well worth reading.
So good~
Oh my god...tears in my eyes...😂
"Here before you stands a great man"
Definite “to be used”
Ben rocks as always...
That accent, though! Excellent.
Those are grand letters an perfectly read
I feel this 😂
he sounds like someone from east Ireland took a blow to the head, but still really good anyway
❤️🔥
Why would a philosophical society ask a speaker to avoid controversial subjects? What then would be the point of the conference?
Would’ve gotten on well with Shaw. I’m not into blood sacrifice, either.
Your Saturday nights must be boring. I perform one every time I shave my legs.
Possibly the worst Dublin accent in history but still excellent :)
I agree, but that makes the letters _even better_ in my opinion. ❤❤
Thank you Laura, there are recordings of GBH and Benedict's squeakiness isn't too far off the mark! 🤣. Thank because it encouraged to dig around in GBH's life - he left Dublin when he was 20 never to return. His English home is very near where I live.
That isnt Dublin by a long shot.
this sounds more like east Ireland to me
@@williamclifford4441 Might the squeakiness be due to the recording? They weren't of the best quality in the early 20th century.
"250,000 letters and postcards"?!?
Crickey!
Think of how many e-mails you've sent and posts you've made on-line .....
that was their version of sending emails or messages on social network websites, added to that he was a famous writer so you would expect even more
Having heard these letters, I now aspire to be compared to Shaw in attitude & writing brevity, if nothing else. Ah, if only he'd had Twitter!
(This comment may be the shortest thing I've ever written. Please follow link below for additional comments which will shed no light whatever while taking up your time as well as will to live.)
link missing
😂😂😂
P.G. Wodehouse found GBS insufferably self-important. But he was certainly funny.
Hey Cucumber Patch: Legit question --How come Shaw's voice is an octave higher than your own? You're reputedly a Research Rat. Are there recordings of Shaw? ❤😊❤ Once upon a time, when I was less old than I am now, I briefly entertained the notion it was I who discovered you whilst chancing upon Sherlock.
I have since recovered, menopause having been an unexpected yet later extolled boon.
It puts me in mind of Bilbo Baggins if he had not had occasion to leave the Shire
😂😁😘😘
Nor you neither 😁
Some should read Alexander Pope's Epitaph to himself
93/Thelema.
Crowley was an egotistic arse biscuit. Was Shaw into occultism?
....pleasentER??!
did everyone forget when he said "I object to all punishment whatsoever. I don't want to punish anybody, but there are an extraordinary number of people who I want to kill. Not in any unkind or personal spirit. But it must be evident to all of you, you must all know half a dozen people at least, who are no use in this world; who are more trouble than they are worth. And I think it would be a good thing to make everybody come before a properly appointed board just as he might come before the income tax commissioners and say every 5 years or every 7 years, just put them there, and say, sir or madam, now will you be kind enough to justify your existence? If you can’t justify your existence; if you’re not pulling your weight in the social boat; if you are not producing as much as you consume or perhaps a little more, then clearly we cannot use the big organization of our society for the purpose of keeping you alive, because your life does not benefit us, and it can’t be of very much use to yourself."
He's more grumpy than me and he keeps being invited by everyone. It just proves that genius excuses eccentricities. Eccentric without talent ? I don't recommand.
These all sound like online reviews 😄
that accent is frightful
sounds like someone from east Ireland that took a blow to the head
@@holliswilliams8426, I'm from the east- Dublin. It sounds more like an accent that never existed, that of a demented leprechaun dreamed up by a third rate Hollywood producer. Ghastly.
more pleasant, not pleasanter.
Oh, how I wish GBS were still alive, so you could tell him that in a letter.
🤍
For my senior year thesis paper, Shaw as the author I’d chosen to cover.
As I had known my instructor for years*, he began laughing far too loud.
Exclaiming to all within listening range, “I knew it! You’ve never been able to miss an opportunity to stand up for what you believe in. (Thanks) And if at all possible this will woman be a dick about it.” (Not so thanks.)
We both dissolved into 5 year olds giggling at the back of the class. 😂🤣🤷♀️
*Our families were close for many years by then. In particular my mom and I were close with the mom and my friend, their only daughter. She was the first kid to join our newly formed support group, in truth she was our VP. We didn’t even need to ask.
However this was in middle school, someone had to go first. Without that first kid stepping forward, our brand new support group for kids of all ages, we didn’t have a chance. Especially as this idea and the summer spent forming it came from two kids, (13&10).
The town came in hard for us too. (Gotta love a small community.)
Example- From day one the Dominoes owner covered every meeting, for over a decade until he retired and sold his franchise. Sooo many ‘Noids’. 💯🙏😂
Once the story hit the papers, we had business owners and the guys up the street who can all be helpful and loads of fun. While the original creators, myself and my neighbor, have stepped away I’m proud to say it exists to this day. The original date is incorrect but it is the first of it’s kind in the country. Over the years this group therapy has spawned off similar groups based off the original group’s basic tenets. I’ll happily not correct the group given the work it continues to do.
The group was formed to address the needs of the ‘normal’ kid (s) in the family that also had a child with special needs. Too often overlooked, yet nobody’s fault, including the parents. Who were given a free night of babysitting once a month for the child with special needs. If you are a parent of one you know just how hard it is to find a babysitter. Let alone three of us had Red Cross Certification. Those nights were also set up for the kid(s) to have a special evening once a month.
To help the kids and the family ease their weeks by providing a place for the children could talk. Insisting that the parents left a certain points, a extra breathing room for the parents.
We saw a need that hadn’t been met before.
That’s where we stepped in.
My favourite is to the Philosophical Society.
In today's "They said something offensive; burn them at the stake!" world that one made me laugh in particular.
when the presenter can't keep a straight face through dialogue...
And yes, I know Mr. Cumberbatch was trying very hard to not laugh
Shaw only wrote in 2 sentences at a time?
Brevity is the soul of wit. If he used 3 sentences it would be in classic joke format and he'd sound Jewish instead of Irish.
@@marshwetland3808 and if he used 4 he would sound French
@@holliswilliams8426 Not sure how that works, but... he didn't sound Irish Irish. lol
Benadryl Bumbershoot strikes again,
I want to see a children's book featuring a character by that name! 😄
p.s. That could be the title, right there. 😄
@@stephaniecarrow4898 Thanks!
omg hi husband
Good Lord, what sort of an accent is that?
Leprechaun.
@@beeble2003 😂😂 💀
kind of sounded to me like someone from County Wicklow that took a blow to the head
@@beeble2003 ha-sha-sha-sha-sha-sha 🍀🌈
@@holliswilliams8426 Had a good belly laugh 8 months after your post. (I'm guessing that we have GBS's voice on record - radio, film etc?)
Shocking accent. Not even insulted, as an Irishman. Just embarrassed for Cumberbatch, as a human.
Bennedict I love you but this accent was a disaster
LOL! As much as I adore our Ben I have to agree. Perhaps he should invest in some linguistic and accent tutors inbetween roles.
I wish he'd simply read it in his own mellifluous voice (instead of making us endure workshopping yet another dialect).