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
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).
@@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.
@@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
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.
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.
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.
Thou spake verilly, peasant. I loathe the works of this maudlin author turned saint. He was as funny as haemorrhoids with a case of dysentery after eating a case of Caroline Reapers.
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/
(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."
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.
@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!
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.
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.
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?
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.
@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.
@@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.
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."
I love how they've never heard of Robin Hood either because his own men murder him.
It’s also a dig on how there’s no real verified sample of Shakespere’s writing and definitely no signatures.
stephen fry's either melchett or the duke of wellington, but he's more known for the former
Shakespeare wanted his plays to be played out and enjoyed, not to force students to study them.
The plays were not even written down in full to be studied at that time, who knows what Shakespeare's view would be on the matter
Yup
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
What if one day school kids would be studying this youtube comment you wrote?
Then Shakespeare pulls out an umbrella and uses it to lock the doors, saying "Manners maketh man."
No, because that would be shit.
Lol, that would be hilarious
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).
I'm the 170th liker.
@@TheAnish01 And I'm 171st not that you care, I just wanted to let you know.
Blackadder said what all of us wish we could have said.
@@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.
+The Birdman
Allow me to disagree. I ADORE THE BARD'S WORK!!!
BALLOCKS Birdman.. you owe The Swan of Avon the ability to have what vocabulary you mangle. U obviously had limited English education !!
Then WHY the negative comment ?
It felt so good to see Shakespeare getting punched really made my day
Thank you so much Blackadder
Imagine if they could've gotten Kenneth Branaugh to play Shakespeare in this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I think it may BE Branagh.
@@sarahschattman4554 I really hope someone set you straight on Colin Firth
In one of the Xmas Specials for UPSTART CROW, he did play a spiritual companion for Will.
No, He would not shut up.
I was in a school production of Blackadder once, and I wore tights...
I love how Shakespeare gives up on writing and invents the pen. It's so funny.
The 4-hour 1996 version of Hamlet is now considered an absolute masterpiece. Lol.
You try watching it, then say its a masterpiece
@@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, I liked it.
@@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
I saw it in the theater projected on beautiful 70mm. 😍
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.
This is hilarious but for the record I should specify I love Kenneth Branagh's film version of Hamlet. Then again I'm a bit of a Shakespeare nerd.
Yeah I agree, it was possibly the best Shakespeare adaptation I've seen. At the very least the best Hamlet.
Agreed. My first live Shakespeare play was an uncut _Hamlet_, so I had no problem with Branagh's version.
Yes, me, too. But I really love the shakespeare plays in OP. They make s much more sense.
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.
4 hours though? I can’t even...
taking a break to watch this was the first time i'd laughed since starting ken branagh's hamlet 3 and a half hours ago...
😂 Lol!!!
Colin Firth, first time I saw this I did not realise :)
Hot potatoes orchestra stalls, puck will make amends!!
Do you mean you have to do that everytime I say....Macbeth?
@@martinputt6421 guess not, 'cause he never replied..
Colin Firth as Shakespeare! Yeah!
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.
So that's how the king got his stutter.
IM TRIGGERED
THANKS FOR PUNCHING THAT DUDE IN OUR HONOR,THE SCHOOL CHILDREN.I AM ONE OF THEM AND I AM MADDDDDD
Yup!
(Though "and schoolgirls" felt like a virtue signalins moral anachronism)
That was incarnated hilarity.
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've always found A Midsummer Night's Dream to be hilarious! The Pyramus and Thisbe play that the mechanicals put on always cracks me up.
MrShenhai Hilarious? You’ve absolutely never seen Frankie Boyle’s stand up DVD’s.
Is that the one with the jew?
@@youtubeistryingtocensorme I believe you are thinking of The Merchant of Venice. :)
For French people it's the same, with Molière :(
And Goethe for German speaking people.
Amélie, English people who had to study Le Malade Imaginaire in school feel the same way about Molière!
Amélie Vincent Romanians with Eminescu.
i did of mice and men in the special class.
Then I guess I'm screwed up in the head. I love Shakespeare, Molière and Goethe. In fact, I would get extremly happy whenever we did them in school.
I was in school and just starting to learn about Shakespeare when this came out...
Best bit of this.
Give him a kick for Merchant of Venice for me!
I like Ken Brannaghs Shakespeare adaptions. Though I am much more a Henry V. fan of his works, to be precise.
"Oh look. Here coes Othello talking total crap as usual!" And Kenneth reference! WIN!
oh come on Kenneth Branaugh's versions of Shakespeare's plays are off the chart
Especially the introductional and ending of Henry V
Every time i have work on Shakespeare i watch this xD
Poor Will. I actually love Midsummer night's dream. I think it's very witty and funny.
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.
lol in our English we were watching Lord of the Rings and The Dictator
I never understood English teacher’s obsession about Shakespeare
Because he understand the human thought as they say.
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.
@@CaralisTrevorum What's incomprehensible about 'villain, I have done thy mother'?
@@TranscendentLion Nice cherry-picking.
I thought I was the only one who thought "the tempest was a bit blah"! I'm glad there are others who share my opinion:)
He does make a very good point, can't deny.
So true.😂
Looks Like Johnny English Met A Kingsman, Harry Hart.
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.
Thou spake verilly, peasant. I loathe the works of this maudlin author turned saint. He was as funny as haemorrhoids with a case of dysentery after eating a case of Caroline Reapers.
Lol! This must've been so satisfying....
I always thought he said "Oh look here comes a fellow," and talking, etc...
Perfect, thanks a lot for the information!
For some reason, I can't help envisioning an alternate version of this with Sylvester McCoy's Doctor in Blackadder's place...
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/
(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."
brilliant
I once tried to read Shakespeare's Complete Works. I couldn't read one page of the book.
I watch or read his play. Sonnets are just right for my attention span. I am fond of Shakespeare's puns, rhymes, and rhythms in his poetry.
Try again
I like Ken Branagh's Shakespeare adaptations.
Hey that’s the chappie who invented the ball-point pen.
Poor Colin Firth!XD
but I've done the same if he was really Williams Shakespeare!
😁 I didn't know there are British who hate their very own Shakespeare!
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.
@@mikoto7693 I mean. 'Romeo and Juliet' is a tragedy, so it isn't exactly going to be a barrel of laughs.
Germans hate Hitler. Italians hate Mussolini. Americans hate trump. Scottish hate... Everyone.
Given that Shakespeare wrote macbeth around 1606,that punch expired about 18 years ago.😂
Thank ye!
so trueeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
shakespeare was never torture to me, lol.
But this is great! :D
does he say 'Othello' or 'a fellow' ? :/
classic comedy though! and very true! those plays used to suck ass!
@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
He was good for his time where his plots where original but now its different
I like Shakespeare's works but that four-hour Kenneth Branagh film made me want to toaster bath
Didn't need the speech afterward.
Just one punch and then the kick about Ken Branagh.
Maybe say, "I'll tell him you said that " but that's it.
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!
What's the name of this show?
Ken Branagh's _Hamlet_ was awesome. Except for Billy Crystal as the gravedigger.
WENGERIN
Punch him again for Romeo and Juliet.
Oh I do love this. (And I still say kids would get WAY more out of Shakespeare if theyd translate the stuff to modern English)
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.
I've seen this film before, but I'm back because it turns out. Colin Firth is William Shakespeare.
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.
"Who's Ken Branagh?"
I'll tell him you said that and I think he will be very hurt.
Ken Branagh 😂😂😂
Not sure any author wants their work to torture the average everyday pupil.
Well, not all of them.
I just keep pressing 4 :) so funny
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?
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.
LMFAO
love it ahahaha
To write or not to write
Alternate version: Nope
@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.
Funny enough, I have a copy of Hamlet yet I'm not that obsessive about one man.
😆 🤣 LOL!!
Romeo and Juliet torture.
Alice (American McGee's Alice) vs Freddy Krueger
hilarious ROFLMAO :))))
@rockhammer85 it's just a JOKE you don't have to justify Shakespeare's work
was the actor ken brannagh?
Colin Firth
@@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.
Maybe for you english natives it's hard, but for us, Shakespeare is cool (because we read it in our modern language)
@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.
I don't think you understood the term 'just a joke' and 'Its not real'
oops where the hell did my copy editor go? That should read: negative comments are funny...
Only way this would have been funnier is if they had gotten Ken brannah to do it….
0:35 pwnd
Haha xDD
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.
XDDD
I still wonder how hurt Kenneth Branagh was when he heard what Shakespeare said about him
I love the Kenneth Branagh bashing!
this bit is not funny at all. Very unlike other blackadder
Shakespeare's way overrated. The only reason his plays are so "great" is because unlike most playwrights he got famous while he was still alive.