The Mr Bean thread

Mr bean.....arhhhhhhh......nooooooo

Life’s too short........

Made a ton of money, shown everywhere but destroyed Roman Atkinson’s credibility for years

There’s something just too creepy and serial killerish about them for me to watch more than 5mins

He’s done other things like Johnny English.

Mr Bean does a few things which could be seen as "harassing, alarming and distressing" (to quote that old cliché again) if he similar things in public in real life, in other words, Mr [sic] Public would be arrested and even go to prison of he copied it for himself. Referring to the Goes to Town episode, when going back to the days when electric plugs had a "batteries not included" aspect towards electrical items and one had to wire them up, putting the Live, Earth and Neutral in the right place - when he buys a new television set we see Bean twist the wires into the plug which is something that would not work in real life - in fact, a Central continuity announcer had reminded Midlands viewers not to copy him doing that with a plug at the end of one of the mid 1990s repeats. The videos always got a U certificate and not a PG one by either the BBFC or the VSC.

Another was the fact that Mind the Baby was postponed twice in 1993 and 1994 because of the similarities with the storyline and the James Bulger murder. The fact that Bean takes an unrelated baby to a seaside destination (Southsea?) seems rather alarming when one thinks of child abductions and the like especially in the early to mid 1990s. For the 1993 showing it was replaced by the first showing of the Room 426 episode set in a hotel (and ironically enough, set in another coastal destination), and was postponed again around a year later because of the trial and the distress, and was replaced by a repeat of a previous episode. It was eventually shown a few months after the Bulger murder trial was concluded.

Getting back to the swimming pool episode, it says rather a lot about society's treatment of girls that even the child version of 1990 female swimwear was so skimpy that it didn't prevent most of the little girl's bare behind from showing to the camera as she leaves with Bean's trunks.

I seem to remember a time when we could just enjoy things without overanalyzing so that we can be alarmed/OFFENDED at all times.

D & D moral panic, heavy metal moral panic, Mary Whitehouse, comic book hysteria in the 50s, burning Harry Potter books, burning Beatles albums, Salman Rushdie spending half his life in hiding, the outrage over nudity in Hair, the outrage over Life Of Brian...

... It's always been there. Sometimes it's justified, often it's not. FWIW, I agree that Bean is funny but also that some of what he does is of concern which makes it a different kind of beast and one that should be discussed.

We used to watch Mr Bean for English class in the late 80's/early 90's.. And a couple Black Adder episodes too.

"Little Britain" was another classic OTT comedy show

As a family we used to watch Benny Hill and The Kenny Everett Video show on it's 1st run on tv, late 70's- early 80' - I didn't "get" most of the Kenny Everett jokes until I was a couple years older.


It's like the 60's Batman tv series- double entendres for everyone, so the parents could watch it with the kids.

I don’t like it when helpless members of society get caught up in Bean’s antics such as babies. I was a victim of abuse as a child and the emotional scars have faded but never healed. Whenever a child causes trouble for Bean like the two little boys or the little blonde girl that takes his trunks, I remain frightened that Bean is capable of violence against those children for the sake of revenge. Just like my father who liked to throw me around when he was in a rage.

Ela Sometimes you can never escape fear. I know that little girl in The Curse of Mr Bean is just a fictional character in a swimsuit not a real person, but i was once a little girl in a swimsuit and that didn't save or protect me. I'm sorry. Sometimes you are so damaged you don't easily think clearly.

I get that. Hope you are getting help.

And just suggesting that maybe you shouldn’t watch the show if it triggers you.

There’s lots of stuff out there. Personally, I avoid things that would make me that uncomfortable or fearful.