Saturday 20 / April / 2024
“Gautam, you’re so hyper. Relax.” Yes, I was hyper. I’d just seen Mr Bean. Not watched him on TV. I’d just seen him on the cover of a DVD. The ridiculously odd look on his face made me burst out laughing. Even before I’d managed to pop the disc into my player, I couldn’t help but break out into giggles.
That’s the power of Mr Bean and his funny-looking face. Created by legendary British comedian Rowan Atkinson, Mr Bean is odd-looking man, who not knowing the way society works, behaves in odd ways, causing untold mayhem and destruction wherever he goes.
Whether it’s unplugging a giant Christmas tree to see if his lights work, or blowing up a paint can in his house, just so he can avoid several hours’ worth of whitewashing his flat himself, Mr Bean’s absurd and hilarious antics are sure to have your sides aching with laughter.
Mr Bean was first created by Rowan Atkinson way back in 1990, and continues to be a world-favourite show even today. But why is the weebly little man with the rubber face so insanely famous the world over?
“Whenever I am depressed, I watch Mr Bean. He makes me forget all my troubles.” That’s not me saying it. I was (I think) seven or eight years old at the time, and a 40-year-old doctor, married and with two children, was telling me why Mr Bean appealed to him. That was the universal appeal of the guy: Mr Bean made all of us laugh, whether young or old.
Because most of the humour involved in the show was of a physical nature, it cut across all cultural and linguistic barriers. Whether you’re from America or Argentina, Uruguay or Uganda, Peru or the Philippines, there’s always something funny about a man getting caught in a washing machine because he fell in while trying to wash his clothes.
There’s always something ridiculously hilarious about him trying to prepare a turkey for Christmas, only to end up with the entire bird stuck on his head, scaring the living daylights out of his girlfriend, as he desperately tried to get it off himself, having initially won the giant piece of poultry at a fair earlier that year.
These are but a couple of mishaps Mr Bean seems to unfortunately suffer when he’s out and about, trying to do the things you and I would normally do on an ordinary day. The idea of Mr Bean came to Rowan Atkinson – a member of the famed Cambridge University Footlights theatre club, which included such luminaries as Hugh Laurie, David Mitchell, Clive Anderson, Richard Ayoade, and Sue Perkins among others – when he was asked to perform at a comedy festival in French-speaking Montreal.
With all of his comedic work being in English, Atkinson decided to give them a preview of Mr Bean, a character he had been developing for some time. The audience loved it, and having successfully passed its litmus test in Canada, Bean was ready to take on the world.
And it has: Mr Bean has not just given rise to a hilarious series of episodes that first ran in the UK, but a spin-off cartoon series as well as two feature-length movies that were universally praised for the hilarity and humour it brought to audiences the world over. In addition, the original Mr Bean series is now still broadcast the world over, where it continues to be happily watched by people from all walks of life.
So the next time you want to tune out everything else and tune into pure, unadulterated hilarious fun, remember that on a screen not so far away from you is an odd-looking, oddly-behaved man in a skinny tie and brown suit. For that man is Mr Bean, and you’re about to step into his hilariously absurd world, one you will never forget.
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The Short and Skinny
Name: Mr Bean
Genre: Comedy
What it’s about: Mr Bean, simply put, is a man like no other. Sit back and step into his world of hilarious absurdity. Trust us, it’s worth the watch
Produced for: ITV
Produced by: Tiger Aspect Productions
Where to watch: Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, Boomerang, various streaming sites
IMDB Rating: 8.5/10
