ESSAY: social satire in Blackadder

[Gwendolyn M Brophy]

This is an honest to God essay that a friend of mine wrote for an English
final. I asked if I could post it to the group, and he agreed. Happy
reading.

Gwen
_____________________________________________________________________________

Blackadder and the Sociopolitical Order of Britain (1768-1815)

Satire and humor can be powerful weapons when aimed at society and
its failings. Things stretched or exaggerated for comic effect can
ultimately tell much about the original source, pointing out its
foolishness or absurdity. Use of satire for this purpose goes back at
least to Greek playwright Aristophanes, who poked fun not only at fellow
playwright Euripides but all of Greek society over the course of his
career. A more modern example, of course, is Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's
Travels. Each race the hapless Gulliver encounters along the way and
every action he sees has some kind of meaning just below the surface, a
jab at the political and cultural assumptions of the time. In today's
Britain, much of the comedy produced for television audiences are not
simply mindless situation comedies as seen too often here in the United
States, but are also biting looks at British society. Of particular
interest for the purposes of this course is the third series of a program
called "Blackadder," since it is set during the Regency period, a time of
turbulent social and political upheaval encompassing the late eighteenth
and early nineteenth centuries.
"Blackadder," produced during the 1980s, is usually seen as four
distinct series of six episodes each, set in four different time
periods. The only characters who are present in every series are Edmund
Blackadder (played by Rowan Atkinson) and his servant Baldrick (played by
Tony Robinson), but they are not involved in some strange time-traveling
or reincarnation plot. Apparently they are merely descendants of the
same families whose destinies are permanently intertwined. (One of the
questions with the series is how these genes manage to be passed from one
generation to the next, as Blackadder and Baldrick never seem to have
children in any of the series.)
The first series sees the emergence of Prince Edmund, Duke of
Edinburgh and son of Richard IV. (When Henry Tudor became king, the
series tells us, he vilified Richard III and eradicated all traces of
Richard IV to smooth his transition to power.) When he is told by a
mistaken prophesy that one day he will be king, the not-so-intelligent
and rather ineffectual Edmund decides to appear more threatening by
taking on the alias of "the Black Adder." Ultimately he dies trying to
overthrow his father. The next series takes place in Elizabethan times
with Edmund, Lord Blackadder-- a reduction in social standing, to be
sure, but now Blackadder is intelligent and cunning in his attempts to
gain power by courting the affections of the slightly insane Elizabeth
I. At the end of this series too, Edmund ends up dead (as does the
entire court, just like in any good Shakespearean tragedy) when a mad
German prince wants to take over England.
By the third series Edmund's social rank has sunk even lower, and he
is simply Edmund Blackadder, butler to George (played by Hugh Laurie),
the Prince Regent and son of the very insane George III. However, the
intelligence and cunning remain as he, the prince, and Baldrick (who
serves as Blackadder's dogsbody) get themselves into and out of
situations seemingly plucked straight from the history of the period.
(Admittedly, however, the "history" in the series is a bit dodgy-- in the
first episode, for instance, there is reference to "that evil dictator,
Napoleon Bonaparte," while the third episode is clearly set in the middle
of the French Reign of Terror before Napoleon came to power.)
The first piece of satire the viewer encounters as the series begins
are the episode titles. The first episode is "Dish and Dishonesty," and
the other five episodes have similar titles meant to sound like cheap
imitations of Jane Austen novels. (In the second episode, "Ink and
Incapability," Blackadder states his belief that most of the "women"
writing at that time are men with pseudonyms, and that Jane Austen is "a
huge Yorkshireman with a beard like a rhododendron bush." The only woman
writing, he says, is James Boswell, "and that's just because she wants to
get inside [Samuel] Johnson's britches.")
The heart of the satire in "Blackadder" is conflict between the
classes, and to make the conflict more obvious, characters are
exaggerated to extremes. The Prince, as the aristocracy, is a complete
idiot, a dandy who can't even put on his own pants without help. He says
he is "thick as a whale omelet" but means it as a feeble attempt at
humble, self-depreciating humor, not as something to be taken literally.
Other examples of the upper class end up looking as bad as the
Prince. Lords Smedley and Topper in "Nob and Nobility" are in many ways
even more mindless dandies than the Prince-- Smedley merely echoes
everything Topper says, for instance. (When Topper says, "I've got a bit
of a sniffle coming on-- I can feel it in my bones," Smedley agrees with,
"Damn bones, damn bones, damn..." And so on.) That together they turn
out to be the Scarlet Pimpernel at the episode's end is tempered by the
way Blackadder tricks them with the old poisoned drink routine. Also,
the persona of a French aristocrat Topper uses as a disguise, the Comte
de Frou Frou, says that he doesn't want to make money, "I would like
other people to earn it and then give it to me, just like in France in
the good old days." He wants the order to stay the same, with the poor
masses firmly in place to serve his interests.
In "Dish and Dishonestly," Sir Talbot Buxomly, member of Parliament
for rotten borough Dunney-on-the-Wold, has his interests listed in "Who's
Who" as "flogging servants, shooting poor people, and the extension of
slavery to anyone who hasn't got a knighthood." (To which the Prince
responds, "Excellent! Sensible policies for a happier Britain!") He has
the worst voting record in the Commons-- he showed up once, very drunk,
and passed out in the Speaker's Chair. In the short time he meets with
the Prince and Blackadder, he brags about dining off his servants ("why
should I spend good money on tables when I have men standing idle?") and
pledges devotion to the Prince even though he is "the son of a certified
sauerkraut-sucking loon" and "there are bits of lemon peel floating down
the Thames that would make better Regents than you." "The fact is,"
Buxomly says, "you are Regent, appointed by God, and I shall stick by you
forever, though infirmity lay me waste and ill health curse my every
waking moment. " At which, of course, he promptly dies.
In the final episode, "Duel and Duality," the Duke of Wellington
returns from his campaigns against Napoleon to find the Prince has slept
with his nieces, and he therefore challenges the Prince to a duel to
regain the family honor. Wellington believes that loud shouting, not
inspired leadership and tactical ability, is the key to winning a
campaign, and is constantly bullying and beating the servants. Also, in
the final scene, George III himself makes an appearance, carrying a
rosebush that he wants the Prince to marry. It is a dubious end to
upper-class presence in the series.
Baldrick, on the other hand, embodies the lower class. He is
filthy, claims to have never changed his trousers, and eats dung for
dinner. He thinks that his first name is "Sod-off" because, when he used
to play in the gutter with the other kids, he would say, "Hello, my
name's Baldrick," and they would say, "Yes, we know. Sod off,
Baldrick." When he and Blackadder are in trouble and he uses the
expression, "I have a cunning plan," it is usually a sign that he has
thought up something quite stupid and useless.
A "subclass" of sorts which appears in the episodes is the
intellectuals, and they too are not portrayed in a favorable light.
Generally they are pompous and arrogant, looking down on anyone who is
not a fellow "intellectual." Dr. Samuel Johnson, when he visits the
Prince to convince him to patronize the dictionary ("Ink and
Incapability"), purposely uses "intellectual" words to show off his
knowledge. His platitudes and epigrams (for which the real Johnson is
famous) are idiotic, such as, "a servant who is an influence for the good
is like a dog who speaks--very rare," or "making a copy is like fitting
wheels to a tomato-- time-consuming and completely unnecessary."
Johnson's literary friends are Byron, Shelley, and Coleridge (an
impossibility, historically speaking, as Coleridge was only 12 when
Johnson died, and the other two were not born yet), and they are flaky
opium fiends with venereal diseases and bad tempers.
Similarly, the two actors in "Sense and Senility," Keanrick and
Mossop, exemplify the over-the-top acting popular during the period. As
Blackadder, not entirely off the mark, says, "A load of stupid actors
strutting around, shouting, with their chests thrust out so far, you'd
think their nipples were attached to a pair of charging elephants!" They
intend to put on a play they penned themselves called "The Bloody Murder
of the Foul Prince Romero and His Enormously-Bosomed Wife," but of course
"the violence of the murder and the vastness of the bosom are entirely
justified artistically."
Another "subclass" which does not fit the above distinctions is the
industrialist, represented by Hardwood in "Amy and Amiability."
Blackadder states that he owns seven mills and half of Lancashire,
gaining his fortune by inventing the "raveling nancy" which ravels
cotton. When he finally appears, however, he epitomizes the bluff,
earthy personality of someone who, because he started out as a worker, is
lacking in social graces. For instance, when talking about his daughter
Amy, Hardwood says, "I love her more than any pig, and that's saying
something!" and, "I'd no more place her in the hands of an unworthy man
than I'd place my John Thomas in the hands of a lunatic with a pair of
scissors."
Blackadder cannot stand any of these people. Insults toward
Baldrick are a staple in all the series (except for the first),
questioning his parentage, his grooming habits (or lack thereof), his
intelligence (or lack thereof), his face, his clothes, his odor,
everything about him. Because of the social order of things, Baldrick
only insults Blackadder once in the third series, and only when he
doesn't think Blackadder will hear. When Blackadder announces that he is
quitting ("Sense and Senility"), Baldrick says, "Goodbye, you lazy,
big-nosed, rubber-faced bastard," but even that is said under his breath
as Blackadder is walking out the door. When Blackadder hears it and
returns, Baldrick quickly remembers himself and calls him the standard
"Mr. B."
Similarly, Blackadder insults the Prince but not when the Prince is
around to hear him. With Baldrick he calls the Prince "the Pinhead of
Wales," "Prince Mini-Brain," and "an arrogant half-German yob with a mad
dad," among other things. When Blackadder does insult the Prince to his
face, the Prince is usually too stupid to realize he is being insulted,
such as in "Amy and Amiability" when discussing the industrialist
Hardwood. "His family's got more mills than you've got brain cells," he
tells the Prince. When the Prince asks how many, Blackadder replies,
"Seven, sir." "Quite a lot of mills, then," says the Prince.
In another show of class conflict, the same scene has the Prince
expressing his views of industrialists. "Oh dammit, Blackadder," he
says, "you know I loathe industrialists. Sad, balding, little proles in
their damn-your-eyes whiskers, all puffed up just because they know where
to put the legs on a a pair of trousers." "Believe me, these people are
the future," Blackadder tells him. Of course, when Blackadder visits
Hardwood to woo his daughter for the Prince and finds him bluff and not
too intelligent, he says, "I can see where your daughter gets her ready
wit, sir, although where she gets her good looks and charm is perhaps
more of a mystery." "No one ever made money out of good looks and
charm," Hardwood replies.
Blackadder pokes fun at the intellectuals as well. When Doctor
Johnson comes around in "Ink and Incapability" with his completed
dictionary, proudly boasting that he has not left out a single word,
Blackadder casually uses nonsense words as if they had real meaning.
Johnson, annoyed and upset that he has left these words out, scribbles
them down. With actors Keanrick and Mossop ("Sense and Senility") he
constantly refers to "Macbeth," and the actors are forced to perform a
superstitious pat-a-cake to prevent bad luck from befalling them. When
they insult him and the speech he has prepared for the Prince to read, he
tells the Prince that they are planning to assassinate him, when in fact
they are merely rehearsing "The Bloody Murder of the Foul Prince Romero
and His Enormously-Bosomed Wife." The Prince has them arrested and executed.
If the class distinctions followed a logical progression, then,
Blackadder should represent the middle class, the practical-thinking man
in the middle of this cultural maelstrom. He sometimes does, but more
often than not he insults the middle class. In "Dish and Dishonesty,"
when talking about the election conflict between radicals and Tories, he
says, "Basically it's a right old mess-- toffs at the top, plebs at the
bottom, and me in the middle making a fat pile of cash out of both of
them," and in "Nob and Nobility" he calls the French revolutionaries
"malnourished whinging lefties." Sometimes he appears to ally himself
the aristocrats, as in "Sense and Senility" when he says to the Prince,
"the working man is poised to overthrow us." Once (in "Nob and
Nobility") he seems to identify with the working class, when he says to
his French revolutionary jailer, "Look, mate, me old mate... We're both
working class, we both hate these rich bastards." Of course, he is
trying to prevent himself from being brutally guillotined, so this should
be seen as simply a ploy, although not a successful one.
Blackadder is also scornful of Mrs. Miggins, owner of the local pie
shop and the only other "middle-class" character in the series. She
follows the popular trend, emulating whatever is fashionable at the time,
whether it is Francophilia, love of actors and poets, or running off with
Blackadder's mad Scottish cousin McAdder to reclaim the throne of England
("Duel and Duality"). When she hears that Blackadder plans to run off
with Amy Hardwood, she sobs, "Oh sir, what a tragic end to all my
dreams. And I'd always hoped that you'd settle down and marry me and
that together we might await the slither of tiny Adders," to which
Blackadder replies, "Mrs. M., if we were the last three humans on Earth,
I'd be trying to start a family with Baldrick here..." Even those in
what is supposed to be Blackadder's social group are ridiculed.
Despite his disdain for intellectuals and aristocrats, Blackadder
seems to be trying hard to become one. He has written a novel
(appropriately titled "Edmund, A Butler's Tale") under the name of
Gertrude Perkins, and is upset in "Ink and Incapability" that Johnson
never responded when it was sent to him. In "Dish and Dishonesty," he
tells the Prince that a new lord needs to be appointed to keep from
having government funds taken from him, and gives strong hints that the
man appointed should be him. (The hint, of course, is not strong enough
for the "thick-as-a-whale-omelet" Prince, who appoints Baldrick
instead.) In "Duel and Duality," after complaining that he is wasted in
the Prince's service, agrees to fight the Duke of Wellington for
everything the Prince owns. These attempts appear at odds with the
insults he heaps upon both groups throughout the series, but perhaps
Blackadder thinks he would make a better aristocrat or a better
intellectual than those who currently are.
Everyone's respective places in the class system is well established
and pointed out on many occasions. For instance, in "Nob and Nobility,"
Blackadder is annoyed by the number of Frenchmen in London due to the
Scarlet Pimpernel, and when he returns to the palace he kicks the cat.
When Baldrick protests, Blackadder explains that "it is the way of the
world, Baldrick -- the abused always kick downwards. I am annoyed, and
so I kick the cat, the cat pounces on the mouse, and, finally, the mouse
bites you on the behind." "Well, what do I do?" Baldrick asks.
"Nothing," Blackadder replies. "You are last in God's great chain,
Baldrick-- unless, of course, there's an earwig around here that you'd
like to victimize." In "Sense and Senility," when Blackadder criticizes
one of the Prince's ideas, the Prince says, "Damn it, I'd fed up with you
treating me as if I'm sort of like some kind of a thickie! It's not me
that's thick, it's you and you know why? Because I'm a bloody prince and
you're only a butler." The Prince considers himself more intelligent not
because he is, but because of his superior social position.
Most revealing of the social order are the times in which the order
is disturbed or reversed for one reason or another. When Baldrick is
made a lord in "Dish and Dishonesty," he is suddenly haughty, saying,
"It's all right, Blackadder-- you don't have to curtsy or anything." The
ultimate role reversal, however, occurs in "Duel and Duality," when the
Prince and Blackadder need to trade places so the Duke of Wellington will
think that Blackadder is the Prince when it is time to duel over the
honor of Wellington's nieces. Blackadder takes great pleasure in hitting
the Prince when Wellington finds the service poor. And at the end of the
episode (indeed, the end of the series), after the duel, mad George III
mistakes Blackadder for the Prince as well, and leads him away as
Regent. The Prince, however, is left dead after Wellington loses his
temper and shoots him. Blackadder's last line in the series is, "Oh, and
Baldrick? Clear away that dead butler, will you?" He has finally become
an aristocrat, and has adopted their air of superiority as well.
The social order in "Blackadder" may appear stable, but there are
forces working below the surface, forces most evident in "Sense and
Senility." During a play, an anarchist throws a bomb at the Prince,
yelling, "Smash the spinning jenny! Burn the rolling rosalind! Destroy
the going-up-and-down-a-bit-and-then-moving-along gertrude! And death to
the stupid Prince who grows fat on the profits!"
After surviving the explosion, the Prince is honestly confused, and
Blackadder explains, "These are volatile times, your Highness. The
American Revolution lost your father the Colonies, the French Revolution
murdered brave King Louis and there are tremendous rumblings in Prussia,
although that might have something to do with the sausages. The whole
world cries out, 'Peace, freedom, and a few less fat bastards eating all
the pie.'" The Prince asks why the "oppressed masses" are so irate.
"They're worked up, sir," Blackadder says, "because they're so poor,
they're forced to have children simply to provide a cheap alternative to
turkey at Christmas. Disease and depravation stalk our land like two
giant stalking things. And the working man is poised to overthrow us."
The social order is being threatened, and the Prince and Blackadder
profit from it so well that they will work to keep it from changing.
The Prince decides to have Keanrick and Mossop give him a lesson on
elocution, and then he will make a speech show the oppressed masses how
sensitive he is. At the same time, he keeps mistaking Baldrick for one
of the oppressed masses out to assassinate him, nearly killing Baldrick
in the process. So his new "sensitivity" is not really heartfelt, but
merely a ploy to keep the social order the way it is.
The social satire in "Blackadder" is subtle in some cases and
blatant in others. Such is the political satire, but the most obvious
political satire is the entire first episode, "Dish and Dishonesty." The
episode opens with Blackadder saying that things can return to normal
after the chaos of a general election. "Has there been a general
election, then, Mr. Blackadder?" asks Mrs. Miggins. "I never heard about
it." "Of course you didn't," Blackadder tells her. "You're not eligible
to vote. Virtually no-one is-- women, peasants, [looks at Baldrick]
chimpanzees, lunatics, lords. Marvelous thing, democracy. Look at
Manchester-- population 60,000, electoral roll 3." When Mrs. Miggins
protests that it hardly seems fair, Blackadder says, "Of course it's not
fair-- and a damn good thing too. Give the like of Baldrick the vote and
we'll be back to cavorting Druids, death by stoning, and dung for
dinner." Thus Blackadder shows the elitist sentiments against the
working classes, sentiments that aristocrats would certainly make about
him and the middle class.
In any case, Blackadder is not concerned as long as ineffective
William Pitt the Elder is prime minister, because there is no chance that
anything will change. However, William Pitt the Younger (who is
portrayed as a 15-year-old) comes to power, and one of his policy points
in removing the Prince from the Civil List and bankrupting him, and the
Commons is evenly split on the issue. Blackadder finds Sir Talbot
Buxomly to gain his support against Pitt, but when he dies they decide to
gain control of Dunney-on-the-Wold, one of the most rotten boroughs in
England. Blackadder describes it as "a tuppenny-ha'penny place, half an
acre of sodden marshland in the Suffolk Fens with an empty town hall on
it. Population: three rather mangy cows, a dachshund named Colin, and a
small hen in its late forties." Only one person lives there, and he is
the voter, so Blackadder convinces the Prince that they need to buy
Dunney-on-the-Wold and control the voter.
The problem is who the candidate will be, since they need someone
unknown but over whom they can have complete control. They, of course,
choose Baldrick. Their slogan, Blackadder says, will be "a rotten
candidate for a rotten borough." When Pitt the Younger comes to gloat,
he vows to put his brother, Pitt the Even Younger, into the
Dunney-on-the-Wold election. After he leaves, the Prince exclaims, "What
a ghastly squit! He's not going to win, is he?" "No, sir," Blackadder
assures him, "because firstly, we shall fight this campaign on issues,
not personalities. Secondly, we shall be the only fresh thing on the
menu. And thirdly, of course, we'll cheat."
And cheat they do. Not only does Blackadder serve as Baldrick's
election agent, but is the returning officer (who "stepped in at the last
minute when the previous returning officer accidentally brutally stabbed
himself in the stomach while shaving") and the voter as well (who "took
over from the previous electorate when he very sadly accidentally
brutally cut his head off while combing his hair"), so victory for the
Adder Party is assured. Baldrick's opponents, apart from Pitt the Even
Younger, are Brigadier-General Horace Bolsom of the
Cheap-Royalty-White-Rat-Catching-And-Safe-Sewage Residents' Party and
Ivor Biggun of the
Standing-At-The-Back-Dressed-Stupidly-And-Looking-Stupid Party (which, of
course, describes Biggun perfectly). Bolsom and Biggun are satires on
the odd political parties and candidates that crop up in British
politics, parties that run candidates that are elected just because they
are so far off the norm and away from the established parties. The
latest modern example of such a candidate would be Screaming Lord Sutch
and his Raving Monster Loony Party.
Pitt the Even Younger is horrified by his loss, exclaiming, "I
smeared my opponent, bribed the press to be on my side, and threatened to
torture the electorate if we lost. I fail to see what more a decent
politician could have done!" Blackadder, however, smugly calls it "a
triumph for stupidity over common sense." But when it comes to vote on
the matter in the Commons, Baldrick does not know how, so Pitt the
Younger tricks him into voting to bankrupt the Prince. (Blackadder says
his new philosophy will be that "if you want something done properly,
kill Baldrick before you start.")
At first Blackadder is despondent, but then sees how the situation
can be used to his advantage. The bill needs to go through the House of
Lords, and he knows that the Lords will never pass it. However, he
convinces the Prince that the Lords will be hostile and that he should
appoint a new lord, "a young man in your service, sir, who has done
sterling work matching the political machinations of the evil Pitt."
Blackadder also convinces him that they should bribe three hundred lords
with #1,000 each, "just to make sure they vote the way their consciences
tell them." (Blackadder also gets the Prince to believe that three
hundred lords at #1,000 each equals #400,000, money he no doubt plans to
keep for himself.)
The Prince, being the idiot that he is, doesn't take the hint very
well and appoints Baldrick a lord. Blackadder is obviously upset until
he discovers that the Prince has given the #400,000 to Baldrick.
Blackadder tries to take the money from him, but Baldrick has spent it on
his extra-large "dream turnip." As he breaks the turnip over Baldrick's
head, Blackadder says, "It's the last time I dabble in politics!"
"Dish and Dishonesty" is as much as satire on politics in the 1980s
as it is a satire on politics in the late 1700s. The idea of the rotten
borough is taken to its most extreme level, but the cheating and
mud-slinging that goes on is not beyond the scope of an election today,
or so it seems sometimes. The few number of people eligible to vote may
be exaggerated also, but before the Reform Act of 1832, restrictions on
voting were stringent and based on class and land ownership. And in a
brief scene at the beginning, the House of Commons is shown as rowdy two
hundred years ago as it can be today.
"Blackadder," then, is a comedy which relies on elements from the
past and the present for its humor. Viewers have preconceived notions
about about class, social positions, politics, the French Revolution,
intellectuals, and industrialists, and "Blackadder" plays off these
ideas. But by satirizing these ideas, "Blackadder" calls them into
question in the lives of the viewers. Do people still judge others by
their appearances? Do they still think those with money or power or an
ancient lineage are inherently better than other people? Or do they
consider themselves "enlightened" and able to look beyond such things?
Such questions could easily be rephrased in today's terms as questions of
race, poverty, war, and other pressing concerns, but "Blackadder" chose
to deal with them in the context of another period of rapid social
change, Great Britain in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

-----------------Christopher J. Kocher----...@pitt.edu-----------------
"He's mad. He's mad. He's madder than Mad Jack McMad, winner of last
year's Mr. Madman competition."
--Blackadder, BA III, "Duel and Duality"

--
|Gwendolyn Brophy gbr...@telerama.lm.com|
|------------------------------------------------------------------------|
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