Blackadder's Christmas Carol Reaction!
Added 2025-12-25 15:00:22 +0000 UTC
Comments
I completely forgot that Nicola was in this too 😂 Hope you had a nice Christmas, Jess!
Brodie Vickers
2025-12-26 14:57:56 +0000 UTCJess - and everyone. Have a look at Tom Baker's official channel. There is a delight awaiting there.
Josef Schiltz
2025-12-25 22:13:02 +0000 UTCWhat a Christmas treat - thank you! I thought your point about the problems of reacting to comedy was an interesting one, too.
Paul Hayes
2025-12-25 21:49:02 +0000 UTCAlready said it elsewhere but Merry Christmas Jess :-) Hope it's a lovely time for you, although you seem to be working through!
Anthony Peterson
2025-12-25 21:16:26 +0000 UTC“Well, she did have a very annoying laugh. (Annoying.)”
Thomas Corp
2025-12-25 20:15:54 +0000 UTCNice to see Nicola in a role where she's not getting strangled or gets tied up or being turned into a bird. But Millicent does have a very annoying laugh ["Hot Fuzz" quote].
Andrew Vignaux
2025-12-25 20:10:15 +0000 UTCMerry Christmas!
TokuBLWhovian
2025-12-25 19:56:30 +0000 UTCReally any of the Christmas episodes of M*A*S*H would make for such wonderful reactions. I know exactly the one you brought up as it is the best one. Think I might have suggested it once before. There’s also every Christmas episode of Monk, the last one being perhaps my favorite one. I know there was some shared questions of how much of the show did Jess know about. I still think this works by itself, though it certainly does help if you go into it knowing the basic gist. Certainly take everyone’s point about the specific type of humor being potentially difficult to grasp if you come in at the middle of the proceedings. They do carry on with the opening a bit. The pain is felt with the entitlement of people taking advantage of Blackadder being a doormat. This holiday season hasn’t been TOO bad. Christmas past, customers do act and sound like the people here. Fair point on the confused characterization. Yeah, the Hagrid jokes are a bit inevitable. Again, despite Hagrid being my introduction to Robbie, Zukovsky is the default image of Robbie. That does suck about that part of I, Claudius. Anything with Miranda is great. She is absurdly wonderful as Elizabeth. Hugh and Rowan do make excellent foils to each other. Yeah, the twist on that one is done very well. Yeah, the one episode would be a hindrance to your enjoyment of it. Sort of like Jess being vehemently opposed to the wholesome and heartwarming central message of Zootopia 2, I’d imagine. (Still not seen either Zootopia, mind you.) Reminds me that they sort of play up the one scene in the Greta Gerwig directed Little Women, making me think you’d really hate that part. Sounds like it is a consensus view that the future part is the least well-received. Douglas Adams wit would be great for it. Hear everyone make the note about Hugh’s accent which in fairness sounds like Monty Python when they did the fake American accents with even Gilliam playing it up. (Singer was definitely distracted by all the sex crimes he was planning, because Hugh’s American accent in House is distracting and fake as SHIT it’s not even funny.) Can get behind the audience applause with the brat. Again, since Jess mentioned it in the Unification reaction, I payed closer attention to Nicola, and we both get how it took Jess a second to recognize her. She probably was very happy to not sound American anymore. There is something rather oddly sweet in the thing of in a roundabout way Blackadder’s still sacrificing his own happiness for others, hear you there. Whether that’s intended or not is a separate question, but it works. The love for these characters is great, and this is always a good deal of fun, and it is nice to see Jess have the fun time with it.
Thomas Corp
2025-12-25 18:12:21 +0000 UTCIt really bugged me my first time watching as a teenager that Melchett being set to be executed presumably pushes the whole thing out of official canon. Then I learned not to take the whole thing so seriously and just figure Queenie changes her mind so often anyway she might have just forgotten about it. A good deal. Good deal. Not a bad deal, a good deal. And of course we're still on the Rob Reiner homages; I tried for a while to fit one in about the sorely underrated Ghosts of Mississippi, but the subject matter of that one is so grim it just wouldn't fit anyway. Just throw on anything by K. Gordon Murray to turn people off Christmas for good. The parade of stereotypes at the start of Santa Claus should be plenty on its own.
Ryan
2025-12-25 17:50:56 +0000 UTCWell, I did suggest the Justice League Christmas special which is even shorter than this one (especially notable as the ONLY one-part story of the show). I also gave some thought to the MASH Christmas episode, though since it involves keeping a doomed soldier alive just a few more hours so his kids won't have to remember Christmas as the day their father died, I figured it would be too much of a downer no matter how well done and having some funny bits it is. The introduction was a bit of a relief, since I was concerned your familiarity with this franchise was like the four-headed man-eating haddock fish beast of Aberdeen, meaning it didn't exist. Because it's a very specific kind of humor that can tricky to grasp coming in the middle, and it doesn't help that there's a very slow start here. It feels like they didn't quite have confidence that the fans would be willing to follow this reverse Christmas Carol idea unless they established over and over again, long after the point was made and for almost half the special's runtime, that in this case "good" means a total doormat that it's perfectly okay rooting to be changed to "bad." It even has to do some pretty confused characterization as Blackadder is a super nice guy who still insults Baldrick, while Baldrick is a total idiot who somehow is also always on the ball with how they're getting ripped off. Though major props for not only putting in a joke about him somehow getting every letter in "Christmas" wrong, and then putting in the work to actually show a vaguely plausible way he did it in the credits. Luckily, things pick up a ton once the reason we're all here starts, and if anyone ever has trouble recognizing a young Robbie Coltrane as Hagrid, this should fix it. I figure Series 2 isn't one of those you've seen, since the credits have a literal black adder in a spoof of the opening of I, Claudius (tragically the one reason I can't in good conscience recommend you see that masterpiece). Which is too bad since it's the only one with a regular role for Miranda Richardson, easily a peak of her career as an Elizabeth that careens wildly between childish glee and horrible tyrant, which she somehow always makes feel natural as the same person. A bit heavy on the powder, but a girl has to have a bit of glamour as long as she can keep it up. And of course Series 3 was all about adding in Hugh Laurie as his usual upper class twit, perfectly playing off what was now firmly established as Blackadder's personality. And a killer twist to this one I didn't see coming at all, despite it fitting perfectly with this crew's usual sense of humor that no matter how much the laws of the universe have to bend to screw over Blackadder, they will. Although for as great as this season is, anyone who's read enough of my comments might have predicted I've never been able to get fully into it just because there's one episode that's all about burning someone's manuscript. I've never been that much into the future segment, which just comes off as throwing a bunch of silly words at us with nowhere near the wit that someone like Douglas Adams could do it. Though it's pretty amusing to hear Hugh do such an awkward American accent after he made such a perfect one in House than Bryan Singer was convinced he was American (or was just distracted by all the sex crimes he was planning, one or the other). And Nursie as a Dalek gets a big laugh, all the better for how the camerawork never draws attention to her and just lets you notice whenever you get around to it. But the story finishes very strong, and I especially love how much the audience clearly despised that one kid, giving applause to his comeuppance way more than anyone else's. No surprise you had this much trouble recognizing Nicola since she indeed looks incredibly different here. This was two years after she left the show, and she's clearly still reveling in not having to pretend to be American anymore. This casting might also be a nod to how Rowan had even back then been very vocal about wanting to play the Doctor, which also paid off with a killer Tom Baker guest spot in Series 2. And I have no idea if it's intentional, but I always found it kind of sweet that in a roundabout way he's still sacrificing his own happiness for others, losing out on a huge reward from the Queen so his distant descendants will have a better life. Despite some rocky bits, I'm so attached to these characters that I always get a big kick out of it, and it's very much a seasonal tradition. Great to see you liked it as much as you did too.
Ryan
2025-12-25 17:33:13 +0000 UTCIf this is in reference to the remark about the Easter festivities, namely the crucifixion, as I understand it, it is excised from most copies/broadcasts as early as the one year anniversary of the special. I hear you can find the uncut version, but it’s difficult to find. Of course, knowing the joke, and how Jess is with dogs, that’s probably a good thing that the joke is not included in the copy she saw.
Thomas Corp
2025-12-25 17:07:43 +0000 UTCI was curious about if you’d seen any Blackadder before this. Supposing you hadn’t, this works well enough by itself. Maybe you wouldn’t catch every single tiny little detail, no, but by itself, it’s a nice little standalone spin on the classic tale. Good that you went into this with a working knowledge of the general gist of the show. The great Rowan Atkinson says Blackadder is his favorite of his work, and the passion shows. Fun thing about him being nice, and everyone taking advantage of that. The pain of that is very real. Love the love for Miriam Margolyes and Jim Broadbent. The latter it was great your reactions to the running gag that I can’t tell you it involved spilling secrets because we don’t wish to spoil the surprise. Oh, DAMN!! You mentioned in the Star Trek reaction about taking a minute to clock Nicola Bryant. With that in mind, when I put this on, I paid more attention at that part. You mention the eyebrows and the floofy. I was noting that the accent and attire do make it understandable that it would take a moment to clock that it’s Peri. The shrillness of the voice not helping matters. Leads to Robbie Coltrane as the Christmas spirit. Makes for a fun time as his default image for me is his James Bond character, so him in this type of role is a hoot. And the central twist that we both love occurs. Seeing his ancestors’ naughty ways makes Blackadder evil. Love how you played along with the flashback effect. I got into it myself spoofing the Wayne’s World gag with that. We get some great Stephen Fry, and the always magnificent Miranda Richardson, whom I adore. You also commented on the elaborate disses. Rowan does have a talent for elaborate disses, one big reason why we love him. Love how he tables the turns on Melchett. Makes little difference to Queenie, who is delighted that Melchett is just in time to have his head cut off. Funny thing of Hugh Laurie as Prince George having such trouble with the charades. Rather surprising that Prince George didn’t try shouting the answer of Baby Fish Mouth during the charades game. Of course, he is that thick, so he’s probably not aware that Baby Fish Mouth is sweeping the nation. I hear them talking. The Orwellian and Dalekian looking future is hilarious. In that timeline, we have Hugh speaking in an American accent that everyone says sounds atrocious, yet to me, it sounds far more convincing than the appallingly fake sounding accent that he had in House. Huh, irony abounds. Respect the game of Blackadder getting control of the universe. The universe, like the world, perhaps it is not enough. But it would get pretty goddamn close. Blackadder is, of course, right, the very clear message here is that the bad guys have ALL the FUN!! A message that has spoken to me my entire life. I really should seek help with that. Not my fault the Disney Villains were the absurdly relatable ones. The Sith too. Also the Batman villains. Thus, the spirit has inadvertently caused Blackadder to go to the Dark Side. The spirit could have put Ebenezer through twelve years and counting of working retail to get the same results. He could also show him Santa in Animal Land as that thing’s such a goddamn fever dream that would terrify the Christmas spirit out of anybody. Leads to the GLORIOUS revenge that Blackadder has, even if it does ultimately backfire. Do love you have the “Justice for Baldrick.” sentiment. Think that Tiny Tom will be ok. Had a few jokes at my own expense with that one when watching. All in all, a very fun time. You talked about being grateful for the shorter special. Yeah, I can see, given recent schedules, how it’d be helpful that we picked something under an hour. Going over my top ten Christmas films, one of which was reacted to last year, and one reacted to in the summer, most of them aren’t too long. The very close second favorite is a longer one, but I don’t think I held off on suggesting it for the reason of brevity being helpful. I’ll keep that in mind for next Christmas. Then there’s the talk about reacting to comedy. Those reactions can be a gamble. See what you mean about it might not mesh well with your style. You brought up the Try Not to Laugh challenges. Fun though those are, yeah, that’s not one that you’d have outstanding reactions to. Fun videos though they would be, yes, in terms of quality reactions, that would not work with your style. I’d still watch as again, it’d be fun to watch, but I definitely take your point and concur. Of course, this reaction was fun and great. Thank you very much, and a Merry Christmas to you, Jess.
Thomas Corp
2025-12-25 17:04:09 +0000 UTC... I can't tell if your editor cut out the most blasphemous joke, or if it was excised from the copy you saw.
AlyAdmirer
2025-12-25 16:58:40 +0000 UTCMerry Christmas, hope you have a wonderful day, and thank you for this and all your videos this year xx
Dean Nolan
2025-12-25 16:33:55 +0000 UTC
