Sunday, December 13, 2009

12 Days of Christmas: Merry Christmas Mr. Bean

Merry Christmas Mr. Bean"Merry Christmas Mr. Bean" is one of those quintessential Christmas staples around my family's household during the Christmas season, as essential to our Christmas celebration as decorating the Christmas tree or eating candy canes. This hilarious episode is brought out once a year to enjoy and laugh at Mr. Bean's insane antics.

Like all Mr. Bean episodes this one is segmented into different parts, however unlike most episodes, these have much more in common with each other - it's Christmas Eve. At the start of the episode Bean arrives at Harrods, the mega-huge London store, to do some shopping. He buys a "special" gift for his girlfriend, "finds" a Christmas tree, and stuffs a turkey. This is by far the Bean episode filled with the most laughs and will have you laughing till you cry.

Throughout the years I've come across people who love Mr. Bean, hate Mr. Bean, and some who just don't get Mr. Bean and are confused or terrified of him. Bean's social awkwardness and complete disconnect to the real world are both humourous and sad at the same moment. This is a lonely man, who has no real friends, and has a girlfriend always on the verge of leaving him. Yet he's incredibly content with his life. He is annoyed quite easily by some of the most littlest of things, and quite frequently too (much to our delight), but he is still happy in a life that most would probably be constantly depressed about.

Rowan Atkinson has played many different characters over the years (in the various Black Adder series and Thin Blue Line) but none are as iconic as Bean, even if I find his Edmund Blackadder much more hilarious with his use of wit and sarcasm.

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