@kapakal He says "Yeah well I've always said the Rose Theatre is a dump. Frankly, I mean the sooner they knock it down and build something decent the better".
The Rose Theatre structure was torn down more than 380 years before this sketch was performed. The reason the line was funny is because it was topical. The surviving foundations of the Rose had just been unearthed in a building project, sparking a debate as to whether the builders should be allowed to continue demolishing it to build their office complex. For the record, this sketch was performed in the Sadler's Wells Theatre.
Like Pratchett's "Hedgehog Song", the "Avocado Monologue" just begs to be written. The tap-dancing Othello (and, for some reason, my mind's eye instantly supplies Mr. Lenworth Henry) would also be an inevitable joy. As ever the rapport between Hugh and Rowan as actors is evident, the fluency emergent from long familiarity. A tiny treasure too long overlooked; thank you so much for posting.
My father was a huge fan of Blackadder, and he had to buy dvd's to even watch it. I loved Blackadder, and when I saw Hugh on house, I thought, "Who knew the Prince Regent was so cynical?"
Anyone who enoys Rowan Atkinson and Hugh Laurie together would probably enjoy Blackadder third series. I recommend the episode "Ink and Incapability" where Robbie Coltrane (of Hagrid fame) plays Dr Johnson.
Rowan's definitely channelling "Mr B" here and having Blackadder as your editor would drive you mad! Of course, this is all drawn from their real life experience. "You said that about the avocado monologue in "King Lear"! And the tap dance at the end of "Othello"!" *dies*
Heh, well, in the rather long intro to this sketch, Stephen Fry accused them of "getting pissed ['drunk' for my fellow Americans] instead of going on and doing a carefully rehearsed sketch."
I'm not sure if you're serious or if you are making a comparison, but it is supposed to be two completly diffrent charecters. It is supposed to be Shakespeare and his boss.
I love Hugh Laurie. He was great in Blackadder and many of the things he did back in England, We are privileged to have him in the US now though sometimes I miss his more light hearted humor
Two episodes of series 2 as a drinking companion in Beer and more memorably as Ludwig the Invincible in the final episode. However in season 3 and 4 he was in every episode as Prince George and Lieutenant George.
This is a great sketch, I loved it! This actual conversation may have taken place too, who knows... ;-) And those two delve into the soliloquy more deeply than some scholars and some university professors I know (and whose names I do not wish to remember haha)
@LilithMaura actually, 'To be' soliloquey was supposed to be much longer here. the editor then proceeded to trim it to the 'to be' that we know today... so he did get it right
No plagiarism! Steven Fry said something like that earlier. anyway, "House" is so much shorter than "Hugh Laurie." :S and "Mr Bean" is definitely shorter than "Rowan Atkinson." great. now you made me type out their full names. lazy me. how dare you. :D
I transcribed this sketch about 16 years ago or so. It's still up on the net somewhere, I'm sure... I still have the text file too, and can pass it along.
And there he lay Abandoned his wife and child the fiendish fawn Crawled pitifully out the backdoor where no answers would have to be questioned nor any questions answered Oh so beautifully crafted was their escape perfected over the ages by men too weak to live and too stupid to stay live done symbolically carelessly They died Left Became but ashes in a life that continues. That exhausts beautifully gracefully when untouched by earthly hands. We must never say these things. it distracts
"...on wooden seats...and no toilets this side of the Thames." (The Thames is the river in London upon which the Rose theatre was built) Bill: "Yeah, well I've always said that the Rose Theatre is a dump (Shakespeare's company STARTED at the Rose), frankly. The sooner they knock it down and build something decent the better." (Shakespeare was in a partnership that built the GLOBE theatre on the other side of the Thames, making him very wealthy.)
Actually, you're sort of right in a wrong way :o). I was born tounge tied... so I had one until a surgery. Then it was years of speach therapy where, shockers of shockers- I was taught to pronounce my words correctly. So my T's are T's, not D's as most people's around here. Though I think it's sad that's the case. Then again, I've seen most people here confuse English, Scottish, Irish, and Australian accents- which sound completely different from each other.
You know, since House started, I've met a bunch of people that've said the same thing. I realize that "a bit of fry and laurie" wasn't shown here (US) and Black Adder was only shown sporadically. But I thought that everyone had seen or at least heard about all the Jeeves and Wooster episodes that were on throughout the 90s.
But see, Dr. Cox isn't half as witty as House. It's a completely different thing. He relies solely on super-long, adjective-infused, but otherwise meaningless sentences. It gets old pretty fast. House is someone who might be a bit of a jerk, but still deserves your respect. The humor of the show is unique, and the jokes are far more varied than those on Scrubs, without a doubt.
Ok, see a neutral accent means that it's neutral for the country you're in. It isn't just a US accent, it's a New York one, Texan, Southern... and then each of those have differences- New York accents you can have the Queens accent, Brooklyn. Neutral is when people in your own country can't place it. You've never met people like that?
I like Hugh Laurie better as a comedian than a grumpy doctor, anyhow, regardless of my introduction to him. He's just a fantastic actor is all. Now, if you're worried about soliloquy-length, you should be cutting "rogue and peasant slave"; that one's 59 lines long!
I think someone said that Stephen Fry did an intro for this sketch - anyone have that or know where to find it? Love these two gents - have always preferred Atkinson's Blackadder to Bean, and as for the inimitable Mr. Laurie....thank you, Brits, for letting us borrow this jewel for a while :)
nah not really. We've done Hamlet in school, but I didn't really bother with it much. I understand the storyline and the plot, but the meaning of the monologues slipped my mind. Yet I still understood most of it. The only thing I didn't get was the crack about the Rose theathre...
It's only people in the US (and not all of them, of course). But many other people around the world know Blackadder. We had a DVD set back when I was 10 or something. Although back then I didn't understand the majority of their jokes =P
His American accent is actually quite good. I'm not a fair judge of whether it sounds completely authentic, as years of Jeeves and Wooster have disqualified me from an impartial opinion, but I believe that if I saw it cold I would call him American.
Lestephenois, If you had not learned it at school though I wonder if you would have tried it again. I think hating it is probably most people's first reaction because it's difficult, until someone starts explaining it.
Ok, thanks I haven't seen blackadder in a while I should watch them again. I like when Blackadder said that baldrick was filthier than a dung beetle that had lost intrest in its carrer and really let itself go.
Rowan Atkinson = Mr Bean? Errmm... Gosh people, please watch some Blackadder. There's more to Rowan Atkinson than a rubber face, funny voice and a few physical gags. Oh and there's way more to Hugh Laurie than House.
Hugh Laurie played a guest role in Blackadder The Third in the episode where they are drinking some very strong beer. The suit that Atkinson is wearing in this video looks like the one from Blackadder The Third. @ supa22man
I get accused of being a foreigner all the time because my accent is a little too neutral. I was born and raised in NY- LoL. He uses a good neutral accent, and I know a few people with a similar one, myself included! :o)
Two of the best comdeians england ever produced. Love the part about there are no toilets on this side of the Thames. I hope they will work again together in the neir future. Prefered with Stephen Fry
Then do yourself a favour mate and look up some vids on youtube for Blackadder the Third and Blackadder goes Forth though I do have to admit to a slight preference for the second Blackadder series myself.
As I've said to a couple of others, look for the vids posted by Blackadder20. They've posted all the episodes in order and if you haven't seen it before I would watch all of them from the beginning.
Actually I'd've liked to see these characters instead of King George and the Butler in Blackadder the Third. Course it would be during the same time as Blackadder II. Still
not blackadder, although Blackadder is excellent, this is not meant to be blackadder nor is it considered to be a blackadder special by creator richard curtis. check it out
its neither. this is a sketch at a fundraising event. hes just playing shakespeare's agent/manager. theres no connection with blackadder, and no reason to think its marlowe
Yes, but the point of the Rose Theatre joke was that The Rose was under threat of closure at the time this sketch was filmed, and there was a big campaign to save it.
If you wanted to be that mean to a person who uploaded this, you could've at least written "OMG it's Edmund Blackadder!" because Edmund Blackadder is The Best
This made me want to watch the nonexistent 5-hour version of Hamlet, although I'd be bored to death. Or the real snappy version, where Hamlet dies in Act 1. lol
OMG it's house!!' and 'Mr.Bean!" No just kidding. But i do think that ROWAN ATKINSON and HUGH LAURIE! are both fantastic actors and this is a great sketch
I had no idea that Hugh Laurie was a comedian. I mean, I knew he was a british actor, but man! AND he worked with Rowan Atkinson, too! Good golly miss molly!
I don't think this is the rose theater. I always thought that the rose theater was an old style theater that was falling apart. I'm probably wrong but, eh...
Laurie usually excels at playing bumbling, incompetent characters. He's just made Shakespeare seem like a no-talent arse, and that sure takes some doing.
The Blackadder series are way better than Mr. Bean. In my humble opinion Blackadder is the best series Rowan Atkinson ever did.
rowan atkinson and hugh laurie should do more scenes together they complement each other very well, they are both extremely talented actors
'that is the question. Do da do da do da la la la la' Imagine how many English teachers have explained Shakespeare like that :P
@kapakal
He says "Yeah well I've always said the Rose Theatre is a dump. Frankly, I mean the sooner they knock it down and build something decent the better".
if Shakespeare were alive today he'd have laugh at this sketch too
Oh darn it! I can't help myself.
"OMG: it's Bertie Wooster and Blackadder II"
"all I'm saying, Shakey..." :D :D :D
The Rose Theatre structure was torn down more than 380 years before this sketch was performed. The reason the line was funny is because it was topical. The surviving foundations of the Rose had just been unearthed in a building project, sparking a debate as to whether the builders should be allowed to continue demolishing it to build their office complex.
For the record, this sketch was performed in the Sadler's Wells Theatre.
That was amazing.
"you can put the cockney grave diggers back in."
"both of them?"
"whoops! (hamlet falls off the battlements)"
Hah, you can hear some of the crowd at the beginning shouting, 'bollocks!'
Good old Stephen XD
brilliant, just brilliant.
"and we'll see which one history remembers" hahahahah
Like Pratchett's "Hedgehog Song", the "Avocado Monologue" just begs to be written. The tap-dancing Othello (and, for some reason, my mind's eye instantly supplies Mr. Lenworth Henry) would also be an inevitable joy. As ever the rapport between Hugh and Rowan as actors is evident, the fluency emergent from long familiarity. A tiny treasure too long overlooked; thank you so much for posting.
Much funnier when you know the play
Thanks SO much
Love the fact that Rowan's costume is so close to his BlackAdder II duds.
not likely, since rowan is not playing "blackadder" here, merely an elizabethan editor (Character un-named)
My father was a huge fan of Blackadder, and he had to buy dvd's to even watch it. I loved Blackadder, and when I saw Hugh on house, I thought, "Who knew the Prince Regent was so cynical?"
3:10 "To be or not to be that is the question..... Tre trea tre trea, tre trea trea"... Absolutely brilliant.
Anyone who enoys Rowan Atkinson and Hugh Laurie together would probably enjoy Blackadder third series. I recommend the episode "Ink and Incapability" where Robbie Coltrane (of Hagrid fame) plays Dr Johnson.
God I love English humor!
True, although he does House very well.
Rowan's definitely channelling "Mr B" here and having Blackadder as your editor would drive you mad! Of course, this is all drawn from their real life experience.
"You said that about the avocado monologue in "King Lear"! And the tap dance at the end of "Othello"!" *dies*
haha "shaky" "tempermental git"
loved it! comedic geniuses both of them!
Hugh and Rowen are so funny and together they are absolute genius.
Thanks so much for uploading the video :)
@casdebom2 I have watched it, it's one of my favourite shows! Love HL
bloody brilliant that is.. gotta love Hugh Laurie.
Heh, well, in the rather long intro to this sketch, Stephen Fry accused them of "getting pissed ['drunk' for my fellow Americans] instead of going on and doing a carefully rehearsed sketch."
Where did you get this? Is there a dvd you can buy or something? 'Yawnsville!' :P
I'm not sure if you're serious or if you are making a comparison, but it is supposed to be two completly diffrent charecters. It is supposed to be Shakespeare and his boss.
I love Hugh Laurie. He was great in Blackadder and many of the things he did back in England, We are privileged to have him in the US now though sometimes I miss his more light hearted humor
Two episodes of series 2 as a drinking companion in Beer and more memorably as Ludwig the Invincible in the final episode. However in season 3 and 4 he was in every episode as Prince George and Lieutenant George.
This is a great sketch, I loved it! This actual conversation may have taken place too, who knows... ;-) And those two delve into the soliloquy more deeply than some scholars and some university professors I know (and whose names I do not wish to remember haha)
Show this to school kids! (And then when they don't like it, the teachers have my express permission to bitch about why they should.)
Rowan Atkinson. Hugh Laurie. Hamlet.
THIS IS EPIC.
That costume on Rowan reminds me of the Black Adder 8D
how Hamlet came to be... brilliant!
@LilithMaura
actually, 'To be' soliloquey was supposed to be much longer here. the editor then proceeded to trim it to the 'to be' that we know today...
so he did get it right
No plagiarism! Steven Fry said something like that earlier.
anyway, "House" is so much shorter than "Hugh Laurie." :S and "Mr Bean" is definitely shorter than "Rowan Atkinson." great. now you made me type out their full names. lazy me. how dare you. :D
Yep, Hugh Laurie. Check out the Blackadder series to see more of these two working together. Brilliant!!!
Hey, where can I find the script for this?
I transcribed this sketch about 16 years ago or so. It's still up on the net somewhere, I'm sure... I still have the text file too, and can pass it along.
O MY GAWD!!!! IT'S HOUSE!!!! lol
Maybe you should take a look at "Blackadder" and "A bit of Fry and Laurie"... ;-)
The word is "Gibberish"
traffic was a bitch XD
I had no idea he was a biped! Next you'll be telling me he breathes oxygen!
Two of my favourite British actors: Atkinson and Laurie. Absolutely brilliant.
And there he lay
Abandoned his wife and child
the fiendish fawn
Crawled pitifully out the backdoor
where no answers would have to be questioned
nor any questions answered
Oh so beautifully crafted was their escape
perfected over the ages by men too weak to live and too stupid to stay live
done symbolically
carelessly
They died
Left
Became but ashes in a life that continues. That exhausts beautifully
gracefully when untouched by earthly hands.
We must never say these things.
it distracts
"...on wooden seats...and no toilets this side of the Thames."
(The Thames is the river in London upon which the Rose theatre was built)
Bill: "Yeah, well I've always said that the Rose Theatre is a dump (Shakespeare's company STARTED at the Rose), frankly. The sooner they knock it down and build something decent the better." (Shakespeare was in a partnership that built the GLOBE theatre on the other side of the Thames, making him very wealthy.)
Actually, you're sort of right in a wrong way :o). I was born tounge tied... so I had one until a surgery. Then it was years of speach therapy where, shockers of shockers- I was taught to pronounce my words correctly. So my T's are T's, not D's as most people's around here. Though I think it's sad that's the case. Then again, I've seen most people here confuse English, Scottish, Irish, and Australian accents- which sound completely different from each other.
You know, since House started, I've met a bunch of people that've said the same thing. I realize that "a bit of fry and laurie" wasn't shown here (US) and Black Adder was only shown sporadically. But I thought that everyone had seen or at least heard about all the Jeeves and Wooster episodes that were on throughout the 90s.
But see, Dr. Cox isn't half as witty as House. It's a completely different thing. He relies solely on super-long, adjective-infused, but otherwise meaningless sentences. It gets old pretty fast. House is someone who might be a bit of a jerk, but still deserves your respect. The humor of the show is unique, and the jokes are far more varied than those on Scrubs, without a doubt.
Ok, see a neutral accent means that it's neutral for the country you're in. It isn't just a US accent, it's a New York one, Texan, Southern... and then each of those have differences- New York accents you can have the Queens accent, Brooklyn.
Neutral is when people in your own country can't place it. You've never met people like that?
I like Hugh Laurie better as a comedian than a grumpy doctor, anyhow, regardless of my introduction to him. He's just a fantastic actor is all.
Now, if you're worried about soliloquy-length, you should be cutting "rogue and peasant slave"; that one's 59 lines long!
I think someone said that Stephen Fry did an intro for this sketch - anyone have that or know where to find it?
Love these two gents - have always preferred Atkinson's Blackadder to Bean, and as for the inimitable Mr. Laurie....thank you, Brits, for letting us borrow this jewel for a while :)
nah not really. We've done Hamlet in school, but I didn't really bother with it much. I understand the storyline and the plot, but the meaning of the monologues slipped my mind. Yet I still understood most of it. The only thing I didn't get was the crack about the Rose theathre...
It's only people in the US (and not all of them, of course). But many other people around the world know Blackadder. We had a DVD set back when I was 10 or something. Although back then I didn't understand the majority of their jokes =P
His American accent is actually quite good. I'm not a fair judge of whether it sounds completely authentic, as years of Jeeves and Wooster have disqualified me from an impartial opinion, but I believe that if I saw it cold I would call him American.
Lestephenois, If you had not learned it at school though I wonder if you would have tried it again. I think hating it is probably most people's first reaction because it's difficult, until someone starts explaining it.
Ok, thanks I haven't seen blackadder in a while I should watch them again. I like when Blackadder said that baldrick was filthier than a dung beetle that had lost intrest in its carrer and really let itself go.
Rowan Atkinson = Mr Bean? Errmm...
Gosh people, please watch some Blackadder. There's more to Rowan Atkinson than a rubber face, funny voice and a few physical gags.
Oh and there's way more to Hugh Laurie than House.
Hugh Laurie played a guest role in Blackadder The Third in the episode where they are drinking some very strong beer.
The suit that Atkinson is wearing in this video looks like the one from Blackadder The Third. @ supa22man
I get accused of being a foreigner all the time because my accent is a little too neutral. I was born and raised in NY- LoL. He uses a good neutral accent, and I know a few people with a similar one, myself included! :o)
Tap dancing sketch in "Othello" ?!? Whahahaha!! XD Comedy GOLD!
Two of the best comdeians england ever produced.
Love the part about there are no toilets on this side of the Thames.
I hope they will work again together in the neir future. Prefered with Stephen Fry
Then do yourself a favour mate and look up some vids on youtube for Blackadder the Third and Blackadder goes Forth though I do have to admit to a slight preference for the second Blackadder series myself.
As I've said to a couple of others, look for the vids posted by Blackadder20. They've posted all the episodes in order and if you haven't seen it before I would watch all of them from the beginning.
Actually I'd've liked to see these characters instead of King George and the Butler in Blackadder the Third.
Course it would be during the same time as Blackadder II. Still
not blackadder, although Blackadder is excellent, this is not meant to be blackadder nor is it considered to be a blackadder special by creator richard curtis. check it out
its neither. this is a sketch at a fundraising event. hes just playing shakespeare's agent/manager. theres no connection with blackadder, and no reason to think its marlowe
Yes, but the point of the Rose Theatre joke was that The Rose was under threat of closure at the time this sketch was filmed, and there was a big campaign to save it.
If you wanted to be that mean to a person who uploaded this, you could've at least written "OMG it's Edmund Blackadder!" because Edmund Blackadder is The Best
This made me want to watch the nonexistent 5-hour version of Hamlet, although I'd be bored to death. Or the real snappy version, where Hamlet dies in Act 1. lol
OMG it's house!!' and 'Mr.Bean!"
No just kidding. But i do think that ROWAN ATKINSON and HUGH LAURIE! are both fantastic actors and this is a great sketch
I had no idea that Hugh Laurie was a comedian. I mean, I knew he was a british actor, but man! AND he worked with Rowan Atkinson, too!
Good golly miss molly!
I don't think this is the rose theater. I always thought that the rose theater was an old style theater that was falling apart. I'm probably wrong but, eh...
Spiderman5z, Yes it's the one with the dictionary. I love it when Baldrick burns it and Blackadder is trying to find out from him what happened to it.
Laurie usually excels at playing bumbling, incompetent characters. He's just made Shakespeare seem like a no-talent arse, and that sure takes some doing.
Well, I usually am because people can't place my accent here. I was actually yelled at that I should say where I came from and should be proud of it.
i had to look up the rose theatre on wikipedia to get that joke
issa good one
Interestingly this sketch may be the origin of the phrase 'Bums on seats' as it has been traced to the UK around the time of the 1980s/1990s.
To be a victim or not to be a coward... Both I say!^^ Editors are so evil - and I wish I had seen it when studying Hamlet. Thank you for sharing.
i love blackadder,i watched it so many times i can memorize everything backwards. Rowan Atkinson completed wasted his talent.i hate mr.bean.
OK, that line means nothing except that you watch House. But you already made that clear in the previous comment, so yeah...back to nothing.
=P
Hey, no typecasting! This isn't House, this is Hugh Laurie, whose real is Hugh Laurie, but who is better known for his stage name: Hugh Laurie.
it's hard for me to understand all,caz english it's not my mother language,but i that what i understand i can say it's good,really good! ;D
After seeing Blackadder Rides Again, I wonder if this was inspired by Richard Curtis' reaction to the Blackadder "tweaking" sessions. :-)
Bill, Bill... awesome. Somehow I never thought of Shakespear as 'Bill' :D
Traffic was a bitch - thet's why he was late for this scetch.
Not meaning to cause offence but i only think you don't find this funny because you don't know your history very well. Sorry if i offended.
The 'bloody Shakespeares' are all out of work because ppl prefer the shite that comes out of the pens of John Grisham and J.K Rowlings.
Actually no one is actually sure who wrote them, there is still speculation if he actually wrote them or one of several other people.
Can someone tell me if there's here that show of him when he plays the whole story about a good king and his evil twin brother?
i don't understand Laurie's words at 1:03, when he answers abouit the toilets/ can someone write them?
With these costumes they remind me on BLACK ADDER Season III when they played together the Prince of Wales and his butler.
I don't think so. It's one of those things that's funny.... but it's hysterical if you know what they're talking about.
You can't say that it's gibberish' That means 'Geplauder, Plausch, Schwätzchen or Plauderei' in German if I'm not mistaken.
Are they wearing their costumes from Blackadder II?
maybe it was that thing around his neck that just pushed up his neck skin and made it look like a double chin...
It's Rowan Atkinson. And he has more talent in his left hand than Ben Stiller and Will Farrell put together.