Part 2: ua-cam.com/video/F0ULYAG4PoY/v-deo.html&ab_channel=McJibbin Unfortunately I had to split this episode into 3 parts guys. I'll pin the link to the next part in the comments of each video
The racism from the Major is often left out of this episode when it's reshown these days, which is ridiculous. This was the mid 1970's and the major has out of date views even for that time period. Which is the whole point of that scene
I'd not disagree with anything you say as it's probably true but the entire scene is completely out of character with the entire series. Stereotyping Germans is one thing- used abhorrent racial epiphets (said by a character who was, at worst, portrayed as slightly senile but definitely not portrayed as a racist xenophobe). It just isn't what Fawlty Towers was intended to be- it's a scene which doesn't fit with any other scene in either series. AND it remains a racist epiphet which should be treated with caution in any comedy
Please bare in mind that Major is being presented as an old timer even in the 70's - the racism you see is presented as a satirical look at people who actually think like that, even in the 70's
If you take note, Basil has a different tie in every episode. They are all military ties from different regiments or college ties. The one in this episode is an Oxford college tie
I grew up on this kind of comedy. Never ever to be repeated, sadly. Your reaction to this episode is utterly priceless 😂. Please do all episodes because it's unique and the apex of comedy.
Basil's reaction to the black doctor- I think Basil was just surprised to see a black guy. I know at least where I grew up in the late 80s and into the 90s I knew of like one black family that's it. Probably would have been even less common in the 70s in Torquay I'm guessing
very true Wild Wine - even today Torquay is considered a quiet, respectable, slightly posh place where old British people live their last years in a mild climate. In the 1970s it would have been full of elderly toffs like the Major (ex British Army of WW1 vintage), and the elderly spinster ladies in Fawlty Towers. I doubt there would have been any black/brown/etc people living there at all at that time, just as was the case in my home town in rural Gloucestershire during the 60s n 70s, indeed there are only a few there even nowadays (and NOT cos the locals are all NF racists lol).
to echo my earlier point abt Torquay - I mentioned this whole discussion to my wife last night. She recalled the day in her secondary school, a good, decent Catholic church school in Banbury Oxfordshire, a fairly-quiet respectable town within regular and easy travelling distance of Birmingham etc, so you might think less remote in attitudes and cultural experiences etc than Torquay, where the head teacher thought it necessary to hold a special school assembly to tell the 700+ pupils they would soon be welcoming a new family, the first black kids in the school, and how they should be welcomed and treated as if they were "normal" just like all the rest of the kids, ie the white kids. NO other new families/arrivals were given this treatment by the school. And this happened in abt 1976/1977..... !
What you have to remember is that the Major is being portrayed as a doddery old fool who's language is as archaic as he is. Which is why the terms he used for certain foreign nationals is as flowery as it is. As with all comedy, it's not meant to offend anyone, nor should it be taken as such.
The strange thing about this episode is that in the 1970's the n-word was almost never used by British people. They used racial slurs, but hardly ever that word. If you heard it, it usually had been spoken by an American. in Oliver's Army by Elvis Costello, it is used about white people. Brits tended to use the n-word in those days to describe somebody who had got a very rough deal out of life and was being subject to bad things they didn't deserve. Hence the name of the Agatha Christie book, which has now been changed to 'And Then There Were None'
When the Major says he took the girl to see India… at the oval, The Oval is a Stadium so he took her to see a match between England and India and not actually India!
The major is a cricket fan. Hampshire are a domestic cricket team, whom he supports, and watching India at The Oval would be an international match against England. The Oval is a well known test match cricket ground in London.
Just so you know, when the Major says he took a woman "to see India... at the Oval", he means he took her to a cricket match where the Indian team was playing. That was his idea of a romantic date. And no, what follows would not now be transmittable on television today. (I know you didn't say that, but your expression certainly did from around 6:29 onwards.)
Exactly, a lot of people just don't get that, he is a silly old fool with ridiculous and unsavoury attitudes, he is a satirical representation of a 'type' .
That's the point of the episode to show how stupid people get when trying to walk on eggshells when you can't 'mention the war'. Something we could all learn from today given it's swung a complete 180 and people are openly calling white people every name under the sun on TV and in Government.
John Cleese deliberately put racist ideas into the mouths of characters who were foolish and laughable, because that’s how you satirize the idea of racism. Fawlty and the Major share a conversation about how they dislike other groups, but their own conversation is addled and confused, making them the point of the joke.
well I never knew that about the stripes, how odd, thanks. Fwiw, another poster in this thread thinks today's tie is an Oxford college tie ?. In the series he wears several different ties, all to give the impression of rank, authority, class etc (regimental, school, etc), because Basil so clearly yearned to be associated with such people.
India at the Oval means a cricket match. So what makes _that_ joke funny is the generational difference in the casual use of racism. Basil being stunned silent is actually a pretty typical response to something like that for a Brit. Usually we wouldn't confront someone over something like that (at least not back then), probably wouldn't even really take offence on someone else's behalf, we'd just be astonished, and then condemn it later in private with a partner / friend. Also 50 years ago you could still say something offensive if your intention wasn't to cause offense, TV producers actually trusted the audience to understand context. Although interesting to see the various other racist terms used in the show that at the time were considered perfectly acceptable, as well as the casual homophobia.
Oh you poor sausage I forgot this is the one they show now with this includes language people find offensive/reflects the time or whatever it is they say.
Why did you not use the word nigger? It is obvious that that is what you meant. This cancelling of this word is pathetic. It needs to be retained in the language to demonstrate the hatred and oppressive abusive that it meant. It needs to be called out for what it is and not pushed aside.
Don't be offended by the " inappropriate , outdated language" ( as they say these days!). It's just COMEDY. We should be allowed to laugh at everyone and everything. If you wan to hear similar language you should watch TILL DEATH US DO PART. A British comedy series starring WARREN MITCHELL as ALF GARNETT.
Basil's startled at 4:22 because he's (perhaps subconsciously) racist, and is shocked to see a black doctor (you may have noticed that racism/xenophobia is the main theme of this episode.)
The racism here is never conscionable. The only observation, never an excuse, was that this was first broadcast in the mid 70s. Within a very short space of time, aspects like this would be banned, thankfully.
Don’t be too concerned about the N word and the word Wog. The whole joke is that the major is incredibly out of touch even for the 70s. However in the 70s you were still allowed to joke about it
04:28 Basil's reaction was because someone he didn't know was calling him by his name and that threw him for a second. The way he treats his guests he probably thought it was a policeman to arrest him or legal represented to issue a writ suing him.
The whole script's riffing on a theme of prejudice. While the Major's language is overtly racist, Basil's reaction to the doctor and his behaviour with the Germans illustrates prejudice below the surface. Note also that during the reception exchange with the Major, Basil's making sexist comments about female intelligence... just before he has to explain that Polly's 'brushing up on another one of her languages.'
1975 UK tv, racist comments were acceptable, thats why basil took a step back in the first scene when he saw the coloured Dr...... (oh my goodness a coloured man!)
One of the ironies of this episode is that they broadcast the N word (which even the 1975 audience sounded a bit shocked by), but couldn't say 'God' because it's blasphemy, so Basil says 'oh, Buddha' instead
Re the Major's racism, several comments here about his old-fashioned views of an old man etc, but no-one's mentioned his (character's) previous life. He's clearly an upper-class "posh" twit, public school background so a "sheltered" upbringing, and barmy if not senile. He was once a senior officer, a Major, in the British Army (he usually wears a Royal Artillery tie), and fought in the First World War as a young man. Chances are he then served in British Empire/colonial postings overseas, India, West Indies etc, where he'd be in charge of men from those places. After his Army life he maybe worked overseas, perhaps in the family business, tea, rubber, etc ?. So, the behaviour shown here is completely typical of a great many elderly people of his ilk and lifetime experiences who were alive in real-world 1970s Britain. And dare I say, you'd have seen similar people in most other countries of that time, including the USA. The whole episode is a deliberate tilt taking the mick out of racial stereotypes. Finally, please remember that the whole plot, and the characters, were based upon a real-world hotel the Python's used in 1970 while filming in Torquay. The series is of it's time, and as brilliantly hilarious now as it was then.
Your reaction to the use of the 'N' word is perfectly understandable, but that word wasn't considered racist in the UK until well into the 1970s -- the UK Conservatives had even been using it in election leaflets and posters in the mid-1960s -- "If you want a 'n-word' for a neighbour, vote Labour', for example, in the Smethwick election, 1964. Ten years later it was universally recognised as racist in the UK. Had Fawlty Towers been made in 1985/6, not 1975/6, that word wouldn't have been used. Smethwick: ua-cam.com/video/p3298o8lwlk/v-deo.html
Yes, the first series is totally different to the others in tone and style, and not that funny. Start with the 2nd. Blackadder is a totally different character in the first.
It was a different time. However, we should understand that this show constantly makes subtle commentaries on prejudice and bigotry - Cleese is very Liberal irl.
The whole point of the scene with the Major is to show how outdated he is. It's not aged well definitely, but the joke is that the Major is using language that is shocking and out of date. I still think it shouldn't be edited out of re-showings, the show should remain as it was written. I'm not one for trying to change all historical media to be appropriate for what is currently acceptable this week (before it changes again next week). It's the one scene from the show that I feel wasn't really needed and I don't even mean from my 2023 eyes, I mean just...why feel the need to make that joke? We know the Major's outdated and mental, we didn't need to resort to it to make that point. It's a shame but it's still a part of the show, whether we like it or not. My parents still remember a show called Love Thy Neighbour which was...let's just say...it leaned on negative black stereotypes just a bit. They refer to black characters as every slur you can think of, say that they're cannibals and it was a sitcom, not a hard-hitting drama. It was just more accepted by the public of the time to use slurs and stereotypes, even in scenes like the Major where his outdated views are the joke. The show isn't mocking black people or Indian people, it's mocking the Major, just using jokes that have aged terribly.
That's what the scene appears to be trying to show BUT there is nothing in the entire two series which reflects, in any other scene, such outward outdated language. Stereotyping is used frequently and to good effect but overtly racist epiphets don't sit well within the series. The entire scene doesn't make any sense in the context of the series or episode
@@simontomlinson6484 This scene is entirely in keeping with the Major Gowen's character, and it's nothing but a send-up of his outdated colonialist attitudes. The Major is an old-school military type, almost certainly from an "officer-class" family, who lived during the latter days of the British Empire. He's the sort of character who had grown up not thinking twice about using such words, and probably didn't even consider them as racist, even if younger people at the time would. Those of us, like me, who are old enough to have had grandparents and other relatives of the Major's generation, will recognise this; there were plenty of people like him still around in the 1970s. This little scene is interesting as a piece of social history, if nothing else. _"there is nothing in the entire two series which reflects, in any other scene, such outward outdated language"_ - Look again.
@@ftumschk They weren't outdated colonial attitudes- they were general attitudes thought and said by the entire country! There was nothing outdated about his attitudes in the mid 70s
@@simontomlinson6484 If so, then it's even more valuable as a piece of social history. BTW, they certainly weren't attitudes shared by me and the majority of my peers, so I guess we must have been in an "entire country" of our own.
@@ftumschk I don't think we will agree if your view of the 1970s was that this was a racist, homophobic and misogynistic country which has slowly got better but, particularly in remaining male dominated areas (police, fire, military), it continues to have those attitudes in abundance.
We see Basil not engaging in the Major's racist language, yet Basel jumps when a black man approaches him , then turns respectful when he realises he's a doctor making him a middle class equei. The episode makes us wonder how much prejudice is just beneath the surface of all of us
Your reaction to the racial and gender slurs was classic. The levels of PC sensitivity were completely dialled down when this was written and not as much offence as you would expect was taken.
2:35 Incidentally, do you know what he means by this Connor? In case you missed it. _'I thought slavery had been abolished...'_ Actually I think you may, there was a video you reacted to 18 months ago...but it was frankly shit (not your reaction, the video). ua-cam.com/video/_NoWIZv96KU/v-deo.html&t This is a FAR more concise video.
Part 2: ua-cam.com/video/F0ULYAG4PoY/v-deo.html&ab_channel=McJibbin
Unfortunately I had to split this episode into 3 parts guys. I'll pin the link to the next part in the comments of each video
The racism from the Major is often left out of this episode when it's reshown these days, which is ridiculous. This was the mid 1970's and the major has out of date views even for that time period.
Which is the whole point of that scene
Sure, but Twitter doesn't understand nuance and irony, they just hear the word and want it erased from history.
I'd not disagree with anything you say as it's probably true but the entire scene is completely out of character with the entire series. Stereotyping Germans is one thing- used abhorrent racial epiphets (said by a character who was, at worst, portrayed as slightly senile but definitely not portrayed as a racist xenophobe). It just isn't what Fawlty Towers was intended to be- it's a scene which doesn't fit with any other scene in either series. AND it remains a racist epiphet which should be treated with caution in any comedy
@@SaintPhoenixx You white
Its an awesome scene and the major is correct in many respects
I'll never understand people who get so upset over words.
Please bare in mind that Major is being presented as an old timer even in the 70's - the racism you see is presented as a satirical look at people who actually think like that, even in the 70's
If you take note, Basil has a different tie in every episode. They are all military ties from different regiments or college ties. The one in this episode is an Oxford college tie
I was not expecting this to be the uncensored version! Was caught a bit off guard there
Your reaction at 6:28 for about half a minute is incredible
I grew up on this kind of comedy. Never ever to be repeated, sadly. Your reaction to this episode is utterly priceless 😂. Please do all episodes because it's unique and the apex of comedy.
Basil's reaction to the black doctor- I think Basil was just surprised to see a black guy. I know at least where I grew up in the late 80s and into the 90s I knew of like one black family that's it. Probably would have been even less common in the 70s in Torquay I'm guessing
It is of course racist Basil Fawlty doesn't expect to see a black DOCTOR.
Yeah slight racism I think
very true Wild Wine - even today Torquay is considered a quiet, respectable, slightly posh place where old British people live their last years in a mild climate. In the 1970s it would have been full of elderly toffs like the Major (ex British Army of WW1 vintage), and the elderly spinster ladies in Fawlty Towers. I doubt there would have been any black/brown/etc people living there at all at that time, just as was the case in my home town in rural Gloucestershire during the 60s n 70s, indeed there are only a few there even nowadays (and NOT cos the locals are all NF racists lol).
to echo my earlier point abt Torquay - I mentioned this whole discussion to my wife last night. She recalled the day in her secondary school, a good, decent Catholic church school in Banbury Oxfordshire, a fairly-quiet respectable town within regular and easy travelling distance of Birmingham etc, so you might think less remote in attitudes and cultural experiences etc than Torquay, where the head teacher thought it necessary to hold a special school assembly to tell the 700+ pupils they would soon be welcoming a new family, the first black kids in the school, and how they should be welcomed and treated as if they were "normal" just like all the rest of the kids, ie the white kids. NO other new families/arrivals were given this treatment by the school. And this happened in abt 1976/1977..... !
What you have to remember is that the Major is being portrayed as a doddery old fool who's language is as archaic as he is. Which is why the terms he used for certain foreign nationals is as flowery as it is. As with all comedy, it's not meant to offend anyone, nor should it be taken as such.
The strange thing about this episode is that in the 1970's the n-word was almost never used by British people. They used racial slurs, but hardly ever that word. If you heard it, it usually had been spoken by an American.
in Oliver's Army by Elvis Costello, it is used about white people. Brits tended to use the n-word in those days to describe somebody who had got a very rough deal out of life and was being subject to bad things they didn't deserve. Hence the name of the Agatha Christie book, which has now been changed to 'And Then There Were None'
The most offensive word we used to use for black people in the 70s, was nig-nog.
When the Major says he took the girl to see India… at the oval, The Oval is a Stadium so he took her to see a match between England and India and not actually India!
Oh my, I don't remember the 'N' word in it 🤣
Maybe we never noticed it years ago 🤔
Poor Connor, you looked a little shocked 😂
That reaction was priceless 😅
These days when this episode is shown, that part has usually been removed!
Your reaction was priceless. Welcome to 70’s Britain.
I'm just gonna upvote right away because that episode is great :)
The major is a cricket fan. Hampshire are a domestic cricket team, whom he supports, and watching India at The Oval would be an international match against England. The Oval is a well known test match cricket ground in London.
You got the original version then 😂
The pure unadulterated version indeed.
Just so you know, when the Major says he took a woman "to see India... at the Oval", he means he took her to a cricket match where the Indian team was playing. That was his idea of a romantic date.
And no, what follows would not now be transmittable on television today. (I know you didn't say that, but your expression certainly did from around 6:29 onwards.)
The joke is on the major being from another era......
Exactly, a lot of people just don't get that, he is a silly old fool with ridiculous and unsavoury attitudes, he is a satirical representation of a 'type' .
That's the point of the episode to show how stupid people get when trying to walk on eggshells when you can't 'mention the war'. Something we could all learn from today given it's swung a complete 180 and people are openly calling white people every name under the sun on TV and in Government.
Basil's bad enough normally, but Basil with concussion is something else :D
John Cleese deliberately put racist ideas into the mouths of characters who were foolish and laughable, because that’s how you satirize the idea of racism. Fawlty and the Major share a conversation about how they dislike other groups, but their own conversation is addled and confused, making them the point of the joke.
I notice that Basil is wearing an American tie (the stripes go from top left to bottom right). European ties have stripes top right to bottom left.
well I never knew that about the stripes, how odd, thanks. Fwiw, another poster in this thread thinks today's tie is an Oxford college tie ?. In the series he wears several different ties, all to give the impression of rank, authority, class etc (regimental, school, etc), because Basil so clearly yearned to be associated with such people.
You're such a nice guy. You always make me laugh.
This is one of my most favorite episodes of Fawlty Towers. ;)
This is why I mentioned to use the video on Daily motion as its uncut😅 the conversation with the Major is cut to pieces usually
Great to see you enjoying this so much :)
India at the Oval means a cricket match.
So what makes _that_ joke funny is the generational difference in the casual use of racism. Basil being stunned silent is actually a pretty typical response to something like that for a Brit. Usually we wouldn't confront someone over something like that (at least not back then), probably wouldn't even really take offence on someone else's behalf, we'd just be astonished, and then condemn it later in private with a partner / friend.
Also 50 years ago you could still say something offensive if your intention wasn't to cause offense, TV producers actually trusted the audience to understand context. Although interesting to see the various other racist terms used in the show that at the time were considered perfectly acceptable, as well as the casual homophobia.
I see by your profile picture that you're a person of culture as well
@@ry_jayy Why yes sir, and may I also congratulate you on your excellent taste. A most discerning gentleman indeed.
Oh you poor sausage I forgot this is the one they show now with this includes language people find offensive/reflects the time or whatever it is they say.
I don't think you expected those words did you. Just one reason this episode isn't repeated in full anymore.
Awesome Show and Work Bro, Thanks 👍👍👍👍😀 Greetings from, Helsinki Finland 🇫🇮🇺🇸🇫🇮🇺🇸🇫🇮🇺🇸
Your reaction when he said the N word was priceless, you didn't know what to say of do 😂😂😂 it's ok Conner, he was an old guy and it was the 70s 😂
Why did you not use the word nigger? It is obvious that that is what you meant. This cancelling of this word is pathetic. It needs to be retained in the language to demonstrate the hatred and oppressive abusive that it meant. It needs to be called out for what it is and not pushed aside.
Don't be offended by the " inappropriate , outdated language" ( as they say these days!). It's just COMEDY. We should be allowed to laugh at everyone and everything.
If you wan to hear similar language you should watch TILL DEATH US DO PART. A British comedy series starring WARREN MITCHELL as ALF GARNETT.
Basil's startled at 4:22 because he's (perhaps subconsciously) racist, and is shocked to see a black doctor (you may have noticed that racism/xenophobia is the main theme of this episode.)
I saw a live show of Fawlty Towers once, I was dying with laughter
But you think you got away with it?
@@scipioafricanus5871 there were loads more people there, at least it wasn’t the Goodies or it definitely would’ve been banned
@@tfrowlett8752 I think you might have missed the joke there sadly :D
The racism here is never conscionable. The only observation, never an excuse, was that this was first broadcast in the mid 70s. Within a very short space of time, aspects like this would be banned, thankfully.
Don’t be too concerned about the N word and the word Wog. The whole joke is that the major is incredibly out of touch even for the 70s. However in the 70s you were still allowed to joke about it
In the 70s there was still a whole generation who had lived through wartime propaganda and the 60s immigration issues.
04:28 Basil's reaction was because someone he didn't know was calling him by his name and that threw him for a second. The way he treats his guests he probably thought it was a policeman to arrest him or legal represented to issue a writ suing him.
I think a lot of Basil's shock was also down to the fact that Dr Finn was black.
The whole script's riffing on a theme of prejudice. While the Major's language is overtly racist, Basil's reaction to the doctor and his behaviour with the Germans illustrates prejudice below the surface. Note also that during the reception exchange with the Major, Basil's making sexist comments about female intelligence... just before he has to explain that Polly's 'brushing up on another one of her languages.'
1975 UK tv, racist comments were acceptable, thats why basil took a step back in the first scene when he saw the coloured Dr...... (oh my goodness a coloured man!)
In 1975, huge swathes of the UK population had never seen a coloured person except in film stereotypes.
Me think this could be the best episode of Fawlty Towers. And the Major is kinda...well..the Major! 😁 ...Peace...
One of the ironies of this episode is that they broadcast the N word (which even the 1975 audience sounded a bit shocked by), but couldn't say 'God' because it's blasphemy, so Basil says 'oh, Buddha' instead
Re the Major's racism, several comments here about his old-fashioned views of an old man etc, but no-one's mentioned his (character's) previous life. He's clearly an upper-class "posh" twit, public school background so a "sheltered" upbringing, and barmy if not senile. He was once a senior officer, a Major, in the British Army (he usually wears a Royal Artillery tie), and fought in the First World War as a young man. Chances are he then served in British Empire/colonial postings overseas, India, West Indies etc, where he'd be in charge of men from those places. After his Army life he maybe worked overseas, perhaps in the family business, tea, rubber, etc ?. So, the behaviour shown here is completely typical of a great many elderly people of his ilk and lifetime experiences who were alive in real-world 1970s Britain. And dare I say, you'd have seen similar people in most other countries of that time, including the USA. The whole episode is a deliberate tilt taking the mick out of racial stereotypes. Finally, please remember that the whole plot, and the characters, were based upon a real-world hotel the Python's used in 1970 while filming in Torquay. The series is of it's time, and as brilliantly hilarious now as it was then.
Welcome to the 70s!
Well you weren’t expecting that were you! 😮
Your reaction to the use of the 'N' word is perfectly understandable, but that word wasn't considered racist in the UK until well into the 1970s -- the UK Conservatives had even been using it in election leaflets and posters in the mid-1960s -- "If you want a 'n-word' for a neighbour, vote Labour', for example, in the Smethwick election, 1964. Ten years later it was universally recognised as racist in the UK. Had Fawlty Towers been made in 1985/6, not 1975/6, that word wouldn't have been used.
Smethwick:
ua-cam.com/video/p3298o8lwlk/v-deo.html
It was a different time...
She's still got my wallet lol
Thanks so much for reminding me you can see everything, when I can see fuck all. So kind of you.
Seasons 2, 3 and 4 of “Blackadder” are all much better than season 1.
Yes Thats Right!!! Greetings from Helsinki, Finland 🇫🇮
Yes, the first series is totally different to the others in tone and style, and not that funny. Start with the 2nd. Blackadder is a totally different character in the first.
I'd watch the first season after the rest
💯
Season 1 was not as polished as the rest of the series, but it is still watchable.
My favourite episode!
It was a different time. However, we should understand that this show constantly makes subtle commentaries on prejudice and bigotry - Cleese is very Liberal irl.
I was waiting in cringe for the race part.. 😬 then you point out the resemblance to sleepy joe at the perfect time. 😂
Please do carry on with the first series of Blackadder
Do the first Black Adder series, it's fun!
"Can I take a break ..."
You're from Rhidy? So am I! What part of The Ocean State is home? BTW, this us one of the top 3 funniest of the series.
The whole point of the scene with the Major is to show how outdated he is. It's not aged well definitely, but the joke is that the Major is using language that is shocking and out of date. I still think it shouldn't be edited out of re-showings, the show should remain as it was written. I'm not one for trying to change all historical media to be appropriate for what is currently acceptable this week (before it changes again next week). It's the one scene from the show that I feel wasn't really needed and I don't even mean from my 2023 eyes, I mean just...why feel the need to make that joke? We know the Major's outdated and mental, we didn't need to resort to it to make that point. It's a shame but it's still a part of the show, whether we like it or not.
My parents still remember a show called Love Thy Neighbour which was...let's just say...it leaned on negative black stereotypes just a bit. They refer to black characters as every slur you can think of, say that they're cannibals and it was a sitcom, not a hard-hitting drama. It was just more accepted by the public of the time to use slurs and stereotypes, even in scenes like the Major where his outdated views are the joke. The show isn't mocking black people or Indian people, it's mocking the Major, just using jokes that have aged terribly.
That's what the scene appears to be trying to show BUT there is nothing in the entire two series which reflects, in any other scene, such outward outdated language. Stereotyping is used frequently and to good effect but overtly racist epiphets don't sit well within the series. The entire scene doesn't make any sense in the context of the series or episode
@@simontomlinson6484 This scene is entirely in keeping with the Major Gowen's character, and it's nothing but a send-up of his outdated colonialist attitudes. The Major is an old-school military type, almost certainly from an "officer-class" family, who lived during the latter days of the British Empire. He's the sort of character who had grown up not thinking twice about using such words, and probably didn't even consider them as racist, even if younger people at the time would. Those of us, like me, who are old enough to have had grandparents and other relatives of the Major's generation, will recognise this; there were plenty of people like him still around in the 1970s. This little scene is interesting as a piece of social history, if nothing else.
_"there is nothing in the entire two series which reflects, in any other scene, such outward outdated language"_ - Look again.
@@ftumschk They weren't outdated colonial attitudes- they were general attitudes thought and said by the entire country! There was nothing outdated about his attitudes in the mid 70s
@@simontomlinson6484 If so, then it's even more valuable as a piece of social history.
BTW, they certainly weren't attitudes shared by me and the majority of my peers, so I guess we must have been in an "entire country" of our own.
@@ftumschk I don't think we will agree if your view of the 1970s was that this was a racist, homophobic and misogynistic country which has slowly got better but, particularly in remaining male dominated areas (police, fire, military), it continues to have those attitudes in abundance.
We see Basil not engaging in the Major's racist language, yet Basel jumps when a black man approaches him , then turns respectful when he realises he's a doctor making him a middle class equei.
The episode makes us wonder how much prejudice is just beneath the surface of all of us
There is prejudice in every single human being- and anyone who says they are not prejudice....is just lying to themselves
@@simontomlinson6484 I agree ,it`s a tribal thing .
Think of the old Punch magazine joke " Look, there`s a stranger ,let`s throw a brick at him".
the one episode not bought by Germany...One wonders why
You never reacted to season 2?
Love it, Ze Germans.
Who won the bloody war anyway???
The look of shock of your face when the major used the n word 😆😄😄 it was sometime in the 70s
"Joe Biden..." 😂😂😂
Don't mention the war !
Edit, Oh, the Major..... yes, the 70s.....
I mentioned it once , but I think I got away with it
@@jerryhayes9497 and the Major mentioned something several times, but I think he got away with it too...
Please ontinue black adder you will see how in the next series how they tightened the whole thing up.
You are aware that people of that generation spoke like that.
And probably was John Cleese at his best.
Yassssssss
Some of the comments on here are vile. Clearly this kind of humour resonates with people who have hateful agendas.
Your reaction to the racial and gender slurs was classic. The levels of PC sensitivity were completely dialled down when this was written and not as much offence as you would expect was taken.
The Major reminds me of Joe Biden you know the thing.
People used to talk like that, get over it.
your face
2:35 Incidentally, do you know what he means by this Connor? In case you missed it.
_'I thought slavery had been abolished...'_
Actually I think you may, there was a video you reacted to 18 months ago...but it was frankly shit (not your reaction, the video).
ua-cam.com/video/_NoWIZv96KU/v-deo.html&t
This is a FAR more concise video.
The reaction to the doctor was because he was black.