Better Luck Next Time! - tn2 issue 1 October 2023

Page 42

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quotidian mr. bean...

While a testament to the strengths of physical comedy, especially in an era when this style was otherwise unsung,

owan Atkinson’s evergreen portrayal of the inscrutable

“Mr. Bean” also serves as an interesting contemplation of the intricate

Mr. Bean has become, through the litmus test of time

web of societal constructs that govern human interactions. I don’t

passing, a staple of TV comedy, a meandering figure that

intend to suggest that Mr Bean is really an intellectual pursuit of

seems to remain solitary in its status of cultural possession. Atkinson

psychological

consummately represents someone who does not dictate his actions

exploration, he is really just a silly little guy, so proved by a vast

in accordance with any sense of what would be considered polite.

percentage of his dialogue being just “Teddy”. But he can be sort

Or of sound mind. What I mean to say is that when you watch “Mr.

of read as a treatise on how often contained within comedy, there

Bean” back, he is kind of actually just an insane guy, but a happy one.

is a reliance upon our trusted network of generally excepted social

A titan of physical comedy, Rowan Atkinson’s performance is really

patterns, and the necessary manoeuvring it takes for them to be both

wonderful, but if you squint a little, there is an interesting examination

obeyed and disrupted.

of social rules going on, and what happens when they are shattered. Let’s talk about how this analysis of our social conventions relates to

WORDS by Rowena Breen

the position of the audience in TV. I think that the dynamic between an audience and performance is especially unique in the case of Mr. Bean. He is an interesting testament to the interplay between audience and performance, and how our own implicit expectations, which we often take for granted, determine the context of the media that we consume. Throughout each episode, and the Beaniverse (Bean universe) as a whole, there remains a sense of continuity. He has a teddy, a girlfriend, a car, and each episode it is clear what his ambition for that day is. These daily ambitions aren’t the crazy part; it’s his execution. What began as a normal attempt at a day at the beach, has sprung into completely avoidable madness. It is these rules of engagement that Mr Bean, initially acting in accordance with, recklessly abandons, and so his circumstances descend into a comic nosedive of the absurd. While each Beanuation (Bean situation) itself remains that of the exceptionally ordinary, it is his intuition and impulses that seem to plunge Mr Bean into situations of bizarre chaos. This is a demonstration of the universality that silliness achieves. He needs few words, as he is harnessing the deeply recognisable and transforming it into an absurd commotion.


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