Living life like Mr. Bean « Prajwalan’s Weblog

Living life like Mr. Bean

Mr. Bean is a character developed by Rowan Atkinson while he was at Oxford University. He describes Mr. Bean as “a child in a grown man’s body”. While going through everyday tasks, he runs into some sort of trouble and he solves it in a very comic style. There were altogether of 14 episodes. Mr. Bean is a slow-witted, sometimes ingenious, selfish and generally likable buffoon who brings various unusual schemes and connivances to everyday tasks. He lives alone in his small flat in Highbury, North London, and is almost always seen in his trademark tweed jacket and skinny red tie. Mr. Bean rarely speaks, and when he does it is generally only a few mumbled words.

Teddy is Mr. Bean’s teddy bear, generally regarded as Mr. Bean’s best friend. The bear is a dark brown, knitted oddity with button eyes and sausage-shaped limbs, invariably ending up broken in half or in various other states of destruction and disfiguration. Although inanimate, Bean occasionally pretends Teddy is alive.

Mr. Bean’s car, a late 1970s MK IV British Leyland Mini 1000, developed a character of sorts. The Mini was central to several antics, such as Mr. Bean getting dressed in it while driving or steering it while sitting in an armchair strapped to the roof. It also had a number of innovative security measures; Mr. Bean fitted the door with a bolt-latch and padlock, rather than use the lock fitted on the car, and he always removed the steering wheel instead of the key, which formed a running joke in several episodes, at one point deterring a car thief.

The first episode won the prestigious Golden Rose, as well as two other major prizes at the 1991 Rose d’Or Light Entertainment Festival in Montreux. In the UK, the episode “The Curse of Mr. Bean” was nominated for a number of BAFTA awards; “Best Light Entertainment Programme” in 1991, “Best Comedy” (Programme or Series) in 1992, and Rowan Atkinson was nominated three times for “Best Light Entertainment Performance” in 1991, 1992 and 1994. “Mr. Bean” also won the Norwegian comedy award “Tidleg Sædavgang”.

Almost all the episodes and clips from these episodes are available on YouTube. So, you can also enjoy the hilarious Mr. Bean. If you ask me, he is my favourite comedian. He makes me laugh with even a very simple comic behaviour, that also without speaking a single word. I have put some of the links below.

Mr. Bean goes to the swimming pool: