Blackadder – A Statistical Analysis

#disclaimer – the figures quoted in this post are pretty much just guesses. So – you know – there’s that.

Blackadder – Series 1

Comedy based on situations : 80%

Comedy based on history : 12.5%

 Comedy based on Edmund being a paedophile : 0.5%

Comedy based on people being stupid : 7%

Blackadder – Series 2

Comedy based on situations : 70%

Comedy based on Baldrick being stupid : 10%

Comedy based on Shakespeare : 8%

Comedy based on metaphors/similes : 5%

Comedy based on racial stereotypes : 3%

Comedy based on gay stereotypes : 4%

Blackadder – Series 3

Comedy based on situations : 35%

Comedy based on stereotypes : 15%

Comedy based on Baldrick being stupid : 20%

Comedy based on similes : 15%

Comedy based on catchphrases : 5%

Number of people Edmund deliberately causes the death of : 6

Blackadder – Series 4

Comedy based on similes : 60%

Comedy based on Baldrick being stupid : 15%

Comedy based on Darling’s name : 10%

Satire about the war : 5%

Comedy based on racial stereotypes : 5%

Comedy based on situations : 5%

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Why people think Blackadder got better as it went along is beyond me. The writers seemed to just entirely lose their ability to write original, funny material and instead just fell back on three basic things – Baldrick being stupid, metaphor based comedy ("It’s as cunning as a fox that" and so forth) and jokes about Captain Darling’s name.

Series 1 was actually quite brilliant, and Series 2 wasn’t bad. But honestly – after they introduced Ben Elton to the series it just became worse and worse until it could easily have been created by throwing a dart at a mat with "MAKE A JOKE ABOUT DARLING" "HAVE A CUNNING PLAN" and stringing the results together.

And yet somehow they think that writing a movie is a good idea?