#scratchit

[timothyscratchit]

I am the void! She can't tell if I'm facing her or not, haha, stupid human.

[viciousnoodles]

Tim Scratchit.

[aitchteadrinker]

Purr purr gulp!

[starcanwreckedpulp-doyoushipit]

do you ship it?

[theiloveyousong]

tiny tim: why do both of my parents call you babygirl?

scrooge: how about we stop talking for a little while

[jklovesfandoms]

Thinking about them <333 (a fictional throuple)

[aurora-cycle]

emily gets with scrooge first because while bob is deep in denial about his feelings, emily sees scrooge playing with their kids, thinks 'i need her' and just goes for it (with bob's permission of course). this does not help bob with his feelings and actually makes things a little bit worse but it all works out in the end.

[timothyscratchit]

Oh dear me no. If the woman tried this with me, she would need a blood transfusion.

The void is happy

[burningthrucelluloid]

Christmas Carol-cember, Day 19

Rowan Atkinson is a UK comedy treasure. His Mr Bean character is an enduring staple of physical comedy with situations that are endearingly funny, as well as his enduring deadpan personas, silly facial expressions and wit for that made him a beloved addition to countless films, TV, comedy roasts and the charitable causes he has participated in.

But for fans of comedy, you’d be hard pressed to dislike the series that truly brought his comic persona into the fray, “Blackadder.”

“Blackadder” is a sitcom told over several different time periods where Rowan Atkinson plays a distant relative who each bear the family name Blackadder as each descendant has to put up with the stink of the aristocracy. Prior to the last season of Blackadder, this one-off Christmas special was filmed and broadcast on December 23, 1988 as something of a clip show for the previous seasons.

Ebeneezer Blackadder (Rowan Atkinson) is the nicest man in all of England. He gives generously to the poor, pays his horribly inept employee Mr Baldrick (Tony Robinson) a livable wage and lives a humble life with an underperforming mustache shop. Unfortunately, this life of kindness has made him easy pickings for people to abuse his generosity and leave him in a failing business without money or real friends to care for his well-being. On the night of Christmas Eve, he is visited by the Spirit of Christmas (Robbie Coltrane) who is not here to scare him into changing his ways but wants to congratulate him for not being like his ancestors, showing him clips of past episodes where the Blackadder family were verbally abusive to others through sharp wit and trickery.

Instead of being horrified by these visions, Ebenezer finds these visions empowering as he realizes that kindness didn’t bear them any good and thus changes his life around to become the cold and mean Scrooge we’ve seen. Only to choose the worst time to discover how great it is to be nasty as the King and Queen (Jim Broadbent and Miriam Margoyles respectively) show up to congratulate him on his generosity…as he slams the door on them.

As this version is a comedic take on the Dickens tale, all the finer details we come to know about Scrooge is absent, to an extent.

Mr Baldrick is the Bob Cratchit type, albeit way dimmer and less put upon outside of witty retorts until the end of the special where Scrooge is literally punching him with “the kind of gift that can be reused." There’s a goddaughter played by Nicola Jane Bryant who is hilariously annoying and only comes around so as to fuel his vengeance. There’s not so much a Tiny Tim apart from an unseen kid by Mrs Scratchit (Pauline Pope) who fake sobs to Scrooge to get food for her son who is implied to be massive.

But then again, this is not a story intended to show Scrooge as someone who has to change to better the world around him but a Scrooge who is exploited because of his generosity and how learning about his past ancestors does he believe he gets what he wants by being rotten. Which is really funny, especially when the special hits you with its final gag, cutting to the credits at the perfect moment.

I don’t think I need to say that this special pulled together a fantastic cast of actors to pull this off, even though two sequences are recycled footage from the show. Apart from the aforementioned Rowan Atkinson and Tony Robinson, the cast of Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, and Miranda Richardson demonstrate fantastic comical timing and a master of the wordplay that the humor of Blackadder hinges upon. Snarky jerks who put each other down or one up one another with hilarious retorts.

Obviously Dickens would have protested this distortion of his themes, but in Blackadder, norms are intended to be poked fun of and the “polite society” conventions are nothing more than a suggestion that someone with enough wit and ambition can use against those who would exploit you.

It’s very funny and if you’re tired of the same Scrooge story where he learns his lesson and the story just ends saying he got better, this is for you. 

Just don’t hope that random couple with the funny accents asking for food and wearing bulky robes aren’t royalty when you belittle them and slam the door in their faces.

“Blackadder: A Christmas Carol” is available for streaming on BritBox. 

Next up, a Christmas Carol set in the 80s as we return with a Ghostbuster in the role.

[timothyscratchit]

She loves it when I smile.

[viciousnoodles]

Our feral cat, seeing me up a ladder for the first time: "fucking hell, it can climb!"

[timothyscratchit]

I do love the ape woman, even though I bite her jeans when I'm hungry and show her my bum when I leave the house.

[aitchteadrinker]

Timothy Scratchit back when he was known as Garden Cat. He didn't want to be friends but appreciated the food.

[ramthesillyram]

My cat, sir terry scratchit.

[theiloveyousong]

scrooge says some shit like "wowee" and then emily immediately jumps her bones

[jklovesfandoms]

Thinking way too much about the Scratchits today

God I love them so much