Contextualizing Blackadder and introducing the research

This dissertation will explore the role of superiority theory and power relations within the British situational comedy, Blackadder (The Blackadder, Lloyd, 1982-1983; Blackadder II, Lloyd, 1986; Blackadder the Third, Lloyd, 1987; Blackadder Goes Forth, Lloyd, 1989). I have chosen this theme because, as a fan of “classic” British situational comedy such as Fawlty Towers (Davis & Argent, 1975-1979), Only Fools and Horses (Sullivan, 1981-2003), Blackadder and Red Dwarf (Jackson et al., 1988-2020), I was interested to explore the comedy form and how comedy theory applies. I chose Blackadder due to the changing historical setting between series and the interesting relation to social class inasmuch as Blackadder seems to be in a constant battle to move between social classes through the acquisition of power.

To achieve this, I will investigate several areas of the foundations of comedy, including, but not limited to, John Morreall’s definition of superiority theory (1983) and Adrian Bardon’s ideas about the object of amusement (2005). Exploring the “broadly agreed characteristics” (Wagg, 1998, p. 3) of situational comedy is important to be able to investigate how they meld with comedy theory, such as how comedic situations characters find themselves in may be perfectly believable, and that it is the way in which the situation escalates which makes them bizarrely comic.

Richard Curtis and Rowan Atkinson met at the Cambridge Footlights show and worked together on Not the Nine O’Clock News (Lloyd & Hardie, 1979-1982). They were planning a new series when the idea for Blackadder came after watching The Adventures of Robin Hood (Curtiz & Keighley, 1938). J. F. Roberts noted in their 2013 book The True History of the Black Adder “If it was murder and skulduggery they wanted, after years of topical sketches, what would be a cleaner break than a medieval tights-and-codpiece spoof”? (p. 81).

Blackadder is historically set and draws upon an audience’s basic understanding and assumptions of the historical period being portrayed. (The Blackadder, Medieval period; Blackadder II, Elizabethan; Blackadder the Third, Regency; Blackadder Goes Forth, World War I). An audience may know of the earlier periods, especially due to the popularity of costume dramas, but connections to historical figures are difficult to form until Goes Forth, which is set within living, modern history. Even then, the historical figure of General Haig is only seen within the final moments of the final episode, which I believe was a deliberate move by the creators due to the contentious character and with it being within living history. The earlier series are glamorous in set design and costume, however, moving into Goes Forth, this changes and a stark contrast between the trenches and General Melchett’s chateau is formed, which we will explore in relation to social class and hierarchy.

Made for broadcast on the BBC, Blackadder joined a list of many influential BBC productions, such as Dad’s Army (Croft, 1968-1977), Porridge (Lotterby, 1974-1977), Fawlty Towers, Only Fools and Horses, The Young Ones (Jackson, 1982-1984) and Red Dwarf. Amongst these, Blackadder is often rated amongst the top British TV sitcoms (British Comedy Guide, 2004, para 2; Hyde, 2023, para 19) but is also notable for the interest in critiquing its historical attributes, especially by history scholars who believed Goes Forth provided false historical context for the Great War. Haig: The Unknown Soldier (Bettinson, 1996) “used scenes from Blackadder Goes Forth intercut with the commentary of historians in order to establish the stereotype before subjecting it to scrutiny.” (Badsey, 2001, p. 114) and in 2014 Michael Gove, at the time the Secretary of State for Education, called for bans on Blackadder being shown in schools during history lessons (Groves, 2014).  Therefore, looking at this overall comedy series, with a focus on the challenges of representing power structures in the final series – will allow us to interrogate ideas of power and representation within comedy – and how Blackadder may challenge ideas about this.

Chapter 1 will set up the core idea of power through joke telling and we will see if this applies to characters within Blackadder, whilst Chapter 2 will change the focus to the structures of sitcom and physical and textual awareness to argue its importance within the studio and situational comedy environment and how class is portrayed through such an awareness. We will take the findings from the aforementioned chapters and apply them to a focused case study in Chapter 3 where we will look at the construction and reception of Blackadder Goes Forth, with a particular emphasis on the final episode “Goodbyeee” (Curtis, Elton & Boden, 1989d).