As I was looking at old TV shows, I couldn’t stop thinking about one of the funniest comedians of our time: Rowan Atkinson. And of course, his wonderful character, Mr. Bean.
He’s got his movies, his animated series, but it was his VHS collections that first got me hooked on Bean. He had these four VHS tapes that each had a selection of silly Mr Bean stories. I remember this promo that he would do before the videos began, and was SO HAPPY I could find it online. It is weird since he’s using full sentences and uses the phrase “potassium permanganate” — but it’s still so Bean-ish.
Here’s the promo:
And here’s a full selection of Bean videos. Take some time to enjoy his truly classic work. Some of Atkinson’s movies haven’t been so great. The Johnny English movies are rather funny, but not stellar and Bean was really a terrible production. However, he was incredibly funny in Rat Race and in Lion King (yep, just in case you didn’t know he was Zazu in The Lion King!) And one of his greatest movies, I believe IMHO, was Mr Bean’s Last Holiday, the final Mr Bean production. He returns to his roots and is just plain silly and fun– which is just what we want from Mr Bean.