Best Blackadder Moments #1: The Profit Areas of the Church (The Archbishop)

Relics

Yes, I'm going to be looking at the first season of Blackadder. Even if it is mostly Shakespearean in-jokes and the rubber-faced buffoonery which Rowan Atkinson would later put to better use in Mr Bean, it still gets a fair share of laughs.

Anyway, my first pick (I'm going in chronological order) is from the episode in which Prince Edmund is appointed as Archbishop of Canterbury (the fourth person to be appointed that year), in the hopes that he will convince dying nobles to bequeath their lands to the Crown rather than the Church. The episode features a strong religious satire, and draws heavily on the events surrounding the death of actual Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Becket, who was assassinated after conflicting with King Henry II over matters of the Church.

After actually winning his father's favour for once, The Black Adder and Percy learn from Baldrick about the four major profit areas of the church: curses, pardons, relics, and "selling the sexual favours of nuns" (to foreign businessmen and other nuns, apparently).

I've included a link to a clip in which they discuss relics, including Shrouds from Turin, numerous works of carpentry produced by Jesus (including pipe racks and coffee tables), not to mention an array of body parts belonging to Saints. Edmund coins on fairly quickly that none of it is genuine, which dismays Percy. He claims to have a genuine relic in the form of a finger bone of Jesus, which even Baldrick is amazed at...because they normally come in boxes of ten.

Richard Curtis has gone on record saying that the first season is more akin to sketch comedy, and this is a key example of this. It's a relatively self-contained sequence, which doesn't really need what happens before or after to back it up. However, it's still a great sketch. I think this was an early look at the historical satire the show would later become famous for in subsequent seasons. I also think it's great to see Edmund on top for once.

Although I'm not too sure about the four ducat curse they had on offer. Yes, he has turned orange in hue, and I'm sure God will hate him and all of his kind, but I'm still waiting for his head to fall off at an inopportune moment. I might have to ask for my money back.

I'll see you tomorrow for my second pick from The Black Adder.