Best Blackadder Moments #6: The Macbeth Ritual (Sense and Senility)

Macbeth!

For my second pick from Blackadder the Third, I'm going to go with a more slapstick-oriented joke.

Blackadder has prepared a speech for The Prince Regent to give as part of his father's royal  birthday celebrations, and the Prince seeks elocution lessons from thespians David Keanrick and Enoch Mossop, played by Hugh Paddick and Kenneth Connor. Blackadder has nothing but contempt for actors, but nonetheless agrees to seek them out.

However, he gets a kick from an actors' superstition in which it is bad luck to say the name "Macbeth" outside of rehearsals or performances. If someone does mention Macbeth, the actors must perform a special ritual which consists of patty-cake and arm winding motions while saying an incantation, concluding with them tweaking each other's noses. Blackadder casually winds the name into the conversation at every opportunity, prompting the actors to perform the ritual six times in one scene.

There has been one of many unusual internet debates over what exactly they say during the ritual. The general consensus (what it said on Wikipedia last time I checked) seems to be "Hot Potato, orchestra stalls, Puck will make amends." The first and last parts are clear enough, but the middle part is the subject for debate. It sounds like "off his drawers" or "off the shores".

Anyway, flame risk aside, I think it's a great example of comedy stemming from somebody else's pain.

Macbeth!