When studying for his Master’s Degree at Oxford University, Rowan Atkinson created the character of Mr. Bean, a near-silent “child in a grown man’s body,” who wanders through life, putting himself in awkward situations before trying to work his way out of them. While he rarely spoke, when he did, it was at a low, mumbling register, which made the character, and Atkinson’s physical comedy, much more similar to slapstick films from the silent era.
Originally a character a character named Robert Box back in 1979 on a sitcom called Canned Laughter, Atkinson later co-created Mr. Bean along with producer Richard Curtis. Thirteen episodes aired from 1990 until 1995 before spinning off into two films and an animated series. The character still makes occasional appearances, as recently as earlier this year when Atkinson performed a sketch in character for Red Nose Day. Here’s a look at some of Mr. Bean’s funniest and most cringe-worthy moments from across his many adventures. No easy list to compile considering everything Mr. Bean does winds up being an adventure.
Mr. Bean Goes To The Olympics
Starting this list at the end, by 2012, Atkinson had talked about retiring the character of Mr. Bean, but it was impossible to keep him from showing up during the 2012 Olympic Games as a key part of the signature cliched Olympics jam, “Chariots of Fire.”
Meeting The Queen
Like a lot of Mr. Bean’s sketches, it’s less about how he gets into the situation, and more about how he acts once he’s there. Such is the case here, where Bean realizes he’s completely unprepared to meet The Queen.
Shopping For Towels
It’s not just the careful consideration that Bean puts into the buying of the towel — visualizing how it will look while wrapped around his waste — which qualifies this as a classic, but the ride up the escalator is a perfect example of the character’s oblivious nature and Atkinson’s subtle physical humor. More than anything, though, it just makes you wonder what it is that Bean is thinking about during that elongated beat after the natural end of his ride and his realization that he is stuck in place.
The Plane Ride
It would stand to reason that someone as childlike as Mr. Bean would get along well with an actual child. When he’s asked by the stewardess to look after a small boy next to him on a plane, he really does go all out to try and make him feel better, even if it doesn’t really seem to work. This bit would later be revisited as a scene in his first movie, only without the convenient cutaway at the end.
The Wedding Guest
It’s a sight to behold, watching Mr. Bean prove himself the worst possible wedding guest of all-time. What’s more impressive is how he’s able to keep the gag going for seven minutes, making his frequent disruptions more and more obnoxious and uncommonly destructive. This was a Comic Relief sketch from 2007, and Atkinson filled the cast with some UK TV standouts to help sell the mayhem and the response to it, including Michelle Ryan (Doctor Who, EastEnders), Matthew Macfadyen (Pride and Prejudice, Ripper Street), Alex MacQueen (The Thick of It, The Inbetweeners), and Atkinson’s Thin Blue Line co-star David Haig as the infuriated father.
The Train Ride
In a rare instance of role-reversal, Mr. Bean finds himself to be the irritated one, as the passenger he shares a compartment with (UK Whose Line Is It Anyway? panelist Stephen Frost) cackles away at his book. Frankly, Bean’s exaggerated gestures and Frost’s over-long hysterics can make you want to put gum in your own ears, but it’s all worth it for the end when this suddenly feels like a faint (but probably unintentional) tribute to Henry Bemis and the “Time Enough at Last” episode of The Twilight Zone.
Changing Clothes At The Beach
Here, in the first ever episode of Mr. Bean, Atkinson’s character tries to go out of his way to not make a stranger uncomfortable by changing in as complicated and as painful a way possible at the beach in front of him. The revelation at the end with the blind beachgoer feels instantly timeless and sets the tone for everything Bean has done to this point, thanks to the way it feasts on our inability to suspect such an ironic (or in many other cases, utterly absurd) twist.
A Sandwich For Lunch
An absolutely sublime and meticulous sketch that makes the act of Mr. Bean trying to enjoy a sandwich and a cup of tea during lunch an adventure in itself. With an utterly confused onlooker (Angus Deayton) watching every painfully specific step along the way, it’s both tedious and hysterical, making it quite possibly the quintessential Mr. Bean moment.
