Neither. 
Blackadder reading - suggestions wanted Page 3
He stole it from a dying OAP. 
Not quite as sinister as that. I figured it was fair payment.
Or compensation, I should say.
Quote: Lee Henman @ November 6 2008, 7:16 PM GMTEdmund: I mean, who would have noticed another madman round here?
Blackadder: He's mad! He's mad. He's madder than Mad Jack McMad, the winner of this year's Mr Madman competition
Quote: Griff @ November 6 2008, 11:12 PM GMTSome great ideas thanks everybody. I was very tempted to go with the final scene as suggested by Lee and zooo
I didn't suggest that!
(Did I? I didn't mean to...)
Pity. I loved the 'Speckled Jim' episode.
It's cos we're both black, isn't it.
Quote: Griff @ November 6 2008, 11:12 PM GMTthe first scene of 'Captain Cook' (as suggested by Aaron but not going right to the end of the scene with that great line about the phone call from Pope Gregory IX).
That's probably my favourite line in the whole of Forth! Damn.
Quote: zooo @ November 6 2008, 11:17 PM GMTIt's cos we're both black, isn't it.
As long as it isn't any of the pathetic anti-Chaplin rant you have my very best wishes to break a leg.
So which scene(s) did you do?
Quote: Griff @ November 8 2008, 11:07 PM GMTThe opening scene of Captain Cook.
Kind of interesting from a writing point of view. The first few lines are about Baldrick carving his name on the bullet so he owns "the bullet with his name on it". If I'd come up with that joke, I'd have written it as a single line. But it's three lines the way they did it, "I'm carving 'Baldrick' on it" then "You know how they say there's a bullet with your name on it" and then even more explicit "Well if I owned the bullet I can't get shot with it..." etc. And it got three laughs, first time from the really quick people who understood the gag straight off, second time from the not-so-quick, third time from the people who need to have jokes spelt out to them.
It's fun reading out sitcom scripts to audiences.
And that's why sometimes brevity is NOT the soul of wit.
Writers are often obsessed with using the least amount of words to get a joke across. That's usually a good idea but if a gag's VERY good I think it should be allowed time to be born, have a little life and then die with dignity instead of being throttled at birth.