Icon #21 - Mr Bean: Angel or Alien?

In this episode, Jack and special guest co-host Tamara Yajia are joined by comedian Amy Miller to talk about our first (nearly) silent icon:

Mr. Bean!

They'll explore his debut, his insanely popular YT channel, and his inimitable sex appeal!

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hello the Internet, and welcome to this spinoff episode of
dirt aiy Zeitgeist, which we're calling the iconograph. Instead of
looking at the zeitgeist through current events on Monday mornings,
we're looking at the zeitgeist through the powerful pop cultural
idols that are icons. We get these magical beings credit

(00:22):
for quotes they didn't really say to make those quotes
seem true. I actually forgotten last week's episode to talk
about how when researching Free to Callo, I came across
that somebody opened their podcast with this free to Callow
quote that was completely not by her, and it was
like obviously written by like using internet speak. Anyways, I'll

(00:45):
tell you guys about that quote in the notebook dump.
But yeah, we dress up like these people for Halloween
or as some sort of like weird religious calling in
the case of Elvis or Maelen Monroe or Santa. We
use them as symbols to create meanings, to build identity,
to learn that some comedy transcends language. That's some things

(01:07):
that seemed like a quick fad to us in the
US were earth shaking phenomenon around the world, and that
getting your head stuck in a Turkey is funny in
every language. That's right. We're talking about mister Bean this week.
I'm joined by today's guest co host, a comedian, actress, musician,
writer on TV shows like This, Full and Strip Law.

(01:29):
She's the author of the memoir Cry for Me Argentina.
It's tam Hey, guys, what up?

Speaker 2 (01:38):
Oh my god? I cannot wait to talk about mister Bean.
My husband can't wait either. He is a fan of
mister Bean too much, so it creeped me out a little.

Speaker 1 (01:48):
Hell yeah, hell yeah. And you did not grow up
in the United States, which Ice just asked me to
ask that question. No, which is I think important context
for everybody relationship to mister Bean, because I think it's
like very Anyways, we're going to get into it.

Speaker 2 (02:04):
Oh yes, I will tell you about me and mister Bean.

Speaker 1 (02:08):
Yes, in our third seat. The reason for this episode
one of the funniest stand up comics in the world.
You know her from TV podcasts. A great follow on Instagram.
You can see her headlining at theaters near you. Check
her website. It's Amy Maail Yay.

Speaker 3 (02:24):
I'm sorry to do this to everybody. I'm a beanie baby.

Speaker 1 (02:31):
A bit of a bean brain. Myself, so yes, Amy.
The way we select icons is going out to people
with a list of icons, saying or if there's anyone
you'd like to cover, let us know, and you somehow
cut us off mid email, and we're like, mister Bean

(02:51):
is gonna be mister Bean. So I got I got
to hear from you. Why mister Bean, I'm in your freehole.

Speaker 3 (02:58):
If you will, if you're asked, you're sexy, Uh, you know.
I my love for him has grown as an adult,
which is interesting, and I and I have like a
lot of sort of like thoughts about the existential nature
of Bean and maybe why like why that is.

Speaker 4 (03:19):
I really didn't like it as a.

Speaker 3 (03:21):
Kid, and I don't really know why it's going down
smoother the beans are really I'm digesting it better if
you will.

Speaker 4 (03:34):
But watched a lot of bean during the quarantine. It
was a bean corn corn bean.

Speaker 3 (03:43):
And have always had a great appreciation for Rowan Atkinson separately,
but can you but can you separate?

Speaker 4 (03:50):
I mean that's another big question the artist, I.

Speaker 3 (03:53):
Mean exactly like Kanye.

Speaker 4 (03:59):
Bean, And I don't know.

Speaker 3 (04:03):
I just I didn't see it on the list, and
I thought maybe absolutely nobody else would have chosen it.

Speaker 1 (04:09):
You are correct and I but this has been one
of the most exciting fun ones for me to research
because Yeah, I so a couple of things that are
surprising about.

Speaker 4 (04:20):
First of all, I'm learning a lot too. By the way, Yeah, I.

Speaker 1 (04:23):
Did not his initial run. I like I remember being
shocked to learn that Gilligan's Island only ran for three
seasons because when I was a kid, that show like
never was not on TV. It was just like always
on somewhere. There were only like one hundred episodes of
that that they just re ran in perpetuity, and nobody

(04:44):
actually ever watched a full one, so you like couldn't
tell that you had just like seen say the same
episodes over and over. Similar with The Brady Bunch. I
think the Brady Bunch was like five short seats, Like
it was like less than one hundred episodes. They're right
around one hundred. Mister Bean had fifteen episodes total the
initial show that came out in the nineties. We still

(05:06):
a half hour each.

Speaker 2 (05:08):
Yeah, it was Oh, I'm shocked, yes, crazy.

Speaker 1 (05:11):
And the second really surprising thing for me is that
from those fifteen episodes stepped an absolute world striding pop
culture fucking colossus. I don't think we fully appreciated in
the US. I know I didn't. His first movie made
forty million dollars in the US. It made eight times

(05:34):
that around the world. And then I remember, like, that
doesn't shock me like that much, although we'll get into
like what the box office numbers looked like at the time.
But the sequel a decade later, in two thousand and seven,
when I was like, when we were fully off our
being shit in the United States, made two hundred and
thirty five million dollars, like Global Lake, Like these are

(05:58):
fucking blockbusters. Yeah, net Worth is one hundred and sixty
million dollars. The first was nineteen ninety seventy.

Speaker 4 (06:06):
Oh, I thought it was nine.

Speaker 3 (06:09):
Oh.

Speaker 2 (06:10):
The first movie show that was literally the year I
moved to the United States was nineteen ninety seven.

Speaker 4 (06:17):
Yeah, ok, wow, I think.

Speaker 3 (06:19):
Well. The weirdest thing too about the episodes is they
weren't even on a schedule. I think the funniest fact
is that in the first season, if you can call
it that, there's just two episodes came out in a
full year, Like they debuted Mister Bean, they premiered it,
and then like six months later they showed another one,
I think, which is so bizarre, but I think in

(06:41):
the States.

Speaker 4 (06:44):
We didn't.

Speaker 3 (06:44):
It was an access issue because it's not like you
just like even if you have like a good cable package,
you know, in the early nineties, it's not like you
just have the BBC.

Speaker 4 (06:54):
So it would be like it would come on PBS
when they would do those sort of BBC chunks like
on the weekend or whatever and show like you know,
Miss Marble or.

Speaker 1 (07:04):
Yes, it was definitely PBS, that's right.

Speaker 3 (07:06):
Yeah, And so I think we had very rare access
to it. And I think I didn't look this up,
but I feel in my body like maybe then they
started showing them like Late Night on HBO as they
got sort of like a cult following for like American stoners,
you know what I mean.

Speaker 4 (07:23):
Like I feel like it became.

Speaker 1 (07:26):
Instead mister bean Bean No, just laugh, just laughter.

Speaker 4 (07:34):
I turn off to him now.

Speaker 1 (07:36):
But that's right. Yeah, it's very So.

Speaker 3 (07:40):
My brother's ten years older than me, and it's very
It lives in the same part of my brain where
we would like watch pee wee together, you know, And
now I know he was probably extremely high or fucked
up on something.

Speaker 4 (07:50):
But it's like Pee Wee and Bean.

Speaker 3 (07:52):
You know, and and It and Monty Python and there
are such similar sort of tones of like comedy. But
for some reason Bean, as a kid, I just I
just don't. I didn't like how upset he made everybody.

Speaker 2 (08:04):
Yeah, same, It gave me anxiety, and something about the
quality of how it was filmed depressed me a little bit.

Speaker 1 (08:12):
It was it was filmed like a PBS documentary a
little bit. But then there was a weird laugh track.

Speaker 4 (08:19):
A BBC show.

Speaker 1 (08:20):
Yeah, this was actually I showed my kids mister Bean
to because I was like, is this going to hold up?
I treat my children like they're a control group, and
they they really enjoyed it. They were like, oh, he
reminds me of the Minions. But I realized it was
the first time that they had encountered a laugh track.
They were like, why the fuck are people laughing? Like

(08:42):
this is so annoying.

Speaker 3 (08:43):
They don't watch like Disney Channel shows. I guess, Oh, yeah,
that makes sense. Did did they know that he was
an alien when they compared him to the Minions show?

Speaker 1 (08:55):
Yeah? Sorry, my god, that's the twist end. Now, Yeah,
he is an alien. The show it is the beginning
of the show, but I feel like people were like,
that's just a pop culture conspiracy. But literally, the show
when it first aired opened with him like arriving on
Earth in a beam of light. Yeah, mister beam more

(09:17):
like but he he is.

Speaker 4 (09:22):
I was like, canon that he's an alien.

Speaker 1 (09:25):
It is it is You're you're correct. Yeah. At first,
they like kind of soft rolled it, and then, uh,
there is an episode that they were thinking of ending
the live action series with where he arrives and like
finds a UFO and the UFO is full of identical
mister beans, and then they were like, oh wait, that

(09:45):
sounds expensive as fuck. But then they did eventually do
a animated series. Uh, and there was an episode in
which that they used that plot. They used every part
of that initial like an episode run like they used that.
They recycle the gags for the movies. We're going to
talk about his YouTube channel, which has thirty five million followers.

Speaker 2 (10:12):
My god, mister is.

Speaker 1 (10:15):
So fucking popular. It's it's yeah, it's.

Speaker 3 (10:20):
Pretty impressive and like and like so much more so
in countries that consistently had the BBC, Like, he's fucking
huge in India likes like massive, But I think. I mean,
it stands to reason that he's an alien more than
like like a like a brady kid, like say a peewee,
because he's not. He doesn't seem to be pissing people

(10:42):
off on purpose. He just is trying to figure out
how to live like a person.

Speaker 1 (10:47):
Yes, it has some of the information, right, Yeah, he's
very competent at like certain parts of like being a
adult human. But then there's like missing information and he
just like goes strong.

Speaker 3 (11:00):
Take a job somehow, and then he does I mean,
he does like have this unknown rivalry with other kids
a lot of the time, with kids a lot.

Speaker 4 (11:09):
Of the time. That's really hilarious and bizarre. But yeah,
I mean he's curious like an alien, like, not just
like being a dick, and that actually makes it easier
for me to deal with. Yeah, So I'm like, it's
not his fault.

Speaker 1 (11:24):
It's not your fault, mister bean.

Speaker 4 (11:26):
You never been to Earth before.

Speaker 2 (11:29):
I knew, I knew absolutely nothing about mister Bean. And
then I moved to the United States and I and
I was thirteen years old at the peak of my
hormonal like wanting to get finger banged by boys at school.
And my friend is like We're not going to go
to the All Ages Club tonight, We're going to go

(11:49):
see a movie instead. Yeah, And I was like, and
she took me to Sea Bean and the whole time
I was so fucking pissed. It was there couldn't be
anything more opposite than going and hooking up with guys
than to be taken. And I was like, what am
I watching? This man depresses me? The way he dresses

(12:11):
depresses me. Now I love.

Speaker 4 (12:13):
Him, but that a great movie to meet cool guys.
There either no offense to all the Bean has, but.

Speaker 1 (12:22):
He's speaking of the way he dressed. Somebody wants dressed
up like that. There are mister Bean impersonators who have
like caused international incidents, as we'll get to, like the
mister Bean costume. I don't know if like a kid
came to my door during Halloween dressed as mister Bean.
I don't think I would go Mister Bean right away
prior to research for this, but like it is a

(12:44):
powerful like that. That's what's interesting to me about this
one is like a lot of the icons that we've
covered like are icons whose power I grew up like Elvis.
I've like known that there were Elvis impersonators since I
was a kid Whitney Houston, like I've you know, I
was twelve when like the Bodyguard soundtrack came out or whatever,

(13:05):
like that was like a massive deal. But like so
mister Bean is like I'm seeing the powers exhibited by
someone who, like, for me, was like like a British earnest.
I thought, like I thought it was like of goes
to Camp Fame. I thought he was related, yeah yeah yeah,
But instead he's like, oh wait no, this person has

(13:28):
this like like ring of power energy coming off of him,
this icon that is just like blowing people's minds.

Speaker 4 (13:37):
I mean to talk about the fashion too.

Speaker 3 (13:39):
It it does stand out because it's not an outfit
that pretty much anyone will wear, right, Like we've all
seen men in like a tweet suit or tweet jacket.
I mean I had, I went to Berkeleys, so's every
professor that.

Speaker 4 (13:51):
I ever had. But you don't they don't pair it
with like a stark red tie, right, it would be
a fun pattern or another earth tone maybe or like
I don't know, a blue. It's like it is. It
is a look that no one else has ever worn.

Speaker 1 (14:08):
That's right, And I love that yes, and.

Speaker 4 (14:11):
Now it's like just slacks and yeah yeah, yeah yeah.

Speaker 1 (14:16):
With sensible and then if you just have h that's right,
and if you just have like there's a we were
just talking about this new thing that was going viral
a few weeks ago where like somebody found their doppelganger
because of invasive facial recognition technology and we're like on

(14:36):
a TDZ episode we were like speculating. You know, I've
seen people people have like showed me pictures and be like,
there's somebody who looks exactly like you. I went to
high school with somebody who looked really similar to me.
I think there. I think the mister being the Rowan
Atkinson face is a common face type and like that
you can you can just if you put that thing

(15:00):
type in that outfit, it will fool me nine times
out of ten.

Speaker 4 (15:05):
I'll be like, Oh, in the UK, especially in the.

Speaker 2 (15:08):
UK, he's got a very British, very British eyeballs.

Speaker 1 (15:12):
To me, yes, this is like a weird form of
phrenology we're doing where dam just tells us about where
people's eyeballs look like they're from. All right, let's get
into so his origins unless any any final thoughts before
we get into the backstory of the Bean.

Speaker 4 (15:33):
Let's roll, yeah's being it up.

Speaker 1 (15:36):
Nineteen seventy nine Edinburgh Fringe Festival, he did a sketch
where he played a mute character who could not stop
himself from dozing off, and that marked the birth of
mister Bean.

Speaker 4 (15:50):
This is this is so crazy and special to me
is as a comedian in particular because it's like the
first two sightings of Bean were like at Edinburgh and
just relax.

Speaker 1 (16:00):
And just relax. Yeah yeah, like eight years later, like
it's so it's.

Speaker 4 (16:04):
So cool, you know, because you know, we go into
that stuff like thinking only about marketability, right, who's gonna
want to work with me? What's my like happiest five
minutes or whatever that will make me crush but maybe
be memorable.

Speaker 3 (16:19):
And like he's just like out of his goddamn mind.
Like no, nobody's even allowed to do this anymore. Like
if he auditioned, people would be like the fuck is
going on?

Speaker 4 (16:28):
Like you're not going to the festival, you know what
I mean?

Speaker 3 (16:30):
Yes, Like it's just it's like a time gone by
that I really wish we still had and I could
see someone like that.

Speaker 1 (16:37):
Yes, it's so he when he talks about the popularity
of mister Bean, it's it's really interesting. Like there's this
quote where he says, I remember seeing all these souvenir
sellers at the piazza selling souvenirs of British rock stars
at the time when he was in Venice, Italy, like
Duran Duran and David Bowie. I thought it was interesting

(17:00):
that these British artists can assume an international audience while I,
as a comedic performer cannot, being his very simple humor,
extremely broad and extremely accessible. It's the inner child within
the adult who identifies with him, and the dichotomy of responsibilities.
When asked if it was surprising to him that he
was this popular, as like, didn't come as a shock

(17:20):
when we achieved global outreach, because that was the main
instigation for doing him in the first place. So he's
like wow, He's basically like, yeah, no, of course he
was globally popular. That's what I was trying to do.

Speaker 4 (17:33):
Yeah, it was calculated.

Speaker 1 (17:35):
So I noticed I wasn't famous in countries that like
didn't speak English, and I decided to be famous in
those countries, and so I did. It is like such
a funny approach to fame and success and yeah, no,
I was trying to be successful, of course.

Speaker 3 (17:51):
I was, yeah, trying to make hundreds of millions of dollars, duh.
And then on JFL he requests to be on the
French showcase, right, like not speaking a word of French
because he was like, well, I'm gonna, yeah, like I
need to prove that I can appeal to any audience,
and I'm going to do a silent bit, which is

(18:12):
so crazy.

Speaker 2 (18:13):
I mean, a cocky motherfucker. Really like the confidence.

Speaker 1 (18:16):
It's like the idea of trying and failing to achieve
success is not something that had occurred to him prior
to prior to this question where they're like, were you surprised?

Speaker 2 (18:26):
I don't want to take you off track, sorry, Jack,
but what was this deal before?

Speaker 1 (18:31):
Like he was famous already for like Blackadder and yeah,
he was already a famous.

Speaker 2 (18:36):
Comedian y icy okay, but not huge.

Speaker 1 (18:41):
Big in England and was like this is so weird.
So yeah, obviously I'm famous in my home country, but
like I go to these other countries and like they
haven't heard of me.

Speaker 3 (18:51):
Yeah, so weird, Like current day that like UK comedians
who are fucking mass of you know elsewhere and in
the UK and can sell out an arena, will you know,
get like JFL New Faces or whatever, or be performing
in a bar in LA because just nobody knows yet.

Speaker 4 (19:13):
Yeah, it still happened.

Speaker 3 (19:14):
But to have this like sort of calculated listen, Rowan Atkinson.

Speaker 4 (19:19):
Let's talk about it. He's got swagger, I mean, my
confident hot man.

Speaker 2 (19:24):
Especially now I was he would definitely would suck up
and down.

Speaker 1 (19:30):
He even now we would suck.

Speaker 4 (19:34):
I don't know, I'm just Bean dish.

Speaker 1 (19:36):
I like it. He could get the dip.

Speaker 2 (19:40):
But now that he's got like gray hair, I'm into it.

Speaker 3 (19:44):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (19:44):
He does have some weird takes. They will get into.
They're not like that crazy, They're just like he's like
real stuff. Yeah yeah, real like worried about cancel culture,
but like in a way that makes it like he
thinks of himself as like an insult comic or we'll
get to it. It's very weird, but yeah, he he

(20:08):
says he represents being represents both his childhood innocence and
his viciousness. I was like, that's not how I read
Bean at all. But he also said this is the
thing that keeps coming up throughout like it almost feels
like doing the character of mister Bean like hurts his
entire So this is a quote, despite the continued success,

(20:29):
things didn't come any easier. Quote. I hate doing the
job of mister Bean. I find being mister Bean very stressful.
Being a solo act meant that there was little support
when things were difficult. This is something we see. This
is I think the best example in our Icons episodes
to this point was Sir Arthur Conan Doyle when he

(20:51):
invented Sherlock Holmes. Like everyone's like, all right, man, you've
done it. You've created like the biggest fictional character of
all time. I'm and he's like, yes, and now how
do I kill this mother? Like he immediately was just like,
let me kill him. I hate writing Sherlock Holmes. H
For him, it was because it came too easy, and

(21:12):
so he like felt embarrassed by it. But with being yeah,
there's just like some people when they hit the sweet
spot and like get hold of an icon, they're like,
oh good, like that's what I was trying to do. Yes,
and then some people peewee right, and some people are like,
get this character the fuck off.

Speaker 3 (21:33):
Of me.

Speaker 1 (21:34):
It is hurting.

Speaker 4 (21:36):
And where's the documentary?

Speaker 3 (21:37):
I mean, if he's talking about this struggle, like I
want to sit well, I want to see the doc
while he's alive.

Speaker 1 (21:42):
Being Bean, being Bean, where he's just like you get
to see him get into character and it's like this
rigorous two hour process like Bradley Cooper and The Elephant Man,
like just there. So Jactati is this French comedian who
who was apparently very influential on him. There's a famous

(22:03):
film where he's like learning to play tennis and he
like plays tennis in kind of a funny way that
like didn't really work for me. The films are beautifully shot,
but like the comedy wasn't like I finds being very
funny and like I didn't find it like it's sort.

Speaker 4 (22:21):
Of like like the French Charlie Chaplin, right, yeah.

Speaker 1 (22:23):
Yeah exactly. But he Tati said that comedy begins in
the legs, and Atkinson said that is why mister Bean
seen so often begin in wide shots, like you see
him in the full context of everything around him. And
I like that idea of comedy begins in the like

(22:43):
as somebody who does comedy while sitting down Oh good, I.

Speaker 4 (22:48):
Stand up and still don't ever think about my legs.

Speaker 1 (22:52):
You got to get in an athletic stance when you
get up there and.

Speaker 4 (22:55):
Do stand up comedy.

Speaker 3 (22:58):
Yeah, I mean he is great with his legs like that. Yeah,
it makes so much sense that chaplain and taught to
you were inspirations for him, because I mean his body
work is just insane amazing.

Speaker 1 (23:10):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (23:10):
You know what reminds me of mister Bean, but actually
not at all now that I think about it is
the Benny Hill Show. I was a big Benny Hill
Show fan as a child, and you know, I think
what it was about it is just the quality of
how it was filmed and the fact that it was British.

Speaker 4 (23:26):
Right Yeah, and the constant like mishaps.

Speaker 2 (23:29):
Yes, it's the Mishapsie gave me anxiety, yes, yeah.

Speaker 4 (23:33):
Always gave me anxiety as well.

Speaker 3 (23:35):
And I think as a kid I was strangely more
serious than I am as an adult me too, totally. Yeah,
I mean I don't because of traum traumatic upbringing. I
don't know, but I was just like, I can't watch
things that are stressful.

Speaker 1 (23:50):
Yes, I don't need this extra stress.

Speaker 4 (23:52):
Yeah, I like prank shows.

Speaker 2 (23:55):
I need to.

Speaker 4 (23:56):
Get into jackass that I was like, I feel bad
for these people that being embarrassed, and now I don't
feel shame or embarrassment, so it's easier to watch.

Speaker 1 (24:07):
So Amy, as you mentioned, he mean now and I
have become the Bean. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (24:13):
Really.

Speaker 1 (24:14):
He debuts at the nineteen eighty seven Just for Last
Festival on the French language show as well as the
English language. But he's like, look, I can do both.
Obviously I'm about to become wildly famous.

Speaker 4 (24:26):
And international superstar.

Speaker 1 (24:27):
Yes, but that year nineteen eighty seven Just for laughs
also debuted a stand up comedian, Chris Rock. Yes, just
to put it in context, these two starting out at
the same time, Chris Rock and mister Bean.

Speaker 4 (24:43):
The selection should work, That's right. It should be that
two people that different. Yes, like you know or I
don't know, like someone over forty for example, just throwing
things out there. It's so it's just really cool that
he did, and like it was that calculated, but like, also,

(25:04):
you know, it still would be so long until like
the States really got into him.

Speaker 1 (25:10):
Yeah. It was a six year run from ninety to
ninety five that the fifteen episodes came out. So creet so.

Speaker 4 (25:19):
Two to three a year, like his batshit, and.

Speaker 2 (25:22):
They were just like not even thirty minutes long. I assume, right,
there's been a.

Speaker 1 (25:27):
Half hour, yes, and it would just be like a
bit and then like another bit and then laughter, and
then they're like, all right, that's been mister Bean. Tuned
back in around Christmas maybe and we'll have something.

Speaker 3 (25:41):
Almost feels like an interlude on another sketch show, do
you know what I mean? Like yeah, like how the
Simpsons started on Tracy allmon. It feels like like Bean
was like a side quest for Monty Python or or
kids in the Hall or something.

Speaker 2 (25:55):
But yeah, he was. He was a little treat, a
little bean and you will yeah, okay, man a snack.
And then so he then he does this fringe festival
and it kind of and that's when it takes off.

Speaker 1 (26:08):
So no fringe festival first, and that's like late seventies
when he like first gets the idea of like, oh
I'm good at physical comedy and like maybe I can
do this kind of mime ish character.

Speaker 4 (26:21):
That is before he really had done anything, yes, but
before JFL he was already.

Speaker 1 (26:26):
Then he becomes Blackadder famous, as we say, as we
call it motherfucker is Blackadder famous. Then he goes and
is like, I'm going to do both the English and
French stage. The French audience has no idea who I am,
and it's still going to kill and that's exactly what happens.

(26:47):
And then off of that he gets the deal to
make the TV show that runs from ninety to ninety
five and and is just these fifteen episodes, which I
think is a total of six and a half hours
of content created over the course of that time, and
it is basically the text for everything that comes out,

(27:10):
Like everything is just a remixed version of that initial thing.
But they really had it locked in. I will say.
The other person who was working on this with him
was Richard Curtis.

Speaker 4 (27:25):
I just learned this today. It blew my fucking mind.

Speaker 1 (27:28):
So Richard Curtis, who is like so basically mister Bean
was a dream team of British comedy talent. Richard Curtis
wrote Four Weddings in a Funeral, which was the most
successful British film ever until that record was broken by
notting Hill, also written by Richard Curtis.

Speaker 3 (27:47):
Like, I mean, this man is so like deep in
my psyche, like so many of his movies.

Speaker 1 (27:52):
That yeah, directed, that's a big one. I love.

Speaker 4 (27:57):
I just watched it like a month ago.

Speaker 3 (27:59):
Again, Jones love actually like, of course the Mister Bean
movies and then MoMA me like, I'm like, yeah, I.

Speaker 4 (28:08):
Watched these movies constantly.

Speaker 3 (28:10):
It makes so much sense too, because there is a
romance to Bean, you know what I mean, Like, I mean, yes,
he has a girlfriend, but he's really mean to her,
but like irma gob but like there's a romanticness to
how he like is trying to figure out being a

(28:30):
person in the world, and like how he relates to people,
even if it's like embarrassing and awkward a lot of
the time.

Speaker 4 (28:36):
Like, I can't believe I never knew this. I was
so shocked, and then it made the most sense.

Speaker 1 (28:40):
Yeah, it's like, oh, we'll do our two best comedy
people from our country on this project. And yeah, so
that and also his cockiness of being like, wait, I
don't understand why you keep asking me if I was
surprised it was a success. Of no, of course, he
literally literally held the release of being of the Mister

(29:01):
Bean shows back in Italy because he's like, I like
to take vacations there and I don't want to be
fucking Beatlemania famous in Italy? So can we hold it
back for a couple of years so I can keep
taking vacations to Italy. Like that's how confident and assured
he was of like the massive success of this. He's like,

(29:22):
less money, please, so I can not be the most
famous person in one European country.

Speaker 2 (29:29):
That Brian is asking in the chat, what was this?
What was mister Bean's name in France? Mess legume, Yes,
I looked it up and it was mister Bean.

Speaker 3 (29:40):
Milan, mister Bean in every single language.

Speaker 2 (29:47):
Yeah, Relliant.

Speaker 1 (29:48):
Really it's funny like they were at first they were
going to call him mister White and they were like
that's a terrible name, and Vince Gilligan was like, actually
might work. Then they were gonna call him mister uh
Corbett or something like a bunch of a bunch of
different yeah, like different vegetables, one of them which I
didn't get, So mister cauliflower, mister core jet, which I

(30:13):
don't even know that vegetable. I think that's like a
British name for a different vegetable that we have. It's
it's a zucchini, which is much better name.

Speaker 4 (30:24):
Is perfect.

Speaker 1 (30:26):
Yes, it is.

Speaker 2 (30:27):
It's perfect. I could imagine like a mister Radish perhaps, Yes, I.

Speaker 1 (30:32):
See what I will just have. You know, Ron Atkinson
has a theory of comedy that so this is his
description of them coming up with the name. There's mister Cauliflower,
mister cord Jet. We definitely went through a few then
Bean just struck us as a short, sharp, single syllable
with a B in it. Generally speaking, words beginning with

(30:54):
B are slightly funnier than words that aren't. In my opinion,
it's true the two categories.

Speaker 4 (31:01):
No, I do employed these rules.

Speaker 3 (31:04):
It's one hundred percent true, and I've practiced it, and
I see the effect B G D and a hard
C or Ka always gets a bigger laugh. Yeah, Ka
always gets the biggest laugh at the end of a joke.
But B, especially in alliteration for some reason like b's

(31:25):
back to back, like oh, people go crazy.

Speaker 2 (31:28):
I never thought about this. I'm too like stupid to
stop and think about things really weird.

Speaker 4 (31:34):
Yes, I also want to say about Richard Curtis. By
the way, it is. It makes so much sense too,
because the Rowan Atkinson like bit parts in his movies
are movie stealers, scene stealers like Rain Atkinson in Four
Weddings Fucking Insane and Love actually is maybe one of.

Speaker 3 (31:56):
The funniest Ronatkinson characters of all time when he's just
wrapping the gift at the mall and taking his sweet
fucking time like doing the bow and and Alan Rickman's
really trying to rush because he's like buying jewelry for
his mistress and Emma Thompson's walking around and so it's
like heartbreaking, but it is so fucking funny, and I'm like,

(32:17):
of course these are Richard Curtis movies, like amazing, he
uses him, he really gets him.

Speaker 1 (32:24):
Yeah. Yeah, it's the one time that you can say
someone is someone else's muse and not sound weird and
predatory my muse And I'm not trying to fuck him,
like that's just he's my muse?

Speaker 4 (32:37):
Is he really? And they've made a fucking bag together,
like cool?

Speaker 1 (32:41):
Yeah, shout out to them.

Speaker 2 (32:43):
What do we know about I'm interviewing you now, Well
we know what's the deal with his personal life?

Speaker 4 (32:49):
Or is that?

Speaker 2 (32:50):
Are you going to talk about that later?

Speaker 1 (32:52):
So really, I didn't I didn't get into his personal
life that much other than his like being like we
got to stop it with this cancel culture, and his
him having like sort of a personal aversion to uh
doing the character. He also so he does. He did
say that like when he was a kid, people called

(33:14):
him the alien because he just like seemed like weird
and looked weird.

Speaker 4 (33:18):
Weird.

Speaker 1 (33:19):
Yeah, he's like weird, And so I think like it's
built on probably pain, like the character, and so that's
probably why we see this thing and we're like, oh,
it's blest. That looks like it's fun to do, and
he's like fucking ripping my heart out here for you know.

Speaker 4 (33:40):
I think. So I could be wrong, but I feel
like he's pretty. He's like fairly religious, interesting, but not
in a homophobic way, which that's cool.

Speaker 2 (33:54):
Does he have children? Do we know? Are their little
beans out there?

Speaker 4 (33:58):
I don't know if he has kids, but oh yeah, okay,
he has one child. This part I did know because
I remember when it happened.

Speaker 3 (34:06):
I was already a comedian, but not that I mean,
not that long ago. Twenty fifteen. He had a long
time wife and then she I guess they met in
the theater or something. She left him for a fairly
well known stand up comedian James Acasta. Oh really yeah,

(34:28):
I don't like I think she like cheated on being
with this tip up comic and then and so they
got a divorce, but they have one kid together and
then Owen he has two children with his first wife.

Speaker 4 (34:40):
So he's been married twice, okay, and I think it's
currently single, which is good news for me. But otherwise
I think he's very private, like he's not someone that
people just like that the paparazzi catches even in the UK,
or even.

Speaker 3 (34:58):
Like pays attention to. And that James at Caster thing
was like the biggest I think sort of scandal he
was involved in because he's just like he's just like
in hiding.

Speaker 1 (35:07):
And that's why I didn't do that research is because
I chose to respect his privacy. And it was not
it was not laziness or anything. It was just that
I chose to respect his privacy. I do just want

(35:31):
to because you are expressing a bit of a bean
horniness and I do just you guys know, the filmmaker
Robert Eggers, like the guy who made like Northman and
the Witch, and like his films are interesting because their perspective,
like one of the things I find interesting about them
is like their perspective on history is that it's like
a different planet, and just like like history is much

(35:55):
stranger than you could like possibly imagine. And that's what
this next anecdote makes me think about, is like a
Robert Egger's movie, because I can't believe what I'm about
to describe happened during During My Lifetime nineteen ninety six,
he came to a mall in Toronto. Showed up to

(36:15):
the mall in characters Mister Bean to autograph copies of
his newly released Mister Bean VHS tape. Three thousand fans
showed up. Some of them were extremely horny. One of
them yelled, I want him. Another woman said he's my
life and I want him to have my baby. People

(36:37):
began getting crushed and he had to like stand on
a table and ask people to stop pushing. In character
as mister Bean.

Speaker 4 (36:45):
He barely talks, so that's so fun.

Speaker 1 (36:48):
I know, And then he had to be like whisked
away after twenty minutes. Oh, he was supposed to be
there for three hours signing things, and they were like
this isn't safe, Like we got to get the fuck
out of here.

Speaker 4 (37:00):
I get.

Speaker 2 (37:01):
I get the attraction because I assume he was a virgin.

Speaker 4 (37:05):
Mister Bean the character the characters alien. Yeah, but like
he's horning though, right right.

Speaker 2 (37:12):
There's a horniness and so women just wanted to teach
him things, right.

Speaker 3 (37:17):
I don't know full nude scenes in at least one
mister Bean episode that like not but you can see
like his back nuts and.

Speaker 4 (37:27):
His full ass what yeah, zoom nuts finshot zoom. It's
on my phone out of context, Like mister Bean is like, yeah,
he's like it's implied that he like fucks Irma, but

(37:48):
he's just like not nice to her. But I don't know,
but he's like he is kind of a horny care
in the movies. He also is very flirty.

Speaker 1 (37:55):
Yes, he's amorous, Yes, quite very expressive eyebrows. The all
the better to be amorous with.

Speaker 3 (38:04):
Can I tell you when Rowan Atkins in fact, that
will make people horny?

Speaker 2 (38:08):
Yes.

Speaker 3 (38:09):
So apparently he was like he has a private plane,
of course, because he's so so rich. And in two
thousand and one he was on holiday and Kenya, he
of the second movie, he was in his his pilot
of his private plane fainted and couldn't be recovered and

(38:30):
then Rowan Atkinson landed the plane himself.

Speaker 2 (38:35):
What no, this isn't made up? Heep stage this it's not.

Speaker 1 (38:42):
That is hot. That's crazy. That is that's the sort
of story like.

Speaker 4 (38:46):
He wasn't for ship.

Speaker 1 (38:47):
I feel like there's a PR firm out there for
fa Actually sorry, that is the opposite of some Arison
Fordship Airson Forard goes up expressly as the pilot and
fails to yeah, yeah he needs ron Atkinson is saying,
I feel like there must be like a celebrity PR team.

(39:08):
That's just like, okay, so we go around and stage
the most outlandish shit that like makes you sound yeah,
that makes you sound like you're a biblical hunk. Anyways,
I do just want to so talking about the movie
I did. I watched the movie. I did not like
it as much as the show. It's called Bean the
Ultimate Disaster Movie in the US, because they were like,

(39:30):
I don't know, how are we going to sell this shit?

Speaker 4 (39:32):
It's so funny, Jack, He's paid.

Speaker 1 (39:34):
He's paid four point five million dollars for it. I
am unfortunately required to read how that fact was presented
in a trade from the time The Latest Tinseltown tittle
tattle was that Atkinson was being paid four point five
million dollars by a Hollywood studio to make a mister
Bean movie. The latest Tinseltown tittle Tattle is to kill us, guys.

(39:58):
That's so good.

Speaker 2 (40:00):
Twenty twenty six sucks lost lost it.

Speaker 1 (40:04):
Yeah exactly, there's just somebody just typing away and in
the variety offices. The latest Tinseltown tittletattel. Yes.

Speaker 2 (40:15):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (40:16):
The movie restage several of the sketches from the original
show and also had Burt Reynolds, who so just again
to put this into like context of like the time,
Being came out mere weeks after Boogie Nights was released, and.

Speaker 4 (40:33):
Uh, Burt Reynolds year for a movie.

Speaker 1 (40:35):
Burt Reynolds was like a fucking hate Boogie Knights. Give
me more Bean. He loved Being and it was so
humiliated that he was in. Boogie Knights cost around eighteen
million dollars to make. I'm not going to tell you
how much it made exactly, but I do just want
to put the box office performance of that and the

(40:55):
sequel into context. So the sequel comes out in two
thousand and seven, we're gonna start with that. That's the
same year, The Pirates of the Caribbean at World's End
was number one at the box office. Harry Potter and
The Order of Phoenix is number two. The top comedies
that year are Juno and Knocked Up in America, the
sequel to Bean that comes out ten years after his

(41:17):
popularity peaks in America. Beat Knocked Up. It's just behind
Juno at the global box office. It made sixty million dollars,
more than No Country for Old Men. It was twenty
It was the twenty third top grossing movie that came
out that year. It crushed. Okay, so Onto The original

(41:39):
movie came out in nineteen ninety seven, the year of Titanic,
Men in Black, The Lost World, Liar, Liar, Air Force One, Goodwill,
Hunting Face Off. That's a sampling of movies from the
top fifteen of that year. La Confidential was number twenty eight.
Where do you think Bean, the Ultimate Disaster Movie came
in on that list on the global box office.

Speaker 2 (42:02):
I'm scared that it's high up.

Speaker 4 (42:04):
I mean it was massive, right, it was number two.

Speaker 1 (42:08):
No, it goes Titanic, titan It goes Titanic Bean. Men
in Black, that's the top three at the global box
office for the year nineteen ninety seven.

Speaker 2 (42:20):
Oh, it makes me equally mad as it does happy.

Speaker 4 (42:25):
Crazy another thing that I just feel like wouldn't happen
right now. So it makes me very happy but angry
maybe for different reasons than you. But that's that's incredible.

Speaker 2 (42:39):
We were so pure back then.

Speaker 4 (42:42):
Well we invested in real talent. Okay, put a chan black.

Speaker 1 (42:46):
Like think about how big Men in Black was huge,
just so big, it's that's crazy. So those movies are huge.
Two thousand and two, they create a cartoon series produced
by Atkinson, made with Richard Curtis that lasted one very
lengthy season. Again, it's like kind of reviving and reusing

(43:08):
different gags from the live action show. They're really just
like using every last bit of that original live action show.
There was another season in twenty nineteen, which paved the
way for being to provide essential COVID nineteen checklist for
a World Health Organization PSA in twenty twenty. So you
aren't the only one having a bean uh horn Bean.

(43:34):
But the Mister Bean cartoon actually continues to this day.
A new season kicked off in twenty twenty five, but
he has millions of followers on platforms like Instagram, TikTok.
The big money maker is the YouTube channel which So
I watched this video where this guy's like talking about
how weirdly popular it is. It's I think from like

(43:54):
twenty nineteen maybe, and he's like, this channel is fifteen
million followers, and I like, go to the channel today
and it's it has like thirty five millions, So it's
like doubled in the last five years. Like it's just
so popular and like not slowing down at all, Like

(44:17):
the twenty twenties have been about like the rise of
Bean for like people around the world. But he his
YouTube account just puts out like weird, like it puts
out multiple videos every single day, and like there there's
been multiple videos dropped today on the mister Bean YouTube channel.

(44:39):
Like so one of the tactics they use is just
like a clip from a Bean thing and then like
a clip from another one. Like they're like, oh, we
haven't put these two together. It's like the Chipotle menu
thing where you can actually do fifteen million different options.

Speaker 2 (44:57):
And like he probably has nothing to do with at
this point because he's not talking in the videos, right
or is he writing, Like what's happening here, but.

Speaker 3 (45:05):
He's allowing them to keep up their episodes.

Speaker 4 (45:09):
And his content. He might I mean, I hope he's
making some money from it.

Speaker 1 (45:12):
Oh, pro he's making so much money.

Speaker 4 (45:15):
Yeah, he owns the rights to the stuff.

Speaker 1 (45:18):
Probably there's a series in there. So another thing they
do is called Handy Bean, which begins with like an
awkward little intro from Ajason. So it'll show him and
he'll be like and like just you know, make faces,
like walk towards the camera and then pretend he's about
to do something with his hands, and then it will

(45:38):
be followed by shots of mister Bean's hands that are
like clearly not him performing like tasks and crafts while
being is like oh yes, and I'm like, wow, that's lazy.
And then I looked at one it has six million views. Yes,
it's just it's like the he's like they're just sitting

(46:00):
in an office somewhere being like what else, what else?
Like what can we get out of this footage we
have of him like kind of looking at the camera
and Riley smiling, and they're like, I don't know, well,
what have we got a hand model in here to
like do crafts?

Speaker 2 (46:14):
And people are consuming this because mister Bean has tapped
into something we need to. We need a college course
on this, because there's a there's magic, there's black magic.

Speaker 1 (46:25):
It's truly like I don't I mean, I think there
is like a childishness to it. I think there is
like a thing like we were saying earlier with like
he has this weird take, this weird sense of like
certain adult things and like other things like you don't
so like he makes you like see things anew through

(46:46):
fresh eyes, and then he's like very talented. But it
is like, yeah, it's it goes beyond that, like it
goes beyond words.

Speaker 3 (46:53):
It's like it's it's it's literally goes beyond onwards. It's relatable,
I think if you're anyone, because he's so massive in
like in India and the Middle East. I feel like,
you know, he's an al he's trying to adjust to
this sort of like stodgy like Western culture. I think
maybe that's relatable for some people. And then there's almost

(47:15):
no like language in it, so there's not that barrier.
It's like enjoyable by everyone. But I think, I don't know,
I think it feels like a very universal story for anyone,
like it's like an immigrant's tale, you know what I mean,
except he's pissing everybody off, which I guess.

Speaker 4 (47:32):
I mean, you know people do.

Speaker 1 (47:34):
Which I'm sure a lot of immigrants.

Speaker 4 (47:37):
But unjustly so. But like people are mad.

Speaker 1 (47:40):
Mister Victor says, my grandparents, who didn't speak English loved Bean. Yeah, dude,
and mister Bean and Ron Atkins like, yeah, of course
they did. What are you talking about? Why are you surprised?
That's what I meant. I meant for your grandparents to
fucking love me.

Speaker 2 (47:56):
There must to be a comfort in it too, Like
we were talking about this in the Bart Simpson episode,
like something about Bart Simpson made everybody want to do
bootleg merch and just like have his image and like
the Simpsons provide that like nostalgia, and mister Bean does
that too.

Speaker 3 (48:12):
Yes, yeah, it's I mean, the pace of the show
is comforting, but I think kids and anyone who's any
adult that feels like an outsider who's had an experience
like that.

Speaker 4 (48:24):
You know, we love a fish out of watertail where
it's just like, hey, I'm trying my fucking mess. I
just like don't know what all the rules are and like,
I don't know, I can't just be like everybody else.
I'm bean, I'm an alien.

Speaker 1 (48:37):
We've all been in church trying to eat a piece
of candy and like just try to stay awake, or
didn't like.

Speaker 3 (48:45):
You know, the dish at the very fancy restaurant and
didn't want to send it back or offend the chef
or the server.

Speaker 4 (48:53):
And so you have to just scoop it all into
a lady's purse. Like that's just what life is. I'm like,
he's trying not to be rude and then being ruder
as a result, and I think that's something we've all
experienced exactly.

Speaker 2 (49:07):
The meeting the Queen one is my favorite.

Speaker 4 (49:10):
Oh it's so good.

Speaker 1 (49:11):
I haven't seen the meeting the Queen one. What do
you do? What do you do to the Queen?

Speaker 2 (49:15):
I can't remember. But he's just like obviously he's not everything.
He's like. I don't know, Amy, do you remember exactly
what it is? I just remember like being stoned and
laughing my ass off.

Speaker 4 (49:27):
I feel like she does end up like without a
dress in some way, or is under her dress?

Speaker 1 (49:34):
Oh no, But he's in like.

Speaker 3 (49:35):
A line of people meeting the queen and This is
one of the scenes that's in both the show and
the movie, but slightly different and it's much bigger budget
in the movie.

Speaker 4 (49:45):
But like, yeah, it doesn't go good.

Speaker 1 (49:52):
Some way.

Speaker 4 (49:52):
Yeah, my god, I can't believe I can.

Speaker 2 (49:55):
There's like a plant involved, like he's holding a plant
at some point. I don't.

Speaker 3 (50:00):
Yeah, it's by the way, speaking of church, this is
the funniest fucking thing I maybe learned through any the
research and I never knew it before. But people didn't
know for sure if he was an alien because there's
like a it's because of the choir.

Speaker 4 (50:15):
It's almost implied that he's coming from heaven.

Speaker 1 (50:17):
But right, yeah, was an angel, a fallen angel?

Speaker 4 (50:22):
Yeah, but there's like this.

Speaker 3 (50:23):
Choir singing in Latin, and I never really knew what
it was, but they're singing. There's just singing over and
over this phrasing Latin ecta homo kia faba, which just
means behold the man who is a bean.

Speaker 1 (50:43):
And they're not wrong the wrong.

Speaker 4 (50:45):
Oh, he sure is a bean, that's.

Speaker 1 (50:47):
Right, real goof. There's been some weird attempts to merchandise.
There's a book called Mister Bean's Diary from nineteen ninety three,
speaking of his relationship. Uh, there's so the it's literally
just a day planner with notes by mister Bean, and
includes the revelation that his girlfriend Irma left him for

(51:08):
someone named Giles, followed by some like very unsettling serial
killer Escdoodles.

Speaker 4 (51:14):
Which is like, would never leave.

Speaker 1 (51:17):
I mean, it's just not very So this is not canon.

Speaker 4 (51:19):
I don't know if it's cannon. It's just hard for
me to really.

Speaker 1 (51:22):
I don't believe it.

Speaker 2 (51:23):
Yeah, yeah, they should have named it mister Bean's Diarrhea.

Speaker 1 (51:29):
Definitely, you're right, and it's not too late to pitch that.
There's also a weirdly depressing Mister Bean video game two
thousand and seven's uh mister Bean Racer two, which begins
with the revelation that and I quote mister Bean has
become homeless, Like what, mister Bean's down on his luck

(51:53):
and so he has to run around doing stressful task again.
It feels like they interpreted him were like the thing
people like about it is being stressed out. I was like, no,
I don't think that's that's not it.

Speaker 2 (52:05):
I love that it starts with two. There was no
mister Bean Racer one.

Speaker 1 (52:08):
Yeah, that's just how it started. And then I do
want to get to the international incident. There. There have
been quite a few mister Bean lookalikes, but only one
of them nearly caused an international incident. A guy named
Assef Mohammad became a celebrity in Pakistan owing to his
Bean like look and he started in a series of

(52:30):
bank commercials in which he just literally like plays mister
Bean and he's just like, yeah, I don't know, what
are you going to do? Assue me? They call a
mister pac Bean.

Speaker 4 (52:42):
Oh I love this guy.

Speaker 1 (52:44):
He was booked to appear at a show in Zimbabwe
in twenty sixteen, where he received a hero's welcome from
fans who thought he was actual mister Bean, and the
organizers of the show like kind of didn't make it
clear that it wasn't the real mister. They put the
word pack in like very tiny letters on the on

(53:05):
the poster. And he also had no actual standalone act
and only appeared on stage while other comedians were performing.
And then so Zimbabwe didn't forget that shit. Years later,
Zimbabwe played Pakistan in a twenty twenty two cricket match
and the meeting was dubbed the Mister bean Derby in

(53:26):
reference to the incident, and when Zimbabwe won, the president
congratulated the team, adding next time send the real mister Bean.
It's like a piece of lore between these two countries
that they sent the wrong mister Bean, and like they've
never forgiven.

Speaker 4 (53:42):
That's so funny.

Speaker 2 (53:44):
He looks so much like him. I'm looking at it now.
It's crazy. There's like obviously like not perfect, not exactly.

Speaker 4 (53:53):
But he looks good. Have you guys seen the Bean
filter on Instagram?

Speaker 1 (54:00):
Oh my god, no, but it makes perfect sense.

Speaker 4 (54:02):
Oh that's crazy looking. I highly suggest trying it.

Speaker 3 (54:09):
I'll send you guys a screenshot of Well, it looks
like when I did it, but it sure doesn't look
like mister Bean.

Speaker 4 (54:14):
I'll tell you so.

Speaker 1 (54:16):
They just like put you in the outfit.

Speaker 4 (54:18):
Or they give you a thing.

Speaker 3 (54:19):
No, it's literally only his face matched up with your
own face, and then it just looks insane, right, you
gotta see it.

Speaker 1 (54:29):
There's also a bar in Vietnam the yeah has. It's
like one of the things that happens with like magical
spells in ancient mythology is that they'll like lure you
into a cursed place where you'll be like trapped and
harmed and like the spell of Mister Bean is no different.
There's this bar that just says mister Bean on the outside.

(54:51):
Oh and it serves being themed cocktails, has a TV
dedicated to playing Mister Bean twenty four to seven. The
interior is full of images of mister Bean, including some
of him as Jack Sparrow and the Joker, as well
as photos of Michael Jackson and Kenny g who you
may have noticed are not mister Bean. But tourists have come.

(55:16):
But before you go, and I know you like we're
all rushing out. We're making while we're making our travel plays.
Tourists have complained about the quote disgusting drinks, the poor
quality food, the sheshas that come with bacterial lung infection,
and there have been allegations of methanol poisoning, harassment, and
customers being served drug drinks at the bar.

Speaker 2 (55:38):
My god, I'm still going, guys.

Speaker 1 (55:42):
Is only making me more excited.

Speaker 4 (55:47):
I mean, I wonder if there's got like you know,
because I like a lot of guys that hang out
all the time at like Margeritaville, like look exactly like
Jimmy Buffett. I wonder if there's Bean lookalikes that are there,
like Roofine, because it's like he but.

Speaker 1 (56:01):
Using the power, buddy, why do you think I traveled here?

Speaker 4 (56:08):
You look close enough to being like, yeah, let's go.

Speaker 1 (56:15):
So sadly, he has alienated a lot of Bean fans
with his anti cancel culture Ransom, which he claimed that
the job of comedy is to offend and every joke
has a victim, which just is very funny for someone
who has made their career doing a comedy that seems
like profoundly victimless, right, Like the character is obviously a

(56:37):
fool and he's the butt of the joke. But it
feels like because of this misunderstanding that all comedy has
to have a victim, he's like interpreting the popularity of
being as like him being the victim. Like it just
it feels like maybe this is why he's like playing
Bean hurts my whole soul. Right, He's like.

Speaker 4 (56:58):
Gets a lot of shit for it, though, I mean,
I mean there are probably scenes in like the original
being episodes that you know, certain people would say were
like not okay or inappropriate. Now I don't know, like
he's mean to kids, he's like inappropriate with women, but
it's just like, yeah, he's an alien dude.

Speaker 2 (57:17):
Yeah, he should have just shut the fuck up and
that's it. Yeah, just keeping yeah, just keep doing your thing.

Speaker 4 (57:23):
But I feel like he's probably gotten way more hate
than we can imagine, which is why he's like, oh
you're you're after me or whatever. But yeah, but the
idea of Rowan Atkinson reading or caring about the comments
is also like embarrassing. So I hope that that's not true.
Like he just seems way too cool for that, right,
That's that's something I do, you know what I mean,
that's for losers.

Speaker 1 (57:45):
He's just a huge kill Tony fan. He's not even
talking about his own body. He just loves, loves Tony Hinchcliff.

Speaker 2 (57:52):
He's seventy one younger than I thought.

Speaker 4 (57:54):
Actually yeah, I mean he really hit like so young.

Speaker 1 (58:00):
Really young. Yeah, I mean he and he did this
like while he was he was already famous, and it
was like, and now for my next trick, I will
become one of the most famous people on earth.

Speaker 2 (58:11):
Does anybody know what the deal with the little Teddy
Bear is? He's like holding a Teddy Bear in so
many pictures.

Speaker 5 (58:18):
Friend Teddy, his best friend Teddy, not knowing shit.

Speaker 1 (58:24):
I do think it's also been foregrounded a little bit
more as like a lot of the content on a
YouTube channel, like including the handy Bean or whatever the
fuck that was the thing where they would like cut
it from his face to like a hand model just
doing crass. I think are aimed at children, you know,
and like so I think the childlike aspect of him

(58:46):
has been foregrounded a little bit to like broaden his
appeal and like make it even more popular with children.
But like he does have a lot of like shared
DNA with the minions who are very popular with children.
But like also kind of rock if you ask me.

Speaker 2 (59:02):
He was also he was in the Lion King. He
was Sazoo.

Speaker 4 (59:07):
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, he's got a great voice. I mean
it seems like he's not wrong.

Speaker 3 (59:17):
Maybe that he hasn't followed up being in any sort
of massive way, but then everything he's done is good,
and so it's like, I don't know, why are you
upset about this? Like some people don't get any fame
or money, but like but like I get it it.

Speaker 4 (59:33):
You know, it's hard for him to be anything else.

Speaker 1 (59:35):
Yeah, I mean it's hard to Yeah, and that when
that's what people expect from you. And he has such
a very unique look as a person, Like the iconic
look is just him in a tweet jacket. And so
I'm sure everyone's just like, oh shit, mister Bean, Like
that's like what what his wife called him, you know.

Speaker 4 (59:56):
So it's not too late, like like it's it's shocked
he's not coming out with some like highly dramatic.

Speaker 3 (01:00:06):
Like Oscar slash bafta grab a role, you know what
I mean, because why how why couldn't he do that?
Like it seems time.

Speaker 4 (01:00:15):
Yeah, he doesn't care.

Speaker 1 (01:00:16):
It's hard. It's hard to like get motivated to do
that difficult, emotionally wrenching work when you have one hundred
and sixty million dollars in the.

Speaker 3 (01:00:24):
Right but even in even in by the way, rat right,
So I think that is one of the funniest WANs
of all time. But like you know, he's still he's been,
he's been in and everything.

Speaker 4 (01:00:35):
He's been in Johnny He's Johnny English is Bean.

Speaker 1 (01:00:38):
He's been. They do just sneak in Johnny English clips
on his YouTube channel. They're just like, yeah, basically, mister Bean.

Speaker 2 (01:00:46):
I think he should reduce senectity New York.

Speaker 4 (01:00:51):
Oh, my god, Ron Atkinson and Charlie Kaufman is a
dream team. It would be incredible your genius.

Speaker 1 (01:01:03):
A twenty four Mister Bean movie. It's a good pitch,
Brian all right, Amy, such a pleasure having you. Thank
you so much for picking mister Bean. This was the delight.

Speaker 3 (01:01:15):
I feel like we overlooked one very major fun fact.
Please do you know this that when Osama bin Laden
was captured.

Speaker 2 (01:01:24):
Oh my gosh, no.

Speaker 4 (01:01:28):
On his laptop.

Speaker 3 (01:01:32):
And things, you know, media he was watching for entertainment,
It was mostly mister Bean.

Speaker 5 (01:01:38):
Wow, this is wow crazy like Lady Gaga, because my
favorite detail from our Whitney Houston iconograph is that Osama
bin Laden was obsessed with her and was planning to
kidnap her and to have Bobby Brown killed because she

(01:02:00):
loved her so much.

Speaker 4 (01:02:01):
Oh my god. So he had great taste.

Speaker 2 (01:02:03):
Yes, yeah, he had great taste.

Speaker 1 (01:02:06):
Yeah, ri ipsden Laden, you would have loved this show.
I mean, you know there's some there's some overlap there. Amy,
Where can people find you see you all that kind
of stuff?

Speaker 3 (01:02:23):
Oh yeah, find me on Instagram at Amy Miller Comedy
and then check my website Amymillercomedy dot com for show dates.
I'll be in Vancouver, British Columbia for my first time
nice year, and then I have a bunch of other
stuff coming up. But just follow me and you'll see it.

Speaker 1 (01:02:41):
There you go, how about you, tam.

Speaker 2 (01:02:42):
You can find me on Instagram at tomorrow, Yahia, and
you can read about my fucked up life by buying
my book Cry for Me Argentina.

Speaker 1 (01:02:51):
Amazing. All right, that is going to do it for
this conversation. I will be back in a moment for
the notebook Dump. All right. That was our conversation about

(01:03:15):
the surprisingly iconic mister Bean. Thank you to Amy Miller
and to tomorrow Yeahea for joining extra thanks to Amy
Miller for suggesting the subject. Extra thanks to Tomorrow Yehia
for stepping in with Miles out of the Country Cam
also with Bart Simpson and mister Bean is really positioning

(01:03:36):
ourself well on a ven diagram for the inevitable Mingen's episode.
And thanks to jam McNab for the research on this one.
He knew the Toronto story very well. Was like, mister
Bean is kind of a big deal up here before
we get to the Bean. Notebook Dump. The Bean Dump,

(01:03:57):
the much less popular Super bowl alternative to bean dip.
I've got a free to Collo notebook dump. I've reserved
the right to revisit past icons when I run into
something I didn't know during the original notebook dump in
the case of Elvis's monkey scatter, or in this case,
something I did know both when we recorded the episode

(01:04:20):
and during the notebook dump, and I just forgot to
say both places. So free to collo. As I've said,
one of my favorite signs of iconography is when quotes
are misattributed to them. Einstein always seeing bumper stickers with
fake Einstein quotes, and one of the podcasts I listened

(01:04:44):
to on Free to Collo when I was doing research
opened with this great quote that nonetheless felt a little
fishy to me as far as being something free to
calla would say, even if I imagined it being said
by Selma Hayek in her accented English like she spoke
in the movie Freda. The quote, which again I like,

(01:05:07):
is as follows. I used to think I was the
strangest person in the world, but then I thought, there's
so many people in the world. There must be someone
just like me who feels bizarre and flawed. In the
same way as I do. I would imagine her and
imagine that she must be out there thinking of me too. Well.

(01:05:27):
I hope that if you are out there and read this,
know that, yes it's true. I'm here and I'm just
as strange as you. So the Queen's podcast about freeda
Callo opens with that, and everyone's like, yes, that is
fucking awesome, And I agree, it's an awesome quote. But
I love it as a line for a manic pixie

(01:05:51):
dreamgirl in like a rom com from the aughts or
I don't know, like I went to research it anyways
and found that the MoMA had tweeted the quote as
being from Free to Collo in twenty twenty one. So
no shade to the Queen's podcast. You know, the MoMA
made the same mistake in actuality. The quote is an

(01:06:14):
original piece of writing by a Canadian teenager. At the
time she was a teenager named Rebecca Martin. Published a
post secret with a picture of Free to Callo when
Rebecca Martin was seventeen in the year two thousand and eight.
So congratulations to her on writing a great quote. Try
harder to the MoMA, but I don't know what it

(01:06:38):
you know when they say that like an actor doesn't
make sense in a period piece because they have a
face that has seen an iPhone. I feel like that
quote has seen an iPhone. I don't know how else
to explain it. Although two thousand and eight, I guess
it had seen an iPhone. By a year, I think
it didn't iPhone come in two thousand and seven. Something
we'll dig into on an upcoming iconograph. All right, onto

(01:07:01):
mister Bean's notebook, Dump the Bean, dump my super Bowl Special. First,
I can debunk the rumor that mister Bean is dating
former adult film star Miya Khalifa. If you are not
one of the people who encountered that like me, if
you just type mister Bean space into Google at this

(01:07:22):
moment in history, it will auto complete to mister Bean
and Miya Khalifa dating. She has, unfortunately for people who
are horny for that, for that combo, for that couple,
she has come out and said, guys, I am dating
a fool, but it's not mister Bean. But I do
love that she is essentially defined mister Bean as the

(01:07:47):
patron saint of fools. I think that's pretty astute of her.
That's kind of the rule that his icon slots into.
I loved the detail that Chris Rock and Mister Bean
debuted at the same just for Last Festival in nineteen
eighty seven. I think it was if you had asked
me who was a bigger addition to comedy history up
until the research for this episode, I would have assumed

(01:08:11):
you were joking, And you know, it still debatable, but
I wouldn't have thought it was a debate. But I'm
just saying, Chris Rock never beat Men in Black at
the box office. I mentioned a couple of times how
strange I thought it was that Mister Bean only had
fourteen episodes. They weren't even really episodes, and the fact
that they came out sort of sporadically. It's kind of

(01:08:33):
like he's a YouTube comedy group in the twenty tens,
just like one off specials, like he was dropping albums.
I feel like there hasn't really been anything similar since
where they're just sporadic one off specials or like releases
and people just gobble them up globally. We talked about
how they landed on the iconic Mister Bean moniker, using

(01:08:56):
Rowan Atkinson's Funniness math that words that start with be
are slightly funnier than the other category words that don't
start with B. I will say that in China he's
known as the foolish mister Bean, which I don't think
is quite necessary, but also it's not bad, kind of

(01:09:16):
like it. He recently appeared in a movie spin off
of the Chinese variety show Top Funny Comedian The Movie
in twenty seventeen. It was him, various Chinese comedians that
I was unfamiliar with, and Mike Tyson, so you know,
the biggest, the top funny comedians in the world. And
as for more opportunities for him to dilute his box

(01:09:40):
office dominance, there is supposedly an animated Mister Bean film
in development, with ron Atkinson saying he finds playing the
character stressful and exhausting. It's easier for me to perform
the character vocally than visually. Yeah, yeah, I guess. So
the character is basically a mime. I feel like that
would be easier to perform vocally. Yeah. I highly recommend.

(01:10:06):
Speaking of his refusal to inhabit the role of mister
Bean or you know, doing it as little as is
physically possible, I highly recommend you check out his YouTube
channel for all the ways they figured out how to
make money off a character where the only person who
can legitimately play the character has a full body allergy

(01:10:26):
to doing so. In addition to the hand model thing
with six million views, they have an EDM song called
I'm Just going to read the name of the YouTube
video Pizza Bean New Song Summer Soundtrack mister Bean official
that one has eight hundred and eighty seven thousand views,
the song of the Summer as we all remember. But
I do think the difficulty he has playing the character

(01:10:49):
mister Bean, his early statement that the character possesses a
viciousness and his recent statement that every joke has a
victim really kind of together for me to paint a
portrait of someone who could have been much happier if
he was just like, Hey, why do you find the
character of mister Bean funny? Because I bet most people

(01:11:12):
wouldn't be like, it's his pathos, you know, or it's
because he's a fool and I hate him. I think
people you know would have been like, I love him.
I think he's just so silly and fun, like you
know Amy was saying, or they would have said, I
want him inside me right now, As that woman in
Toronto said, if you could just learn this one simple

(01:11:36):
fact that doctors don't want you to know, he'd be
so happy and we'd be able to get more bean
eat more bean. All right, that's gonna do it for
this week's episode. Next week, we're going topical with the
subject of a smash hit feature film that just dropped,

(01:11:58):
and not the one that would end up being a
tremendous bummer man Icon's really burning up the box office,
Not Michael. We're talking about the one that's going to
teach you to respect Cerulean. So tune in next week
for our and a Win tour episode with Miles Gray,
who will be back and who once I believe, worked

(01:12:18):
for Conde Nast and Mono Agapian. Until then, I hope
you have an Iconic foolish week and we'll talk to
you on Monday. Bike