History Headscratchers / BlackBooks

** Ethnic soup mix. Which sort of makes sense, in London.

** Britain, despite what [[UsefulNotes/BritishNewspapers certain tabloids]] would have you believe, has been a melting pot of immigrants for centuries -- especially the cities (of which London is by far the biggest). There is no combination of traditionally ethnic names that is not beyond the realm of possibility or believability.

** For what's worth he does seem to try to hit on her with a LamePun. "Frantastic" indeed...

** To help you understand, think about the film ''Film/UncleBuck''. Buck is a happy-go-lucky, easy-going man who loves his family members, yet is considered to be an "asshole" by his rebellious niece Tia for most of the movie.

** It's pretty clear when they meet that they haven't seen each other in years - she mentions to Bernard (a very old friend) that she knew him from college, and presumably he would also know Howell if Fran has associated with much past that time. She also informs Howell that she owns the shop next door, which she has definitely owned for a while.

** Bianco is Italian for "white", which is the opposite of "black". He has to have a foreign name because Manny White and Bernard Black is too obvious and unlikely.

*** The Italian side of that argument is {{Jossed}} by the fact that we see his parents and they are both British. Doesn't mean that one or both of them might not be Jewish, though, or have Jewish or Italian forebears. There's even a bit of (probably unintended FridgeLogic in their casting: Anette Crosby is Scottish, and Scotland has a high Italian-immigrant population. For comparison, see Creator/ArmandoIannucci, a Scottish man with the most Italian name you can imagine.

** Britain, despite what [[UsefulNotes/BritishNewspapers certain tabloids]] would have you believe, has been a melting pot of immigrants for centuries. There is no combination of traditionally ethnic names that is not beyond the realm of possibility or believability.
** And there are plenty of blond, blue-eyed Italians. The dark-haired, dark-skinned Mediterranean is only a stereotype. (Fair hair is recessive, so it's not easily stamped out from a population: dark-haired parents can have fair-haired kids, although the opposite is less likely.)

** To help you understand, think about the film Uncle Buck. Buck is a happy-go-lucky, easy going family man who loves his family members, yet is considered to be an "asshole" by his rebellious niece Tia for most of the movie.

* [[InsistentTerminology This is not a "headscratcher"]], it's something that honestly Just Bugs Me. When Bernard and Manny are pouring out the incredibly expensive ''Vin du Rosier'', a little money ticker appears on the screen. Every time they pour some into their glasses, it goes up. When they drink it, it goes up ''again''. When Bernard does a SpitTake, it goes up ''yet again''. It reaches the value of the bottle when they pour the last drops into their glasses, even though they haven't finished drinking yet. There's no FridgeLogic -- it's clearly pure RuleOfFunny, but it still drives me crazy.
** Me too.
** I just thought the amount they poured in was not the same portion of the bottle that they were drinking in the next shot. Instead, having the value tick up when they were simply pouring out the wine just implied that they drank it.

** RuleOfFunny, like the wine ticker point above.
** Bernard is an irrational guy, maybe he prepared the toast, putting jam on both sides, and then decided he didn't want it without eating any. So he threw it at the ceiling! Don't act like you've never done the same...

** I'm sure there's people you know and dislike who are nevertheless found to be perfectly likeable by other people without knowledge of your shared personal history. Just chalk Howell up to this; Fran doesn't like him for whatever reason in their past (they went to college, so it might be something to do with when they were younger), that's all we need to know. Besides which, this is Fran from ''Black Books'' we're discussing here. She's hardly the yardstick of morality, and just because she thinks someone is an asshole doesn't mean that the other person is necessarily at fault.

** I'm sure there's people you know and dislike who are nevertheless found to be perfectly likeable by people without knowledge of your shared personal history. Just chalk Howell up to this; Fran doesn't like him for whatever reason in their past (they went to college, so it might be something to do with when they were younger), that's all we need to know. Besides which, this is Fran from ''Black Books'' we're discussing here. She's hardly the yardstick of morality, and just because she thinks someone is an asshole doesn't mean that the other person is necessarily at fault.

* In the episode 'The Big Lock-Out', Fran is attracted to Howell Grainger's voice but says he's a complete a-hole. Nothing he does in the episode supports this description of him. He is genuinely concerned for her when he thinks she's in trouble. In fact, based solely on the character's actions in the episode she is extremely creepy and he's just a guy. It just bothers me that there's not one hint that he's a bad guy in any way. He does nothing except get a dirty phone call from Fran. Yes, RuleofFunny but still.

** Bernard is an irrational guy, maybe he prepared the toast, putting jam on both sides, and then decided he didn't want it without eating any. So he threw it at the ceiling! Don't act like you've never done the same...

** Britain, despite what [[BritishNewspapers certain tabloids]] would have you believe, has been a melting pot of immigrants for centuries. There is no combination of traditionally ethnic names that is not beyond the realm of possibility or believability.

** Britain, despite what [[BritishNewspapers certain tabloids]] would have you believe, has been a melting pot of immigrants for centuries. There is no combination of traditionally ethnic names that is not beyond the realm of possibility or believability. It is just a funny sounding name with no deeper relevance.

*** Britain, despite what [[BritishNewspapers certain tabloids]] would have you believe, has been a melting pot of immigrants for centuries. There is no combination of traditionally ethnic names that is not beyond the realm of possibility or believability. It is just a funny sounding name with no deeper relevance.

* What exactly is the ethnicity of Manny? Why does this blond guy with obviously British parents have the very Italian last name of Bianco? Why aren't the parents' names mentioned? Is Manny a nickname, and does this make him Emmanuel Bianco? IMDb says the character was originally intended to be Jewish, which doesn't make things any clearer.

*** The Italian side of that argument is {{Jossed}} by the fact that we see his parents and they are both British. Doesn't mean that one or both of them might not be Jewish, though, or have Jewish or Italian forebears. There's even a bit of (probably unintended FridgeLogic in their casting: Anette Crosby is Scottish, and Scotland has a high Italian-immigrant population. For comparison, see ArmandoIannucci, a Scottish man with the most Italian name you can imagine.

** RuleOfFunny, like the wine ticker point above.

* In the episode 'Grapes of Wrath', just after calling the cleaning agency, Manny spots a slice of toast [[ObjectCeilingCling stuck to the ceiling]] - the apparent reason for this is shown towards the end when Bernard launches another slice upwards after tasting it BUT the one that Manny saw was not only jam side down but also didn't have a bite missing from it!

* What exactly is the ethnicity of Manny? Why does this blond guy with obviously British parents have the very Italian last name of Bianco? Why aren't the parents' names mentioned? Is Manny a nickname, and does this make him Emmanuel Bianco? IMDb says the character was originally intended to be Jewish, which doesn't make things any clearer.

** Me too.