Line #6 Headscratchers/BlackBooks


1	* 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? Website/IMDb says the character was originally intended to be Jewish, which doesn't make things any clearer.
2	** Ethnic soup mix. Which sort of makes sense, in London.
3	*** Worth noting that in the commentaries [[WordOfGod Dylan Moran ]] says the character was meant to be Jewish, and confirms that Manny's short for Immanuel.
4	** "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.
5	** Simple: his mother is Jewish and his father is Italian.
6	*** 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 significant Italian-immigrant population (to the point where there's even an "Italian" tartan). For example, look no further than Creator/ArmandoIannucci, a Scotsman with the most Italian name you can imagine.
7	*** Occam's razor: [[https://www.genealogy.com/forum/surnames/topics/bianco/88/ Bianco has been used as a surname among Sephardic Jews]].
8	** 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.
9	** And there are plenty of blond, blue-eyed Italians -- especially in the north of the country. 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.
10	* 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!
11	** RuleOfFunny
12	* 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...
13	* 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.
14	** 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.
15	** 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. If indeed he was as bad as Fran thinks, he's probably grown out of it.
16	** 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.

Context Headscratchers / BlackBooks