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Recap / Blackadder S 3 E 3 Nob And Nobility

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Ha! Some hope. The Pimpernel is the most overrated human being since Judas Iscariot won the A.D. 31 Best Disciple Competition.

Scarlet Pimpernel Fever has swept London. Everyone thinks he's so brave for rescuing French aristocrats. Edmund, of course, is simply annoyed, and when he can't take it any more after encountering Topper and Smedley (two upper-class twits who hang out with the Prince), he bets that he could go to France to rescue an aristocrat who he will present at a ball at the French embassy. George gives him a wonderful send off, but as we all can guess, Edmund has no intention of going to France; he's just going to find one of the refugee French aristos and get him to PRETEND he's been rescued.

He finds a suitable aristocrat, le Comte de Frou Frou, but when they go to the French Embassy they are captured by an evil revolutionary who has just killed the ambassador and taken over. Worse, he and plans to have Edmund, Baldrick and Frou Frou tortured by Madame Guillotine herself. Frou Frou gives them suicide pills, but before he can take them, he is removed for torture. Edmund, armed with the suicide pills, slips one into the Madame Guillotine's drink, but she then reveals herself as Smedley, who is the Scarlet Pimpernel! But he's already consumed the suicide pill, and after a prolonged death scene, he dies.

Edmund and Baldrick escape with Frou Frou, go to the palace and relate a completely made-up story of rescue to the Prince, who, needless to say, is impressed. But Edmund's triumph doesn't last long; Frou Frou reveals himself to be Topper in disguise, and reveals that HE is the Scarlet Pimpernel, a role he shares with Smedley who has mysteriously disappeared. But before Edmund's ruse can be revealed, he remembers he has one more suicide pill ... which he puts in Topper's wine, thus killing both of the men who have been rescuing French aristos under the guise of the Scarlet Pimpernel. Prince George thinks it's a shame that the Pimpernel is dead, as has an envelope full of money to give him. Edmund cuts in and says that Topper was actually NOT the Scarlet Pimpernel, as the true Scarlet Pimpernel would be someone who denied his identity, and when asked "Are you the Scarlet Pimpernel?" would reply "Absolutely not." Having revealed himself to be the Pimpernel, Topper had (according to Blackadder) done the one thing the Pimpernel would never do — ergo, Topper wasn't the Pimpernel. "Blackadder, are you the Scarlet Pimpernel?" George asks. "Absolutely not, sir." Edmund replies, happily accepting the money.

Tropes

  • Artistic Licence – Linguistics: In French the word "adder" is not "adder" but "vipère" (fem.), so George should hail his servant as "la vipère noire". Justified by the fact that George is an idiot who sometimes struggles with English, let alone French.
  • As Long as It Sounds Foreign: George and his foppish friends with their French phrases.
  • Brick Joke:
    • At the beginning, Mrs. Miggins outlines the items on her new French-themed menu — one of which is a sausage that is in fact a horse's willy. When she identifies the le Comte to Blackadder, she points out he's so down on his luck he's made said item of food last all morning. This turns out to be because he's wondering if the suspicious-looking sausage he's been served is actually a horse's willy.
    • The contrast between French trousers and English trousers, with the French ones being more interesting. Later on the Revolutionary admits one of the reasons he hates the English is their boring trousers.
  • Brief Accent Imitation: Blackadder affects a working class English accent while trying to curry favour with the Revolutionary.
  • The Chain of Harm: This episode provides the page quote.
  • Cheese-Eating Surrender Monkeys: Edmund seems to have this view of the French. Given the years following the French Revolution, this seems wildly misplaced.
  • Disguised in Drag: The Scarlet Pimpernel's assistant disguises himself as Madame Guillotine, a female French Torture Technician, in order to rescue Edmund and Baldrick from French revolutionaries. This ends badly for him as Blackadder poisons him before finding out that he's an ally.
  • Epic Fail: Prince George spends a whole week trying to put some trousers on. And he only manages to get them stuck on his head. In the final scene he quite clearly has one on the wrong leg.
  • Everything's Sexier in French:
    • Mrs. Miggins, George, and pretty much everyone else (other than Blackadder) thinks this.
    • The Revolutionary objects to this view.
      Revolutionary: Ah'm French, and ah'm hung like a baby carrot and a couple of petite pois!
  • Fantastic Racism: Edmund exhibits this trope by displaying the usual English disdain for the French.
    Blackadder: [annoyed about the Pimpernel] What has this fellow done, apart from pop over to France to rescue a few aristocratic toffs from the ineffectual clutches of some malnourished whinging lefties, taking the opportunity while there, no doubt, to pick up some really cheap wine and some of their marvellous fruit flans?! Has everyone forgotten?! We hate the French! We fight wars against them! Did all those men die in vain on the fields of Agincourt?! Was the man who burnt Joan of Arc simply wasting good matches?! [the bell for service rings] Ah, his Royal Highness, the Pinhead of Wales, summons me. And you know, I almost feel well disposed towards him today. Utter chump though he may be, at least he's not French!
  • Extreme Omnisexual: According to Edmund, any Frenchman would go to bed with the kitchen sink if it wore a tutu.
  • Failed a Spot Check: Although they are dashing and resourceful heroes, both Topper and Smedley fail to notice that Blackadder puts suicide pills in their wine. Topper is especially guilty of failing this particular spot check, given that he gave Blackadder the suicide pills in the first place.
  • Foreign Queasine: Mrs Miggins's take on French food involves serving everything with "Scarlet Pimpernel sauce", which is made by squeezing a frog. Frou Frou regards the sausage with suspicion, as it looks just like a horse's willy (which, of course, it is).
  • Foreshadowing:
    • Topper and Smedley get awfully defensive when Blackadder makes fun of the Scarlet Pimpernel. It's later revealed that this is because they are him and his sidekick.
    • Immediately after claiming to only speak a little English, "Le Comte de Frou-Frou" says "Don't ask me to take a physiology class or direct a light opera". This is the first hint that the Comte isn't quite who he claims he is...
  • Gag Penis: The rather large sausage served up by Mrs Miggins is actually a horse's willy.
  • Hoist by Their Own Petard: Topper, who (when disguised as Frou Frou) gives Blackadder two suicide pills — which Blackadder subsequently used to murder Smedley and (later) Topper himself.
  • Incoming Ham: Madame Guillotine.
  • Insane Troll Logic: After killing Topper, Blackadder uses this on the Prince to convince him that Topper actually was not the Scarlet Pimpernel because he had revealed his secret identity, which the real Pimpernel would never do. By subsequently denying that he himself is the Pimpernel, Blackadder is able to convince George that he is.
  • Lethal Chef: Mrs. Miggins seems to be this, at least when she attempts French cooking.
  • Mood-Swinger: Anyone who takes the suicide pills.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Blackadder hadn't actually meant to kill Smedley. He thought he was just killing a crazed Frenchwoman planning on torturing him and Baldrick to death. His subsequent poisoning of Topper, on the other hand, is an act of cold-blooded murder committed in order to prevent him from being exposed as a fraud.
  • Obfuscating Stupidity: Topper and Smedley act like upper-class twits to hide their heroic nature.
  • Oblivious to His Own Description: Baldrick recounts how during his childhood, his family was haunted by a tiny, smelly, disgusting ghoul who would appear in their bed every night. Baldrick himself was the only one who could never see the creature. Blackadder quickly suspects that it must have disappeared the very day Baldrick left home, which Baldrick confirms.
  • The Pig-Pen: Baldrick's utterly disgusting hygiene is used by Blackadder to talk the Prince out of going to France.
    Prince: The chances of me scoring dressed like that are zero.
  • Riddle for the Ages: What exactly Madame Guillotine (or rather, Smedley disguised as Madame Guillotine) says to the revolutionary to make him flee the room.
  • Sequential Symptom Syndrome: Smedley takes a suicide pill and recites his own symptoms as he experiences them. Hilariously, he didn't realise that he had taken it, and was completely unaware of the symptoms, himself. It was probably the forgetfulness.
  • Something Only They Would Say: Played with at the end, when after killing the two men who comprise the Scarlet Pimpernel (the first inadvertently, the second deliberately), and upon learning that George was planning on rewarding the Pimpernel with a lot of money, claims that if the Pimpernel were to be asked if he was indeed the Pimpernel, he would say that he isn't. An astonished George asks Edmund if he is the Scarlet Pimpernel, Edmund smirks and replies with "Absolutely not, sir."
  • Teeny Weenie: The Revolutionary, who's "hung like a baby carrot and a couple of petite pois."
  • Too Dumb to Live: As Blackadder points out, the Scarlet Pimpernel's aide falls for one of the oldest tricks in the book, being offered a poisoned drink and taking it without suspicion.
  • Villain Respect: Flat-out defied; having poisoned Smedley, Blackadder remarks that he can't have been as good as everyone thinks the Pimpernel is because he failed to spot that he had been given wine with a suicide pill in it. Subsequently, Blackadder disposes of Topper in the same way when the latter reveals himself to be the Pimpernel.
  • Whole-Plot Reference: To The Scarlet Pimpernel, of course — in which "that demmed, elusive Pimpernel" is a friend of the Prince Regent who hides behind the persona of an upper-class twit.

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