Series / Believe Nothing

Believe Nothing is a short-lived Britcom. The series revolves around the life of Quadruple Professor Adonis Cnut, an Oxford professor and the cleverest man in England, played by Rik Mayall, accompanied by his faithful servant Brain Albumen and the luscious Dr. Hannah Awkward, whose name is a case of Exactly What It Says on the Tin.

In the first episode, a shadowy organisation invites Adonis to join them and use his considerable intelligence and influence to help secretly run the world. The six episode series follows him as he uses this power for his own ends, all while getting up to antics with his Valet and friend Albumen, and his fellow professor and current lust object Hannah Awkward.

This series provides examples of:

• Adorkable: Hannah Awkward, of course.
• Alternate History: China is no longer communist, Adonis uncovers a cure for cancer and makes it publicly available to the British public, Tony Blair was kicked out of office after saying he didn't care about the public and was replaced by a blind man, and [[It Makes Sense in Context:global warming is a myth created by Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger to cover up the fact that all digital watches move faster than they should.]]
• Ambiguously Bi: It's heavily implied that despite Adonis and Albumen's pursuing of Hannah, they're already in some sort of open sexual relationship with each other. Albumen is confirmed to be in love with Adonis in the last episode.
• Bad Boss: Surprisingly averted for a Rik Mayall character. Adonis is a selfish super-villain, but he'd never even consider letting Albumen die and treats him quite nicely at times. He does occasionally punish Albumen with minor slapstick levels of violence, but Albumen seems to enjoy getting punished and occasionally inflicts the punishments on himself.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: Cnut addresses the camera at least twice.
• Brick Joke: A subtle one in "Prepare To Meteor Maker". Dr. Awkward asks Cnut for his Collected Kirkegaard at the start; at the end, Cnut himself mentions Kirkegaard just before the credits.
  • Another one in the very next episode, Squick about Bill Clinton's cigars...
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Adonis is a supervillain and Albumen is morally flexible at best, and they both honestly care for each other (Despite Adonis pretending he doesn't.)
• Freudian Excuse: Hannah claims to be homophobic in one episode, and in another it's revealed her father was gay or possibly bisexual. Her father was emotionally abusive to her and her mother and tore down her self esteem so much that she hallucinates herself as obese when she looks in a mirror.
• Ho Yay: Par for the course for a Rik Mayall series.
• Mathematician's Answer: Predictably, from Cnut.
  Albumen: May I ask why you're going to see the President of the United States disguised as a Cuban exile?
  Cnut: Yes, you may.
  beat
  Albumen: But you're not going to tell me, are you, sir?
  Cnut: No, I'm not.
• Morality Pet: Albumen is Adonis' pet. Adonis treats him thoughtlessly at times but he still often does nice things for him, like give him holidays, allow him to keep prize money that Adonis technically won, and save him from death by radiation poisoning.
• Playing Against Type: Sort of. Adonis is just as sexist, crass and egotistical as many of Rik Mayall's other characters, but unlike them, Adonis is genuinely successful and intelligent and doesn't need to lie to make himself look better.
• Politically Incorrect Hero / Politically Incorrect Villain: Adonis is quite sexist (but grows out of it a bit), and Hannah admits to being homophobic.
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: Albumen.
• Status Quo Is God: Lampshaded and averted in the same instance. In the second to last episode, Hannah is given a drug to cure of her depression, which repairs her self esteem, and leaves the university to go to Hollywood. Adonis says she'll be back "with her tail between her legs" once the drug wears off and she goes back to normal, but while she does come back, she came back due to boredom rather than failure or because the drug wore off. There's only one episode left in the series after that, but there's no sign of her depression, phobias or low self esteem in it.
• Take That!: Gratuitous shots at the then-President of the United States, and the then-Prime Minister of England (Bush and Blair, respectively).
• Token Good Teammate: Hannah is a friend and love interest to both Albumen and Adonis, whom are both somewhat evil. She has no problem assisting them in their illegal schemes but she's also the nicest and moral of the group.