Line #72 SelfDemonstrating/Molesworth


1	->''a chiz is a swiz or a swindle as any fule kno.''
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3	[[quoteright:243:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/molesworth_3683.gif]]
4	[[caption-width-right:243:the goriller of 3b]]
5	nigel molesworth, goriller of 3b and curse of [[BoardingSchoolOfHorrors st custards]], is a brittish skoolboy from the 1950s whose poor speling do not hold him back from rekording his GRATE THORTS about [[BoardingSchool skool]], life, [[UsefulNotes/AssociationFootball foopball]], [[UsefulNotes/{{Cricket}} crikit]], [[AdultsAreUseless grown-ups]], [[GirlsHaveCooties GURLS]], interplanetry travel ect ect chiz chiz. It could be deskribed as ''Literature/DiaryOfAWimpyKid'' crosed with ''Series/NedsDeclassifiedSchoolSurvivalGuide'', but set in [[TheFifties (slightly shabby, fading) fiftys]] Britain. (mouldy chizz thoze ones came aftur...)
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7	His jadid and world-weery comentry hav been [[DirectLineToTheAuthor fathefully transcribed]] by geoffrey willans and georgously ilustrated by ronald searle of ''Film/StTrinians'' fame in four volumes (pub. grabber and grabber): ''Down with Skool!'', ''How to be Topp'', ''Whizz for Atomms'' and ''Back in the Jug Agane''.
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9	felow-inmates inklude:
10	* peason, nigel's [[HeterosexualLifePartners grate freind]]
11	* gilibrand, whose pater was a general
12	* grabber ma. head of skool captane of evrything winner of the mrs joyful prize for rafia work and MilesGloriosus-in-traning
13	* fotherington-tomas, wet and weed who sa [[CatchPhrase Hullo clouds, hullo sky]]
14	* wee bro molesworth 2
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16	There are also the masters aka beaks viz. headmaster GRIMES, sigismund the mad maths master ect, and of coarse the skool dog. The books also divert into subjecs such as UsefulNotes/TheGreatBritishSeaside, compleet with UsefulNotes/BritishWeather.[[note]]the molesworths can aford to go awa for thier hols, but this is in the das before forren holidays wer realy an option for most brittish folk. So they go the seaside and get rayned on.[[/note]]
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18	The [[UsefulNotes/BritishAccents golden prose hem-hem]] of our hero hav been enjoyed by genarations of tiny pupils and often continue to hold its allure into adulthood. molesworth fans are a rare but rabid breed who rekognise each other by use of sekrit code phrases such as 'cheers cheers cheers', 'poo er gosh' and 'as any fule kno'. molesworth's influence on a generation or 2 of British humerists was surely immense if sutle but he would be too much the realist to icspect any credit.
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20	Tales of molesworth's endevors hav okasionalli been told on the RADIO (poo gosh v. hi-tek), most reesently in december 2014.
21	----
22	!!This series provide xsampls of:
23	* AdultsAreUseless - parents just do not care, but after being xposed to the likes of molesworth 2 and peason, WHY SHOULD THEY TRY?
24	* AllLowercaseLetters - Employed in a very specific way. Despite what the examples on this page suggest, molesworth in fact start his sentences with capital leters, but doesn't use them for proper names.
25	* AnnoyingYoungerSibling - molesworth deskribe his bro molesworth 2 as "uterly wet and a weed" and sa "it panes me to think i am of the same blud." When we see both molesworth bros together, molesworth 2 do all he can to get on nigels nerves.
26	* ArtisticLicenseEducation - st custard's is BASD on realiti (willans was a reel beak), but uterly exajerrated for the sake of comic {{parody}} - or SO THEY WOULD HAV YOU THINK
27	* AuthorCatchphrase - molesworth is positivly Homeric in his use of epithets coo er posh prose eh
28	* BigEater - molesworth 2 is "always eating" sa molesworth, and we see this in scenes of domestic blis set at the molesworth house where molesworth 2 keep asking for more toast and tea
29	* BilingualBonus - mostly for french and latin, and not so much for reel noledge of those languages as for experiense of the kind of textbooks used to teech them in british skools once upon a time
30	* {{Bizarrchitecture}} - st custard's was built by a madman and therefor hav an observatory to study worms and a cupola which serv no purpose at all
31	* BlackComedy - o yes it all LOOK sweet and harmless but with all the bullies and blubbing and ice cold baths, well LIFE IS PANE my dear and there is 0 to be dun about it
32	* BoardingSchool - in the obvious sense, st custards IS a boarding skool. More importantly, these books are a creul {{parody}} of the traditional boarding skool story, and replase pranks and joly fun with sinasism and dark obsevation. nigel okasionally make reference to old-fashioned skool stories, but cleerly know them for fantasies.
33	* BoardingSchoolOfHorrors - the masters are all teddy boys and they will rip you with a botle for two pins
34	* BoldInflation - ALLCAPS gets used for emphasis in fairly random places
35	* BookDumb - molesworth constantly displa an intelligence not matched by his skool grades
36	* BrilliantButLazy - if we beleeve "I Am Going to Be Good" in ''Back in the Jug Agane'', molesworth mite be grate at skool if he did but care about it, but when GRIMES giv all the prizes to grabber at the end of the yere anyway, why ort he to care?
37	* TheBully - well yes we are talking about SKOOL, enuff sed
38	* CanisLatinicus - the skool motto is ''quantum ille canis est in fenestra''. [[note]]"How much is the dog in the window?"[[/note]]
39	* CassandraTruth - in ''Back in the Jug Agane'' GRIMES ask molesworth what hav he read over the hols. Molesworth sa he hav read swan's way by grate fr. writer [[Creator/MarcelProust Proust]], but is given a kaning as GRIMES beleeve there is no such book. There is such a book, but molesworth hav not read it and is only resiting a revew
40	* CatchPhrase - fotherington-tomas is famous for saying "hullo, clouds, hullo sky" quite a lot
41	* CheatersNeverProsper - the molesworth stories parody or subvert all traditional moralistic [[SportsStoryTropes foopball- and crikit-related tropes]] at every opportuniti, but this one especially is taken to be a lie as a matter of coarse
42	* ClassTrip - a visit to a farm and a trip on ye flying scotsman
43	* CorporalPunishment - This being a 1950s public skool, the kane is used ALL THE TIME.
44	* CorruptCorporateExecutive - grabber & grabber, purveyors of various [[MyLittlePanzer dangerous-sounding toys]] to the tinys, and 1 stop shop for any BlandNameProduct required by the 'plot'
45	* CurbStompBattle - always hapen to st. custard's on the foopball pitch. But with dere basil fotherington-tomas in goal, who sa "hullo, clouds, hullo sky" while huge centre-forward bear down on him and SHOT wistle past his nose, what else cud hapen?
46	* DownToTheLastPlay - parodied in one of molesworth's foopball-related daydreams
47	* DreadfulMusician -
48	** molesworth 2. When he pla fairy bells, the pore skool piano is never the same agane
49	** The boys put on a country danse during a parents open day, dragging the skool piano onto the skool field to do so. After Miss Pringle finish the song with a "WAM DUNK RILLY ME REE", the piano "''burst into flames''".
50	* EverybodyHatesMathematics - when he ask the point of maths molesworth is told that maths is a langwidge
51	* FatBastard - as molesworth himself sa "Every skool hav a resident buly who is fat and roll about the place clouting everybode."
52	* FunetikAksent - not only molesworths speling of English, but when Armand from his french books sho up in britain in ''Back in the Jug Agane'' (and is not at all the wet weed molesworth thort he was) he speke English with one of these ("Zis where you live?" ect ect)
53	* FunnyForeigner - molesworth seme to spend his langwidge lessons imagining himself as '[[{{Lzherusskie}} molesvitch]]' or '[[TorosYFlamenco Don Jereth Molethworth]]' in a ThemeParkVersion of the relevant country.
54	* GirlsHaveCooties - yes and no. Molesworth beleeve GURLS and boys shud not be in lessons together as gurls are teechers pets who spoil boys pranks, but by ''Back in the Jug Agane'' he sa he doesnt think they are disgusting as most boys his age think
55	* GratuitousLatin - like most public skoolboys of the 1950s, molesworth never call his parents mum and dad, always mater and pater
56	* HenpeckedHusband - when we see molesworths mater and pater, mater is always going on at pater for one thing or another such as how he did 0 during the war
57	* {{Homage}} - various [[ImagineSpot day-dreams]] and piktorial interludes feature the adventures of 'interplanetary clot' captain molesworth in the style of ComicStrip/DanDare and similar contemporary "Daring Space-Aces". The sheer number of such characters at the time is Lampshaded by the complaint that non of the various [[ParodyNames Parody Named]] {{Expy}}s of the villains, such as the PUKON and his TREENS, are ever free for thwarting, being booked up till next year, chiz chiz ect
58	* ItCameFromTheFridge - One of the finest examples of nigels daethless pros and command of narative is "The Prunes are Revolting!", in wich the prunes served at the skool RISE UP and defy the boys and beaks in a campane stiled on brittish tales of the indian mutinny. This was more of an all-too-apt my dear coment on the taste of skool dinners in brittish skools at the time of riting than on their state of preservation, tho.
59	* JerkJock - grabber ma. is head of skool captane of everything (tho he hav no aktual skil at any sport, but a big fat cheque paid to GRIMES wil get you anything) and winner of the mrs joyful prize for rafia work and will tuough you up if you so much as giv him a funy look
60	* LastNameBasis - as in aktual brittish skools of TheFifties, boys and beaks alike are almost always adresed by last name only, tho we sometimes see a first name (basil fotherington-tomas, timothy peason ect ect). molesworth even habitually refer to his brother as "molesworth 2".
61	* MadMathematician - sigismund arbuthnot, “the mad maths master,” is 1 of the beaks. However, he appear simpli to be a, hem hem, EKSENTRIK teacher whose subjekt happen to be maths.
62	* TheMunchausen - the masters at st custard's are hapy to talk for ages about there [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII war]] heroics, but molesworth sa if they did even half of wot they sa they did in the war it wud hav been over by 1940. And gilibrand is gud at SpottingTheThread in there stories as his pater is a general.
63	* NobodyLikesATattletale - molesworth hav no time for snekes, for whom he consider NO FATE too bad, even [[FutureLoser growing up to become hon secretary of a tenis club]].
64	* NoPunctuationIsFunnier - molesworth doesnt use apostrophes (except in the name of st custard's) tho he does aktually use full stops as normal.
65	* OffToBoardingSchool - wot hapen when you annoy your mater and pater too much
66	* PrecociousCrush - hinted at, despite his [[GirlsHaveCooties general attitude]], whenever molesworth mention Prudence Entwhistle the glamorous under-matron hem-hem
67	* QuicksandSucks - molesworth mention in passing that this is a danger in the muddier parts of the foopball field.
68	* RightWayWrongWayPair - parodied by one illustration: 'Are you an Eric or a Nigel?: A smug chart for sissies'. Eric (unlike Nigel) sit erect and chew his food at leisure becos the weed hav got up early.
69	* RougeAnglesOfSatin - as you might hav already guessed from this article.
70	* SadistTeacher - lots! GRIMES must reqwire it when he hire new beaks for st custard's, as they are all brutes who kane the boys for anything or even for 0
71	* SantaClaus - referred to as "father christmas", these being [[UsefulNotes/AVeryBritishChristmas BRITISH]] stories, and thoroughly subverted, as molesworth is old and more to the point cynical enough to know THE TRUTH
72	* ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney - grabbers pater is v. rich and giv GRIMES and all the masters a big fat cheque (and a bottle of beer for dere old matron) every yere so his son who hav no talent for skool or sport is stil head of skool captain of everything and win all the skool prizes esp. the mrs joyful prize for rafia work (the only thing he hav talent for)
73	* SelfDeprecation - amongst the swots, thugs, oiks, and usefull foopball players of st custards and suchlike skools, molesworth is one who no his limits.
74	* SketchComedy - in literary form. molesworths thorts on skool ect were first published in small peices in ''Punch'' magazine and only later colected into books
75	* SlasherSmile - in the illustrashuns, molesworth only ever hav three expreshuns: a realistic[[note]]some sa sinical or apathetic but wot do THEY kno?[[/note]] half-frown, a big smile when posing for photos - and a wide, truly happy grin when preparing for some act of violenss such as setting a big spiked man-trap for SantaClaus.
76	* SmokingIsCool - molesworth and peason are but two of many boys who smoke cigs (tho it make them feel sick) behind the skool potting shed. molesworth sa there are so many cig. ends "It look as if the skool gardener must smoke 500 a day."
77	* ThinSkinnedBully - dekonstructed as molesworth sa standing up to bulies just make them try harder:
78	-->Everyone sa stand up to bulies they will run away but do not believe it. A lot of them stand still and then where are you eh? i will tell you you are in the duck pond and it is joly freezing
79	* ToyBasedCharacterization - in a flashback, molesworth depict himself as a young child, smashing a model trane into 1000 pieces with a hamer. all as you would expect for a "huge lout with 0 branes."
80	* TwoTeacherSchool - GRIMES and sigismund the mad maths master are the only named beaks, though teachers of lat, fr, geog, hist ect are mentioned in passing.
81	* UnnecessaryRoughness - wot else can anyone xpect on the sports field?
82	* UnsympatheticComedyProtagonist - not that nigel is ENTIRELY unworthy of pity but he is a PRODUK of his TIME and so is driven to SINASISM and VIOLENSS on okajun
83	* VitriolicBestBuds - molesworth and peason argue a lot and tuough each other up continually but are grate frends.

Context SelfDemonstrating / Molesworth