Funny / The Wind in the Willows (1983)

The Movie:

• Rat is always fully prepared for a picnic, much to Mole's surprise.
  Rat: Now what have we here? There's cold chicken, cold tongue, cold ham, cold beef, pickled gherkins, salad, French rolls, potted meat, ginger beer, lemonade...
  Mole: Stop, stop! This is too much.
  Rat: Too much?
• The difference in personality between Toad and Rat (mainly that the former likes new things and the latter prefers to keep thing as they are, for example quietly staying at home) is always cause for a laugh.
  Toad: There you are. Ho ho ho. The open road, the dusty highway. Here today, and up and off to somewhere else tomorrow. Travel. Change. Excitement.
  Rat: [rolling his eyes] Oh no.
• Rat's outburst to the motor car drivers who upset the gypsy wagon: "Villains! Scoundrels! Highwaymen! ROOOAAAD HOOOGGGGS!!!"
• The absolutely hilarious montage of Toad's car accidents.
• Rat telling Badger about Toad's new craze for motoring.
  Badger: How many has he had?
  Rat: Smashes or cars? Oh, never mind; it's the same thing with Toad.
  • In the same conversation Mole is wandering around Badger's house, looking at all of his things. He accidentally knocks a cricket hat onto his head, which Badger notices.
    Badger: Ah... cricketer, are you?
    [Mole smiles sheepishly and takes the hat off]
• On Toad's retraction of his promise never to touch a motorcar again, Badger has him confined to his bedroom - where Toad, denied access to an actual car, feeds his motor mania with a chair and sound effects.
  Badger: It is worse than I feared. We shall just have to let it burn itself out.
  Toad: Bvvvvvm!! Bvvvvvvvvm!! Hoo-hoo! BVVVVVMMM!! Poop-poop, poop! ...{days pass, while Rat and Mole guard the door} LOOK OUT, TOAD IS COMING! Peep-peep, poop-poop, POOP-POOP!
• Having invited in the young carol singers for refreshment, Mole makes a toast.
  Mole: Absent friends: Badger and Toad - wherever he may be.
  Shrew: 'Scuse me, sir - but haven't you 'eard?
  Mole: Heard what? And don't drop your aitches.
  Mouse: About Mr Toad, sir.
  Rat: What about him?
  Shrew: Well, he's... he's got hisself harrested.
• When Toad, Badger, Rat and Mole sneak into Toad Hall to overthrow the weasels, they hear the Chief Weasel giving a toast: "Down with Toad!" Toad loses his temper and storms out of their hiding place... to see his dining hall filled with weasels. He promptly turns and runs back into the hiding place.
• Toad singing "When The Toad Came Home"... loudly. While trying to sneak into Toad Hall. His friends are not amused.
  Badger: Toad! One more sound out of you, and back you go!
• Reggie and his wife
  Reggie's Wife: (repeated line) Oh Reggie!
  Reggie: (repeated line) Oh, I say!
  Reggie: (during Mr. Toad's escape at the train station) I say, Rosemary, isn't that the frog who stole my car?
  (while aboard the train, along with Rosemary, the arresting police officer, a second police officer, the Magistrate, and her clerk)
  Judge: Fifty years next time!
  Reggie: I say, old bean! Where's my car?!

TV Series:

• In the TV series, Toad provides most of the humour through his stupidity and slapstick moments.
  • Toad can be very greedy and his love for cream cakes in the series is a recurring joke with his friends.
• "Mole's Cousin" sees Badger, Rat and Toad trying to smarten Mole up for his famous cousin's visit, including Toad lending Mole a dinner jacket. When they see how poorly it fits on Mole's portly frame, Rat and Badger try their best to be tactful. Toad, on the other hand...
  Toad: If only we had time to get him to my tailor!
  [Badger facepalms and Rat elbows Toad in the side]
  Toad: Oh, elegant, Mole! Very elegant!
• “The Weasels’ Trap” has the Henchman Weasel find the titular Bear Trap… by stubbing his toes on it.
  • Then, when he’s whining about how anybody could have walked into it, the Chief decides to make an example of him:
    Chief: Another couple of inches and it would have had your leg.
    Henchman: Had me leg?!
    Chief: Like…
    [The Chief thrusts his stick into the trap]
    Chief: …THAT!
    [The trap snaps shut on the stick and splinters it. The Henchman groans and faints dead away]
• The episode "Masterchef" has Toad invite his friends to a dinner party, with a menu he himself put together. However, his atrocious French causes him to misspell a particular word twice on two different copies of the menu. The dish he’s trying to spell is “coquilles de barbue”, meaning scallops and brill (a flatfish), but the last word gives him trouble:
  • On Rat's, he uses the word for "old fogey", which causes Badger to jokingly hope that Toad didn’t have him in mind.
  • The word he uses on Mole’s sends Badger into hysterical laughter to the point of crying and choking. It takes him a while to catch his breath and explain that Toad somehow got the French for "sprocket wheel"!
• "The Complete Bungler" has Badger, out of left field, encourage Toad's new obsession with fishing. Even Toad is startled, and asks Badger if he’s feeling alright.
  • Badger elaborates on his support by describing angling as a pastime of quiet contemplation and stilness. In short...
    Badger: It has all the virtues that Toad doesn't!
  • Toad’s clumsy first attempt at angling is a delight to watch as he makes all the rookie mistakes of the first-time fisherman. All of which, unbeknownst to him, is being watched by Mole and Ratty from the opposite bank as they have a picnic. The highlight has to be when Toad gets his hook stuck on the back of his jacket, then makes himself dizzy trying to find it…
    Toad: Oh, I don’t feel very well, I feel all dizzy! I think I better sit down…
    [He does so. Cut to Mole and Rat, followed by an off-screen yell of pain from Toad]
    Rat: I think he’s found the hook, Mole.
    Mole: [Wincing] Ooooh!
• "Auberon's Return" has Mole's cousin Auberon returning for another visit, as he's lost his inspiration. Toad comes by to visit while he's there and tells Auberon of his latest "ambition" to be a playwright. Auberon is clearly fighting back peals of laughter at Toad's foolishness, and when he leaves, he writes a new play, Oh, Jeremy. The main character of said play is a Captain Ersatz of Toad himself, getting involved in all kinds of crazes before landing on trying to be a playwright. When Toad reads the review of the play to Ratty, Mole and Badger, the three of them can't contain their laughter; and even when Toad seemingly understands that the play is based on him, he laughs along with them, realizing it's Actually Pretty Funny.

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