Series / Blackadder

"I have a cunning plan..."

"I am a fully rounded human being, with a degree from the University of Life, a diploma from the School of Hard Knocks, and three gold stars from the Kindergarten of Getting the Shit Kicked Out of Me."

— Captain Edmund Blackadder, Blackadder Goes Forth

A tastefully vicious collection of British comedies which aired on BBC One in The '80s, all centring around various generations of the Blackadder family as embodied in its sole visible member, Edmund (Rowan Atkinson): a cynical, snide, and outright caustic British Anti-Hero (he would be a Deadpan Snarker if he could just stop sneering) who never manages to succeed at most of his schemes, but never quite loses either (except at the end of each series, where he usually either dies horribly or wins spectacularly). Each Blackadder in each generation is aided by a Bumbling Sidekick in the shape of his corresponding Baldrick (Tony Robinson), a filthy, ignorant manservant and dogsbody of considerably unhealthy habits and preoccupations. His typical foil is a classic Upper-Class Twit of far higher social station than his own, on whom he is forced to serve hand and foot.

The first series, written by Rowan Atkinson and Richard Curtis, featured Blackadder as a hapless loser, Baldrick as his more cunning servant, and a series of Shakespearean in-jokes. Much of the humour was reliant on the sort of rubber-faced comic buffoonery that Atkinson would later employ in Mr. Bean. The series utilised lots of expensive location footage but was not a ratings success. Nonetheless it was recommissioned for a second series (albeit with a drastically reduced budget), which, after a change of direction, and writers, Growing the Beard (literally in the lead character's case) and became extremely well-loved. Series Two saw Ben Elton replacing Atkinson on the writing team, the Blackadder character repurposed as the Deadpan Snarker, and a greater emphasis on clever dialogue, running gags, and historical subversion. The retooled show went on to become a smash hit and beloved comedy institution, although it has resisted several attempts at revival.

One of the most impressive aspects of the show was the subtle differences between the various incarnations of Blackadder: The ambitious but spineless Prince Edmund the Black Adder, the dashing but impulsive Lord Blackadder, the cool and ruthless E. Blackadder Esq. and the weary, rather less evil, but more witty and intelligent Captain Blackadder all had much in common character-wise, but were recognisably different people. For some reason, each incarnation was lower in social order than the previous one. A similar variation can be seen in the Baldricks, who always seemed to be at or around the bottom of the social order, but did get more noticeably stupid as time went on.

Besides the great writing, Blackadder's success rests on the shoulders of stars Rowan Atkinson and Tony Robinson, whose comic instincts combine to produce some of the most delightfully snarky wit that has ever been seen on television. A similarly skilled supporting cast, including BRIAN BLESSED, Peter Cook (both in the first series), Miranda Richardson, Hugh Laurie, Tim McInnerny, Rik Mayall, and Stephen Fry just added to the pleasure and the outrage.

The original four series of Blackadder are:

• The Black Adder (1983): an Alternate History set in the reign of a 'King Richard IV' during the period of the Wars of the Roses, where Prince Edmund is the ill-favoured second son of the king.
• Blackadder II (1986): set in the royal court of Elizabethan London, where Edmund, Lord Blackadder, is a member of the aristocracy vying for the temperamental Queen's favour.
• Blackadder the Third (1987): set during the Regency Period, where Edmund Blackadder, Esquire is the head butler to foppish royal idiot Prince George, the Prince Regent.
• Blackadder Goes Forth (1989): set during World War I, where Captain Edmund Blackadder is a professional soldier who finds himself trapped with a motley band of nitwits in the trenches of the Western Front.

There were also several one-shot Blackadder specials:

• Blackadder: The Cavalier Years (1988): a Comic Relief special (aired on the first-ever Red Nose Day, 5 February 1988; Richard Curtis founded the charity with Lenny Henry) set during the English Civil War.
• Blackadder's Christmas Carol (1988): an Affectionate Parody of A Christmas Carol, which was (obviously) a Christmas special set (naturally) in Victorian London.
• Blackadder Back & Forth (1999): the 21st Century Blackadder and Baldrick trip through time in a time machine.

In addition, "a Blackadder" is a go-to character for a quick skit in UK variety specials, especially ones for the Royal Family for some reason. Versions of the character have been involved in the Royal Variety Performance, the Golden Jubilee Party at the Palace, and the Gala Events for Prince Charles's 50th and 60th birthdays, amongst other appearances. A comic book version had a significant plot thread in the 1991 Comic Relief Comic.

There exists an pilot episode of the first series, which was aired on television for the first time in 2023. Set in the 1580s, it featured Prince Black Adder as a sneering snarker and Baldrick as the idiot dogsbody the fans came to know from series two onwards (albeit not played by Tony Robinson); unfortunately this direction was not kept, and instead the characters were rewritten and the humour based on physical Slap Stick. Several jokes and scenes of the unaired pilot were recycled in various first-series episodes, including most of the plot being re-used in the episode "Born to Be King".

Came second in Britains Best Sitcom.

Recap still under construction, help will be much appreciated.

See also Fawlty Towers, which was the show's main influence and the main reason why it wasn't set in contemporary times.

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Tropes Present Across the Series

• The Ace: Lord Flashheart
  • In multiple senses, in that the Lord Flashheart of the Fourth instalment of the series, or more properly, Squadron Commander the Lord Flashheart, is also an Ace Pilot.
• All There in the Manual: The scripts of the four series (but not the pilot and the specials) were published in the 1998 book Blackadder: The Whole Damn Dynasty 1485-1917. It also contains plenty of bonus material such as Baldrick's family tree (almost entirely consisting of individuals called called "Baldrick") and details about other members of the Blackadder family, such as a Cardinal Blackadder from the reign of Henry VIII (presumably the grandfather of the Elizabethan Blackadder in the second series,) and an early-18th century military commander who deliberately lost the "Battle of Shithole" because Queen Anne had promised to build him a mansion named after his next victory — those two clearly being expies of Cardinal Wolsey and the Duke of Marlborough.
• Alternate History:
  • The pilot is set "400 years ago" and has a Queen resembling Elizabeth I, but she is married with two children.
  • Most noticeably with The Black Adder, which depicts Henry Tudor as losing the Battle of Bosworth Field, and Richard IV (who in Real Life would have been 11 or 12 at that point, assuming he was even still alive, and definitely not old enough to be played by BRIAN BLESSED and have two adult children) ruling for the next 13 years, before the eventual Henry VII rewrites the history books to scrub out Richard IV's reign.
  • Downplayed with Blackadder II and Blackadder the Third, which does mostly follow the real path of history, albeit with a humorous spin on things. However, two major differences from real history are that Elizabeth I and the soon-to-be-George IV both got killed and replaced by Prince Ludwig and Mr. Blackadder respectively.
  • Blackadder: The Cavalier Years for the most part follows the lead of the second and third series in putting a humorous spin on the English Civil War and the execution of Charles I, but ends by implying that the baby that in real-life became Charles II after the Restoration will end up being killed thanks to Blackadder's treachery, presumably meaning that Blackadder must have found a peasant baby to replace him.
  • Averted by Blackadder Goes Forth which, with only two exceptions — Manfred von Richthofen and Field Marshall Haig — deals entirely with fictional characters and events within the larger setting of World War I. The sole difference between the events of the show and real-world history would be that von Richthofen got shot and apparently killed by Flashheart in 1917, rather than getting killed when his plane was shot down in 1918.
  • Blackadder Back & Forth gives us two alternate histories; one after Blackadder's first trip through time, in which the French conquered the UK in the 19th century, and one after Blackadder knows that he can change the present, in which the Blackadder dynasty has been in power for centuries, and abolishes Parliament in the previous year.
• Answer to Prayers: Played for laughs in "Corporal Punishment" in the fourth series. At the end, when George and Baldrick have admitted that they forgot to send the telegram to George's uncle which would have been sure of saving his life although he was saved anyway, Blackadder says that he hopes that God will do something nasty to them both. Moments later, he receives a telephone call asking for two volunteers for "Operation Certain Death".
  Blackadder: I'm not a religious man, but I shall pray nightly that God who killed Cain and squashed Sampson comes out of retirement, and gets back into practice on the pair of you. (Answers telephone) "You need two volunteers for a mission into No Man's Land? Codename: Operation Certain Death. Yes, I think I have just the fellows. (Puts phone down) God is very quick these days.
• Artistic Licence – History: Many, many examples per episode, to say nothing of the show's overall track record. But hey, Rule of Funny, people! Plus, The Black Adder can explain away its inaccuracies as Henry Tudor doing a lousy job of rewriting history (and, at a stretch, you could say that Prince Ludwig as Elizabeth I and Blackadder as George IV did something similar for the second and third series).
  • Eliminating all artifacts from a 13-year reign would be a difficult trick to say the least. One of the reasons we know of the extremely obscure Roman emperor Elagabalus, who was declared damnatio memoriae and whose name was expunged thoroughly from official histories of the Empire, is because coinage with his face and name on it survives to the present day. And Elagabalus reigned for a mere three years.
    • Before Henry VIII's time, English kings' regnal numbers didn't appear on coins. Richard IV's coins would have said RICARDVS REX and could be passed off as Richard III's. And Henry did have Richard III's Titulus Regius Act torn out of the Parliament Rolls and order the destruction of all copies - he might have tried the same with all Richard IV documents.
  • Averted in the fourth series finale: Capt. Darling hears the guns stopping and thus thinks the war has finally ended, proclaiming that the Great War lasted from 1914 to 1917. The viewers know that World War I ended in 1918, meaning that the characters are clearly doomed.
  • In a lesser example, in Blackadder III the Earl of Sandwich (supposedly the inventor of the food) is called Gerald rather than his actual name, John Montagu. Presumably this is because Edmund asking for "a round of Geralds" is funnier than "a round of Johns".
• Ass Shove: Used as a threat a few times:
  • In Blackadder II, the Baby-Eating Bishop of Bath and Wells threatens to put a red-hot poker up Edmund's arse if Edmund doesn't repay the £1,000 debt he owes him. He's dragged to see the grave of the last person who reneged on a debt, who died in precisely that manner.
  • In Blackadder the Third, among other threats from literary men, Samuel Taylor Coleridge says that he will see the person who loses the manuscript of Samuel Johnson's Dictionary hanged by his hair and with an Oriental disembowelling cutlass thrust up his behind.
    • In the same series, Prince George worries that he'll be "debagged and radished" for non-payment of debts to a social club.
      Blackadder: Radished, sir?
      George: Yes, they pull your breeches down and push a large radish right up your...
      Blackadder: Yes, yes, yes, alright sir. There's no need to hammer it home.
      George: As a matter of fact, they do often have to...
      Blackadder: No! No!
• The Bad Guy Wins:
  • The first series starts with the bad guy, Henry Tudor having effectively won already. Although he loses the Battle of Bosworth Field in the first episode, he eventually ends up claiming the throne 13 years later after Percy accidentally poisons the royal family to death, then for the real kicker he rewrites the history books to erase Richard IV's reign altogether.
  • Blackadder II ends with Prince Ludwig killing everyone in The Stinger.
  • Blackadder the Third ends with the most ruthless and evil of Blackadders usurping the identity of Prince Regent.
  • Blackadder Goes Forth ends with all the main cast members falling victim to the madness of modern war, the real villain of this instalment. And to Melchett's questionable strategies. In contrast to the second and the third series, the ending isn't Played for Laughs.
  • Blackadder Back and Forth had the modern incarnation of Blackadder manipulate history via time travel to become King of the United Kingdom and making Baldrick his (puppet) Prime Minister.
  • Blackadder: The Cavalier Years ends with Blackadder defecting to the Roundheads and ratting out both Baldrick and that baby that in real-life grew up to be Charles II.
  • Blackadder's Christmas Carol may very well combine the most extreme example along with a subversion: It ends with the uncharacteristically kind-hearted Ebenezer Blackadder realizing that, if he adopts the evil and selfish ways of his ancestors, his descendants will one day RULE THE UNIVERSE. The subversion comes however when he loses the chance of a lifetime to become rich and powerful precisely because of becoming THAT callous. So its a win for the Blackadder family in one of the ultimate examples of this trope but a loss for Ebenezer himself.
• Bawdy Song: Several examples in certain episodes, from the second season onwards.
• Been There, Shaped History: Captain Blackadder from Blackadder Goes Forth is the only incarnation who isn't a friend/relative of a government figure. However, he did save Field Marshall Haig from a mango-wielding pygmy at Mboto Gorge. The intro to Blackadder: Back & Forth lampshades this with a montage of various incarnations throughout history, including an archer (accidentally) slaying King Harold at the Battle of Hastings, one (Australian) Desert Rat giving the bird to Winston Churchill behind his back and another gagging behind Margaret Thatcher giving a speech.
  • The book Blackadder: The Whole Damn Dynesty also mentions an ancestor who helped build Stonehenge and another who insulted Boudica.
• Bestiality Is Depraved: A running gag across all four series.
  • "Lord Melchett, Lord Melchett, intelligent and deep. / Lord Melchett, Lord Melchett, a shame about the sheep!"
    • Becomes "BAAAAA!!!" by Goes Forth.
• Black Comedy: Murders, executions, torture and various other nastiness are consistently used as the source of comedy.
• Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: Miranda Richardson's characters between season 2 and 4
  • Amy Hardwood (season 3, blonde)
  • Mary Fletcher (season 4, brunette)
  • Queenie (season 2, redhead)
• Blunt "Yes": This happens a few times:
  • In "The Queen of Spain's Beard" in The Black Adder, a messenger replies "yes" to the King's absurdly detailed guess as to what has happened:
    King: Have the Swiss and French made sudden peace with each other at a mountain-pass rendez-vous, then forged a clandestine alliance with Spain, thus leaving us without friends in Europe, unless by chance we make an immediate pact with Hungary?
    Messenger: (Checks scroll) Yes.
  • In "Money" in Blackadder II, Blackadder replies "yes" to the outrageous reality of the privies in the house he is selling.
    Mrs Pants: You mean you crap out of the window?
    Blackadder: Yes.
  • In "Corporal Punishment" in Blackadder Goes Forth, Edmund is being court-martialed for disobeying orders (and, more importantly, shooting his mad general's pet messenger pigeon). Unfortunately he ends up with George as his lawyer, who calls Captain Darling as a witness for the defence, despite the fact that Darling not only despises Blackadder, he's also prosecuting. It doesn't go well.
    George: Tell me, leaving aside the incident in question, would you think of Captain Blackadder as the sort of man who would usually ignore orders?
    Darling: Yes, I would.
    George: Ah... um... are you sure? I was rather banking on you saying "no" there.
• British Brevity: Consists of four series of six episodes each, plus the occasional special.
• Buffy Speak: Several times. (Chronologically, shouldn't this be called BlackadderSpeak?)
  • Blackadder II — Edmund is trying to avoid drinking because he Can't Hold His Liquor.
    Melchett: You twist and you turn like a... twisty-turny thing.
    • Stephen Fry admitted in the 2008 documentary Blackadder: The Whole Rotten Saga that this line was a invokedThrow It In! on his part.
  • Blackadder the Third — Edmund is attempting to bring the dim-witted Prince up to speed on the state of the nation.
    Edmund: Disease and deprivation stalk our land like... two giant stalking things.
• Bumbling Sidekick: Baldrick is a well-loved example of the trope, appearing from the second and subsequent series.
• Butlerspace: Baldrick does this occasionally in the first season (in which he's a Hypercompetent Sidekick instead of the bumbling slob of later episodes). At one point he emerges from a decorative suit of armour that Edmund happens to be walking past, just as he's needed.
• Butt-Monkey: Baldrick is probably the most obvious, but Percy, George, Darling and Edmund himself all fit the bill in some way as well.
  Blackadder, Blackadder — nothing goes as planned!
  Blackadder, Blackadder — life deals him a bum hand!
• The Casanova: Flashheart.
• Catchphrase:
  • Baldrick: "I have a cunning plan..."
  • Melchett: "BAAAAA!"
  • Blackadder: "Oh, God!" and, "...well, quite."
  • Queenie: "Who's Queen?" and "Shut up Nursie!"
  • George: "Hurrah!"
  • Flashheart: "Woof!"
  • Lady Whiteadder: "Wicked child!"
  • Lord Smedley and Lord Topper: "Oh, damn!"
• The Chain of Harm: Discussed (and simultaneously played out) in Blackadder III:
  Blackadder: It is the way of the world, Baldrick: the abused always kick downwards. I am annoyed, and so I kick the cat; the cat [terrified squeaking] pounces on the mouse; and, finally, the mouse...
  Baldrick: [jumps in pain] Ahh!!
  Blackadder: ... bites you on the behind.
  Baldrick: And what do I do?
  Blackadder: Nothing. You are last in God's great chain, Baldrick. Unless, of course, there's an earwig around here that you'd like to victimise.
• Character Action Title: Goes Forth.
• Characterization Marches On: As already mentioned, Blackadder was far less competent in the first series whereas Baldrick was far more intelligent. To a point, anyway; if you really look at Prince Edmund, you already start to see flashes of personality that would define his descendants (mostly in "Born to Be King", which was adapted from the pilot, in which the characters' personalities were much more in line with that of later series; Edmund's snarkiest lines are direct lifts from the pilot).
• Charlie Chaplin Shout-Out: In one episode of the fourth season Edmund is the only one who despises Chaplin, who is quite popular with all the other recruits. Near the end of the episode he is forced to project Chaplin movies for the other soldiers.
  • This was something of an In-Joke as Rowan Atkinson is a big Charlie Chaplin fan.
• Comedic Work, Serious Scene: The series finale may be the ultimate example of this trope, where, after a whole series of Blackadder launching wacky schemes to get himself out of the trenches before the Final Push, the order finally comes down for him and his men to go over the top. It ends exactly the way you'd expect for a unit that includes the dimwitted Baldrick and naïve George.
• Commedia dell'Arte: Edmund starts out as a Capitano character, but Series 2 Retools him as a Brighella. Baldrick is Arlecchino throughout, and Percy is a Pierrot.
• Contempt Crossfire:
  • In the second series, Blackadder has nothing but contempt for Lord Melchett for his constant sucking up to the Queen. Melchett hates him right back, constantly scheming to get Blackadder in trouble with the Queen, but must take great care that the Psychopathic Womanchild not decapitate him on a whim either.
  • Blackadder Goes Forth: Captain Blackadder finds himself with an antagonistic relationship with Captain Darling, who abuses his position under General Melchett to make Blackadder's life miserable (and is constantly belittled by Blackadder), but he's ignored and mistreated by the general in turn. It's a sign of just how badly they know they're screwed in the final episode when Darling is volunteered for the big push and neither of them snarks at the other.
• The Coroner Doth Protest Too Much:
  • Various examples, especially in the first two series, such as the (latest) Archbishop of Canterbury dying because a soldier bowed to him, "forgetting" that his helmet had a metre-long spike on it, or Edmund's predecessor as Chief Executioner, whose death was apparently a bureaucratic error, though Queenie seems to know more about it than she's letting on. Fantasised, though not acted out, by Edmund Blackadder III, when he asks "Baldrick, does it have to be this way? Our valued friendship ending with me cutting you up into strips and telling the prince that you walked over a very sharp cattle grid in an extremely heavy hat?"
  • In the first episode of series three, Blackadder replaces the voter for Dunny-on-the-Wold after he "very sadly, accidentally, brutally cut his head off while combing his hair". Previously, the announcer (Vincent Hanna, great-great-great-grandfather of the 20th century broadcaster) mentioned that Blackadder is also taking over the returning officer's role after he "accidentally, brutally stabbed himself in the stomach while shaving".
• Covering for the Noise: Blackadder sets himself the task of impersonating Prince George so that he can woo a maiden out on her balcony in the night, but has to spend the entire time getting the real Prince George to shut up and stop saying idiotic things that will betray his presence to her.
  Prince George: [on seeing her attractiveness] Cor, Crikey!
  Maiden: What was that? Is someone else there?
  Blackadder: No my love, it was but the wind...cooooor.....crrrriiii-kkkeey!
• Cunning Like a Fox:
  • A line from Goes Forth provides the current page quote:
    Blackadder: As cunning as the fox that's just been appointed professor of cunning at Oxford University?
  • Which gets a Call-Back in Back & Forth:
    Baldrick: Is it as cunning as that fox what used to be Professor of Cunning at Oxford University but has since moved on, and is now working for the UN at the High Commission of International Cunning Planning?
• Deadpan Snarker:
  • Blackadder in the second and subsequent seasons; also, Melchett in the second series and Darling in the fourth.
  • Prince Edmund did show signs of this in the first series.
• Deliberate Values Dissonance:
  • Often the show observes differences in social attitudes during the period, relative to the modern day. For example, in "Bells" Blackadder perceives his suspected homosexuality as a disease and goes to great lengths to cure it.
  • Meanwhile in "Dish and Dishonesty", the "Standing at the Back Dressed Stupidly and Looking Stupid Party" candidate (modelled on the real-life Monster Raving Loonies) has the "crazy" idea of abolishing slavery.
• Disproportionate Retribution:
  • Often. Nearly all Blackadders have unpleasant reactions to people they find somewhat irritating. Queenie has ordered executions for celebrating Christmas (and then changing her mind and ordering them for those who don't give her impressive enough gifts). The first Edmund's scepticism of witchcraft also got him accused and tried (and almost burned) for it by a corrupt "witchsmeller".
  • Captain Blackadder was tried in a kangaroo court and sentenced to face the firing squad. His crime? He shot and ate General Melchett's favourite carrier pigeon.
    • Zig-zagged, as the actual reason he was arrested was because shooting carrier pigeons was declared a court martial offence due to "communications problems" (actually Blackadder simply ignoring orders) — however, it becomes immediately clear at the trial that all Melchett cares about is the pigeon.
      Melchett: The charge before us is that the Flanders Pigeon Murderer did deliberately, callously, and with beastliness aforethought murder a lovely, innocent pigeon. [dismissively] And disobeyed some orders as well.
• The Ditz: Baldrick
• Doesn't Know Their Own Child: King Richard IV never, ever gets his son Edmund's name right and makes no attempt to find out if his wishes for his son (marriage, Archbishopric) are in line with Edmund's.
• Downer Ending: Every series, except the third one (and even that's up for debate; see [[invokedThe Bad Guy Wins for details)]].
• Dynamic Akimbo: The title character mocks this trope when some actors teach the Prince Regent to stand thus while giving a Rousing Speech.
  Keanrick: Why, your very posture tells me, "Here is a man of true greatness."
  Blackadder: Either that or "Here are my genitals, please kick them."
• Economy Cast: Verging on Minimalist Cast even; Blackadder and Baldrick are the main characters, the supporting character cast is small, and there is occasionally an addition to the cast for the episode.
• "End Is Nigh" Ending: Downplayed in Blackadder Goes Forth, set during World War I, where the end shows the cast running out of a trench and then crossfades to a field of poppies.
• Everything Except Most Things: The series like to play this trope for laughs in multiple different iterations and specials. For example, in Blackadder Goes Forth, when being advised how details to a secret operation must be kept very close, the question is posed who exactly will know these details, and we get this exchange:
  Melchett: You and me, Darling, obviously. Field Marshal Haig, Field Marshal Haig's wife, all Field Marshal Haig's wife's friends, their families, their families' servants, their families' servants' tennis partners, and some chap I bumped into the mess the other day called Bernard.
  Blackadder: Quite so, sir, only myself and the rest of the English-speaking world is to know.
• The Evil Prince: Prince Edmund. Mr Blackadder went on to become this also, after his opportunistically usurping Prince George at the end of series three.
• Evolving Music: Each season reorchestrates the theme song to fit the musical style of the depicted era.
• The Fighting Narcissist — Lord Flashheart.
• Flowery Insults: Edmund proves to be creative at this. For instance: "Baldrick, if a hungry cannibal were to crack open your skull, I doubt there'd be enough brains in there to cover a small water biscuit."
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: The four Blackadders epitomise these types. The first is Sanguine (the snivelling, squeaking idiot), the second Phlegmatic (the suave, calm aristocrat), the third Choleric (the irritable, task-oriented worker, infuriated by the foolishness of those around him) and the fourth Melancholic (the most thoughtful and introspective member of the dynasty).
• Fun with Homophones: A horse is being questioned on the witness stand in Black Adder's trial for being a witch. Upon answering with a neighing sound, the prosecutor asks for clarification, "Was that a 'neigh' or a 'nay'?" (The subtitles spell this out.)
• Generational Saga
• High Turnover Rate:
  • Archbishop of Canterbury in the first series, Lord High Executioner in the second. And you can probably guess who gets both those jobs, just after the High Turnover Rate is commented on in detail.
    Melchett: [unrolls scroll] List of candidates for the position of Lord High Executioner: Lord Blackadder... [rolls up scroll]
  • Also, Royal Flying Corps pilots, as discussed in the fourth instalment. They are called "Twenty Minuters" because, on average, they only last twenty minutes, to the horror of Capt. Blackadder who was trying to escape the trenches by transferring to the Flying Corps.
• Hilarious Outtakes: Averted. Rowan Atkinson has admitted that attempts to compile blooper reels for the show were stymied by the fact that he never, ever corpsed.
• Historical Beauty Update: Discussed on the trope page.
• Historical In-Joke: The entire premise of the show (particularly the first series) with many references helpfully explained on the DVD collection for those of us unfamiliar with British history. The best of these is the final episode of the third series, which explains why the moronic Prince George is remembered by history as a man of wit and character.
• Hollywood History: Mostly played for laughs — the first two series had enough history-based humour to prove the producers are well informed, after all. Blackadder the Third had a lot of Anachronism Stew with respect to the order of events in the Napoleonic Wars (and every notable 18th century writer alive and writing at the same time).
• Identical Grandson: Prince Edmund, Lord Blackadder, E. Blackadder Esq, Captain E. Blackadder and King Edmund Blackadder III.
  • Also true for the Baldricks.
  • Possibly true for Prince George and Lieutenant George.
  • Also the Melchetts, Percys, Flashhearts and Kate (aka Bob).
  • On the whole many different incarnations of the main characters appear in the specials as well. Over the course of the series there have been 11 versions of Blackadder (including MacAdder), ten Baldricks, five Georges, three Queenies, five Melchetts, two Percys, three Darlings, three Flashhearts, two Bobs, two Nursies, three Mrs. Migginses (two only mentioned, but one a main cast member in Blackadder the Third) and numerous possible links between characters (for example Percy and Darling, Melchett and Wellington etc.)
• Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Titles of series 2 episodes are one word long and pertain to the subject of the episode in question ("Bells" as in wedding bells, "Chains" referring to imprisonment); series 3 uses The Noun and the Noun (to reference Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice, which are set in the same era) — for example "Dish and Dishonesty"; series 4 gives all bar one its titles military ranks with double meanings — "Private Plane," "Major Star," "General Hospital," etc. — the exception being "Goodbyeee...", the last one, named after a popular World War I song and referencing the episode's famous Downer Ending.
• Insane Troll Logic: The thinking behind many of Baldrick's "cunning plans".
• Just Like Robin Hood: Parodied briefly.
• Large Ham: BRIAN BLESSED in series one, Tom Baker in series 2, Hugh Paddick and Kenneth Connor in series 3 (as a pair of actors, no less), Rik Mayall and Stephen Fry elsewhere. The French Ambassador in series 3 counts as well.
• Malaproper: Baldrick and George, on occasion.
• Manipulative Bastard: Blackadder himself.
• Needle in a Stack of Needles
• Negative Continuity: Humour is much more important than continuity (particularly between episodes), especially when you've already more or less ignored any inconvenient history, but even then there are strange moments.
• Not-So-Fake Prop Weapon
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Amy Hardwood and Nurse Mary Fletcher-Brown, and possibly Queenie (all played by Miranda Richardson).
• Oddly Small Organization: In Blackadder II, the Queen appears to have only three courtiers; in Blackadder the Third, the Prince Regent has an apparent staff of two; and in Blackadder Goes Forth, Captain Blackadder has only two men under his command. In the latter case, the full number of men under Captain Blackadder's command is revealed in the final episode, although even then it is rather small.
  • These were mainly caused by the show lacking the budget to do the organisations justice so a suspension of disbelief is required. This is particularly evident in Back & Forth where they finally had the money to show Queenie's throne room and court in its entirety.
  • The opening credits of "Goes Forth" at least shows Captain Blackadder at the head of a large platoon of soldiers as they're parading, and other soldiers in the trench are often referred to in conversation. It's almost a dead cert that, by the time they go over the top, the daily attrition of trench warfare had reduced his command to those unlucky few.
• One Dose Fits All: Parodied in the first series, where one of the seven plotters doesn't die of poisoned wine, has another, then dies.
• One-Letter Name: Baldrick sometimes addresses Blackadder as "Mr B", or "Captain B" in the fourth series, perhaps reflecting Blackadder's long name. Blackadder also says "Mrs M" instead of "Mrs Miggins".
  Baldrick: Something wrong, Mr B?
  Blackadder: Something's always wrong, Balders.
• Only Sane Man: One of the main reasons why Blackadder is so easy to like despite his Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist and Villain Protagonist tendencies is that he's usually one of if not the only person around who is a reasonably sensible and not completely insane human being. Even the original Blackadder, who was noticeably less intelligent than his descendants, was smart enough to notice how utterly stupid and nonsensical the medieval witch-hunts were.
  • The effect of Blackadder being the Only Sane Man was done via the dramatic equivalent of an optical illusion on the part of Richard Curtis and Ben Elton. After what everyone felt had been a not entirely successful first season, Elton suggested making Baldrick less intelligent and Blackadder more. But since a highly intelligent protagonist doesn't necessarily make for great comedy (because such a protagonist will be too smart to let him or herself get into potentially comic situations), they decided to make Baldrick epically stupid. This made it possible for Blackadder to do stupid things — like delegate executions to Percy, or carelessly eat a random carrier pigeon — because no matter how stupidly Blackadder behaved, Baldrick was always on hand to make him look intelligent by comparison.
  • The unnamed King from the unaired pilot manages to stand out by comparison to most other characters both there and in the series proper. That's right the series managed to present a sane character without presenting him.
• Pawprint Stamping: In "Witchsmeller Pursuivant" in the first series, Edmund's horse Black Satin appears in the witness box at Edmund's trial, and later, a written witness statement from Black Satin is produced, bearing a hoof mark signature.
• The Pig-Pen: Baldrick
• Rearrange the Song: Each season uses a different arrangement of the same basic theme. The opening credits of the first season and the closing credits of the second season have lyrics, otherwise it's instrumental. (The closing credits of the third season have lyrics of a sort, even if it is just repetition of the word "Blackadder").
• Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies: How each series ends.
  • Except Series 3, which ends with only Prince George dead, and King George (who is as mad as a spoon) thinking Blackadder is Prince George (and several other prominent people also thinking this, or at least willing to play along since it means not having an idiot as regent and future king).
• Royal Favorite: The second Blackadder is a courtier to Elizabeth I, and spends most of his time trying to earn her favour, which can be difficult as she's more than a little crazy. Baldrick is also Blackadder's favouite, as his most trusted henchman.
• Running Gag: Many.
  • "[Person] / [something] is the most [adjective] [thing] since [humorously exaggerated comparison]."
  • "I have a cunning plan...."
  • Lady Hamilton, a character never seen on the show but implied to be extremely slutty.
  • Baldrick's obsession with turnips.
  • Blackadder loathes the iconic popular culture of his day; Prince Edmund hates morris dancing, Lord Blackadder has some snide things to say about Shakespeare, Mr. Blackadder Esq. is contemptuous of Dr. Johnson's Dictionary (and has some rather dismissive attitudes towards most of the contemporary poets and novelists), and Captain Blackadder considers Charlie Chaplin to be an unfunny hack.
  • Scotland's Granite City of Aberdeen is mentioned in most series.
• Sliding Scale of Continuity: The seasons in relation to each other are Level 0 (Non-Linear Instalments), the only similarities being the basic premise of "Blackadder surrounded by idiots" (and not even that considering the first season). However, the episodes within a season can be from Levels 1-2.
• Smart Jerk and Nice Moron: In the first series of Blackadder, Edmund Blackadder and Baldrick were an inversion; Blackadder was an Aristocrats Are Evil Upper-Class Twit, while Baldrick was (relatively) more intelligent. Subsequent seasons had Blackadder as a snarky, scheming, Jerkass who heaps abuse on his dimwitted, good-natured servant sidekick Baldrick.
• The Stinger: Used in every episode of The Black Adder except for "Born to be King," and then memorably after the last episode of Blackadder 2.
• Surrounded by Idiots: EDMUND.
  Blackadder: If only they had a brain cell between them.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: George for Percy. YMMV of whether or not he became more of an example as time went by. In Season 3, Prince George being Edmund's boss made the dynamic somewhat different, but season 4's Lt George was closer to Percy. Richard Curtis described Prince George thus:
  Richard Curtis: We took Percy, who hadn't been clever, and scooped out the final teaspoonful of brains, and presented Hugh Laurie.
  • There are subtle differences between Percy and Lt George. Where Percy is arrogant, Lt George is blithe; where Percy is smug, Lt George is blandly complacent; where Percy is insecure and fears Blackadder's wrath, Lt George isn't scared of Blackadder and doesn't really understand him at all.
    • Captain Darling in season 4 is what Percy would be like if Percy weren't desperate for Blackadder's approval.
• Talks Like a Simile: Edmund often uses elaborate similes.
• Time Travel: Blackadder Back & Forth
  • Blackadder's Christmas Carol has no actual travel, but does show peeks into the past and future.
• Token Evil Teammate: The self-serving Blackadders are usually this. However, the one in Goes Fourth is more a Token Jerk Teammate as he's far less evil than his predecessors and the evil flag has been taken over by the sociopathic and incompetent General Melchett.
• Too Dumb to Live: Everyone who isn't Edmund. Edmund himself is more like Too Surrounded by Idiots to live: He is accidentally poisoned by Percy in Series 1; no-one is able to see through Ludvig's Queenie disguise in Series 2, not even the real Queenie; and in Series 4 he has his commanding officers like Field Marshall Haig and Melchett, who believe that the best strategy is to climb over the top and "walk very slowly towards the enemy". A strategy which has already failed at least fourteen times, no less. (Sadly Truth in Television, of course)
  • In Series 1, even Blackadder is Too Dumb to Live. He recruits the most evil men in the entire kingdom to help him overthrow his father and seize the throne for himself, and then is entirely surprised when they turn on him to loot everything for themselves and try to brutally kill him. He actually survives that, and is the only one in the room who DOESN'T drink the poisoned wine in the toast to his survival, then when everyone else dies (and leaves him as King of England, which he has been scheming to become for the entire series) he decides to test the wine for poison by drinking it HIMSELF.
• Took a Level in Dumbass: Baldrick between series one and two.
• Took a Level in Kindness:
  • In Blackadder the Third, Prince George is an obnoxious, piggish and over-sexed moron. In Blackadder Goes Forth, Lieutenant George is more of a naive Manchild.
  • Blackadder himself get this. Unlike his power-hungry ancestors, Captain Edmund Blackadder just wants to get out of the trenches and not die.
• Universal-Adaptor Cast: Back & Forth makes it explicit that there are analogues of the main cast throughout all of history.
• Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist: Particularly the series three Blackadder, who is a thief and a murderer several times over by the ending.
  • In season two, no one — including the balladeer — cares about him much. On learning of this fact when facing the prospect of imminent death, Blackadder consequently vows to survive purely to spite everyone. As the balladeer notes, however:
    Blackadder, Blackadder — his life was almost done!
    Blackadder, Blackadder — who gives a toss? No one!
• Upper-Class Twit: Several, most notably Lord Percy Percy [second season] and Prince Regent George (the future George IV) [third season]. Not that Percy's series 1 ancestor is any better, as he appears to be quite a bonehead.
• Villain Protagonist: Played with in Edmund, although only the third really qualifies as a full-time one.
• With Friends Like These...: Blackadder to Percy in the first two series. Prince Edmund treated Percy-Percy more like his personal suck-up and sycophant rather than friend and went as far as trying to stab him once due to being driven nuts by his (greater) stupidity. Lord Edmund doesn't even require Lord Percy's toadying and would rather avoid him completely, but Percy's insistence to treat him as his best friend and hang out with him makes Edmund try to make the best out of the situation, by taking advantage of Percy in every way possible (primarily financially).
• World of Ham: The franchise is a good who's-who of great British scenery-chewers.
• World of Snark: The shallowness, stupidity and downright arrogance of the world around him make Blackadder's hijinks as a Villain Protagonist particularly satisfying
• Zany Scheme: Blackadder tends to have one for every occasion. Baldrick also cooks all sorts of these up... problem is, with his intelligence, most of them border on the ridiculous (such as in series 3's "Nob and Nobility", where he suggests to Edmund that they wait until their heads have been cut off by French revolutionaries before they make an escape, in the manner of a headless chicken). His series 1 plans were perfectly feasible and at times even brilliant. That said though, Edmund does take him up on one plan in series 4. Percy also had his share of these in the first two series.
  • Sometimes the situation is shown as being so desperate that Blackadder is forced to resort to one of Baldrick's plans due to the lack of any other alternative (for example, trying to rewrite in only two nights the dictionary which took Samuel Johnson ten years to write).
  • Blackadder's main objective over the course of each series always relates very much to the time in which he lives. In the first series (medieval times) he wants to take over the throne. In the second (Elizabethan) he is trying to at best wed Queen Elizabeth (which at the time would have made him king) or at least earn her favour. In the third (the Industrial Revolution) he wants to make more money and in the fourth (World War I) he just wants to get out of the trenches.

Tropes Present in The Black Adder

• Abhorrent Admirer: The Spanish Infanta in "The Queen of Spain's Beard".
• Accidental Misnaming: The King has a habit of calling Edmund by different names (Occasionally (read: deliberately and Once an Episode) forgetting Edmund's his son at all). The King finally calls him Edmund in the last episode after he wakes from his torture-induced coma, leading to this exchange:
  King Richard: Edmund!
  Edmund: Father, you called me Edmund!
  King Richard: Sorry, Edgar.
• Age Cut: In the prologue to the first episode, Richard III is seen with his nephews. The camera lingers on the child Richard, Duke of York, before cutting to the adult Richard laughing raucously.
  Voiceover: Richard, Duke of York grew up into a big strong boy. (Cut to him played by BRIAN BLESSED)
• Ain't Too Proud to Beg: Edmund, finding himself on the losing end of a duel, tries to bribe his aggressor with all his possessions into sparing his life ("you can have my wigs! My wigs for formal occasions, my wigs for private occasions...").
• Alas, Poor Villain: Prince Edmund may be a sniveling schemer, but you can't help but feel bad for him after he gets his limbs chopped off and ultimately dies at the end of episode 6.
• Altar Diplomacy: In "The Queen of Spain's Beard" Edmund is first betrothed to the Spanish Infanta and later is married off to a princess of Hungary^note who is only 8 years old — and which, oddly, was Truth in Television because of his father King Richard's political machinations.
• Anachronism Stew: In "The Archbishop," the knights who try to kill Edmund a la Thomas Becket are dressed in full mail armor with surcoats and look like they stepped out of Becket's own time period in the 12th century. What makes this strange even in the context of the series is that otherwise characters are shown wearing mostly plate armor more appropriate to its own 15th-century setting.
  • Edmund is bestowed with the title "Duke of Edinburgh", something that would not be possessed by any English prince until about three hundred years after the time of the series. "Born to Be King" in general seems to adopt a modern perspective assuming that English royalty holds dominion over Scotland, which at this time would have still be quite independent.
• Ancestral Name: Prince Edmund "Black Adder" would have at least three descendants named Edmund Blackadder who always seem to have gone down the social ladder in each generation.
• Anti-Villain: Sure, Edmund's a slimy, contemptible, amoral schemer... but given that his father alternately despises him and forgets he exists, his peers treat him with disgust, and his only friends are sycophantic Yes Men... it's not hard to see why.
• Ask a Stupid Question...: An early hint of the future Blackadder wit is seen when Prince Edmund trots out the castle gate on his horse.
  Old Man/Retired Morris Dancer: Going on a journey, my lord?
  Prince Edmund: No, I thought I'd stand around here all day and talk to you.
• Atrocious Alias: Before Baldrick suggested "the Black Adder", Edmund's first choice for his new sobriquet was "the Black... Vegetable."
• The Baby of the Bunch: Edmund is the younger son of King Richard IV, and is persistently annoyed by the fact that older brother Harry tends to get all the good jobs and titles while he is perpetually stuck with the task of managing the privies.
• Bait-and-Switch: At the beginning of "The Foretelling", the voiceover tells of how Henry Tudor rewrote history to state that Richard III killed his nephews. Richard appears to stab his nephew, before the dagger crumples, showing it to be a trick dagger, and the voiceover stating that actually, Richard was a kindly man.
• Bait-and-Switch Comparison: A variant in "The Queen of Spain's Beard."
  King Richard: [pointing at Harry's genitals to teach him about diplomacy] What's that for?
  Harry: Well, a couple of things.
  King Richard: Correct, and one of those things is?
  Harry: Best not mentioned, really.
  King Richard: Right, and the other is fornication!
• Bastard Bastard: Blackadder tried to uncover a love letter between the queen and McAngus written around Harry's birth to make him a Heroic Bastard dethrone him. However, it turned out that the letter was written after Harry's birth.
  Blackadder: As you can see, these letters are dated —
  Harry: Nine months after I was born!
  McAngus: Or nine months before you were born, Edmund.
  Blackadder: You... bastard!
  Harry: No, I think you'll find that you're the bastard, Edmund.
• Beast in the Building: This happens twice in the first series.
  • In "Born to be King", McAngus makes his mighty first entrance into the great hall of the castle actually on a horse.
  • In "Witchsmeller Pursuivant", Edmund's horse Black Satin appears in the witness box in the courtroom.
• Big Bad Wannabe: Edmund really doesn't belong in charge of a Legion of Doom because he is not quite as evil as he wants to be. Even when he's finally taking the glove off over his plot to usurp the throne, he's genuinely taken aback when his evil confederates recommend butchering the royal family rather than his suggestion of merely exiling them.
• Bragging Theme Tune: The theme is a parody of this trope. Although it does say how wonderful Blackadder is, it does seem like the truth slips out.
  Black Adder, Black Adder, with many a cunning plan!
  Black Adder, Black Adder, you horrid little man!
• Brick Joke: When trying to get out of his arranged marriage to the Infanta, Blackadder takes Baldrick's suggestion that he pretend to "prefer the company of men", as does the Earl of Doncaster. He does this by dressing up and acting Camp Gay. Later, his father sees him like this and greets him with "Morning, Doncaster!". Even the peasant whose wife he tries to marry tells his wife that Edmund isn't the Prince, he's the Earl of Doncaster.
  • A bit of a meta-joke, as Brian Blessed is from Doncaster.
  • At the start of the first episode, St. Ralph the Liar is mentioned as one of the greatest liars in history who are still outdone by Henry VII. Later in the same episode, it turns out that the battle takes place on Ralph the Liar's Day.
  • Before the battle, Edmund murmurs that if Richard's side loses, his private parts will wind up in a tree "somewhere in Rutland". As part of Richard's speech, he tells his troops "consign their parts most private to a Rutland tree!"
• Burn the Witch!: "Witchsmeller Pursuivant" had fun with this trope. The titular "witch-hunter" convicts Edmund and his associates of witchcraft in an absurd Kangaroo Court, and they are sentenced to be burned alive. However, the Queen provides them a doll that resembles the Witchsmeller, who catches fire himself while they're unharmed. The episode implies that the Queen is the real witch.
• Carnival of Killers: Unusually used in "The Black Seal" where its the ''protagonist'' who assembles a team of the biggest bastards in all of England (including himself, naturally) to carry out a fiendish plan. They all turn on him in favour of an even BIGGER bastard by the end of the episode.
• Catchphrase: King Richard IV's "CHISWICK!! FRESH HORSES!!"
• Character Development: While still not quite the quick-witted Deadpan Snarker of series 2 onward, Prince Edmund appears a bit more savvy and sarcastic in the latter episodes of the series.
• Comedic Spanking: At the end of "The Archbishop", Edmund is being interrogated by the Mother Superior, while Sister Sara is tapping a crop against his bottom, so gently that he does not even notice she is doing it, until Mother Superior says "I think he's learned his lesson".
• Comically Missing the Point:
  • On the eve of the Battle of Bosworth Hill.
    (the future) Richard IV: EDNA! FIGHT YOU WITH US ON THE MORROW?
    Edmund: Oh, goodness, no. I thought I'd fight with the enemy.
    [awkward silence]
    Richard III: You're not putting him anywhere near me, are you?
  • When Edmund escapes his cell with Mad Gerald's key, Gerald's only response is for him to "close the bloody door!" rather than escape.
• Conspicuously Public Assassination: Averted in the episode "Born to be King". When Edmund declares that he will stab McAngus in the great hall and in the bladder, Percy quips that if he does it in front of everyone, people will suspect he's the killer. Edmund thinks better of it, and comes up with a more cunning plan.
• Cool Horse: "He rides a pitch-black steed..." Which considers itself too cool for him, since Black Satin overthrows him and goes to stand alone in the spotlight.
• Deadpan Door Shut: At the start of "Witchsmeller Pursuivant", Edmund's brother Prince Harry instructs him to go and visit their father King Richard, despite the fact that he's ill with Black Death. As soon as Edmund opens the king's bedroom door, he finds out that instead of becoming bedridden, Richard has gone even more Ax-Crazy than normal, and mistakes Edmund for a Turkish defender from the Crusades.
  King Richard: SLAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYY!!!
  (Edmund narrowly steps back and closes the door, just as his father cuts a hole through it)
  Queen Gertrude: How is he?
  Prince Edmund: Well, he's up.
• Dead Star Walking: Peter Cook as Richard III in the first episode.
• Dirty Coward: Edmund gets second thoughts at the battle of Bosworth Field and has to go relieve himself immediately. He does challenge the Duke of Argyll to a duel, but blubbers for his life when MacAngus chops his sword in half.
• The Ditz:
  • Edmund is quite stupid, much unlike his successors — though he has enough moments of brilliance that he occasionally comes across as a Genius Ditz, he tends to get carried away and make stupid decisions at the crucial moment.
  • Percy is incredibly dim-witted, something that carries over to his descendant. For example, there was that time he was sold a finger bone, supposedly from the hand of Christ. Baldrick sells them in boxes of ten.
• Downer Ending: It's not as crippling a [[invokedTear Jerker as the end of the fourth series, but the ending of the first series is still sad. Funny, but sad at the same time]].
• Dramatic Unmask: Subverted in "The Black Seal", where an old and unkempt man Edmund has been travelling with transforms, apparently by magic, into a tall, striking nobleman with fine clothes and powerful-looking facial hair, asking if Edmund recognises him. Edmund does not. The man then reaches up and removes two fake-looking bushy eyebrows, revealing... two completely identical bushy eyebrows. Edmund immediately recognizes him as Philip of Burgundy... The HAWK!
• The Dung Ages: The story takes place in the Middle Ages, and the peasants' lives are portrayed as this. Baldrick once was a dung shoveler himself!
• Early Instalment Weirdness:
  • To those familiar with the later series, The Black Adder can seem rather odd. This includes the different characterisations, the larger ensemble of characters, differences in the writing (Ben Elton replaced Rowan Atkinson as a writer from Blackadder II onwards), as well as the significantly larger budget which allowed large sets, crowd scenes and location shooting. The later seasons would focus more on dialogue and characterisation. Other, minor differences include each episode having a Cold Open, the usage of supernatural elements, and the characters frequently speaking in a pseudo-Shakespearian manner instead of the modern English used elsewhere. Also, this one had more of an ensemble cast. It's a bit of a shock to fans of later series to see that Tony Robinson is not actually mentioned in the opening credits but Baldrick was more of a supporting character here and it was only really from Blackadder II onwards that he was promoted to the second lead. Ironically, in the original pilot things were much closer to the later seasons. Edmund was a witty Deadpan Snarker and Baldrick (not portrayed by Tony Robinson) was a Bumbling Sidekick. Percy... is Percy.
  • Said pilot (eventually aired in 2023 as Blackadder: The Lost Pilot) is Early Instalment Weirdness even to The Black Adder, with a setting and some characterisations that look much more like Blackadder II, but Phillip Fox as Baldrick. But the weirdest thing about it is that, unlike the strong historicity of later seasons, or even the stated Alternate History of the original series, this is set a generic "400 years ago", with Prince Edmund's (official) parents being an unnamed King and Queen who don't fit into real history anywhere.
• Evil Costume Switch: Edmund adopts his trademark black outfit once he decides to become the Black Adder.
• Eviler than Thou: Edmund accidentally points out that "The Hawk" is eviler than him, prompting his cohorts to switch sides due to his impressive resume.
• Evil Versus Evil: Edmund v The insane Witchsmeller Pursuivant and Edmund v Philip "The Hawk" of Burgundy, who is so evil that he convinces the six evilest men in England to switch sides and join him, just because he's eviler than Edmund.
• Evil Wears Black: Only after Edmund becomes a prince does he start wearing black and begin his machinations towards the throne. And accordingly, he chooses the black pudding basin and the black shoes.
• Faux Yay: Blackadder tries to dress like a homosexual to get out of a marriage with the pudgy Princess of Spain. It doesn't work.
• Felony Misdemeanor: In "The Archbishop", Baldrick shows off a range of priced curses signed by ecclesiastical figures, the cheapest of which reads "Dear Enemy, I curse you, and I hope something slightly unpleasant happens to you, like an onion falling on your head".
• Flashback-Montage Realization: In "The Foretelling", a portrait of the enemy Henry Tudor is produced. Edmund then has a flashback of himself finding Henry Tudor in his bed, and not recognising him. He then rushes out to look for Henry Tudor.
• Frustrating Lie: Played with in "The Foretelling". Queen Gertrude comes to Edmund's room while he's hiding the wounded Henry Tudor and realizes there's someone else in the room with him—or possibly something: "Is it a woman?" "No." "Is it a man?" "No." "It's not a sheep, is it?" Near the end of the conversation, Henry trolls Edmund by bleating like a sheep from the bed, and Gertrude complains about him lying to her.
  "Oh, Edmund. It's the lying I find so hurtful." [leaves]
• Gag Penis: Edmund's comically-oversized "Black Russian" codpiece, which he brings to the appointment of the next Archbishop of Canterbury. He comically puts a mitre over it as he is chosen as the next Archbishop.
• Gender-Concealing Voice: Hilariously played with in the episode "The Archbishop". When two knights intending to kill the Archbishop appear, Edmund, Baldrick and Percy escape down a secret passage to a nunnery, and disguise themselves as nuns; and the knights pursuing them do the same. Both sides then face each other, and speak in high voices; and then simultaneously blow their cover when they speak in normal voices.
  Knight: (in high voice) Why don't you try that way?
  Percy: (turning away, normal voice) Thank you very much.
  Knight: (turning away, normal voice) You're welcome.
  (Realisation dawns; then they turn back and fight.)
• Glad I Thought of It: Done by Edmund a couple of times in "The Foretelling".
• Groin Attack: Lord Yeovil in "The Foretelling": "Ah, yes, groin job!" (even though this obviously didn't actually happen).
• He's Dead, Jim: In "The Archbishop", it happens twice that the King is trying to persuade a dying nobleman to leave his lands to the Crown, at the same time as a bishop is trying to persuade him to leave his lands to the Church. In each case, the nobleman signs a prepared will, and then dies with a final groan, closing his eyes, and dropping the quill, making it certain that he will not be able to change his mind.
  (The nobleman leaves his lands to the Church)
  King: You will change your mind later, I know it.
  (Nobleman groans and drops the quill)
  Bishop: I think not.
• Historical Character's Fictional Relative:
  • The first Blackadder himself is a fictional son of the mostly-fictional King Richard IV, who in real life may have or may not have been killed in the Tower as a boy by his uncle Richard III (or someone else) and at the very least was never King. It follows that all other Blackadders are descended from him, though each descendant's lot degrades over time: from prince to lord to butler (to prince) to soldier.
  • Edmund's "friend", Percy is a fictional member of the House of Percy, an English noble family that had great power during the Middle Ages and Renaissance. In the first series, Percy is identified as the Duke of Northumberland and in the second series, he's Lord Percy Percy, the heir to this title. In what is possibly a deliberate error, although the Percy family were Earls of Northumberland for a long time, the title of Duke of Northumberland didn't exist until the 1550's and no one with the last name of Percy held it until 1766.
• Historical In-Joke: In "The Archbishop", at one point Baldrick mentions a high-level exemption-of-sin letter signed by "both Popes", a joke which is taken further at the end of the episode when the abbess mentions a document that's been signed by "all three Popes". Actually Truth in Television, albeit earlier in the 15th century than when this episode is set (it's specifically stated as 1487). As a result of the Western Schism, there really were two Popes (one in Rome, the other in Avignon) from 1378 to 1409, following which a third Pope was elected; the situation was resolved in 1417 when two of the Popes abdicated, the other was excommunicated and a new, single Pope was elected.
  • In "The Black Seal" Philip of Burgundy locks Prince Edmund in a jail cell with a bunch of snails, and Edmund is absolutely terrified for some reason. There are actually a number of medieval manuscripts that have knights battling snails illustrated in them. It's something of a mystery because no scholar is sure about what it means, whether symbolic, or a joke ("look at the silly knight battling something as harmless as a snail"), or perhaps just a medieval meme with no central origin.
• Hypercompetent Sidekick: Baldrick manages to save Edmund's skin several times, including dropping the enchanted doll in a burning stake to burn The Witchsmeller Pursuivant, and tricking Phillip of Burgundy and his entourage into drinking poison. Too bad they also poison the entire court while they're at it.
• Immune to Drugs: Sean the Irish Bastard in "The Black Seal", it takes two shots of deadly poison to put him down.
  "It's got a bit of a sting in its tail!"
• Important Haircut: In the first episode, when Edmund decides to become "the Black Adder", he has a pudding bowl haircut with a very small bowl, giving him a spectacularly daft hairstyle, to go with his all-black outfit and pointy-toed shoes.
• Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: Edmund. It is hard not to feel bad for the poor, snivelling schmuck. While he has his hand in a lot of scheming, he often ends up with his both his hands full thanks to his father and other villains dragging him around and victimising him because of their own villainous agendas.
• Inherently Funny Words: Edmund names his titles as Duke of Edinburgh and Laird of Roxburgh, Selkirk, and Peebles, the last one drawing big laughs. (It's a real Scottish town, located south of Edinburgh.)
• Kangaroo Court: Edmund's trial by the Witchsmeller Pursuivant is this up to eleven. Where to begin: Edmund's entire case is thrown out when the Witchsmeller convinces Prince Harry that they should ignore the testimony of a witch pleading for his life, Percy — who is defending Edmund — is accused of being a witch and is also ignored, and when Baldrick counters the Witchsmeller's assertion that carrots grow on trees, the Witchsmeller uses his knowledge of carrots to 'prove' Baldrick is a witch as well. He then produces a signed confession by a horse, an old woman Edmund has never met and an obvious poodle that he claims is Edmund's son. It is almost fitting to the ridiculousness of the situation that our heroes apparently escape with invokedhitherto unused and never mentioned again magical powers of teleportation.
  • The ending reveals that this was the work of the Queen, actually being a real witch.
  • It is implied that the Witchsmeller Pursuivant was really a witch himself (he is listed as the second withchiest character in the episode), as when he is killed the king recovers from his illness and everything goes back to normal (for them) — or possibly Edmund's mother, who likely ended the spell to keep Edmund from being thought guilty still.
• Large Ham:
  • Frank Finlay speaks like a madman as Witchsmeller Pursuivant.
  • Richard IV has no indoor voice at all. Given he's voiced by BRIAN BLESSED, this is not surprising.
  • Rik Mayall as Mad Gerald.
• Laser-Guided Karma: The Witchsmeller Pursuivant falsely accuses countless innocents of witchcraft and burns them alive. He ends up burned alive himself, thanks to actual witchcraft that he completely missed.
• Legion of Doom: For the end of the first series, Blackadder gathers "the six most evil men in all England!" And then they promptly betray him when they learn from Edmund just how much of a big villain The Hawk / Philip of Burgundy is.
• Let's Get Dangerous!: Edmund takes the gloves off on his plot to seize the throne after being stripped of his titles except for Lord of the Privvies for no real reason. He comes pretty close as well.
• Literary Allusion Title: To The Black Arrow, an adventure novel by Robert Louis Stevenson also set in the Wars of the Roses.
• Magnificent Seven: Inverted in "The Black Seal" as Edmund gathers the six most evil men in England (plus himself) to take over the kingdom. And then they end up siding with Edmund's enemy, The Hawk / Philip of Burgundy.
• Major Injury Underreaction: The most expensive curse Baldrick has for sale ends with "may your head fall off at an inopportune moment".
• The Middle Ages: The setting of the first series. This story has the Plantagenets lasting 13 years longer than in real life. The House of Tudor does not take the throne until 1498, at which point Henry VII rewrites history.
• Naughty Nuns: When he becomes Archbishop of Canterbury, Edmund is surprised to learn from Baldrick that part of his duties include selling the sexual favours of nuns. When he questions who would pay for such a thing, Baldrick casually explains "Well, foreign businessmen, invokedother nuns..."
• Not-So-Harmless Villain: In "The Black Seal" Edmund actually comes close to gaining the throne... until his minions betray him, in a fit of cosmic irony.
• Off with His Head!: In the first episode Edmund beheads Richard III, mistaking him for a horse thief.
• Oh Wait, This Is My Grocery List: Played with in "Born to be King". When McAngus makes his mighty entrance, declaring that he is bringing the spoils of an enemy at war, a severed head falls out of his bag. He then says "Oh wait, that's my overnight bag".
• Out-of-Character Moment: In "The Archbishop", Edmund tries to avoid taking his latest job. Richard IV, whose usual target volume is "drown out nearby jet engines", very calmly and quietly tells Edmund that if he tries to weasel out of this, "I will do to you what God did to the sodomites". It's much more effective.
• Out-of-Context Eavesdropping: A couple of drunken templars overhear the king talking to his wife saying how satisfied he is with the current Archbishop, and won't ever again have to say "will no one rid me of this Turbulent Priest?" Unfortunately they only hear that last part where he's quoting himself, so they go off to slay the Archbishop to get in the king's good graces.
• Parental Favouritism: Richard IV is so comically biased in favour of his oldest son Harry that he usually doesn't remember that Edmund exists. When he DOES remember, he treats him like something he scraped off his boot, gets his name wrong and makes no secret about what he thinks of his sniveling toad of a son.
  Richard IV: You, compared to your beloved brother Harry, are as excrement is compared to cream.
• Pet the Dog: Edmund reading a bedtime story to his child wife at the end of "The Queen of Spain's Beard".
• Pit Trap: Edmund falls into one in "Born to be King", just after McAngus has said "Oh, mind the weasel pit".
• Poke the Poodle: The cheapest example of a curse sold by the Church in "The Archbishop" is "Dear enemy, I curse you, and I hope that something slightly unpleasant happens to you, like an onion falling on your head".
• Precision F-Strike: Edmund gives one to Baldrick when they're about to be burned at the stake in "The Witchsmeller Pursuivant". Though in some versions the swear is apparently censored by a cough.
  Baldrick: My Lord, I have a cunning plan.
  Edmund: Oh, fuck off, Baldrick!
• Princeling Rivalry: A central theme in this series is Edmund constantly scheming to get out of the shadow of his more popular older brother, Harry, Prince of Wales, the heir to the throne of England, which is ridiculously one-sided since Harry doesn't get a single clue.
• Rearing Horse: During the credits of the first series, Edmund tries to pull off the pose, but falls off his saddle and the horse continues running forward without him.
• Retcon: What Henry VII did once he took power: erased all record of Richard IV's reign.
• Rhetorical Request Blunder: Richard IV was telling the story of Henry II accidentally ordering the murder of Thomas Becket to his wife to contrast the situation there with how happy he is with the current Archbishop, and a couple of Mooks overheard and decided to "help". The two of them sitting at opposite ends of a very long table contributed to the misunderstanding. He initially said "Never again will I have to say 'Who will rid me of this turbulent priest?'" (he had in fact had several of the previous archbishops murdered), but had to repeat the last bit.
• Robotic Torture Device: In the final episode, the Hawk straps Edmund into one of these, which ends up cutting off his ears, his hands, grinding into his crotch, trepanning his skull and tickling his armpits. This fearsome machine is revealed with a Dramatic Curtain Toss.
  The Hawk: In precisely one minute, the spike will go up your nethers, the shears will cut off your ears, then these axes will chop off your hands... and I do not think we need to go into the attributes of the coddling grinder. Then these feathers will tickle you under whats left of your arms. And that is the amusing part.
• Rodent Cellmates: In the first season finale, Prince Edmund finds himself locked up in a small dungeon by his rival Phillip of Burgundy, convicted to a Cruel and Unusual Death (being eaten by snails for 15 years), where he meets another prisoner called Mad Gerald (who is, as his name implies, mad), whose only friend is Mr. Rat, whom he treats with genuine affection and tells lenghty anecdotes about his endearing little nose and squeaks. That said, Edmund is a lot more interested in Mad Gerald's other friend, Mr. Key.
• Running Gag: The messenger boy mimicking Edmund's gestures.
• Scenery Porn: Many impressive location shots of Alnwick Castle and surrounding Northumberland countryside.
• Secret History: This series shows an Alternate History of the Wars of the Roses where the the Yorkists actually won the Battle of Bosworth Field, but King Richard III York was mistakenly killed by his great-nephew Prince Edmund "the Black Adder" shortly afterwards and Richard IV, one of the historical Princes in the Tower, was crowned his successor. The Opening Narration of the first episode states that King Henry VII Tudor, who historically won at Bosworth Field, rewrote the history books to ruin Richard III's reputation and erase Richard IV's entire reign after gaining the throne sometime after the finale.
• Sexy Discretion Shot: In "The Queen of Spain's Beard", when Baldrick has been sent into the Infanta's bedroom to take her virginity, the room is very dark so nothing is seen; only occasional sounds, including Baldrick yelling for help, and the interpreter translating everything Baldrick and the Infanta say.
• Shout-Out: Edmund's child bride in "The Queen of Spain's Beard" is called Princess Leia, and has a rather familiar hairstyle.
• Shout-Out to Shakespeare: One might be reminded of another story involving a Bastard Bastard named Edmund.
• Sinister Minister: Edmund himself in "The Archbishop", and Friar Bellows in "The Black Seal".
• Small Name, Big Ego: Edmund is cowardly, snivelling, conniving, incompetent and all-around unlikeable. He spends most of his time taking credit for his much more clever squire's ideas, usually only after he's tried his own dunder-headed plan and failed miserably.
• Smug Snake: The smug adder is an even more deluded example than the usual ones and things rarely go his way for long enough, for it to last.
• Strange Minds Think Alike: Toward the end of "The Queen of Spain's Beard".
• Stylistic Suck: The Death of the Scotsman, a play that Edmund has hurriedly edited to provide a role for MacAngus, leading to a Scottish protagonist in an Egyptian setting. It becomes extra terrible when Edmund himself crashes the proceedings to clumsily stab MacAngus with a fake dagger.
  Tutankhamen McPherson, you come not a whit too soon,
  For is this not the weather fair, or this the Ides of June?
• Suspiciously Specific Denial: Edmund, when asked by his father about Richard III's death.
  Edmund: Well...I wouldn't know, really...I was nowhere near him at the time...I just heard from someone that he'd, uh...uh...I mean, I don't even know where he was killed...I was completely on the opposite side of the field...I was nowhere near the cottage...not that there was a cottage...it was the river...but then I wouldn't know, of course, because I wasn't there...but, apparently, some fool cut his head off!...or, at least, killed him in some way...perhaps...took an ear off, or something...yes, in fact, I think he was only wounded...uh...or was that somebody else?...yes, I think it was...why, he wasn't even wounded!...why, did someone say he was dead?
• Time Skip: In "The Black Seal", Edmund is trapped in a dungeon with an insane old man who laughs maniacally after Edmund asks if there's a way out. We are shown a cue card reading "Twelve Months Later". And the man is still laughing.
• Title Drop: Parodied in the first episode when Edmund decides to take the name of The Black... Vegetable! Fortunately Baldrick suggests a better title for the series / his Lord.
• Translator Buddy: Don Speekingleesh is this to the Infanta, to the point where he translates the Infanta's pillow talk to "Edmund" (actually Baldrick), and her lover's agonized cries for help.
• Tranquil Fury: For all Richard IV's bellowing and bluster, his most genuinely terrifying and chilling moment is when, after manipulating Edmund into becoming Archbishop of Canterbury, he very calmly informs Edmund that if he crosses him at any point ever, he will "do unto you what God did unto the Sodomites."
• True Companions: Even though Percy spent most of the series antagonising Baldrick for the role of the best sycophant, it seems that during the final episode, he realised off-screen that he was the closest that he had to a friend since they were working together after their dismissal, defeated the Black Seal together, mourned their Lord's demise together and awkwardly kept quiet and played dumb(er) about the accidental poisoning of the Royal Family together.
• Truth in Television: Richard IV is constantly out of the country fighting in the Crusades. This would at first seem to be Anachronism Stew, since the famous First, Second and Third Crusades that everyone remembers had been over for centuries by the 1480s; but other church-sanctioned campaigns did continue well into the 15th century, particularly in order to combat Ottoman expansion into Europe.
• The Un-Favourite: Edmund in comparison to his (far more virtuous) brother Harry.
  King Richard: You, compared to your beloved brother Harry, is as excrement is compared to cream.
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Prince Harry somehow completely fails to notice that the Witchsmeller Pursuivant is on fire, until the flames cover about 100% of his body and his screaming has risen to a fairly loud volume.
• Upper-Class Twit:
  • Harry is slightly smarter than Edmund, at least in everyday matters, but that is no great feat. (In street smarts, Edmund seems to have gotten the lion's share, always relatively speaking.) Having said that, Harry is probably still the sanest member of his family. His main quirk is a seeming obsession with the castle drains.
  • More pronounced in the original pilot episode, where Harry is depicted as having much the same childish personality as Percy. He is a total idiot in the main series, but a definitely more organised and articulate one than the pilot's.
• Video Inside, Film Outside
• Villain Protagonist: Edmund is a caricature of a Shakespearean villain who lusts after the power that his father and brother possess and who will try his best at every treacherous trick to get it and often mistreat others through it.
• "The Villain Sucks" Song: You horrid little man!
• Warrior Poet: Harry becomes a parody of one, as his battle speech is not likely to satisfy either the poetically-inclined or the plain bloodthirsty ones (unlike his father and uncle), as his tone of voice and his choice of words is more or less like a teacher's to the kindergarteners under his custody with the rather simplistic and half-assed argument about a certain amount of violence that is for a good purpose.
• Weird Currency: One opening scene in the first series claimed that "the egg replaced the worm as the lowest form of currency". While making plans to sell absolvements and curses, Baldrick mentions that the cheapest of each is "half an egg" and "a pebble" respectively.
• Wrecked Weapon: In "Born to be King", Edmund challenges McAngus to a duel, who promptly uses his broadsword to smash Edmund's thin weapon.
• Wring Every Last Drop out of Him: The first season has a Shout-Out to The Importance of Being Earnest when it mentions a character who has been on his deathbed for so long that everyone is thoroughly sick of it and wants him to either recover or die, but "it's this shilly-shallying that's so undignified". That said, given that the man in question is an extremely wealthy noble, both potential claimants to his property would much rather he died as soon as possible... provided his will says the right thing, of course.
• Written by the Winners: Part of the premise of the show is that Richard III actually won the Battle of Bosworth Field and was nowhere near as evil as traditionally remembered, but that his entire royal family were wiped out thanks to Edmund's incompetence and Henry Tudor took the throne in the aftermath, subsequently rewriting things to remove Richard IV's reign from history and make Richard III into a villain.
• Wrong Genre Savvy: Edmund thinks he's a Shakespearean malcontent and cunning schemer pulling off fantastic plots to overthrow the monarchy, unaware he's a complete idiot who'd be dead if not for his Hypercompetent Sidekick.
• "YEAH!" Shot: "Born to be King" ends with Edmund making an ecstatic leap in the air.
• Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe: Averted for the most part; while this occasionally tends to be seen on signs and other bits of writing, most dialogue is in modern-day English. However, the characters do often speak in a cod-Shakespearian manner, especially Richard III in the first episode.
• You Look Like You've Seen a Ghost: In "The Foretelling", the Queen says this to Edmund, just after he has indeed seen the ghost of Richard III.

Tropes Present in Blackadder II

• Absurdly Dedicated Worker: Parodied in the first episode when Blackadder fires Baldrick in favour of Bob.
  Edmund: Well, Bob, welcome on board. Sorry Baldrick, any reason why you are still here?
  Baldrick: Euh .. I've got nowhere to go, my lord.
  Edmund: O surely you will be allowed to starve to death in one of the royal parks.
  Baldrick: I've been in your service since I was two and a half, my lord.
  Edmund: Well that is the why I am so utterly sick of the sight of you.
  Baldrick: Couldn't I just stay here and do the same job but for no wages?
  Edmund: Well, you know where you will have to live.
  Baldrick: In the gutter.
  Edmund: Yes. And you'll have to work a bit harder too.
  Baldrick: Of course, my lord.
  Edmund: All right. Go and get Bob's stuff in and chuck your filthy muck out into the street.
  Baldrick: God bless you, sweet master!
• Admiring the Abomination: The Bishop of Bath and Wells, after learning the sordid details of Edmund's frame-up job.
  "Never have I encountered such corrupt and foul-minded perversity! Have you ever considered a career in the church?"
• Alcohol Hic: Pretty much everyone ends up drunk in "Beer" — including the Balladeer, who hiccups during his song at the end.
• All Devouring Black Hole Loan Sharks: The bank of the Black Monks of Saint Herod: "Banking with a smile and a stab".
• Amusingly Short List:
  • After Blackadder comments that being Lord Executioner is itself a death sentence, Melchett says he has a list of candidates. He announces "Candidates for the position of Lord High Executioner", unrolls a scroll, says "Lord Blackadder", and then rolls the scroll up again.
  • Lord Percy's guest list for Blackadder's party is coming along very well indeed. There’s his girlfriend Gwendoline, whom Blackadder immediately vetoes ("No chicks") ... and that’s as far as he’s gotten.
• And That's Terrible: In "Chains", Blackadder suddenly thrusts his sword through somebody in a cow costume. Believing it to be Nursie, Queenie's immediate reaction is "You've killed Nursie! That's horrid!"
• Anti-Hero: Edmund is a Type V: He is an Opportunistic Bastard through and through but spends most of the time trying to earn Queenie's favour (at least once by doing her evil bidding) and avoiding an appointment with Choppy.
• Anti-Interference Lock Up: In "Beer", Queenie tries to gatecrash the boys' drinking party. Blackadder lures her to a cupboard, and locks her in.
• Artistic Licence – History: In "Head", Nursie mentions how she put ointment on Queenie's sister after her head was cut off. Except that would have been Mary I of England, who was not beheaded, but died of natural causes. The one who was beheaded was her cousin, Mary, Queen of Scots. However, it's very possible that Nursie just got the two mixed up, especially since Ludwig correctly says in "Chains" that it was Mary, Queen of Scots who lost her head.
• Audience Murmurs: Parodied in "Potato". Everyone on the ship is panicking / arguing except Tom Baker, who is clearly saying "Rhubarb!" over and over again.
• Ax-Crazy: Queenie enjoys beheading everyone and anyone for the slimmest of reasons. She just has other people do the beheading for her.
• Bait-and-Switch: Repeatedly throughout "Bells," with Edmund implying he'd love for Percy to be his best man only to supply another name at the last minute; Queenie isn't having any of that, with her screeching at Edmund until he actually puts the offer on the table for Percy.
  • Raleigh does one in "Potato":
    Sir Walter: To my mind, there is only one seafarer with few enough marbles to attempt that journey.
    Edmund: Ah yes, and who is that?
    Sir Walter: Why, Rum, of course. Captain Redbeard Rum.
    Edmund: Well done. Just testing. And where would I find him on a Tuesday?
    Sir Walter: Well, if I remember his habits, he's usually up the Old Sea Dog.
    Edmund: Ah yes, and where is the Old Sea Dog?
    Sir Walter: Well, on Tuesdays he's normally in bed with the Captain.
• Bawdy Song: Several examples in "Beer", all of which are also Drunken Songs.
  See the little goblin
  See his little feet
  And his little nosey-wose
  Isn't the goblin sweet?
  • YES!
• Bestiality Is Depraved
  Lord Melchett, Lord Melchett — intelligent and deep.
  Lord Melchett, Lord Melchett — a shame about the sheep!
• Big Bad: While Blackadder serves Queenie, she tends to provide the primary threat for most characters in the season. "Head" showcases it more than any other, with characters being pushed to their limits through is entire duration trying to save what the title says.
• Bold Explorer: In "Potato", the bold explorer Sir Walter Raleigh returns in triumph to England, which makes Blackadder jealous, so when Sir Walter says that even he wouldn't attempt to sail around the Cape of Good Hope, Blackadder tells the court that he's going to do just that. Of course, Blackadder isn't actually bold; his plan is to sail to France and hide out, then return and claim to have sailed around the Cape. Unfortunately, the ship captain he picked for his expedition isn't capable of navigating even as far as France — they wind up in Australia, returning with a boomerang for the Queen.
• Buffy Speak
  • Notably in "Beer":
    Lord Melchett: [in regards to Edmund's constant leaving-and-entering] You twist and turn like a... twisty-turny thing!
  • In "Money", Edmund (usually a master of similes) says: "The grave opens up before me like a... big hole in the ground." He is very depressed at the time.
• Can't Hold His Liquor: Edmund, in "Beer".
  Blackadder couldn't hold his beer;
  The art of boozing he's not mastered.
• Challenge Seeker: Played with in "Money", when Percy intends to discover the secret of turning base things into gold.
  Blackadder: The fact that this secret has eluded the most intelligent people since the dawn of time doesn't dampen your spirits?
  Percy: Oh no, I like a challenge.
• Chased Off into the Sunset: A Couch Gag during the Closing Credits shows the minstrel singing the theme song irritating Blackadder, Blackadder chasing him, and finally catching and drowning him.
• The Chew Toy: Baldrick, obviously, but also Percy, which is a bit of a invokedWoobie since he is sincerely a good friend of exceptional loyalty (but also exceptional stupidity). Everyone is this to Queenie, although Edmund appears to be her favourite target.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Nursie. Queenie, too, and also Percy to a certain extent.
• Comically Missing the Point: In "Bells", Blackadder decides he doesn't want his father-in-law-to-be at his wedding and pays him a bribe to leave the venue. When his fiance Kate gets upset at this, he reassures her that he'll get Baldrick to beat him up after the wedding and they'll get the money back.
• Couch Gag: Three per episode: In the opening credits, the episode title is accompanied by the object to which it refers. In the closing credits, the theme song has different lyrics and the minstrel accosts Edmund in different ways, although the last one ("Chains") has Edmund finally catch the bugger and drown him.
• Curse Cut Short: In "Beer":
  Lady Whiteadder: Luck! Sounds almost exactly like f— [episode ends]
• Despair Speech: A very short one, which is also a Shout-Out to Richard II:
  Percy: Then you are doomed. Alas. For God's sake, let us sit upon the carpet and tell sad stories.
• Didn't Think This Through: Arguably Edmund's Fatal Flaw, as despite his wit he is very impulsive and tends to act on the moment which is more or less the reason for his many near-death experiences throughout the series and his more than-near death. In fact his recklessness is reflected by the mere fact that he chooses to spend every day of his life by trying to impress the Grim Reaper in human form, in Queenie form that is.
• Ditzy Genius: A transitional Blackadder, having gained a lot of cunning and suave that would grow with each of his predecessors, but still having some blithering, pitiful shades of the previous Edmund. Very apparent by the number of times that he gets in over his head, in every single episode that is, because of not thinking things through, even if his plans are more founded on paper than most of his ancestor's.
• Dry Crusader: The Whiteadders are strictly opposed to alcohol — at least until the end of the episode.
• Dysfunctional Family: Mistress Ploppy thinks this is the only kind… so it would be appropriate for the Tower dungeon to have “a family atmosphere”.
• Eats Babies: The Baby-Eating Bishop of Bath and Wells.
• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Nursie. Since her real name is Bernard, it's understandable.
• Everyone Is Satan in Hell: The Whiteadders are this trope, in its in-universe form. They may be getting better, now that Lord Whiteadder has broken his vow of silence and they've both discovered the joys of being drunk.
• Evil Is Petty: Edmund's evilness is always small and petty as it is directed at the small and petty such as Baldrick, whom he beats and insults, Percy and whoever else is insignificant enough that he can get away with, while he himself reacts with Disproportionate Retribution whenever he is on the receiving end of any insult and all of this while never stopping to try making the most out of a short-term profit which explains his Con Man ways despite being an aristocrat.
• Evil Sounds Raspy: In "Money", the evil Bishop of Bath and Wells has an extremely rasping voice, even when he gets his come-uppance.
• Evil Versus Evil: Edmund v Prince Ludwig the Indestructible.
• Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: a classic example.
  Percy: Wait a minute. That's not Farrow.
  Blackadder: Isn't it?
  Percy: No, that's Ponsonby!
  Blackadder: My God! Ponsonby! That genius Baldrick has killed the wrong bloke! We're saved!
  Percy: Saved!
  Blackadder: Farrow is alive and we're saved!
  Percy: Hurray!
  Blackadder: And when the Queen comes back from her seeing Ponsonby we'll... OH GOD!
• Expospeak Gag: In "Money", Blackadder is attempting to sell his house to a couple, with the wife repeatedly asking about the privy. Eventually he describes it as "the very latest in front-wall, fresh-air orifices, combined with a wide-capacity gutter installation below" — which the wife translates into plain English as "you crap out of the window". Despite what one might expect, she's actually happy about this and agrees to buy the place immediately; she hates having to deal with chamberpots.
• Expy: The greatest painter in London, bearded, self-described genius, Leonardo Acropolis. Blackadder hires him to paint some porn.
• Extreme Omnisexual:
  • The baby-eating bishop of Bath and Wells will "do anything to anything": animal, vegetable, even mineral.
  • Lord Flashheart isn't exactly selective.
    Flashheart: [to Baldrick] Thanks, bridesmaid, like the beard! Gives me something to hang on to!
    Flashheart: Nursie! I like it! Firm and fruity! Am I pleased to see you, or did I just put a canoe in my pocket! Down, boy, down!
• Felony Misdemeanor: In "Head", Blackadder has accidentally had Lord Farrow executed (or so he thinks) before his wife is supposed to meet him one last time, so is forced to impersonate him by putting a bag over his head. In a meeting with Lady Farrow beforehand, he tries to prepare her for this by saying her husband has 'changed', which she takes to mean he's been tortured:
  Lady Farrow: What have you done to him?!
  Blackadder: We have put... [Dramatic Pause] ...a bag over his head!
• Fiery Redhead: Queenie.
• Finish Dialogue in Unison: In Blackadder II, Blackadder and Baldrick are in on Percy's secret money stash.
  Percy: By lucky hap, it is just over a thousand methinks, and has for years been hidden beyond the wit of any thief in an old sock...
  Percy and Blackadder: under the squeaky floorboard...
  Percy, Blackadder and Baldrick: behind the kitchen dresser.
• Framing the Guilty Party: The Bishop of Bath and Wells already has an appointment with Molly the Inexpensive Prostitute and freely admits that he is a colossal pervert who will do anything to anything, "animal, vegetable, or mineral," but his flock is none the wiser. So Blackadder drugs him and has him painted in a rather lewd position with poor, poor Percy, then uses it as blackmail to get out of his loan.
  "And it's so beautifully framed... which is funny, because that's what you've just been."
• Frantic Object Concealment: In "Head", Blackadder hurries to Traitor's Cloister to hide the head which had mistakenly been cut off, before the Queen finds it. He hides it behind his back, just as she approaches. When the Queen demands that he holds hands with her, he has to resort to tucking the head inside his tights.
• Freudian Excuse: Prince Ludwig wants to Take Over the World because he was bullied at school.
• Freudian Slippery Slope: Blackadder greeting his wealthy aunt and uncle in "Beer" (though it's likely he was doing it on purpose to less-than-subtly drop hints that he wanted to discuss his inheritance):
  "Well, I hope you had a pleasant inheritance...Did I say 'inheritance'? I meant journey... If you'd just like to help yourself to a legacy... a chair."
• Friendly Enemy: Blackadder and Melchett might be rivals, but still maintain a certain tolerance for each other, seeing as they only have each other to turn to for intelligent company.
• Friendship Moment: Hilariously subverted in "Money": Percy loyally offers his life savings to get Blackadder out of debt, only to have Blackadder casually reveal that he has long since stolen and spent the savings in question. And even BALDRICK was in on it.
• The Fundamentalist: Lord and Lady Whiteadder, Edmund's Puritan relatives.
• Gender-Blender Name: Besides Kate, whose name is short for Bob, there's also Nursie and her sisters, with names like Bernard and Basil.
• The Ghost: Mrs. Miggins the pie shop owner.
• Gilligan Cut: Well, Gilligan's Doorway, at least. In "Chains" Edmund remarks to the Queen how only an idiot would allow himself to get distracted by a foreigner asking a question, be knocked on the head, and abducted for ransom. Naturally, this exact sequence of events occurs when Edmund leaves her throne room.
• God Save Us from the Queen!: Queen Elizabeth I is presented as a petulant schoolgirl — a petulant schoolgirl with power of life and death over the whole of the Kingdom of England. Oddly enough, this portrayal actually seems much more in line with her half-sister Mary I, who was rather free with ordering executions. Not for nothing was she nicknamed Bloody Mary. Then again, fobbing off her worst flaws on a hated relative sounds entirely in-character for Queenie...
• Groin Attack:
  • Twice in "Bells": Blackadder kicks Percy down there, and shortly afterwards, Percy shoots Baldrick with an arrow.
  • Also part of the plan Blackadder and Melchett use to escape their German captors in "Chains."
    Blackadder: Trust me to get the hard one!
• Hair Memento: The episode "Potato" offers a third-party variant, when Captain Redbeard Rum is eaten by cannibals and Edmund & co. save his beard as a memento for Nursie, who'd agreed to marry him. She declares that she'll "wear it always, to remind me of him."
• Have You Come to Gloat?: In "Head", the gang finds out that Lord Farrow (whom Edmund is trying to impersonate) was missing an arm. He sends Percy to speak with Lady Farrow and find out which arm, but the only idea Percy can come up with is a Something Only They Would Say test to prove that she's not just a "gloater" pretending to be a relative so she can mock the condemned man.
  Blackadder: "Gloaters"...you really are a prat, aren't you Percy?
• Hell-Bent for Leather: Edmund's almost always dressed in black leather finery.^note Word of God says that when Rowan Atkinson first turned up on set in full costume and make-up, all the women in the area were... most impressed.
• Hello, Sailor!: The episode "Potato" is full of jokes about gay sailors, because it revolves around explorers and sea voyages. In "Money," Baldrick winds up being pimped out to sailors down at the docks.
• Henpecked Husband: Lord Whiteadder appears to be this, considering that he has to sit on a spike instead of a chair — and Lady Whiteadder in turn sits on him — and seems to approve of things that his wife considers the work of Satan. One can imagine that he took his vow of silence just to give his wife fewer excuses to slap him around.
• Identically Named Group: In "Head", Edmund becomes Lord High Executioner and meets his gaoler, a man called Ploppy. Despite what many people think, he is not related to Mrs. Ploppy, the last meal cook, their last names being coincidental. To make things easier, they call Baldrick, the executioner, Young Ploppy.
• Implausible Deniability: While attempting to hold a drinking party and a dinner for his extremely Puritan relatives on the same night in the same house, one of Edmund's drunken revelers bursts into the same room as Lord and Lady Whiteadder and declares "Great booze-up, Edmund!" Edmund attempts to paper over this by claiming that the drunk was actually a missionary sent to deal with a narcoleptic tribesman named "the Great Boo"...
• Impoverished Patrician: A good example of this trope in its early stages — Edmund still has a title and a place at court, but no actual money or estates. Seemingly his father blew the family fortune on "wine, women and amateur dramatics." Alhough he's still better off than his descendants in this respect.
• Incoming Ham:
  • The opening of "Money":
    Edmund: [to Baldrick, who has just been kicked through a door] Yes, Baldrick, what is it now?
    Baldrick: It's that priest, he says he still wants to see you.
    Blackadder: And did you mention the baby-eating Bishop of Bath and Wells?
    Baldrick: Yes, my Lord.
    Blackadder: And what did he say?
    Bishop: [from offscreen] He said "I AM the baby-eating Bishop of Bath and Wells!"
  • Lord Flashheart's entrance to Blackadder's wedding, where he sets off a bomb, swings in, takes the bride, chucks another bomb and promptly leaves.
• In My Language, That Sounds Like...: Edmund falls prey to the English-Spanish "embarrassed is tener vergüenza but embarazada means pregnant" while under interrogation by the Spanish Inquisition torturer in "Chains".
• Insult Backfire: In "Beer", two incidents involving Lady Whiteadder:
  Lady Whiteadder: Has anyone ever told you you're a giggling imbecile?
  Lord Percy Percy: [completely nonchalant] Oh yes.
  Lady Whiteadder: ... good.
• Insult Misfire: When Edmund insults Lady Whiteadder, and she assumes he is speaking to her husband.
  Edmund: Oh, shove off you old trout.
  Lady Whiteadder: How dare you speak to my husband like that!
• In the Hood: In "Beer" from the second series, the Queen decides to invade Blackadder's drinking party, by wearing a cloak with a cowl, and introducing herself as a friend of Lord Percy's. Blackadder does not recognise her as the Queen, and thinks she is Percy's girlfriend, whom he had mentioned earlier. Blackadder locks her in a cupboard before she can interfere.
• I Reject Your Reality: The Queen on the colour of elephants.
  Queenie: I think you'll find it was orange, Lord Melchett.
  Melchett: Grey is more usual, ma'am.
  Queenie: (Beat) Who's Queen?
  Melchett: (Fearing execution) As I said, there were these magnificent orange elephants...
• Jumping the Gender Barrier: Edmund with Bob.
• Karma Houdini: Prince Ludwig gets away with at least two counts of Rape By Deception, kidnapping Edumnd and Melchett for ransom, killing the entire main cast and overthrowing the British throne.
• Lame Comeback: "Better a 'lapdog to a slip of a girl' than a... git!" Ironically, the sailor is actually impressed by this.
• Large Ham: The bishop of Bath and Wells.
• Laughing at Your Own Jokes: In "Beer", one of Edmund's drinking buddies constantly cracks himself up by repeating things that "sound a bit rude." Sample:
  Edmund: Well, well, get stuck in, boys.
  Partridge: 'Stuck in'! Way-hey! Get it?
  Monk: No...
  Partridge: Well, it sounds a bit rude, doesn't it! 'Stuck in!'
• Love at First Sight: Blackadder and Bob are smitten with each other the instant she walks in the door.
• Lower Half Reveal: In "Potato" in series 2, Blackadder meets Captain Rum, who has his legs hidden, and says that he bets that Blackadder has never seen his own legs sliced clean off. When Blackadder says "neither have yours", Captain Rum reveals that his legs are two wooden stumps.
• Mathematician's Answer: From the opening of "Head," when Edmund is trying to teach Baldrick how to count:
  Edmund: Now, let's say I have two beans. If I add two more beans to those, what do I have?
  Baldrick: Some beans.
  Edmund: ... yes... and no.
• Murder Is the Best Solution: In "Bells", the Wise Woman's three solutions to Blackadder's problem are 1) Kill Bob, 2) Kill yourself, or 3) KILL EVERYONE ELSE IN THE WHOLE WORLD!
• Never Work with Children or Animals: Parodied in the intro sequence, where Blackadder tries to get the snake slither in from the right side of the screen and stay put, only for it to slither further offscreen to the left, forcing him to pull it back into the frame with a comic sound effect, frustratedly tap the table to point where it should stay to try to make it stay put again, only for it to slither off again, forcing him to pull it back into the frame again, settling for a closeup of it flicking its toungue and then quickly pull it offscreen and toss in an object the episode is named after.
• No Indoor Voice: Flashheart, Captain Rum and the Bishop of Bath and Wells.
• Noodle Implements: Averted with Blackadder's plan to get out of debt in "Money":
  Blackadder: All I need is some feathers, a dress, some oil, an easel, some sleeping draught, lots of paper, a prostitute and the best portrait painter in England!
  • Turns out he drugged the Bishop, put him in a compromising position, painted the scene, and used it to blackmail the Bishop.
• Noodle Incident: In "Potato" it is revealed a horse was elected Pope. The details of this vibrant, dynamic and exciting Papacy has sadly been lost to history. (Of course, this is coming from Baldrick, who may not be a reliable source.)
• Not an Act: Blackadder has had a man executed prematurely without anyone knowing, but the man's wife begs the queen for one last meeting. Blackadder is forced to impersonate him lest he get the chop, and does so with a bag over his head, insisting on Baldrick only allowing them two minutes. Blackadder manages to impersonate the husband to the point where she starts to go down on him, which of course is the moment an unusually-competent Baldrick comes in to declare that their time's up. Blackadder's "No it isn't" is entirely heartfelt.
• Off with His Head!: Standard procedure for traitors, heretics, and anyone who mildly annoys the Queen—she frequently threatens to behead her courtiers. The episode "Head" has Blackadder serving as Lord High Executioner, and he jams as many beheadings as he can at the start and the end of the week to have Wednesday off.
• Oh, Crap!: Twice from Edmund in "Head," first when Queenie decides to visit a man Blackadder had executed ("if she sees his head on a pike, she'll realize... he's deeeeaaaaad!") and shortly after when we learn that Baldrick actually had another man killed, whom Queenie then wants to see ("when she comes back from seeing him... oh, God!").
• Once Done, Never Forgotten: When Blackadder discovers Melchett slept with Prince Ludwig, who was disguised as a Sheep.
  Blackadder: Baa!
• One-Note Cook: Mrs Ploppy, in "Head".
  Mrs Ploppy: I'm the last meal cook, sir. The prisoners may ask me for what they fancy for their last meal.
  Blackadder: And you cook for them what they desire.
  Mrs. Ploppy: Oh, yes, sir. Provided they ask for sausages. Otherwise, they tend to get a tiny bit disappointed. Sausage is all I got.
• Only Sane Man: Along with Blackadder, Melchett also tends to steer towards this, obviously humouring Queenie throughout the series. He's still considerably more loopy, however, especially once we learn about a past affair involving a sheep... that invokedwasn't quite as it seemed.
• Pimped-Out Dress: Queenie's.
• Plot Hole: In "Head", after Farrow's execution, Percy describes him as a tall man with a loud, clear voice, which we later learn is a more-or-less accurate description of Lord Farrow. However, it's later revealed that the man who was executed wasn't Farrow, but Ponsonby, who is a small man with one leg and a speech impediment. Percy couldn't possibly have seen the man he described at the execution.
• Prisoner's Last Meal: In the episode "Head" from the second series, Blackadder is appointed as the Lord High Executioner. When he meets his staff, Mrs. Ploppy introduces herself as the last-meal cook for the prisoners, adding that she only has sausages.
• Psychopathic Womanchild: Queenie
• Punch-Clock Villain: At least once Edmund was forced into becoming the Lord High Executioner under pain of being himself executed. What made him this more than Forced into Evil is the fact that his only emotional problem with that job was that he was in constant danger from the Queenie's whims and treated it with cold indifference, even changing the dates so that he could get time some time off.
• Punctuality Is for Peasants: In Bells, Lord Flashheart "flash by name, flash by nature" is late for the wedding where he is Edmund's best man; before arriving in spectacular fashion, and stealing Edmund's bride.
• Retool: The first series with the clever Blackadder and the stupid Baldrick. Percy remains just the same.
• Ridiculously Long Lived Family Name: In the year 1485, Prince Edmund decides to call himself "the Black Adder." In every other iteration of the series the protagonist, a direct descendant of Prince Edmund, is named Edmund Blackadder, even as the family's social status descends; his servant is also always named Baldrick.
• The Rival: Lord Melchett is Blackadder's rival.
• Running Gag: Nursie going on about anecdotes in Queenie's childhood (usually embarrassing ones about being toilet trained) before being told to shut up.
• Sadistic Choice: Prince Ludwig in "Chains" offers Queenie one of these, forcing her to pay a vast sum on the last ransom she'll ever make to free either Edmund or Melchett. She chooses a costume party.
• Same Surname Means Related: Defied in "Head". Mr Ploppy and Mistress Ploppy are not married or related in any way, but have the same name by pure coincidence. Baldrick then offers to change his name to Ploppy "if it'll make things easier" on Edmund. For the rest of the episode, Mr. Ploppy refers to Baldrick as "Young Ploppy". And of course, Ploppy's father Daddy Ploppy, AKA "Ploppy the Slopper".
• The Scrooge: Edmund is very reluctant to part with what little money he actually has. After giving ten pounds to his prospective father in-law as a "Begone" Bribe, he casually mentions to Kate he'll have Baldrick take it back later.
• Shaped Like Itself:
  • When Blackadder asks the Young Crone how to find the Wise Woman in "Bells":
    Young Crone: Two things must ye know about the Wise Woman! First...she is...a woman! And second, she is...
    Blackadder: Wise?
    Young Crone: You do know her then?
  • Again in "Money," when Percy attempts to use alchemy to create gold but ends up with a lump of green something.
    Blackadder: I don't to be pedantic or anything, but the colour of gold ... is gold. That's why it's called gold.
  • In "Potato", Percy mentions Mrs. Miggins is baking a pie to honour Sir Walter in the shape of an enormous pie. Raeligh also tries, and fails to amuse Queenie with the tale of how he was nearly eaten by a hammerhead shark, describing it as a shark whose head was funnily shaped exactly like a hammer.
  • And in "Beer," when Melchett calls out Blackadder on his not sitting down to drink at the drinking competition:
    Melchett: (severely drunk) You twist and turn like a... twisty, turny thing.
• Shout-Out:
  • In "Bells", Blackadder says "Come, Kiss Me, Kate!"
  • Also, in "Bells", it seems like giving Nursie the real name "Bernard" is to set up the joke "Oh, shut up, Bernard," which everyone at the time of airing (1986) would have recognized as a reference to Yes, Minister.
  • The snake crawling across the table in the opening credits, apart from being a Visual Pun on "Blackadder", may also be a parody of I, Claudius's opening titles (Patsy Byrne appearing in one episode as "Martina the Poisoner").
• Sinister Minister: The Baby-Eating Bishop of Bath and Wells.
• Smoking Hot Sex: In "Bells", after "Bob" reveals her actual gender by flashing her boobs at Edmund, we jump ahead to two minutes later ... and they're sitting together smoking old-time clay pipes.
• Speech Impediment: Partial meta example — Rowan Atkinson has a stutter, especially having trouble with words that begin with hard consonants such as "Bob". This gives us his wonderful plosive pronunciation of "Bobb".
• Spiteful Spit: Played for laughs in "Chains", when the two guards spit on the prisoners' food as part of their highly synchronised routine.
• Spoof Aesop: The closing ballads occasionally fall into this category with such valuable pieces of advice as 'Don't borrow money from a homicidal omnisexual bishop' and 'Don't try and take over the throne of England'.
• Spotting the Thread: When Prince Ludwig, something of a master of disguise, tries to infiltrate Queen Elizabeth's dress party disguised as Nursie dressed as a cow. He is found out because his costume is too good; Nursie has some ... interesting interpretations of how a cow should look.
  • To quote: "Prince Ludwig is a master of disguise, while Nursie is an insane old woman with an udder fixation."
• The Stinger: The final episode of the season reveals that Prince Ludwig had disguised himself as the Queen to kill everyone and usurp her place.
• Sweet Polly Oliver: "Bob" disguises herself as a man to get a job to support her father, who preferred her to become a prostitute.
• Sweet on Polly Oliver: Edmund towards "Bob".
• Take Our Word for It: With the low budget for this series, sometimes what the characters see is left to the imagination of the audience.
  • In "Potato":
    Baldrick: This doesn't look like Southampton to me. All those palm trees, and natives standing round a large pot.
  • In "Money", the audience does not see the paintings which Blackadder shows to the bishop. However, they do see Percy in his outlandish outfit.
• Take That!:
  • Blackadder discovers Australia; no one cares. Even the minstrel singing during the end credits says he discovered "bugger all". (And after the first series was partly funded by Australians...)
  • "Chains" features a lot of broad stereotyping of Edmund's German and Spanish captors and how they "inconweenience" him.
• The Talk: In "Money", Baldrick says that they could "make" a bird. Edmund begins to tell him "A mummy bird and a daddy bird who love each other very much get certain urges", before Baldrick interrupts with a cunning plan.
• Tap on the Head: "Chains" begins with a rash of kidnappings that all have some German fellow saying "excuse me, meister" so that his partner can hit the victim over the head.
• Two-Timer Date: Blackadder's attempt to hold simultaneous parties in "Beer".
• Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist: Edmund's a self-involved ruthless jerk, who constantly insults everyone around him. What makes him still somewhat likeable is that he's genuinely witty, and the people around him are idiots, who pretty much deserve all of his put-downs.
• Villain Protagonist: Well when Edmund isn't spending his wit to fawn over the despot that is the Queenie, he uses it to abuse Baldrick and Percy while also managing to make use of Baldrick as an enforcer to rob the people that he makes deals with off their money (through biological war one would presume).
• What Happened to the Mouse?: In "Head", it is eventually revealed that Baldrick has executed Ponsonby in place of Farrow, so Edmund must then impersonate Ponsonby with ... a bag on his head. And a lisp. While hopping. So, when Edmund was impersonating the actually-alive Farrow, where was he if not in his cell?
  • If they thought Farrow was Ponsonby and vice versa, presumably at the time, Farrow was in Ponsonby's cell.
• Wholesome Crossdresser: Flashheart, depending on your definition of 'wholesome'.
• Woken Up at an Ungodly Hour: At the beginning of "Money" in the second series, Blackadder is sleeping with a prostitute, and is woken by Baldrick, who has a visitor for him.
  Baldrick: My Lord, there is someone at the door to see you.
  Blackadder: What time is it?
  Baldrick: Four o' clock.
  Bladadder: I've told you, you mustn't let me sleep all day, this woman charges by the hour.
  Baldrick: My Lord, it is four o' clock in the morning.
  Blackadder: Someone wants to see me at four in the morning? What is he, a giant lark?
  Baldrick: No, he's a priest.
  Blackadder: Tell him I'm Jewish.
• World of Pun: This season forward, really.
  Baldrick: Will you be wanting me to cut anything off? An arm or a leg?
  Blackadder: Oh, good lord no — a little prick should do.
  Baldrick: Oh well my lord, I am your bondsman and must obey. [stabs at crotch]
  Blackadder: Oh for god's sake, Baldrick, I meant a little prick on your finger.
  Baldrick: I haven't got one there.

Tropes Present in Blackadder the Third

• Actor/Role Confusion: In "Sense and Senility", Prince George believes that what he sees in the theatre is real.
  Prince George: Are you sure we can trust these acting fellows? Last time we went to the theatre, three of them murdered Julius Caesar, and one of them was his best friend, Brutus.
  Blackadder: (Wearily) As I have told you about eight times, the man playing Caesar was an actor, called Kemp.
  Prince George: Really?!
  Blackadder: Yes.
  Prince George: Well, Brutus must have been pretty miffed when he found out.
  Blackadder: What?
  Prince George: That he hadn't killed Caesar after all, just some poxy actor called Kemp. What do you suppose he did, go round to Caesar's place after the play and kill him then?
  Blackadder: (To himself) Oh God, it's pathetic.
• All Just a Dream: Blackadder wakes up to find that Dr. Johnson is about to arrive and find out his dictionary has been burned. Then Dr. Johnson comes in an announces that he didn't like the dictionary after all and that he is glad to find out it has been destroyed. Things start getting surreal when Blackadder's aunt appears out of nowhere and Baldrick starts wearing a dog mask, until Blackadder realises that "It's all a bloody dream!" Cut to Blackadder waking up and finding out that Dr. Johnson is still arriving and the dictionary has still been burned.
• All Part of the Show: Prince George believes that an anarchist throwing a bomb at him is part of a play. Then again, he usually thinks the events on stage are real and regularly orders actors arrested for murder.
• Anachronism Stew: The series is set in the Regency era (1811–1820) yet features William Pitt The Younger who died in 1806 (and was actually 24 when he was elected, while here he is still in school); Samuel Johnson finishing his dictionary, which happened in 1755, before Prince George was even born; the French Revolution (1790s); planning the Battle of Trafalgar, which was in 1805; and ending slavery as a radical idea even though it was done in England itself (but not the rest of the empire) in 1772.
  • The first episode has William Pitt the Younger declaring his intentions to fight Napoléon Bonaparte, yet a few episodes later the events of The Scarlet Pimpernel take place including The French Revolution, which of course took place before Napoleon, and the final episode features The Duke of Wellington who is mentioned as only recently come back from fighting Napoleonic forces in Spain. For all intents and purposes the series is presented out of chronological order.
  • One episode had Blackadder looking for eligible women for the Prince to marry, eventually narrowing it down to two women with one being Caroline of Brunswick. This was King George IV's real life wife who he married in 1795, with the two hating each other and separating after the birth of their daughter. However throughout the series George is portrayed as single and struggling to find a woman to have a relationship with, while in real life he had illegaly married Maria Fitzherbert in 1785.
  • Also the pervasiveness of powdered wigs; Pitt had actually instituted a tax on them in the 1780s that combined with a few other factors to kill the fashion. Portraits of George IV actually stand out for his clearly displayed short, brown curly hair (which was a main dandy fashion of the Era).
  • And a more obvious example: Dr. Samuel Johnson refers to Edmund's Her Code Name Was "Mary Sue" book Edmund: A Butler's Tale as a "huge rollercoaster of a novel".
  • One of the dirty words the Prince looks up in Johnson's dictionary is "bloomers," which received that name in 1851.
  • Anarchism did not exist as a political movement during the Regency period; the first self-declared anarchist, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, claimed the label in 1840.
  • The opening of the series shows Blackadder going through a library, while a book titled Blackadder the Third is seen which is dated as being between 1760-1827. If taken to literally mean the years of Blackadder's birth and death, which implies that in this history Blackadder as King George IV passed away three years early, then it can be presumed that the series takes place in the 1790s if he's the same age as Rowan Atkinson was at the time of making the series.
• "Antidisestablishmentarianism" the word: Blackadder tells the Prince Regent he'll be back before the Prince can say it. Naturally he's right.
• As Himself: Vincent Hanna, who was at the time a political correspondent at the BBC, appears as a fictionalised version of himself, presenting the coverage of the Dunny-on-the-Wold by-election. He is credited "as his own great-great-great-grandfather".
• Atomic D-Bomb: When Edmund finds out that Baldrick was made a Lord at the Prince Regent's request, after Edmund strongly suggested himself for that honour.
  Mr. Blackadder: Sir, might I let loose a short, violent exclamation?
  The Prince Regent: Certainly.
  Mr. Blackadder: DAAAAAAAMN! Thank you, sir.
• Balcony Wooing Scene: In "Amy and Amiability", the Playing Cyrano variant is used, with Amy on the balcony and the Prince Regent below, with Blackadder to feed him lines.
• Bawdy Song:
  Harold the horny hunter
  Had an enormous horn...
• Beleaguered Assistant: Blackadder, as the Prince Regent's butler.
• Big "NO!": In "Ink And Incapability", they didn't burn the dictionary as they thought. They burnt Blackadder's book, a novel that would have made him a millionaire. When Baldrick reveals this, Blackadder excuses himself and lets out one of these.
  Blackadder: [from outside] OH, GOD, NO!
• Bomb-Throwing Anarchists: In "Sense and Senility".
• Book Safe: The title sequence has Blackadder perusing books in a library, finally retrieving a legal volume that turns out to contain a paperback Romance Novel within. (In each episode it's a different book bearing the title of that particular episode.)
• Bottomless Magazines: Amy's flintlock pistol never seems to need reloading in "Amy and Amiability".
• Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs: In "Nob and Nobility", today's hot choice at Mrs Miggins' shop is: chicken pimpernel in a scarlet sauce; scarlet chicken in a pimpernel sauce; or huge, suspicious-looking sausages, in a scarlet pimpernel sauce.
• Buffy Speak:
  • Blackadder: "Disease and depravation stalk our land like... two giant... stalking things." Also: "We're about as similar as two completely dis-similar things in a pod."
  • In "Ink And Incapability", Baldrick describes the dictionary as "the big papery thing tied up with string" and Dr. Johnson as "the batey fellow in the black coat who just left". Blackadder follows up with saying that "the booted bony thing with five toes on the end of my leg will soon connect sharply with the soft dangly collection of objects in your trousers!"
• The Cameo: Vincent Hanna, a reporter known for his coverage of by-elections, appears as his own ancestor, covering a by-election.
• The Coroner Doth Protest Too Much: The returning officer and lone voter in Dunny-on-the-Wold apparently died, respectively, from accidentally brutally cutting his head off while combing his hair, and accidentally brutally stabbing himself in the stomach while shaving.
• Couch Gag: The book Edmund finds in the opening sequence differs each episode, with the cover having the episode's title and an illustration pertaining to it as well.
• Creative Closing Credits: The opening titles appear on the spines and covers of books. The episode titles appear on the cover of a Romance Novel hidden within a Book Safe.
• Creator Cameo: The anarchist who attempts to assassinate Prince George in "Sense and Senility" is played by series co-writer Ben Elton.
• Cuckoo Clock Gag: In "Duel and Duality": When the Prince declares that he will give Blackadder everything he owns, Blackadder checks that this includes the amusing clock where the little man comes out and drops his trousers every half-hour.
• Cut His Heart Out with a Spoon: "Baldrick, believe me. Eternity in the company of Beelzebub, and all his hellish instruments of death, will be a picnic compared to five minutes with me... and this pencil... if we cannot replace this dictionary."
• Disguised in Drag: In "Nob and Nobility", the Scarlet Pimpernel's colleague Lord Smedley disguises himself as Madame Guillotine to rescue Edmund and Baldrick from the French embassy. It ends badly for him, as Edmund poisons him before he reveals his identity.
• Dope Slap: The Duke of Wellington (Stephen Fry) does this incessantly to George (having switched roles with Blackadder to escape the Duke's wrath).
• Double Vision: In "Duel and Duality", Blackadder and his mad cousin MacAdder appear on the screen together, both played by Rowan Atkinson.
• Dramatic Drop: Blackadder thinks he's been found out and drops a tray he's carrying. When it turns out he hasn't been discovered, the tray zips back up.
• Dream Sequence: In "Ink and Incapability"
  Blackadder: Baldrick, who gave you permission to turn into an Alsatian?!
• Dude, Not Ironic:
  Blackadder: Baldrick, have you no idea what irony is?
  Baldrick: Yes, it's like goldy and bronzy only it's made out of iron.
• Duel to the Death: "Duel and Duality" is a convoluted attempt to prevent the Prince from having to fight one with Wellington after he slept with Wellington's nieces.
• Election Day Episode: "Dish and Dishonesty" is about a by-election in an obscure rotten borough that Blackadder and the Prince Regent have managed to gain control of, putting forward Baldrick as their candidate as someone who can be relied on to vote as the Prince desires. The sole voter in the borough is one E. Blackadder, following the unfortunate accidental beheading of the previous voter.
• Everyone Has Standards:
  • Blackadder is appalled by the Duke of Wellington's treatment of the 'lower orders'.
  • He is also put out when Baldrick reveals his first name might be 'sod off', because that's what the kids said while he was growing up when he announced he was Baldrick.
• Mr. Fanservice: Hugh Laurie in make-up and tights has been known to make a lot of straight women (and a few lesbians) perk up.
• Face Palm: Blackadder, when Lord Topper reveals his disguise.
• Fictional Political Party: Going hand-in-hand with the Election Day Episode trope (above), the episode "Dish and Dishonesty" uses these, too, in its parody of British election conventions. After the constituent of rotten borough Dunny-on-the-Wold (consisting of nothing more than a tiny plot of land, many farm animals and only one voter) suddenly died, Prince Regent and Blackadder decide to run Baldrick as their own candidate and tip Parliament in their favour. Baldrick runs on behalf of the "Adder Party", a name which becomes much more appropriate when it turns out that Blackadder was both the borough's Returning Officer and lone voter after both died in freak "accidents". Other fictitious parties on the ballot included "Keep Royalty White, Rat Catching and Safe Sewage Residents' Party" and the "Standing at the Back Dressed Stupidly and Looking Stupid Party" (whose party line stands for "the compulsory serving of asparagus at breakfast, free corsets for the under-fives (girls, obviously) and the abolition of slavery" — though the last one was just put in as a joke).
  • The last two are a Shout-Out to two real minor perennial candidates at British elections at the time the show was broadcast — Bill Boaks, who usually stood as something like "Democratic Monarchist Road Safety White Resident", and Screaming Lord Sutch of the Official Monster Raving Loony Party (which, in their heyday of the 70s and 80s, proposed ludicrous policies. By the 2010s, a couple of them had actually been proposed and enacted by the government — invokedmuch like the reference to the abolition of slavery was implied to be).
• Foreshadowing: Amy Hardwood comes to Blackadder's attention by spending lots of money, but then it turns out her family's stone broke. Where did all that cash come from?
• Gender-Blender Name: Blackadder's cousin MacAdder named his daughter Angus.
• Gender-Concealing Voice: In "Amy and Amiability", the feared highwayman "The Shadow" is in fact Amy in disguise, who was earlier shown to be a total drip. The Shadow speaks in a very male voice when first seen, until she removes her disguise.
• Groin Attack: Blackadder tells Baldrick that if he doesn't tell him where the dictionary is, he will give him one of these, using Buffy Speak.
• Haughty Help: Blackadder makes his contempt for subordinates (such as Baldrick) and the lower orders of society (such as actors and the French) clear. He's not exactly above snarking at people of higher orders, for that matter.
• Have a Gay Old Time: When Blackadder suggests the Prince marry to get more money, he objects, starting by saying he's "a gay bachelor".
  • A slightly more subtle one: Prince George wishes to "patronize" Samuel Johnson's dictionary. Indeed, when he realises it's not a work of fiction, he isn't very impressed.
• The Help Helping Themselves: Blackadder regularly pilfers and resells items from Prince George's estate. In "Dish and Dishonesty," it's revealed that the Prince's clothing budget has ballooned and Parliament is threatening to cut him off because Blackadder keeps stealing and reselling his master's silk stocks.
• Her Code Name Was "Mary Sue":
  • Blackadder's novel Edmund: A Butler's Tale sounds like this, based on what he tells Baldrick about it.
  • Baldrick's novel (or "Magnificent Octopus") also has elements of this: "Once upon a time there was a lovely little sausage called Baldrick, who lived happily ever after."
• Hope Spot: In "Ink and Incapability", when Samuel Johnson tells Edmund that he wasn't happy with the dictionary and is glad that it was destroyed. Shame it's All Just a Dream.
• Human-Interest Story: Made fun of in "Dish and Dishonesty" as Blackadder reveals to Prince George of bad news he saw in the morning papers.
  Blackadder: Sir, if I may return to this urgent matter, I read fearful news in this morning's paper.
  Prince George: Oh no. Not another little cat caught up in a tree!
• Hypocritical Humour: Sir Talbot Buxomley's insults to Prince George about his speech, dress and uselessness could at least equally apply to himself.
  • In "Sense and Senility", Keanrick and Mossop say they pride themselves on their artistic integrity. However, they make no attempt to improve Prince George's acting skills, telling him his terrible attempts at performance are perfect, content to accept their generous fees despite not delivering the service they were hired for.
• Identical Grandson: In addition to the previously mentioned usage, this series features Blackadder's Scottish cousin MacAdder, played by Atkinson in a curly red wig, a kilt and a deliberately bad accent and Vincent Hanna playing "his own great great great grandfather".
• I'm a Humanitarian: Seems implied by the French revolutionary in "Nob and Nobility", who mentions that he murdered the previous ambassador and turned him into pâté.
  • In "Sense and Senility", Edmund tells George that his subjects are so poor that they're forced to have kids to provide a cheaper alternative to Christmas turkey. (Doubles as a Shout-Out to A Modest Proposal.)
• Informed Attribute: Done deliberately — Blackadder and Baldrick both reference Prince George's disgusting obesity — as the historical figure indeed was — even though he's played by the lanky Hugh Laurie.
• Intentional Engrish for Funny: In "Ink and Incapability", Blackadder speaks in this way, when Baldrick asks him if something is wrong.
  Blackadder: Something's always wrong, Baldrick. But today, something is even wronger.
• Inter-Class Romance: From the episode "Amy and Amiability":
  Hardwood: Can it be possibly true? Surely love has never crossed such boundaries of class? [clutches Amy's hand]
  Amy: But what about you and Mum?
  Hardwood: Well, yes I grant thee when I first met her I was the farmer's son and she was just the lass who ate the dung, but that was an exception.
  Amy: And Aunty Dot and Uncle Ted.
  Hardwood: Yes, yes; all right, he was a pig poker and she was the Duchess of Argyle, but—
  Amy: And Aunty Ruth and Uncle Isiah; she was a milkmaid and he was—
  Hardwood: The Pope! Yes, yes, all right.
• It Will Never Catch On: The abolition of slavery.
• It's Not Porn, It's Art: Keanrick and Mossop's play—The Bloody Murder of the Foul Prince Romero and His Enormously-Bosomed Wife.
  Blackadder: A philosophical work, then.
  Mossop: Indeed yes, sir. The violence of the murder and the vastness of the bosom are entirely justified, artistically.
• The Jeeves: Blackadder is this to Prince George.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall:
  • During "Duel and Duality".
    Blackadder: I want to be remembered when I'm dead. I want books written about me. I want songs sung about me. And then, hundreds of years from now, I want episodes of my life to be played out weekly at half past nine by some great heroic actor of the age.
    Baldrick: Yeah, and I could be played by some tiny tit in a beard.
    Blackadder: Quite.
  • And in "Amy and Amiability":
    Blackadder: What a way to die. Shot by a transvestite on an unrealistic grassy knoll.
• Legacy of Service: The Baldricks to the Blackadders.
• Life's Work Ruined: Double Subverted in "Ink and Incapability" in a very odd way. It turns out that Dr Johnson's dictionary was never burned at all, despite what Blackadder and Baldrick spent most of the episode believing; the book that was burned was in fact Blackadder's novel, which both he and Johnson thought was a masterpiece. The dictionary then gets burned by Baldrick while he's making a fire.
• Low Clearance: In "Amy and Amiability", Blackadder mentions that one of Baldrick's cunning plans was to solve the problem of his mother's low ceiling by cutting off her head.
• Luvvies: Actors Keanrick and Mossop act this way. Apart from calling each other 'dear' and 'love' they're also incredibly pompous and are more interested in patronage, self-promotion, and the rather hideous play they wrote.
• Majored in Western Hypocrisy: The Great Khan of Mongolia and the Duke of Wellington were at Eton together (much to the chagrin of the Prince Regent, who had intended to attempt to escape the Duke's wrath there. Mongolia, not Eton.)
• Magnum Opus: In "Ink and Incapability," Blackadder spends seven years writing Edmund: A Butler's Tale, "a giant rollercoaster of a novel in four hundred sizzling chapters, a searing indictment of domestic servitude in the 18th century, with some hot gypsies thrown in," and describes it as his magnum opus. (Followed immediately by a parody in which Baldrick produces his "magnificent octopus": "Once upon a time, there was a lovely little sausage called Baldrick, and he lived happily ever after." Baldrick doesn't like long books, y'see.) And Samuel Johnson agrees that Blackadder's book is a masterpiece, pronouncing it the only book superior to his dictionary. A pity he's the only person besides Blackadder who ever gets to read it before a misunderstanding leads Baldrick to throw it on the fire...
• Mugging the Monster: For the actors in "Sense and Senility", it turns out that bullying and patronising the butler of the Prince Regent's household — who, as it turns out, is more than capable of convincing the incredibly credulous Prince Regent that they're anarchists and traitors seeking to murder him — was a spectacularly bad idea.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: France's most vicious woman, Madame Guillotine.
• Neologizer: Blackadder becomes one for a short while in order to confuse Doctor Johnson, who is boasting about having written the first English dictionary and that he has taken care to include every English word.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: A fatal example of this occurs in the last episode, when Prince George screws up Blackadder's plan to save his life by blabbing about the whole thing in front of the Duke of Wellington, who intended to kill him. Wellington doesn't actually believe him, but gets so pissed off at the fact that the Prince, who is disguised as Blackadder and vice-versa is acting disrespectfully to his "master" that he whips out his pistol and shoots him dead.
  • Also in "Nob and Nobility", where Edmund accidentally fatally poisons the disguised Scarlet Pimpernel's colleague, who has come to rescue him and Baldrick.
• Nobility Marries Money: The episode "Amy and Amiability" was headed in this direction. Prince George, who has been accumulating huge gambling debts, attempted to marry the daughter of a wealthy industrialist for her money.
• No Indoor Voice: The Duke of Wellington. Because THERE'S ONLY ONE WAY TO WIN A CAMPAIGN—SHOUT, SHOUT, AND SHOUT AGAIN!
• "No. Just… No" Reaction: Not exactly, but it's the sentiment when George worries about being "radished" at the Naughty Hellfire Club for non-payment of debts. They take a large radish and shove it up—Blackadder interrupts at this point and mutters "there's no need to hammer it home."
  George: As a matter of fact, they do often—
  Blackadder: [angrily] No, NO!
• Not Quite Dead: Turns out George has a cigarillo case just where he was shot. Unfortunately, he left it at the dresser.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Amy Hardwood, who pretends to be an airheaded and child-like woman, but is actually a ruthless highwayman.
  • In "Nob and Nobility", Topper and Smedley act like two Upper Class Twits, but turn out to be The Scarlet Pimpernel and his assistant.
• Oddball in the Series:
  • This is the only one of the four proper Blackadder shows not to have an "Everybody Dies" Ending, with Prince George being the only character who actually dies — albeit with his identity being taken over by Blackadder, who is recorded by history as being killed by the Duke of Wellington.
  • The show also has an entirely different ending theme to all the other Blackadder incarnations, and is also the only one of the four main incarnations not to have a live-action closing credits sequence.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Blackadder is naturally aghast when Baldrick appears to have burnt the dictionary.
  • Blackadder at the end of "Nob and Nobility" when Frou Frou is revealed as Topper in disguise.
• Omnicidal Maniac: MacAdder.
• Out-of-Character Moment: Baldrick's poem about Prince George is unusually witty for the Baldrick of the third season.
  • Also this snippet:
    Baldrick: Yes, but my cousin Bert Baldrick, Mr Gainsborough's butler's dogsbody, says that portraits nowadays are painted to a romanticised ideal rather than the idiosyncratic features of the subject in question.
    Blackadder: Then your cousin clearly has a much larger vocabulary than you.
  • One more:
    Blackadder: Go out into the street and hire me a horse.
    Baldrick: Hire you a horse? For ninepence? On Jewish New Year in the rain? A bare fortnight after the dreaded horse plague of Old London Town? With the blacksmiths' strike in its fifteenth week and the Dorset horse fetishists' fair tomorrow?
• Overly Pre-Prepared Gag: An in-universe example. In Ink and Incapability, Blackadder and Prince George are trying to re-write Dr Johnson's dictionary.
  Prince George: We have been working all night. I've done "B".
  Blackadder: Oh really? How have you got on?
  Prince George: I had a bit of trouble with "belching", but I got it sorted in the end. (Belches) Oh no! There I go again! Ha ha ha!
  Blackadder: You've been working on that joke for some time, haven't you? So you haven't actually done any work at all?
• Perfectly Cromulent Word: Contrafribularites, anispeptic, frasmotic, compunctuous and pericombobulation.
  • Plus interphrastically, pendigestatery, interludicule, velocitous, and extramuralization.
  • Sausage? SAUSAGE!.
  • Oh, and aardvark.
• Phony Newscast: Vincent Hanna (a BBC election correspondent at the time of filming) appears as "his own great-great-grandfather", reporting on the Dunny-on-the-Wold by-election for The Country Gentleman's Pig Fertilizer Gazette. This is treated exactly as a TV broadcast (although he is broadcasting out of the window to the crowd), even though it's set in the 18th century.
• The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: One plot in "Dish and Dishonesty" revolves around Edmund getting the Member of Parliament with the worst attendance record — Sir Talbot Buxomley, MP for Dunny-on-the-Wold — to turn up to work and vote in the Prince Regent's (read: Edmund's) favour. Edmund recalls that the one time Sir Talbot did manage to attend the House of Commons "He passed water in The Great Hall and passed out in the Speaker's chair." ^note It would have been better if he'd done it the other way round. Sleeping in Parliament, even in debates, was not uncommon right up until it was televised in the 1980s (and for a short time afterwards. The Speaker's chair, meanwhile is equipped with a chamber pot and curtains to accommodate exactly the need in which Sir Talbot found himself. Admittedly it's intended for the use of the Speaker, without whose presence Parliament can't sit but still.
• Pitiful Worms: In "Amy and Amiability" in the third series, Blackadder explains the chain of hierarchy to Baldrick.
  Blackadder: It is the way of the world, the abused always kick downwards. I am annoyed, so I kicked the cat; the cat pounces on the mouse; and lastly, the mouse (Baldrick yelps) bites you on the behind.
  Baldrick: What do I do?
  Blackadder: Nothing, you are last in God's great chain, unless there's an earwig around that you'd like to victimise.
• Playing Cyrano: Blackadder acts as this to Prince George in "Amy and Amiability", although he thinks she's disgustingly twee until he finds out she's the Shadow.
• Pocket Protector: Parodied in "Duel and Duality," in which a cigarillo case stops a cannonball.
  • And parodied again when shortly afterwards Prince George also gets shot, seems to die, wakes up shouting he also has one... then realizes he left his on the dresser. THEN he dies.
• Punctuality Is for Peasants: In "Sense and Senility": Blackadder deliberately keeps a pair of pompous actors waiting outside and beating on the door to give the Prince acting lessons. When he finally lets them in, he says they should have knocked. Later he has them thrown in prison. The same actors, having said earlier "never upset the punters", change their tune to "sod the proles" when they are invited to the palace.
• Record Needle Scratch: The end of "Duel and Duality".
• Regency England: With some Artistic Licence taken (inaccuracies are detailed in the DVD extras).
• Repeat After Me: In "Duel and Duality", when Blackadder and Prince George swap clothes:
  Blackadder: You'll have to get used to calling me "Your Highness", Your Highness.
  Prince George: Your Highness, Your Highness.
  Blackadder: No, just "Your Highness", Your Highness.
  Prince George: That's what I said. "Your Highness, Your Highness", Your Highness, Your Highness.
• Revenge of the Sequel: Anachronistically suggested to tease Dr Johnson: Dictionary 2: The Return of the Killer Dictionaries.
• Rewind Gag: Blackadder thinks he's been found out and drops a tray he's carrying. When it turns out he hasn't been discovered, the tray zips back up.
• Right Behind Me: In "Sense and Senility", Blackadder has finally had enough of the Prince's stupidity and leaves (with, of course, a parting insult for Baldrick). After he walks out Baldrick mutters "Goodbye, you lazy, big-nosed, rubber-faced bastard." He slowly looks up just as Blackadder re-enters the room, having been in earshot the whole time.
• Royal Brat: Prince George
• Samus Is a Girl: And the Shadow is Amy Hardwood. Combined with Vocal Dissonance, as she does a very convincing deep masculine voice.
• The Scottish Trope:
  • "Sense and Senility": the two actors have to perform a silly, overly-long superstitious ritual to exorcise evil spirits whenever Blackadder says "Macbeth". Exactly how the ritual goes is a subject of hot debate in the fandom as Angrish makes the words unclear: one suggestion is "Aargh! Hot potato, orchestra scores, Puck will make amends" (the last being a quote from Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream).
  • The DVD subtitles have it as "Hot potato, off his drawers, pluck will make amends!" (Pluck being the plucking of each other's noses to apparently exorcise the evil spirits).
  • This is accompanied by a brief game of patty-cake, spinning their arms like wheels, and then honking each others' noses; as the episode progresses, Mossop starts whining and gingerly petting his nose.
• Sequential Symptom Syndrome: In "Nob and Nobility", someone (Lord Smedley, the Scarlet Pimpernel's assistant) 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.
• Servile Snarker: Blackadder the Third embodies this.
• Shout-Out:
  • To Jonathan Swift's A Modest Proposal in the segment where Prince George and Blackadder are discussing poverty in "Sense and Senility".
  • Keenick and Mossop's extremely violent play full of gore and cheesecake titillation involves a character named "Prince Romero".
  • Blackadder's false account of his adventures in France includes breaking into Robespierre's bedroom to leave a box of chocolates and an insulting note. At the time of the original broadcast, a series of well-known TV advertisements for Cadbury's Milk Tray chocolates featured a James Bond Captain Ersatz going to enormous lengths to leave the product in his lady love's bedroom.
• Sickeningly Sweet: Everything Amy Harwood says when doing her fluffy bunny act is overly saccharine. Both Edmund and the Prince are suitably nauseated.
• Smelly Feet Gag: In Duel and Duality, Blackadder is quoted by Mrs Miggins as saying "the Prince's feet smell so bad that a man would have to have his nose amputated before taking his boots off".
• Stars Are Souls: Baldrick seems to believe this when George dies. Of course, he also believes in a giant pink pixie in the sky.
  Baldrick: There's a new star in the heavens tonight. Another freckle on the nose of the giant pixie.
• Stupid Boss / Too Dumb to Live: Prince George actually seems dumber than Baldrick, who considers him "a clot". Also too dumb to live are Topper and Smedley; Blackadder even lampshades the stupidity of accepting wine from someone who thinks you are about to torture or disgrace him.
• Stylistic Suck: All the lines we hear from The Bloody Murder of the Foul Prince Romero and His Enormously-Bosomed Wife (and, presumably, the rest of the play as well) are implausible gorn dressed up in awful iambic pentameter.
• Swapped Roles: "Duel and Duality"
  George: It's just like that story, ah, "The Prince and the Porpoise".
  Blackadder: "...and the Pauper", sir.
  George: Oh, yes, yes. "The Prince and the Porpoise and the Pauper".
• Teen Genius: Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger, who is portrayed as a young teen who has to excuse himself from Parliamentary functions because he is sitting his exams. This is a bit of an exaggeration, but not much; the real William Pitt the Younger became Prime Minister at the ripe old age of 24.
• Too Incompetent to Operate a Blanket: Prince George, when trying to clothe himself.
• Too Much Information: Blackadder has this reaction when Prince George tries to explain what "radishing" entails in "Amy and Amiability".
• Unaccustomed as I Am to Public Speaking...: Parodied by George.
• Uncanny Family Resemblance: Edmund's Scottish cousin MacAdder, in "Duel and Duality".
• Upper-Class Twit: Prince George, who has more than a few similarities to Bertie Wooster. The fact that they're both played by Hugh Laurie helps. However, George is far less intelligent than Wooster, and far, far less likeable. He currently provides the page image.
  • Lord Topper and Lord Smedley in the episode "Nob and Nobility" subvert this by being the civilian identities of the Scarlet Pimpernel and his closest colleague.
• Villain Protagonist: Mr E. Blackadder, who murders two people to fix an election, has two innocent actors executed for treason over petty insults, kills the Scarlet Pimpernel and his assistant, who saved several lives, just to keep his own name clean, and violently abuses his good-natured dogsbody. Sure, one can perhaps manage some sympathy for him given that he's tied to a position as lowly butler to an idiot prince, but he's still willing to go out of his way to ensure that the prince (who he clearly knows is unfit to rule the country) keeps his position to ensure he himself remains the power behind the throne. In the Christmas special he robs an innocent old woman of the gifts that the Prince gave her.
• Writing About Your Crime: Parodied in an episode when a pair of uptight actors decide to do a readthrough of their new play while waiting for their host, Prince George, to return—"The Bloody Murder of the Foul Prince Romero and his Enormous-Bosomed Wife". Baldrick quickly draws the wrong conclusion. Blackadder knows that it's coincidence but has them arrested and sent to the gallows anyway because they kept insulting him earlier.
  Actors: But it was a play, sir, a play! Look, all the words you see written down on that page!
  Blackadder: Textbook stuff again, you see. The criminals' vanity always makes them make one tiny, but fatal, mistake. Theirs was to have their entire conspiracy printed and published in play manuscript!

Tropes Present in Blackadder Goes Forth

• Actually Pretty Funny:
  • In "Corporal Punishment":
    Blackadder: So, Counsel, with that summing up in mind, what are my chances, do you think?
    George: Well, not good I'm afraid. As far as I can see from the evidence, you're as guilty as a puppy sitting beside a pile of poo.
    Blackadder: [bitterly] ...Charming.
  • While it's not intentional, Blackadder is mighty amused when Melchett says his new girlfriend (actually George in drag) has "more spunk than most girls".
• Ambiguously Evil: It's debatable whether this Blackadder is evil or not. He is a massive jerk, but clearly the least malicious Blackadder from the main series and he has his better moments, see Jerk with a Heart of Gold and the Heartwarming Entry for examples. Unless one counts his his trips to Africa... but even then, as a member of the regular British Army during the late colonial period, he would arguably qualify as a Punchclock Villain
• Amoral Attorney: Blackadder wants to hire a very good one for his court-martial.
  Edmund: I remember Massingbird's most famous case — the Case of the Bloody Knife. A man was found next to a murdered body. He had the knife in his hand, thirteen witnesses had seen him stab the victim and when the police picked him up he said to them, 'I'm glad I killed the bastard'. Massingbird not only got him acquitted, he got him knighted in the New Year's Honour's list and the relatives of the victim had to pay to have the blood washed out of his jacket.
• Anachronism Stew: In "General Hospital" Blackadder refers to the universities of Oxford, Cambridge and Hull. University College, Hull was not founded until 1927 and did not become the University of Hull until 1954. Then again, it was a trick statement of sorts...
  Melchett: That's right, Oxford's a complete dump! [Line delivered by S. Fry. graduate of Queens' College, Cambridge]
  • The name 'Kevin' would have been very unusual for an Englishman born presumably in the 1880s like Captain Darling. At the time, and until quite deep into the 20th century it was mostly confined to Ireland or Irish emigre communities.
    • Captain Darling could have been born in Croydon to Irish parents.
  • Blackadder and Darling refer to Queen Victoria in "General Hospital", despite the fact she would have been dead for 16 years by this point. In 1917, the current ruler was her grandson King George V.
• Analogy Backfire:
  • In Blackadder Goes Forth, on Charlie Chaplin, in "Major Star":
    Baldrick: He's as funny as a vegetable which has grown into a rude and amusing shape, sir.
    Blackadder: So you agree with me: not at all funny.
  • For Darling, when trying to convince Blackadder that he is not a spy in "General Hospital":
    Darling: ...I'm as British as Queen Victoria!
    Blackadder: So, your father's German, you're half-German and you married a German?^note In fact, although Queen Victoria was indeed half-German, it was her mother Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld who was German. Her father Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, while a fourth-generation German immigrant, was English by birth, upbringing and culture, though his father was German noble from the Welfen Dynasty, who was also King of Hanover, while his mother was a German princess from Mecklenburg.
• Anti-Hero: Blackadder is a Type IV or V. Like the previous Blackadders, he's a self-serving Jerkass. Unlike them, however, he's not interested in attaining wealth or power. He only wants to escape the trenches.
• Armchair Military: Melchett, and also Darling — until the last episode, which also has the real, crowning example of Douglas Haig.
  • It's notable that Darling enjoys his easy assignment and is trying to get an even easier one in the Royal Women's Auxiliary Balloon Corps.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking:
  • "The blood, the noise, the endless poetry!"
  • "Went to one of the great universities, I suppose. Oxford...Cambridge...Hull." This turned out to be a test. Oxford's a complete dump!
  • Blackadder's description of Charlie Chaplin's films: "About as funny as getting an arrow through the neck and discovering there's a gas bill tied to it."
  • Inverted in "Corporal Punishment" where Melchett opens the court-martial of Blackadder by ranting at length about how he shot Melchett's prized pigeon, Speckled Jim, and then lists the most serious charge (disobeying orders) as an afterthought.
• Artistic Licence – Awards: Blackadder's medals consist of the Queen's South Africa Medal and the King's South Africa Medal, both for The Second Boer War (the latter was never issued by itself^note It was established in 1902 after King Edward VII's coronation, for a total of 18 months service with at least part of it between 1 January and 1 June 1902, while the Queen's Medal was issued for all service in the war between 1899 and 1902), which belies his claim of only fighting unarmed African natives. Blackadder also claims to have fought in the Sudan War in 1898, yet does not have the Queen's Sudan Medal or the Khedive's Sudan Medal (all British troops were issued both medals for service in that war, never one or the other), and the fictional Battle of Mboto Gorge is stated to have been in Upper Volta (present day Burkini Faso) in 1892, yet he doesn't have the East and West Africa Medal with 1892 bar.
• Artsy Beret: George wears one when he is about to paint his masterpiece.
• Attack! Attack! Attack!: Any time a plan for the war is discussed, it's invariably this.
  Blackadder: It's the same plan we used last time. And the seventeen times before that.
  Melchett: E-e-exactly! And that is what is so brilliant about it! It'll catch the watchful Hun totally off-guard. Doing precisely what we've done eighteen times before is exactly the last thing they'll expect us to do this time.
• Attractive Bent-Gender: When George disguises himself as Georgina, not only does Melchett fall in love with him, but he becomes quite a successful primadonna.
  • Also, Homoerotic Subtext: George doesn't seem to mind much that Melchett fell in love with him.
    George: I know it's a mess, sir, but you see, he got me squiffy! Then when he looked into my eyes and said, "Chipmunk, I love you-"
    Blackadder: Chipmunk?!
• Bait the Dog: Melchett has a habit of doing this. While he seems amusing and likable at first, he turns out to really be The Sociopath who is too wrapped up in his fantasy world that War Is Glorious to see that he is sending countless men to their deaths, including those of the main characters themselves, showing how little he really cares about any of them.
• Bawdy Song: Melchett and George's version of "Row, Row, Row Your Boat".
  Row, row, row your punt,
  Gently down the stream!
  Belts off, trousers down!
  Isn't life a scream?!
  Unh!^note Blackadder comments, "Fabulous. University education, you can't beat it."
• Big Bad: General Melchett is the personal antagonist for the story, throughout he continues coming up with appalling plans and insane troll logic that costs countless lives of the soldiers and which seems to kill all the protagonists. Also in "Corporal Punishment" he tries to get Blackadder killed in a kangaroo court over him shooting his pet pigeon.
• Black Comedy: The firing squad could be said to be overly jovial about their job. The whole series is full of this... which is apropos, given the situation. Brutally subverted at the final scene.
• Big "WHY?!": Played for drama in "Goodbyeeee". As the certain death of the main characters draws near, Baldrick laments that all his friends are dead: Sammy the spider, Katie the worm, Bertie the bird, everyone except Neville the fat hamster. When Blackadder solemnly tells him that Neville is dead as well, Baldrick snaps, and asks why the war is happening, why can't they all just pack it in and go home, why?
• Blood Knight: Flashheart
• Bolivian Army Ending: The main cast are never actually seen being killed in the big push at the end, but the Dark Reprise of the theme song and the scene transitioning into a field of poppies (a symbol of remembrance) strongly imply that they didn’t survive.
• Breather Episode: "Major Star", with Edmund staging a relief show. The previous episode, "Corporal Punishment" had him facing a court-martial for shooting a pigeon (almost being executed) and the following, "Private Plane" revolved around Blackadder and Baldrick being captured by the Red Baron.
• Butt-Monkey: Three butt monkeys, actually. Capt. Darling is butt monkey to Capt. Blackadder and Gen. Melchett, Blackadder is butt monkey to Melchett, and Baldrick is butt monkey to Blackadder.
• Call-Back: In "Private Plane" Flashheart says that the only qualification for being a navigator is 'knowing your arse from your elbow' to which Blackadder replies "That rules Baldrick out". Later on Baldrick says they should join the airforce as its better than "just sitting around here on our elbows".
• Character Tics: BEEEEEHHHHHHHHH!
  • Captain Darling's eye-twitch was such a part of his character that Tim McInnerny had trouble getting rid of it when shooting was finished.
• Caught Monologuing:
  Baron von Richthoven: Ah, and Lord Flashheart! This is indeed an honour! Finally the two greatest gentlemen flyers in the world meet! Two men of honour, who have jousted together in the cloud-strewn glory of the skies... face to face at last! How often have I rehearsed this moment of destiny in my dreams! The valour we two encapsulate, the unspoken nobility of our comradeship, the— (Boom, Headshot!)
  Flashheart: WHAT A POOF!
• Characterisation Click Moment: A conceptual case occurred for Darling. The writing team had trouble thinking up ideas for Blackadder's Sitcom Arch-Nemesis "Captain Cartwright", until Stephen Fry suggested renaming him to "Captain Darling", suddenly giving plenty ammo to his comically bitter and uptight persona stemming from years of being referred to as "darling" (with Blackadder, one who is most mockingly self-aware of it, earning the most hatred from him over it).
• Charge-into-Combat Cut: One of the most famous examples of this trope, in which the scene fades from Blackadder and co. charging over the trench to a field full of poppies.
• Chekhov's Gun: Baldrick's Lethal Chef tendecies are mentioned early on in "Captain Cook", and when Baldrick mentions them again near the end, it gives Blackadder a "Eureka!" Moment and he uses them to get himself, George and Baldrick out of the big push.
• Comically Missing the Point: In the final episode, Darling begs Melchett not to send him to the front lines because he doesn't want to die; Melchett just thinks Darling is getting sentimental and saying "I'll miss you too much". Of course, considering what happens next, "comical" might not be the right word...
  • On a brighter note, when Blackadder is looking for a female act for he show, he suddenly remembers and summons Bob (who had disguised herself, very poorly as a man). George chimes in "Of course, Bob! Can you think of anyone to be in Blackadder's show?"
• Complaining About Rescues They Don't Like: Blackadder is captured by the Germans, where they plan to take him away from the battlefield and force him to teach home economics to German schoolgirls. Needless to say he's not best pleased about Flashheart turning up and hauling him back to the trenches.
• Cowardly Lion: Though oddly Blackadder arguably isn't actually cowardly at all. He very definitely doesn't want to die, but it's hard to blame him, since his death would be entirely pointless. And when he's unavoidably placed in genuinely very dangerous situations (crawling across a minefield, captured by Germans, facing a court martial, going over the top), he keeps his cool.
• Creator In-Joke: In "General Hospital", Blackadder says that he tricked Nurse Mary by naming three great universities (Oxford, Cambridge and Hull), when in fact only two of them are great. Melchett responds "Quite — Oxford's a complete dump!" Rowan Atkinson attended Oxford^note  As did Tim McInnerny (Darling) and series writer Richard Curtis, while Stephen Fry attended Cambridge ^note  As did Hugh Laurie (George) and series producer John Lloyd, the two universities having a centuries-long rivalry.
• Credits Gag: Every member of the production crew is given made up ranks and serial numbers.
• Cue Card Pause: In "Corporal Punishment", George runs afoul of this with his summation.
• Cut and Paste Environments: A French chateau is used as General Melchett's headquarters. We see a court room, a classroom for a flying school, the general's office and a dining hall. They all have the same large round painting above a wide fireplace, though oddly the fireplace frame itself appears to sometimes change colour. Furthermore, the whole set is probably a invokedredress of the Prince Regent's bedroom from the third series.
• Disguised in Drag: George, in "Major Star", leading to Attractive Bent-Gender when Melchett falls for "Georgina".
• Disproportionate Retribution: While shooting pigeons is a court-martial offence, Melchett takes the issue up to eleven, labeling Edmund as "The Flanders Pigeon Murderer".
• Distinction Without a Difference: "No, George, it's not a good old service revolver, it's a brand-new service revolver, which I did not order."
• Drama Bomb Finale: In a rare highly successful example at the very end of season four.
• Downer Ending:
  • The entire cast sans Melchett (the least sympathetic character in the series) are massacred, and they’re all so broken before they go over the top. Blackadder completely fails in his goal of escaping the trenches, Darling is sent to the front lines by Melchett under the insane belief that he wants to be with everyone else for the big push, and George has his optimism broken when he realises that all his friends are dead. The worst part is that the series ends in 1917 — there’s still another year of the war to go.
  • What’s remarkable is that the same basic ending was played for laughs in series one and two. invokedReality Subtext is to blame for the Mood Whiplash. To put it into perspective, it aired 10 days before Remembrance Sunday with no complaints whatsoever. (Well, almost none — one woman wrote to the Radio Times to ask why a comedy would want to show people the terrible things that happened, reminding her of her own husband. Another woman wrote in to Points of View thanking them for such a beautiful tribute. Ben Elton's uncle, who was a refugee from Nazi Germany and deeply supportive of the British Armed Forces, also gave his nephew an earful, but changed his mind and apologized after he saw the second half of the episode, something he hadn't done when it first aired). Though the original ending planned, as seen here, wasn't nearly as dramatic or moving — general consensus is that it was a good thing they changed it.
• The Dreaded Toilet Duty: In "Major Star", Baldrick starts spouting nonsense about the Russian Revolution, so Blackadder tells him to go and clean out the latrines.
• Dumbass Has a Point: Baldrick asks why the war started in the first place, and then asks why everybody doesn't just pack up and go home, as they clearly aren't accomplishing anything in the trenches, other than a lot of people getting killed. Even Blackadder's wit fails him, and he is unable to give an answer.
• Entertainingly Wrong: Blackadder deducing Nurse Mary is a German spy. His reasoning is perfectly sound and the suspect had already admitted to using Obfuscating Stupidity in front of others. Unfortunately for them both the true 'spy' was someone else altogether: Mary was completely innocent; it was George sending apparently not-properly-censored letters to his German uncle all along.
• Everyone Has Standards:
  • Even Flashheart is disgusted by Darling's refusal to rescue Blackadder in "Private Plane", so he headbutts him and knocks him out.
  • Melchett may be the Big Bad and The Neidermeyer, but he won't tolerate Blackadder being rude to a lady, as he puts it, when Blackadder accuses Nurse Mary of being a German spy. She isn't.
  • Despite Blackadder's own contemptuous streak, he shows a fair degree more restraint than previous Blackadders, who would outright murder out of petty spite. In particular during "General Hospital", Nurse Mary is perfectly willing to frame his nemesis Darling as a spy. For all Edmund loathed Darling, and tormented him earlier concerning it, he debunks this in favour of convicting who he believes is the real spy. He's also disgusted of the whole We Have Reserves mindset of Melchett and Haig and based on the way he says it, it comes off as legitimate disgust rather than just him being in danger.
  • Although Blackadder is willing to let Baldrick serve Darling a cappuccino made from mud and saliva, even he draws the line at 'that brown stuff you sprinkle on top'.
• Exact Words:
  • Baldrick's introduction scene has him carving his name on a bullet, reasoning that the common idiom 'a bullet with your name on it' means that he will be safe so long as he is the one with said bullet.
  • Happens often after Blackadder issues orders to George and Baldrick intended to cover up his latest scheme or mistake, but fails to account for their stupidity:
    • After learning about a possible escape from the trenches for a talented artist, Blackadder plans to use George's surprising artistic talent to his advantage by claiming George's work as his own. He orders Baldrick and George to only speak with his express permission, which results in some awkward silences when the General arrives and tries to strike up a conversation.
    • Later in "Captain Cook", Blackadder and his men are sent into No Man's Land to draw enemy troop dispositions. When George remarks that it's too dark to see, Blackadder realizes that they can just make anything up and get themselves out of danger. He encourages George to "use [his] imagination"...which results in a picture that's light on arms factories but has plenty of elephants.
    • In "Corporal Punishment", Blackadder orders that if asked any questions, they "Did not receive any messages, and definitely did not shoot this delicious, plump-breasted pigeon." Unfortunately, when General Melchett arrives and asks Baldrick for the time, he then repeats Blackadder's ordered phrase exactly, letting the dead pigeon out of the bag.
    • Later, at the court martial for this offence, Baldrick is called as a witness. Blackadder's only instruction to him is to 'Deny everything.' Hilarity Ensues.
• Failed a Spot Check: In "General Hospital", Edmund deduces that Nurse Fletcher is a German spy through clever deception and tests, such as asking a trick question about well known English universities^note Oxford and Cambridge are perhaps the most popular universities in the UK, while Hull didn't even have a university until 1927, and that George made him aware of the suspect's knowledge of the German language with how they help him translate his letters for his German uncle. Unfortunately, his deduction was incorrect, partially because he failed to question why a British soldier would need his letters containing important details on military operations translated into German in the first place.
• Funny Phone Misunderstanding: Parodied. To pretend he hasn't received Captain Darling's orders to assault the opposing German trench, Captain Blackadder goes through a rather elaborate Fake Static routine, and then tells George and Baldrick the message was gibberish:
  Captain Darling: Can you hear me? There's a terrible line at my end. Um, you're to advance on the enemy at once.
  Captain Blackadder: It sounded like he said he has a lion up his end, so there's an advantage to an enema at once.
• Fun with Homophones:
  • The title of the fourth series: Blackadder goes Forth.
  • In the episode "Captain Cook", Baldrick believes his father was a nun.
    Baldrick: The funny thing is, my father was a nun.
    Blackadder: (with great authority) No, he wasn't.
    Baldrick: (with equal authority) He was so, sir, because whenever he was up in court, and the judge used to say "occupation?", he'd say "nun".
  • In "General Hospital", George mistakes Mr Smith's "nein" (German for "no") for "nine".
    George: Have you seen any spies in the hospital?
    Mr Smith: Nein.
    George: Nine?! The Captain's got his work cut out, then.
• Genius Ditz: Exploited in "Captain Cook". George himself even says that painting was the only thing he was ever really good at, and he wasn't lying. When you can get Blackadder of all people to appreciate and even compliment your efforts, you're doing something right. Blackadder uses George's artistic talents to try and get out of the trenches by attempting to pass off George's painting as his own. Thanks to Melchett, it works, but only briefly.
• Given Name Reveal: In their last scene together, Melchett addresses Darling as Kevin.
• Greater-Scope Villain : The Germany Military Alliance
• Grey-and-Gray Morality: Based on what we see from the Germans, they're not any worse than the Allies.
• Hanging Judge: General Sir Anthony Cecil Hogmanay Melchett becomes one in a military court. He's completely ready to have Blackadder shot for shooting his prize pigeon. In fact, he asks for his Black cap, traditionally worn by a judge when pronouncing a sentence of death, before the trial is over.
• Head Desk: Blackadder's reaction to Baldrick's, quite literally, denying everything — including that his name was Baldrick.
• Heh Heh, You Said "X": When sussing out a spy, General Melchett is dismayed to hear that Captain Darling had pooh-poohed Blackadder's abilities.
  Melchett: I knew a Major, got pooh-poohed. Made the mistake of ignoring the pooh-pooh. He pooh-poohed it! Fatal error. 'Cause it turned out all along that the soldier who pooh-poohed him had been pooh-poohing a lot of other officers. Who pooh-poohed their pooh-poohs! In the end we had to disband the regiment! Morale totally destroyed! By pooh-pooh.
• Heroic BSoD:
  • George, after he bungles Blackadder's court martial and gets him sentenced to firing squad. Of course, having blind faith in the correctness of the British military in all things, George doesn't realise that Melchett was going to have Blackadder shot no matter what he said.
  • He goes through a much sadder version toward the end, when he admits he's scared.
• Historical Villain Upgrade: The show goes for the portrayal of World War I generals, especially Douglas Haig, as incomptent stooges who heartlessly sent millions of men to a pointless death. The real Haig did preside over very costly offensives, but he pushed them in an attempt to relieve his French allies. Most people who worked with Haig described him as an empathetic man who failed to grasp the realities of modern warfare, which was common among generals of his age. And after the war, he did devote the rest of his life to helping veterans.
• Hope Spot: The final episode is one series of these after another. First, there's Blackadder's decision to feign madness by putting underpants on his head and sticking pencils up his nose: he's absolutely convinced that this will work. Then, when this is foiled by Melchett's overheard remark that he hopes Blackadder hasn't just decided to feign madness by putting underpants on his head and stuck pencils up his nose, Blackadder realises that he can call in a favour from General Haig, whose life he saved during the Boer War. This Hope Spot lasts until he actually calls Haig, and Haig agrees to save his life; he duly advises Blackadder to put underpants on his head and stick pencils up his nose. "They'll think you're mad and send you home. There, favour returned." In the last moments, just before being sent over the top, all the guns go quiet, and George, Baldrick and Darling all assume that the war must have ended:
  Darling: Thank God! We lived through it! The Great War, 1914 to 1917!
• Hope Sprouts Eternal: The ending. Following the the deaths of most of the main cast, cut down mere feet into their (pointless) over-the-top advance on German lines, in near silence, the scene cross-fades into a shot of a field of poppies.
• Horns of Barbarism: Parodied with a mention of Olaf the Hairy, a high chief of the Vikings who accidentally ordered 80,000 battle helmets with the horns on the inside.
• I Ate WHAT?!: In the last episode, Blackadder learns that the "coffee" he's been drinking for years was just hot mud sweetened with Baldrick's dandruff. His reaction is one of mild annoyance, at most.
• Implausible Deniability: Spoofed in "Corporal Punishment". As his Bumbling Sidekick Baldrick is being called to the stand to testify in Captain Blackadder's trial, Blackadder tells him to "deny everything." First question:
  George: [as Blackadder's attorney] You are Private Baldrick?
  Baldrick: No!
  George: ...Oh. Um... But you are Captain Blackadder's batman?
  Baldrick: No!
  Blackadder: [headdesk]
  George: Come on, Baldrick, can't you be a bit more helpful? It's me!
  Baldrick: No, it isn't!
• Inherently Funny Words: Pooh-pooh.
• Internal Deconstruction: The series has largely been a grimly hilarious satire on the madness of war. However, the final episode gradually shows the severe consequences of that madness: the characters who we've come to love and laugh at are being sent to a grisly battlefield, the people in charge don't give a damn about them, and as the reality of the situation dawns on them, they quickly go from quirky to despondent. Even Blackadder can't mock or belittle his fellow soldiers anymore, he offers them a solemn farwell, and all the characters are killed in the trenches.
• Insane Troll Logic: Anything Melchett says to justify his tactics.
  Blackadder: It's the same plan that we used last time, and the seventeen times before that.
  Melchett: E-E-Exactly! And that is what so brilliant about it! We will catch the watchful Hun totally off guard! Doing precisely what we have done eighteen times before is exactly the last thing they'll expect us to do this time! There is however one small problem.
  • Blackadder does this when interrogating potential spy suspects.
    Edmund: I asked if he'd been to one of the great universities: Oxford, Cambridge, or Hull... you failed to spot that only two of those are great universities.
    Edmund: The first rule ... is to suspect everyone... I shall be asking myself pretty searching questions later on... What is the colour of the Queen of England's favourite hat?
• I Owe You My Life: Apparently Blackadder had saved Field Marshal Haig's life at Mboto Gorge and was told to call if he ever needed a favour. Unfortunately, when he does so to try and get out of the Big Push in "Goodbyeee", the best Haig can do is to suggest he feign insanity... which Blackadder had already tried to no avail. It should also be pointed out that Blackadder "saved" him from a "pygmy woman with a sharp mango".
• I Will Fight Some More Forever
• I Want My Mommy!: When Captain Blackadder and Baldrick are in the hands of the Germans:
  Baldrick: I want my mum.
  Blackadder: Yes, a maternally outraged gorilla would be a useful ally.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold:
  • Blackadder, to a very slight extent. He's still not remotely a nice person, but he can bring himself to feel sympathy for Darling and wish the others good luck in the final episode.
    • Despite being a soldier, he is the only Blackadder in the four seasons not to commit murder — unless you count Speckled Jim. Though it is mentioned that he has done in the past, at Mboto Gorge. According to Darling, they "massacred the peace-loving pygmies of the Upper Volta and stole all their fruit."
    • He also seems genuinely horrified when he learns he's sent an innocent woman to the firing squad in "General Hospital"; hard to imagine his heartless Regency ancestor being so shaken.
    • He is genuinely complimentary regarding George's painting ability too (though planning to use it for his own ends). Sincere compliments from a Blackadder are as rare as something very rare indeed.
    Blackadder: George! These are brilliant! Why didn't you tell us about these before?
    George: Well, you know, one doesn't want to blow one's own trumpet.
    Blackadder: [impressed] You might at least have told us you had a trumpet.
    • It's worth noting that this Blackadder, in contrast with his forebears, is uninterested in scheming his way to power or wealth. He's merely trying to save himself. Too bad Failure Is the Only Option.
  • Flashheart may also count. Although he's a lecherous egomaniac, he still agrees to come and help George rescue some "noble brother flyers" (granted he didn't know it was Blackadder and Baldrick) and even he is disgusted when he learns Darling was just going to leave them to rot.
• Kangaroo Court: Blackadder's court martial in "Corporal Punishment" was this. The judge and prosecutor both have clear conflicts of interest in the trial, to the point where the judge is actually called to testify for the prosecution, while Blackadder's defence attorney (George) gets fined £50 for turning up. Surprisingly, though, the Minister of War realizes that the whole trial was a farce, and reverses the decision.
• Kick the Dog: In "Private Plane", we find out that on George's 6th birthday, Melchett set his dog on George's pet rabbit Flossie, then ran it over with his car, then shot it, then baked it into a rabbit pie, and finally served it to little George instead of birthday cake. And in the present day he doesn't just show a complete lack of remorse for his actions, but calls George a "weed" for crying about it.
• Kick The Son Of A Bitch: Flashheart is hardly the nicest of men, but even he is disgusted by Darling's refusal to rescue Blackadder after he crashes his plane, so he headbutts Darling and knocks him out.
• Lame Pun Reaction: Blackadder manages a look of unparalleled contempt while his own firing squad are providing such gems as assuring him that they aim to please.
• Lethal Chef: Baldrick. Most of his recipes that don't involve rat, involve the bodily outputs of various animals. In his defence on one point, Blackadder's unit hasn't had coffee since 1915, forcing Baldrick to improvise with mud.
• Mad Brass / General Failure: General "Insanity" Melchett.
  • Also Field Marshall Haig, seen knocking toy soldiers into a trench, then sweeping them up into a dustpan and dumping them on the floor.
• Miles Gloriosus: George is very gung-ho about the war and can't wait for the "big push" and the chance to give the Huns what for... until the end of the final episode, when he realizes he doesn't want to die.
• The Mole: "General Hospital" involves the search for a German spy who's apparently leaking battle plans from a field hospital. It actually turns out that patient George is inadvertently doing this in letters to his Uncle Hermann in Munich.
• Mirror Character: Despite their rivalry, Blackadder and Captain Darling are actually more similar in terms of social class, intelligence and even to an extent outlook than either are to any of the other characters. This is especially noticeable in the first episode, when both men openly cringe at Upper Class Twits George and Melchett singing "Row row row your punt".
• Mood Whiplash: The finale. It starts off with the usual jokes until he gradually becomes a story about a bunch of scared men quivering as they are being marched into their graves.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Blackadder is horrified when he realizes he has just sent an innocent woman to be killed by a firing squad under the mistaken assumption she was a German spy. Cue him and Darling rushing out to stop the execution. We never find out whether it was stopped in time.
• Mythology Gag: Doubles as a Casting Gag, in the first two series Tim McInnerny played Blackadder's Upper-Class Twit friend (both named Percy) and in the second Hugh Laurie played his enemy "Ludwig the Indestructible". In this series the roles are somewhat reversed with Laurie playing Blackadder's Upper-Class Twit employer George and McInnerny portraying his Sitcom Arch-Nemesis Darling.
• No Indoor Voice: Flashheart.
• Noodle Incident: Blackadder presents one at the end of "Captain Cook": namely, how did Baldrick get so much "custard" (vomit) out of such a small cat? We'll never know.
• No-Sell: When Melchett doesn't fall for Blackadder's "insanity" ploy , it becomes clear that things are not going to end well.
• Obfuscating Insanity: Briefly attempted by Blackadder in "Goodbyeee", until he overhears Melchett tell the others that he had to shoot an entire platoon for pulling the same stunt. Of course, as he trenchantly observes at the end, it probably wouldn't have worked anyway. "I mean, who would have noticed another madman around here?"
• Obfuscating Stupidity: George might be an example of this, as in "Private Plane" he demonstrates a distressing combination of wooden-headed stupidity and remarkably keen insight.
  Melchett: Do you remember what happened to Flossie?
  George: You shot him.
  Melchett: That's right. It was the kindest thing to do after he'd been run over by that car.
  George: By your car, sir.
  Melchett: Yes, by my car, but that too was an act of mercy when you remember that that dog had been set on him.
  George: Your dog, sir.
  • An example that further drives the point home is in the final episode, where George's bubbly nature shows the biggest cracks seen in the entire series when he realizes that he's the only one of his friends still alive after joining the army, and that he's genuinely terrified of going over the top.
    George: I'm...scared, sir.
  • Nurse Mary, in "General Hospital", uses a mild version of this. ("My fluffy-bunny act", as she calls it.)
• Offscreen Villainy: Blackadder as seen can come across as vaguely sympathetic, but he shows absolutely no remorse at being deeply involved in the ugliest aspects of British colonialism in Africa, including off-handedly mentioning massacring the pygmies of Upper Volta.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Captain Darling's face when he realises Melchett is sending him to the Front, just in time for a major offensive. Melchett, of course, only thinks that Darling is reluctant to leave him, even when Darling gets down on his knees and just about begs.
  • And then there's the scene where Blackadder is in court and he realises who the judge is...
    Blackadder: I wouldn't be too confident if I were you. Any reasonably impartial judge is bound to let me off.
    Darling: Well, absolutely...
    Blackadder: Who is the judge by the way?
    Melchett: BAAAAAH!
    Blackadder: ...I'm dead.
• Oh Wait, This Is My Grocery List: This gag used is in "Goodbyeeee" in the fourth series, when Melchett gives Darling a highly momentous piece of paper.
  Melchett: I would like you to have this.
  Darling: A postal order for ten shillings!
  Melchett: No sorry, that's my godson's wedding present. Here.
  Darling: Oh no, sir. This is a commission to the front line.
• Only Sane Men: Captain Blackadder and Captain Darling. Also Nurse Mary.
• Operation: [Blank]:
  • Operation Certain Death in "Corporal Punishment". Two volunteers are needed for this, just after Blackadder has prayed that the God who killed Cain and squashed Samson gets back into practice on Baldrick and George.
  • In "General Hospital", Melchett tells Blackadder that if he succeeds in finding the spy, he will be head of Operation Winkle, to winkle out the spies.
• Overranked Soldier: General Melchett, as an exaggeration of the "lions led by donkeys" stereotype of the British Army during the war. He's incompetent and frankly quite mad.
• Pervy Patdown: Blackadder accuses Captain Darling of this when Darling frisks him during the Mole Hunt episode.
  Blackadder: So in the name of security, sir, everyone who enters the room has to have his bottom fondled by this drooling pervert?
  Darling: I'm only doing my job, Blackadder.
  Blackadder: How convenient that your job is also your hobby.
• Pet the Dog: In the final episode Blackadder treats Darling very gently after Melchett sends him to the Front, respectfully addressing him as 'Captain Darling' when he shows up at the trench (somewhat reminiscent of King Richard and Edmund in the finale of the original series), and a few moments later asking him how he felt about going over the top. Pretty moving stuff considering they have spent the last five episodes hating each other. It is possible that Blackadder's main reason for hating Darling was that Darling had succeeded in what Blackadder had been trying to do for the entire war; get the hell out of the trenches. When it became clear that both he and Darling were not getting out of it, he didn't have any reason to hate Darling any more (although there's not much chance of Blackadder liking him any more because of it).
• Precision F-Strike:
  • In the final episode.
    Darling: Made a note in my diary on the way here. Simply says: "Bugger".
  • Averted in the same episode with a Narrative Profanity Filter:
    Edmund: [after learning that Haig was completely useless in getting him out of the trenches] ...I think the phrase rhymes with "clucking bell".
• Pun-Based Title: It is, after all, the fourth series.
  • As well as the episode titles, which play on various military ranks (except "Goodbyeee").
• Puppy-Dog Eyes: Hugh Laurie seems to have a particular talent for looking like a beaten-down puppy. "Permission for lip to wobble, sir."
• Quivering Lip: When Lt. George hears that Edmund may have been captured behind enemy lines and killed, he asks General Melchett for permission to let his lip wobble.
• Recursive Crossdressing: Bob, in "Major Star".
• Red-plica Baron: Captain Blackadder, Baldrick, and Lord Flashheart meet the Red Baron, who is portrayed by Adrian Edmondson as a closeted homosexual who is fascinated with "how the English find the toilet so amusing".
• Reduced to Ratburgers: Part of the reason that Baldrick is a Lethal Chef is down to the fact supplies of actual food are becoming more and more scarce. For example, they haven't had coffee for 18 months or sugar since 1915, so Baldrick makes do with mud and dandruff. Most of his actual dishes are really rat, with "sautéed rat" (the rat is shaved and drowned in a puddle, before being cooked under a lightbulb and strategically eaten near a latrine) or "fricasséed rat" (same as sautéeing, only with a bigger rat) being two of his signature dishes along with "rat-au-vin" (a rat that's been run over by a van).
• Reluctant Warrior: Blackadder does everything in his power to avoid going into battle. A closer look at the series shows that he rarely carries his sidearm unless he has to (such as when visiting HQ) and even then, doesn't appear to keep it loaded (we see him loading it before going over the top in the finale). He mentions that he did enjoy being a soldier once, but that was during the African colonial wars, when most of the tribes they fought didn't have guns. When 3 million heavily armed germans showed up, it took the shine off the job.
• Retraux: The closing credits, presented as an old newsreel film.
• Rough Overalls: Discussed in an episode in which General Melchett fears the Russian Revolution will inspire a similar revolution in Britain.
  Melchett: It's no good crushing a revolution over here only to get back home to Blighty and find that everyone's wearing overalls and breaking wind in the palaces of the mighty.
• Running Gag: The use of the word "Darling" in lines addressed to Captain Darling never seems to get old.
• Saying Sound Effects Out Loud: Baldrick does this in "Private Plane":
  Flashheart: Woof!!!
  Bob: Woof!!!
  Baldrick: Bark!
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Blackadder tries and fails to do this several times. He tries to desert in "Major Star" after learning the Russians have pulled out of the war due to the Revolution, only to run straight into Melchett, who ironically asks for his help in shooting some deserters later.
• Second-Face Smoke: Nurse Mary does this to Blackadder.
• Shaped Like Itself: "I'm as excited as a very excited person who's got a special reason to be excited, sir!"
• Shout-Out: The Noodle Incident where Blackadder saved Field Marshal Haig's life from a native armed with a sharp slice of mango. This may refer to the Monty Python's Flying Circus sketch "Self-Defence Against Fresh Fruit".
  • General Melchett attended Cambridge with George's Uncle Bertie.
  • "Corporal Punishment" strongly evokes the Joseph Losey film King and Country, almost to the point of being a Whole-Plot Reference (though Tom Courtenay's character didn't murder a pigeon).
  • The opening credits, featuring the main characters marching on parade while a military brass band version of the theme plays, are a homage to the closing credits of Dad's Army. Ben Elton is a well-known fan of the earlier sitcom.
• Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: Despite both being Captains in the British army Blackadder and Darling thoroughly despise each other and both take great pleasure in the others sufferings.
• Something That Begins with "Boring": Which ends rather unusually.
  George: I hear with my little ear something beginning with 'B'.
  Blackadder: What?
  George: Bomb.
  Blackadder: I can't hear a bomb.
  George: Listen very carefully.
  [the faint whistling of a bomb can be heard]
  Blackadder: Ah, yes...
  KA-BOOM
• Smoking Hot Sex: Blackadder and Nurse Mary, in "General Hospital".
  Blackadder: I only smoke cigarettes after making love. So, back in England I'm a twenty-a-day man.
  Nurse Mary: A man should smoke. It acts as an expectorant and gives his voice a deep, gravelly, masculine tone.
• Smug Snake: Captain Darling.
• Soldiers at the Rear: Darling is happy to be General Melchett's aide-de-camp because that way he doesn't have to be in the trenches. In the last episode he gets sent there anyway.
• Sudden Downer Ending: Blackadder Goes Forth is set in the trenches of WWI, and the writers didn't want to be accused of making light of one of the most tragic moments in British history, so the last episode becomes steadily more serious and sombre as all of the characters but General Melchett (and he's quite oblivious to sending Darling to his doom) are ordered over the top in what is assumed to be a suicide charge. While the cast are all shown to have died in The Black Adder and Blackadder II, this time it's not played for comedy at all.
• Suspiciously Specific Denial: In "Corporal Punishment", both Baldrick and George recite "We didn't receive any messages, and Captain Blackadder definitely did not shoot this delicious plump breasted pigeon", parroting the exact answer which Blackadder had told them to give if they were asked any questions at all.
• Sweet Polly Oliver: Bob, in "Major Star". Subverted in that absolutely no-one but the General is remotely fooled, and in a later episode she is wearing a female uniform and openly sleeping with Flashheart despite still using the identity.
• Take That!: Blackadder tells George that he finds Charlie Chaplin's films "about as funny as getting an arrow through the neck and discovering there's a gas bill tied to it". Which is even more invokedHilarious in Hindsight, given the obvious debt that Rowan Atkinson's subsequent series owed to Chaplin's brand of humour.
  • Given that Chaplin gets his own back at the end of the episode (by agreeing to free distribution of his films among the British Army on the proviso that Blackadder is the projectionist), this may be more an affectionate homage than anything else — every other character loves Charlie Chaplin.
  • It's also a running joke throughout all the series that Blackadder hates any character considered by modern day to be a genius; Shakespeare, Walter Raleigh, Samuel Johnson, etc.
• The Talk: When Baldrick asks for permission to ask a question in "Goodbyeeee", Blackadder grants permission, as long as it is not the question about where babies come from.
• Telegraph Gag STOP: In "Major Star", used as a joke by Blackadder to insult Charlie Chaplin, and in the same episode Chaplin takes revenge in the same format.
  Captain Blackadder: Yes... take down a telegram, Bob. To Mr. Charlie Chaplin, Sennett Studios, Hollywood, California. Congrats STOP Have found only person in world less funny than you STOP Name Baldrick STOP Signed E. Blackadder STOP Oh, and put a P.S.: please, please, please STOP
  ...
  Captain Darling: We received a telegram from Mr Chaplin himself at Sennett Studios: Twice nightly filming of my films in trenches: excellent idea STOP But must insist that E. Blackadder be projectionist STOP P.S. Don't let him ever... STOP.
• Time for Plan B: Every episode.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Blackadder becomes much nicer in comparison to other series, especially in the final episode when he realizes that he can’t escape the trenches alive. Not once does he insult his men and he even shows respect towards Captain Darling.
• Triangles Are the Worst Instrument: The opening sequence featured the regular cast as part of a military parade. At the end of the sequence, after the band has finished playing, we see a scruffy-looking Private Baldrick briefly making a jangling noise on a triangle
• Trrrilling Rrrs: Played with in Blackadder Goes Forth:
  George: I spy, with my little eye, something beginning with R.
  Baldrick: Army.
  Blackadder: For God's sake, Baldrick, "army" starts with an A. He's looking for something that starts with an R. Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
  Baldrick: Motorbike! Motorbike starts with an rrrrrrrrrrr, rrrrrrrrrrrrrrr...
• Uncertain Doom: We never see the main cast die onscreen at the end, and all of them have descendants in Back and Forth. Did they survive? Who knows. Of course, the only one who mentions not having loved ones is Edmund himself, and we known he’s not above hiring prostitutes.
• Unfortunate Item Swap:
  • In "Corporal Punishment", Blackadder writes two letters — one asking George for a sponge bag, another asking the brilliant lawyer Hugh Massingbird for legal aid. Of course, Baldrick gets the letters mixed up.
  • A more fortunate version occurs later that episode, when Baldrick delivers George's letter to his mum to Blackadder instead; reading the letter tells Edmund that George's uncle has just been appointed Minister of War, which they try to use to get Edmund pardoned.
• Unexpectedly Dark Episode: The final episode ends with Edmund, Baldrick, George, and Darling being sent over the trench, which was made clear over the series to be a death sentence that Edmund desperately wants to avoid. They are strongly implied to have been killed.
• Unfortunate Names: Captain Darling. The creators said that as soon as they came up with the name for him, he went from a totally empty character to one who'd been steeped in a lifetime's worth of bitterness and resentment from being called "darling" by everyone. Blackadder takes great pleasure in doing this himself, except in the final episode when Darling has been sent to join them in the trenches and Edmund actually calls him "Captain" respectfully.
• Unishment: Baron von Richtoven's threat to force Blackadder out of the trenches and into a German girls' school for the rest of the war is designed to be unbearable for an honourable Brit. Of course, Blackadder isn't one of those.
  • Unwanted Rescue: Unfortunately for Blackadder and Baldrick, George and Flashheart soon turn up to "save" them. Flashheart actually works out that they were trying to get away from the front and forces them both to come with him.
• Verbal Tic: General Melchett's trademark "Baa!" has been variously attributed to madness, asthma and an ancestor's illicit relationship with Flossie the sheep. Stephen Fry has said it really originated from his imagining that Melchett had haemorrhoids and would yell out every time he sat down or got up.
• War Is Hell: Blackadder's main goal in this series, as opposed to the power grabbing his ancestors have attempted, is simply to survive the war by getting out of the trenches. The final episode really hammers the point home, especially with the invokedTear Jerker Downer Ending.
• Wham Line:
  • At the very end:
    Darling: I say, listen — our guns have stopped.
    George: You don't think...
    Baldrick: Maybe the war's over? Maybe it's peace.
    Darling: Thank God. We lived through it. The Great War, 1914 to 1917.
  • In the scene just prior:
    George: Well, really, this is brave, splendid and noble... Sir?
    Blackadder: Yes, Lieutenant?
    George: I'm... scared, sir.
  • Indeed, the Mood Whiplash of the final episode can be pinpointed to Blackadder's exchange with Darling.
    Blackadder: How are you feeling, Darling?
    Darling: Erm, not all that good, Blackadder. Rather hoped I'd get through the whole show; go back to work at Pratt & Sons; keep wicket for the Croydon gentlemen; marry Doris...
• White Sheep: Comparatively speaking, this is the most benevolent Blackadder in the family line, not counting Ebeneezer Blackadder from the christmas special. Unlike his predecessors, his scheming is almost entirerly centred around trying to avoid a brutal, pointless death in no-mans land, rather than aquiring wealth or power. We occasionally get glimpses of a past where he DID appear to be just as evil as his ancestors, being involved with the ugliest parts of British colonialism and all, but being involved in a war that isn’t just a Curb-Stomp Battle on either end seems to have given him a Heel Realisation as to the futility of horror of war in general, to the point where he’s merely a bit of a dick (something it’s hard to blame him for under the circumstances, only George and Baldrick don’t deserve it and worse, and he’s noticeably more friendly, albeit still snarky and insulting, with them — more friendly not being a high bar for an 'Adder), but by no means actually EVIL. In fact, when he eventually realised this truly is the end for him and all his Vitriolic Best Buds as well, he even drops the ‘bit of a dick’ part. It’s tricky to imagine any other Blackadders giving genuine words of encouragement as their last words.
• Who's on First?: Captain Darling gets this a lot. In particular, "Major Star" has a scene where General Melchett is rehearsing what he's going to say to his current crush (who's actually George in a dress) in front of Captain Darling, repeatedly referring to "Georgina" as "darling".
  Melchett: God, it’s a spankingly beautiful world and tonight’s my night. I know what I’ll say to her. ‘Darling…’
  Darling: Yes sir?
  Melchett: What?
  Darling: Um, I don’t know, sir.
  Melchett: Well don’t butt in! ‘I want to make you happy, darling’.
  Darling: Well, that’s very kind of you sir.
  Melchett: Will you kindly stop interrupting? If you don’t listen, how can you tell me what you think? ‘I want to make you happy, darling. I want to build a nest for your ten tiny toes. I want to cover every inch of your gorgeous body in pepper and sneeze all over you.’
  Darling: I really think I must protest!
  Melchett: What is the matter with you, Darling?
  Darling: Well, it’s all so sudden, I mean the nest bit’s fine, but the pepper business is definitely out!
  Melchett: How dare you tell me how I may or may not treat my beloved Georgina?
  Darling: Georgina?
  Melchett: Yes, I’m working on what to say to her this evening!
  Darling: Oh yes. Of course. Thank God.
  Melchett: Alright?
  Darling: Yes, I’m listening, sir.
  Melchett: Honestly, Darling, you really are the most graceless, dim-witted bumpkin I ever met.
  Darling: Oh, I don’t think you should say that to her, sir!
• Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: Lampshaded after a wise decision by Lord Flashheart in response to Baron von Richtofen's near ruining of his Big Damn Heroes moment before he recognizes Flashheart:
  Baron von Richtofen: Ah, and the Lord Flashheart! This is indeed an honour . . . . Finally the two greatest gentleman flyers in the world meet! Two men of honour, who have jousted together in the cloud-strewn glory of the skies! Face-to-face at last. How often I have rehearsed this moment of destiny in my dreams ...the vanities we encapsulate, the unspoken nobility of our comradeship—
  BANG
  Flashheart: What a poof!
• Worthy Opponent: The Red Baron thinks Flashheart is one. Flashheart does not agree.
• Your Brain Won't Be Much of a Meal: Referenced in the Blackadder Goes Forth episode "Captain Cook", with cannibals this time.
  Edmund: Your brain's so minute, Baldrick, that if a hungry cannibal cracked your head open, there wouldn't be enough to cover a small water biscuit.

Tropes Present in the Specials

• Absurdly Ineffective Barricade: In ''Blackadder: Back and Forth", a Roman soldier (one of Blackadder's ancestors) guarding Hadrian's Wall describes the wall as this trope.
  Edmund: How does our great leader Hadrian keep them out? By building a three-foot high wall. A terrifying obstacle: about as frightening as a rabbit with "boo" painted on its forehead.
• Accidental Astronaut: Played with in the special "Blackadder Back and Forth". Blackadder claims to have built a time machine, betting his friends that he can travel through time and space and collect relics from the past. When he enters the machine and believes it to be a decoy, Blackadder activates the controls, and then finds the machine actually works, sending them back to the age of the dinosaurs. Unfortunately, Baldrick forgot to label the dials with the numbers to set the date, and unable to return to the present time, they are doomed to fly through time for all time, with plenty of shots of the machine flying through space (surrounded by spacecraft when they travel too far into the future).
• Achievements in Ignorance: Baldrick, who is unable to read, managed to build a working time machine according to Leonardo da Vinci's exact specifications.
• Almost Dead Guy: Played deliberately as part of Edmund's plan to travel back to the present in Blackadder: Back & Forth, almost drowning Baldrick just long enough for his life to flash before his eyes (along with the memories of the original configurations of the time machine).
• And Now You Must Marry Me: In Christmas Carol, Future!Blackadder pulls this on Queen Asphyxia in one of the two possible timelines. (She thought he'd never ask.)
• And This Is for...: In Back and Forth, one of Blackadder's kicks to Shakespeare is for the Kenneth Branagh version of Hamlet.
• Batman Can Breathe in Space: Standing in their wodden time machine (with a latched door), Blackadder and Baldrick have no trouble breathing and talking in space.
• Being Good Sucks: Oh boy! Everyone and their mother is exploiting Ebenezer in Christmas Carol.
• Book Ends: Blackadder becomes king at the end of Blackadder: Back and Forth. The entire series began with this being his primary objective.
• Butterfly of Doom: Blackadder: Back & Forth is all about this.
  • In a way, downplayed due to the directness and magnitude of the various "butterflies" — usually Blackadder accidentally killing a famous historical figure, leading to no one knowing who that person was in the present, and undoing any of their accomplishments (albeit it absurdly over-the-top fashion).
• Call-Back:
  • In Blackadder Back & Forth Baldrick references Blackadder's "Cunning Like a Fox" line from Goes Fourth, revealing that said fox has apparently since moved even further up in the world.
  • In the same film, Blackadder's appearance, personality and social standing are all consciously modelled after the Blackadder II incarnation of the character, who is generally considered the most iconic of the four television Blackadders.
  • In The Cavalier Years, Baldrick gets a job as an executioner, just like his Elizabethan ancestor in "Head".
• Canis Latinicus: Melchett's Roman incarnation renders his usual "Beeeeh!" catchphrase as "Beeeeeh-us."
• The Cavalier Years
• Credits Gag: In Back in Forth, the dinosaur is played by "Tyrannosaurus Rex" and the Scottish Hordes are played by "Hordes of Scots."
• Decapitation Presentation: Cavalier Years: Baldrick's cunning plan to substitute a pumpkin instead of a head sort of fell apart when this moment came.
• Divine Intervention: In Back in Forth, Napoleon is banking on this at the battle of Waterloo:
  Napoleon: Do not despair! It is my firm belief that God hates the British. He will intervene miraculously, and send us a glorious victory on this field of Waterloo!
• Dramatic Curtain Toss: In Back and Forth, the time machine is revealed from under a cloth lifted into the air.
• Evil Laugh: Nursie delivers one after Melchett gets his death warrant.
• Evil Overlord: Queen Asphyxia in the future of Christmas Carol is a female example.
• Extreme Doormat: Actually Blackadder himself in Christmas Carol, starting off as kindly generous soul (who is naturally endlessly exploited for charity). A visit from a Christmas Spirit inadvertently reveals his legacy will be destroyed due to his meekness, leading him to become an even crueller schemer than his ancestors.
• Eyepatch of Power: The ruthless Grand Admiral Blackadder wears one in Christmas Carol.
• Fan Disservice: Both Blackadder and Baldrick in Space Opera Go-Go Enslavement gear in the two alternate futures of Christmas Carol. And the modern day Baldrick in Back and Forth wearing his novelty plastic apron.
• Fictional Greetings and Farewells: In the special "Blackadder's Christmas Carol", a series of fictional greetings are exchanged between Grand Admiral Blackadder and Queen Asphyxia's triple-husbandoid:
  Frondo: To you, Blackadder — thrice-endowed Supreme Donkey of the Trouserpod — this much greeting. [he raises a hand up to his forehead and lowers it with two and a half vertical waves]
  Pigmot: I, too, bold navigator [he gives four vertical waves], cringe my dribblies at your resplendent pofflesnu!
  Blackadder: Yes, well, that won't be necessary, thank you.
• Foreshadowing: In Blackadder Back And Forth, Lady Elizabeth and George remarking that "You can't see something that's already happened!" "Unless you're on the lavatory." foreshadows Baldrick's cunning plan to get himself and Blackadder back to 1999, where Blackadder almost drowns Baldrick in the toilet so his life will flash before his eyes, causing him to remember the position of the knobs and levers when they first set off, and enable him to get them home.
• Four-Star Badass: One future Blackadder is the ruthless and brilliant Admiral of a thinly-disguised version of the Empire. He seizes power.
• Genius Ditz: Back & Forth's Baldrick embodies this trope far more than any previous Baldrick. He's dumb as a post, but somehow manages to build a working time machine. It's worth mentioning that he was tasked with building a fake time machine.
• Go-Go Enslavement: In the far-future segment of Christmas Carol, Blackadder and Baldrick wear nothing but a leather speedo and a leash when they're slaves.
• Grand Finale: Blackadder Back & Forth is written as being this to the whole series, with the idea of any further entries being humorously invokedJossed in the end credits with the line "Blackadder Back & Forth 2... coming Summer 3000!"
• Hard Truth Aesop: It's played for laughs, but let's be honest. Blackadder Christmas Carol shows how easily altruists can get exploited by freeloaders.
• Hot Consort: Marian in Blackadder Back & Forth, to King Edmund III. To be expected, given she's Kate Moss.
• I Hate Past Me: Averted in Blackadder's Christmas Carol; Ebenezer Blackadder is absolutely delighted to see the sort of underhanded behaviour in which his Elizabethan and Regency ancestors engaged to get ahead.
• Large Ham: Robbie Coltrane as the Ghost in Christmas Carol, Stephen Fry, as usual, in The Cavalier Years. Rik Mayall as Lord Flashheart— er, Robin Hood in Back and Forth.
• Lighter and Softer: 'Christmas Carol' and 'Back and Forth' are both PG rated, compared to the 15 rating that each series received; the 'Back and Forth' DVD actually had its rating upped due to the inclusion of 'The Cavalier Years' ^note the VHS, omitting this, was sill PG.
• The Movie: 'Back and Forth' originally played in the SkyScape cinema inside the Millennium Dome.
• Multitasked Conversation: In "Back and Forth", the modern Blackadder bets his fellow diners that he can travel through time and collect any relic from the past. When they make their choices, Blackadder announces them loudly, in the presence of a microphone, so that Baldrick can find similar-looking items.
• Naked Apron: Baldrick serves dinner in Blackadder Back & Forth while wearing an apron patterned like a maid uniform. And nothing under it.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: In The Cavalier Years, Stephen Fry's portrayal of Charles I is a thinly-veiled-if-at-all-veiled impression of King Charles III.
• Not Hyperbole: The Call-Back in Back & Forth to Edmund's "Cunning Like a Fox" line from Goes Fourth implies that the original was not in fact a metaphor.
• Obscured Special Effects: Although "Back and Forth" had more special effects than many of the earlier low-budget series, the encounter with the dinosaurs is an example: only the head (and briefly, a leg) of a dinosaur is visible, obscured by the door of the time machine.
• Phlebotinum Killed the Dinosaurs: In 'Back and Forth', Blackadder jokes that Baldrick's pants, which just proved potent enough to down a T-rex, caused the extinction of the dinosaurs.
• Pitiful Worms: Subverted in "The Cavalier Years", when Blackadder kills an ant to demonstrate the doom of the Blackadders.
  Blackadder: We must do something, otherwise the Blackadders are as doomed as that ant.
  Baldrick: What ant?
  Blackadder: (bangs a hammer on the table, then shows the underside to Baldrick) That one.
• Pre-Mortem One-Liner: "Sniff my skids", said by Baldrick as he dispatches a Tyrannosaurus with his best/worst pair of pants.
• Product Placement: Downplayed, but present in Blackadder Back & Forth, which was partially funded by Tesco.^note Making it a rare, possibly unique, example of this trope on a show originated on The BBC, which strictly forbids it due to being funded by the licence fee Time-traveller Edmund tries to present Elizabeth I with a Tesco Clubcard, which, to no-one's surprise, turns out to be a ludicrously pointless gift in the Renaissance; The scene includes a description of a Clubcard and the logo is clearly visible on the card he shows Queenie, but his description is humorously underplayed ("half price baked beans" being his best sales pitch), and no one names Tesco itself outloud. He then wins her and her court's favour with "minty things" whose packaging/logo are covered by his hand ^note they're clearly Polo mints.
• Shakespeare in Fiction: Edmund meets him in the Elizabethan era in Blackadder: Back & Forth and proceeds to kick the crap out of him for all the boring literature classes in school.
• Shout-Out:
  • One of Queen Asphyxia's court in Christmas Carol looks like Nursie's head grafted onto a knock-off Dalek.
  • Grand Admiral Blackadder’s costume in Christmas Carol is clearly inspired by Darth Vader’s.
  • In Blackadder Back & Forth the brief space battle is between two Earth Defence Directorate starfighters and a Draconian fighter.
  • The time machine in the movie is also roughly the size and shape of the TARDIS on the outside, anyway, if it were made in the Renaissance period.
  • The Present Day version of George has the surname "Tufton-Bufton", which is a reference to Private Eye's generic upper-class reactionary, Sir Bufton Tufton MP.
  • The time machine squashes the Duke of Wellington in the same way as Dorothy's farmhouse squashes the Wicked Witch of the East in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (and the film adaptation). Like Dorothy, Edmund then comes out and steals the victim's footwear.
• Smarter Than You Look: Subverted with Baldrick in Christmas Carol. He can't write, read or count, but he's smart enough to question Ebenezer's Stupid Good behaviour and points out that the freeloaders (especially the obese orphans) don't need what Ebenezer gives them.
• Springtime for Hitler: Baldrick, tasked with building a fake time machine, somehow ends up building a real one.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Even if they weren't played by the same actor, Robin Hood would still be noticeably Flashheart-esque.
• Switch to English: Inverted in Back and Forth. The Roman-era characters all speak in English...until Melchett compliments them for practising the language, and switches to Latin.
• Tele-Frag: The time-machine arrives at the Battle of Waterloo, right above the Duke of Wellington, squashing him flat.
• Throw the Dog a Bone: Things finally end happily for (one descendant of) Edmund and Baldrick in Blackadder: Back & Forth as they alter time and history for fame and fortune. In Christmas Carol, a more distant descendent conquers the universe.
• Unusual Euphemism: Queen Asphyxia flirting with Admiral Blackadder in Christmas Carol: "You have most pleasantly wibbled my frusset-pouch."
• Verbal Backspace: In The Cavalier Years:
  Blackadder: Have you ever known me to lie to the king?
  Baldrick: Yes.
  (Blackadder is suddenly pointing a sharp-looking knife at his throat)
  Baldrick: ...No.
• Yet Another Christmas Carol: An inversion and parody. Indeed, when Ebenezer Blackadder, the only good and friendly member of the Blackadder bloodline (and also an Extreme Doormat), sees that his descendant would rule all of the universe if he became a spiteful miser like his ancestors (instead of being a slave to future Baldrick, which would happen if he were to remain kind and generous), he lampshades it gleefully:
  Ebenezer: Bad guys have all the fun.
• With Lyrics: 'Back and Forth' adds lyrics to the Blackadder theme, describing how great the new King of England is and how he will take over the world.

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