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Friday, September 16, 2011
Just a Small Rewrite...of 'Hamlet' (Friday Silly Video)
Friday, September 16, 2011
Susan reporting:
The most disheartening suggestions that editors make to writers usually begin with "Just": just a little tweaking, just a few changes, just a bit of tightening. It's the editorial version of the doctor's "This won't hurt a bit." If this comedy skit featuring William Shakespeare (yes, that's Hugh Laurie, Dr. House in Elizabethan costume) and his editor (the incomparable Rowan Atkinson) discussing "just" a small rewrite of Hamlet, then things haven't changed a bit in the last few hundred years. This sketch was performed live in London as part of a Comic Relief benefit.
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4 comments:
Great stuff!
Terrific!
Although Atkinson's character isn't named, some people count this wonderful sketch as part of the Blackadder canon. Atkinson's costume, superior demeanor, and talent for lucking on to something brilliant are all very much like the Blackadder character, one of whose incarnations is of course from the Elizabethan period. I don't know how popular Atkinson's Blackadder series are in the USA, but they're much liked in Britain.
Philip, Loretta and I are long-standing Blackadder fans, and have been known to quote passages back and forth. That's why I was so delighted to find this sketch on YouTube. Unfortunately Americans don't seem to turn to history when they're being funny - we have to find our historical humor from you lucky folks in the UK.:)
I loved that. I actually had to memorize Hamlet's 'To Be' speech in high school (and sometimes I can even remember parts of it).
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