Merry Christmas Mr. Bean (1992)

There will never be a show like Mr. Bean, ever again. The sheer simplicity of the show itself is what made it so great. With barely any dialogue, it relies on the physical comedy of Rowan Atkinson's creation who manages to get himself into ridiculous situations. The first episode aired on the very first day of the 1990's and ended at the end of 1995. I grew up watching Mr. Bean and that simplicity I mentioned makes it easy for children to watch it. The beautiful thing about having no dialogue is that the show transcends all cultures and languages. We see him falling asleep in church, anaesthising his dentist and blowing up his flat. But it's his antics at Christmas that are the best.

Bean is doing his Christmas shopping in Harrods and his shopping includes Christmas lights and one bauble, both which he tests out in store. Whilst paying for his many items, he notices a nativity scene which he begins to play with. As the episode goes on he pulls Santa's beard, conducts an orchestra, steals a big tree, makes a big cracker out of other crackers and of course, has the incident with the turkey in what is probably the most famous Mr. Bean sketch.

He also pisses of his girlfriend. Actually he's pretty harsh to her and it's hilarious. Not hilarious because she deserved it or anything but because he genuinely has no social skills whatsoever and has no idea how to interact with people in general, and his overexaggerated way of doing this is hilarious. He is himself an alien amongst people and that's kinda what the show is about, him trying to cope with everyday situations which he manages to exacerbate to a ridiculous level. Even the intro to the show has him falling out of the sky and hitting the ground, so maybe this the way the character was intended to be.

 Unlike most Christmas specials which have some message about family or friends or togetherness, there isn't really a message here. Bean just does what he usually does and gets himself into trouble, he doesn't learn anything and at the end of the episode everything has gone completely wrong for him; he has no turkey dinner, his girlfriend has walked out on him and his huge cracker seems to cause a massive flashbang inside his flat which probably wasn't good. But despite this it's one of my yearly Christmas go-to watches, mainly for that crafty nostalgia. It always makes me remember being a kid and reenacting the nativity scene whenever I came across a set. And I once addressed Christmas cards to myself in the school postbox like Bean does, much to the delight and laughter of my friends.

It's simple, funny and Christmassy so what more could you want? If you want some retro laughs, it's on Youtube for free so please watch it.