Quite a lot of quality shows from the UK have had a small episode count but left millions wanting more, none more so than Mr. Bean, which has been off the air for about 25 years, only to have fans from every generation.
The skits in this show were such that they can appeal to a viewer from any age, all wrapped up together to present one hilarious episode. All in all, there were about 15 of these episodes, but we’ve compiled the 10 very best skits for you to start watching in order to get your Mr. Bean binge ready.
Mr. Bean At The Hospital
A couple points have to be taken for the usually well-natured Mr. Bean being a kind of jerk we’d expect characters from other shows to be like, but that’s where the negative part ends. Here, he arrived at the hospital after getting his hand stuck in a teapot; after instigating a few fights to cut in line, Mr. Bean found out he was in a long wait for the doctor.
So, he decided to steal a lower ticket number from a patient wrapped in bandages, only for him to fall asleep and have that patient reclaim her number. The winning moment of the skit came at the end when Mr. Bean got his other hand stuck in a dustbin.
Mr. Bean Celebrates The New Year
Mr. Bean turned a New Year’s Eve party into something of a hostage scenario, as his “friends” found out he was ill-equipped to host. Mr. Bean, not having any refreshments, took to dipping branches from outside his window in Marmite to pose as snacks and mixing sugar in vinegar to make up for the lack of champagne.
Before he could improvise further with making his friends eat bird food, the two guys wound up the clock on the mantelpiece hours ahead and pretended it was New Year’s already so they could bail. It was an excellent display of awkward comedy, although we did feel rather bad for the lonely Mr. Bean being abandoned.
Mr. Bean Paints His Apartment
The following morning, Mr. Bean thinks it’s time to makeover his flat for the new year, but realizes dunking his teddy bear’s head in paint isn’t an efficient way for him to cover the entire wall. So, he has the genius plan to plant a dynamite in a paint canister and let the explosion do the trick.
In a lovely show of a brick joke (which is a late delivery of a comedic angle thrown in early in an episode), Mr. Bean’s friend from the previous night arrives to sneak back his hat, only to be caught in the explosion; this leaves a shape of the man on the wall unpainted.
Mr. Bean Cuts Hair
Never even think of getting a haircut if you spot Mr. Bean at the barber’s, a lesson learned painfully by the patrons in this episode. Mr. Bean, having been mistaken for the barber, proceeds to shave a boy’s head down the middle, cut off a man’s ponytail, and “create” a toupee for another man while also posing as Prince Charles.
This skit is masterful due to its simplistic nature, since all it took for the comedy was witnessing Mr. Bean trying to come up with a way to remedy his mistake. The only complaint we might have is the lack of comeuppance for Mr. Bean.
Mr. Bean Meets The Queen
Laugh track sitcoms get a bad rap for no reason today, and this skit was especially hilarious due to the audience’s laughter bringing comedic context to it. As it happened, Mr. Bean was in line to greet the Queen but got himself into some hijinks to be presentable.
We saw him attempt to conceal a mouth freshener, use a thread from an apron to floss, all for him to accidentally headbutt the Queen herself! One tiny fault of the skit was its lack of variety since things wrapped up too quickly, but that drawback’s only there because we were loving it thus far.
Mr. Bean Takes An Exam
Mr. Bean showed off physical comedy at its best, as this skit had him take up an exam he wasn’t suited at all to pass. When he realized he didn’t know any of the answers, he took to attempting to cheat through the duration of the exam, which didn’t work out so well.
What was a winner was Mr. Bean’s antics, as we saw him flounder around to try and get a peek at the answers on the paper of the guy next to him. If that wasn’t funny enough, the ending had Mr. Bean realize the correct exam was there all along, and try (unsuccessfully) to write it in two minutes.
Mr. Bean Doesn't Like The Food
Making this one so hilarious is the fact that we’ve all been there where we order food in a fancy place and have no stomach for the acquired taste. Mr. Bean tried to dispose of the steak he ordered, where he hid bits of the steak in places like the bottom of his plate, inside a bun, and in the trousers of the violinist.
The funniest part has to be when Mr. Bean showed all the spots he hid the steak to the maitre’d in order to cover for his actions when a waiter tripped onto him, only for him to be given yet another steak as an apology.
Mr. Bean At The Church
In another supreme work of physical comedy, Mr. Bean couldn’t help but be bored during a church service and, to avoid falling asleep like he did when he collapsed on the ground in grogginess, tried to fill the time by trying to eat a sweet, but found the stern man next to him monitoring his behavior.
It was rather cringeworthy, but you can’t stop yourself from laughing out loud when Mr. Bean rubbed his nose on the lining of his pocket, and then accidentally hide his candy in the same pocket, effectively denying him the toffee.
Mr. Bean Plays Golf
There’s no way any fan can overlook this episode, where Mr. Bean spent the entire day trying to score a hole at mini-golf, as his attempts took him all across town and farther away from the golf course.
It’s a classic in replay quality, as we see Mr. Bean cause mayhem in the streets without realizing his bizarre actions. The crazy thing is that we want to see him succeed, seeing as the guy even enters the sewers to avoid touching the ball. As it goes with other Mr. Bean skits, the ending was the winning moment where we find out it took over a thousand attempts by Mr. Bean to complete the hole.
Mr. Bean Does His Laundry
Something about this skit just works so much that it has to be crowned the winner. Perhaps it was the bully Mr. Bean encountered who was a hilarious character in himself, or that Mr. Bean managed to pull off wearing a skirt better than any woman ever could, or maybe because the sight of his teddy being shrunk enough to fit in his pocket was one of the cutest ever things.
Whatever the reason, this is the skit you want to see for the best of Mr. Bean, as it achieves so much without having anyone speak much of anything. It has everything from variety, to depth in comedy, and complete with a satisfying length that means no stone was left unturned where hilarity was concerned.