Talk:Blackadder

This article falls within a proposed limits on quotations policy. The subject of this article is a television show, and as a result, the proposal would set a limitation of one quote for less than 30 minutes, two quotes for 30 minute shows, and five quotes for 60 minute shows (see our TV policy for shows of other lengths). If you would like to add another quote to the page, you should consider whether to remove one that is already there in order to keep within the bounds of fair use of copyright material. For reference, the length of this work is: 30 min.

Dialog formatting

I've added some dialog from "Blackadder Back & Forth" in roughly the same format I've used for some other TV shows. Many TV show quotes are best expressed in dialog, but the common bulleted form is rather useless for this purpose:

• It's focused on single quoted lines from a single character. Multiple characters don't fit well into a multi-bulleted form.
• Explanatory notes are given after the quote, rather than before as context, where they make much more sense.
• The "Character: Line" format is easily recognized and widely used for dialog.

There are other reasons, but they're better covered in the ongoing discussion at Talk:Television shows#Dialog formatting. I invite comments here from the readers of and contributors to this article (which, so far as I know at this point, are just Fonzy and myself ☺). -- Jeff Q 08:07, 19 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Table of contents

Since I'm hoping to add a considerable amount of quotable dialog to this article in the next few months, I'm going to "be bold" and add a custom table of contents that willl minimize the space needed for the TOC while providing links to each series and each episode of the show. (I'll also be adding all the episode names shortly.) If other readers and contributors find this extensive indexing undesirable, I can remove it at a later date. Please look it over and let me know what you think. -- Jeff Q 01:56, 9 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Unknown episode

Since many Blackadder fans don't necessarily know (or care) which episodes contain their favorite quotes, I added an "Unknown episode" section to allow everyone to contribute such quotes without having to wait until they figure out where it belongs in this highly-structured list. Those of us who do care can later move the quote into the appropriate place in the list. -- Jeff Q 16:48, 20 Jul 2004 (UTC)

I want to thank 81.86.100.82 for calling attention to the fact that someone had removed the Unknown episode section quite a while back. (That wasn't their intent, I suspect, but I'll thank them anyway.) Let me clarify what I already said above. Wikiquote allows anybody to add quotes to a page. If we accept the utility of having quotes organized by episode, this causes a problem for anyone who doesn't know the title of the episode they were watching when they recorded an interesting quote. Also, anyone pulling Blackadder quotes off other websites (like IMDb) will be unable to simply add the quote to this page without causing a problem unless this section is available. This is an unreasonable barrier to participation. Please do not remove Unknown episode. — Jeff Q (talk) 12:45, 16 May 2005 (UTC)

Various Things

I've:

1. Increased the spacing between each quote to segregate them a bit better
2. Added & removed odd words where they've been left out or added to make quotes sound better (or as people have remembered them in better English) so as to put them back to what is actually said
3. Added a few quotes in Blackadder4 so that there are some for every episode
4. Added an extra line to a few quotes to 'complete' them
5. Moved a quote in blackadder4 to the right episode

Something to check, Blackadder3, Mossop & Keinrick, their rhyme when 'MacBeth' is said, it certainly doesn't sounds like what's written, but I've left it there because I don't know what they actually DO say.

First wikiquotes edit, I hope I've not messed anything up *ducks* Update: d'oh I managed ot not put a semicolon after the elipses code, but I think I've put them on all of them now - throw something at me if there are any left, won't you. -- 81.102.41.34 23:23, 1 Oct 2004

User 81.102.41.34, let me first welcome you to the community of Wiki editors! You have certainly gotten off to a bold start. Don't be too worried about messing things up; errors are easy enough to correct, and there are plenty of enthusiastic contributors willing to do so! ☺

Please forgive my taking the liberty of reformatting your list above using Wiki markup. Normally, it's not proper Wiki etiquette to modify other users' postings, but I saw from the way you created your list that it didn't display how you wanted it to. You can edit this page to see the correct Wiki markup to accomplish this. I also recommend reviewing Wikipedia:How to edit a page for more details, as you get more comfortable.

I also added a signature to your posting above. I would recommend adding this to your future Talk page comments by tacking ~~~~ (four tildes) onto the end, which is translated by Wiki into a timestamped signature when you save an edit. Even though you aren't a logged-in user, it makes it easier for discussion if people can cite you somehow.

As for your actual edits, they cover several topics, so I'm going to cover them in separate sections, as I anticipate some discussion on each. — Jeff Q 09:29, 2 Oct 2004 (UTC)

By the way, thanks for moving the "tread on a mine" quote. I don't know how I got it misplaced in "Corporal Punishment". — Jeff Q 14:05, 2 Oct 2004 (UTC)

I've added to the final scene quote in Godbyee, because I think the power of this quote is lost without the context of the charge, explosions, and fade to the battlefield as it appears today. 66.222.231.234 09:48, 18 February 2007 (UTC)

Spacing between quotes

I'm afraid that User:81.102.41.34's good intentions are thwarted by an ongoing problem with the Wikimedia 1.3 software. The spacing does indeed look better using the new default Monobook skin (page style), but every other skin (Nostalgia, Cologne Blue, and Classic, which is the old default and is still preferred by many in Wikidom) turns this additional spacing into paragraph-sized gaps. This comes from the failure of the Wiki community to define a more flexible system for quoting dialog, poetry, or other non-paragraphical, non-list-oriented material. There is no universally accepted solution for this at this time.

I have used the expedient of adding a half-page-width line to divide quotes on other pages (e.g., Mystery Science Theater 3000 and Buffy the Vampire Slayer). Another way to force a proper space between quotes in all skins is to separate them not by one or more blank lines, but by an indented line with a kind of stretched-out ellipsis. (See Blackadder Back & Forth for an example.) I've used these for short missing dialog sections (where the text wasn't all that interesting), but I've noticed it also makes for a decent visual separation for unrelated quotes. There is also a review of various formatting options at Talk:Television shows, which I invite all interested readers to read and contribute to.

I'd like to know what Wikiquote Blackadder readers think about this spacing change. (It does waste a lot of space in most skins, but I'm hoping that it's not much of a problem because the table of contents allows you to jump to episodes quickly. Also, I have no data on how many people use which skin, so maybe it isn't an issue for most readers.) Please feel free to post your comments below. — Jeff Q 09:52, 2 Oct 2004 (UTC)

3 years, no comments, switched it over to the horizontal rule after Jeff Q rved my clearing of the cleanup tag citing no HRs. Ran a quick replace on any 3 newlines to transform it into a HR tag. A quick preview shows that about 80-90% of the vertical spacing was caught. The remainder didn't follow the pattern. As I'm not familiar with the show I'll leave it as is for the moment so those better versed in the dialogue can fix up what's left. -- Greyed 07:40, 1 January 2008 (UTC)

Sorry, Greyed. I've done a poor job of watching this article to try to keep it in line with Wikiquote standards. In my defense, I've been a little busy with admin duties for the past couple of years, and I have about about 10% of all articles on my watchlist. ☺ I've completed adding the horizontal rules and done some other cleanup, but more remains. I'll continue this discussion under the more recent heading, "Cleanup tag", below. ~ Jeff Q (talk) 15:00, 1 January 2008 (UTC)

Oh, nono, didn't mean my comment above to be bad on you. Just a terse way of saying "3 years, noone has said not to do it, so I did it." Nothing more intended. -- Greyed 15:14, 1 January 2008 (UTC)

Macbeth chant

I'm the one who added the Macbeth dialogue from Sense and Senility. I remember doing a Google search for non-Blackadder references to this "exorcism", hoping it might be a real tradition, and adding what seemed to be the most common version of it. (Of course, popularity in Google is far from authoritative!) Normally, I would alter this starting text to match what was said, but I seem to recall some difficulties here. A web page entitled "Blackadder Facts by Zanaq" has a rather thorough analysis on this question. It suggests the following as the most promising versions:

• Hot potato, off his drawers, Puck will make amends. — from the subtitles (closed-captioning?)
• Hot potato, orchestra stalls, Puck will make amends. — supposedly from the "official" script
• Hot potato, orchestra stalls, pluck to make amends. — Zanaq's argument for a clear "L" in "pluck"

After watching my tape again just now, I'm even less sure than I was before. I had a book, Blackadder: the Whole Damn Dynasty (1485-1917), by Richard Curtis, ISBN 0140296085, which includes complete transcriptions of the main series' episodes. Unfortunately, I stupidly forgot to check the "official" version of this quote before I sold the book several months ago. It's not completely authoritative, as the published script wasn't precisely followed in many scenes, but it does give the original intent.

I invite anyone with some better sources to comment… please! — Jeff Q 10:49, 2 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Hi, I'm Zanaq. I just added a link to my page because:

• I feel people need to judge for themselves.
• you've hotlinked the audio file.

and even more:

• the off drawers thing is not promising at all.
• the unclear thing is "will" or "to".
• if you don't buy my argument for the clear "L" it might be puck.

so 2 versions to consider.

• puck will
• pluck to
• puck to - makes no sense.
• pluck will - makes no sense.

comments very welcome.

Zanaq's PS: I resisted the temptation of changing the actual quote on the wikiquote page to "pluck to make amends". What does the community vote?

Oops. I meant to link to the HTML page, not the MP3 file. I have fixed the link above. However, Zanaq's direct comments are certainly welcome, for whatever reason. Personally, I'm holding out making changes until I can again get my hands on the book mentioned above, but don't let that stop anyone else from making their own opinions known, or even changing the text if they feel the change justified. — Jeff Q 19:44, 15 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Zanaq thanks and agrees.

Hi, gidds here. I've listened to the DVD umpteen times, and the only conclusion I've reached is that each time they say it, it sounds slightly different! (There are 8 recitations in all; 6 fairly close together, a 7th after "Friends, Romans, countrymen," and the last as they're being led away.) On the 2nd and 8th times, it sounds quite like 'orchestra'; but on the 7th it's quite different, more like 'officer'. And the first time it's more like 'off these shores' — this is probably the one which sounds most like 'off his drawers', though I can't hear a 'd' in any of them, and 2 and 7 in particular have a clear extra syllable.

I first heard it as 'officer shawls', and that still sounds as close to me as any of the others. And has as much sense! I rather suspect that we're all on the wrong track, and it's something with different word divisions. 'Office assures'? 'Officious whores'?

As for the last bit, it definitely sounds like 'pluck will' to me, not 'Puck', nor 'to'. Maybe the preceding words will give it some sense.

I have MP3s of all 8 if anyone wants.

BTW, I'm English, so I may have an unfair advantage if any of you folks aren't! Not that that seems to be helping much here... Anyone happen to know Richard Curtis or Ben Elton? — Gidds 17:45, 21 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Zanaq now feels justified to add the 'l'. should I delete my now somewhat irrelevant post above?

No, Zanaq, you shouldn't delete your posts above. It's instructive for others reading later to see how such debates develop. (The only reason I changed my URL for your webpage above was because it didn't match the text, but instead pointed to one of your MP3s, and our subsequent postings make that clear.)

By the way, I finally got my hands on the 2000 printing of Blackadder: the Whole Damn Dynasty (1485-1917). (It's very handy living 30 miles from the U.S. Library of Congress!) Unfortunately, it doesn't help this discussion, as it only refers to the chant as a "violent and superstitious routine", or something like that. (I stupidly lost the paper I wrote the exact quote on, but it doesn't matter, as it gave none of the words.) — Jeff Q 01:58, 13 Nov 2004 (UTC)

To forestall casual editing of this Macbeth chant from "Sense and Sensibility", I've added an HTML comment to urge folks to check here first and contribute to the dialog before making changes. I invite anyone who comes up with new reasons for revising the current text to make your case here first. Thanks! ☺ — Jeff Q 07:36, 5 Dec 2004 (UTC)

• I just thought I'd pop up and throw a spanner in the works here by pointing out that both Hugh Paddick and Kenneth Connor have died in 2000 and 1993 respectively, so no-one can ask them what it was that they said. I think our best bet of getting this definitively is going to be to ask one of the writers (as suggested above) or someone who was on set. Quite how anyone would go about his I don't know. That is unless one of them did tell someone else who was curious. *shrug* guess we'll never know.

I think I've identified Richard Curtis' agent. I sent an email a few days ago, but no reply so far... — Gidds 19:51, 31 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Someone claims to have read the book:

[1]

inamourada_flux 2005-05-11 00:10 (link) "Hot potato, orchestra stalls, Puck will make amends".

It's in the Blackadder book with all the scripts in.

- Zanaq

I checked out this link. I suspect that "inamourada_flux" is just assuming that a book with the "complete" scripts has the actual text. As I pointed out earlier, Blackadder: The Whole Damn Dynasty, the only book I'm aware of with the scripts, does not include the actual text. I've pointed that out on LiveJournal. If inamourada_flux is talking about some other script book, hopefully they will respond with a more specific reference. — Jeff Q (talk) 10:31, 13 May 2005 (UTC)

I suspect Mr Zanaq may only be hearing what he has convinced himself is there (a similar effect to the supposed messages in various songs played backwards perhaps?). Having just watched the repeat on BBC 2, it is most definately "will", and not "to", in the majority of repetitions, particularly in the early ones when, it seems to me, the actors are more likely to have pronounced the phrase accurately. Thus the argument for "pluck" rather than "Puck" falls down since "pluck will make amends" makes no sense at all. "Puck will make amends" does make sense, and ties in to common thespian superstition regarding Puck. However, as to what the "orchestral stalls" bit is supposed to refer, I have no idea, but that would appear to be what is said.

Thanks for the flame. We have already established that it does not make sense. Several witnessess have reported the "l". Orchestra stalls allegedly has something to do with both the theater as well as a soft dangly collection of objects, as a quick googlification [2] might have revealed. - Zanaq

I have always been under the impression that the chant was:

Hot potatoes, Oxford shores, Puck to make amends.

As the chant is supposedly an exorcism of demons to counter the inauspicious use of the title 'Macbeth' I came to these conclusions:

The 'Hot Potatoes', at a stretch, I thought could have something to do with traditional food to be eaten around a communal bonfire(I suspect I am missing something fundamental here). Perhaps the next part is 'Oxford's Scores/Shores' and it is an allusion to the 17th earl of Oxford being the more likely author of work more nrmally attributed to Shakespeare. The Puck I would think, was a reference to the helpful, if mischeivious fairy in 'A Midsummer Nights Dream'.

That is the only sense I could make of any of it, and normally there is sense to be made in even the wildest of Blackadder quotes.

Please lampoon me at your leisure.

Lee

I'm sorry to add further disagreement to this debate, but I think "pluck to/will make amends" makes perfect sense: they seem to "pluck" each others' noses at the end of the chant, as part of the ritual to "make amends" for the bad luck of saying "Macbeth". Not sure about the rest of the chant, as I don't have a copy of the episode I can listen to right at the moment. --NCraike 13:31, 12 December 2006 (UTC)

On the (possibly recently published?) official 'Black Adder, the Complete Collection' produced by the BBC, the subtitles are "Hot potato, off his drawers, pluck to make amends." I thought that was what it sounded like as well. Pluck with a small p, probably meaning that they pluck each other's nose (self-punishment) to make amends. 79.72.73.1 21:55, 5 September 2007 (UTC)

Has anyone considered this speech from A Midsummer Night's Dream?

If we shadows have offended,
Think but this, and all is mended,
That you have but slumber'd here
While these visions did appear.
And this weak and idle theme,
No more yielding, but a dream,
Gentles, do not reprehend;
If you pardon, we will mend.
And, as I am an honest Puck
If we have unearnéd luck,
Now to 'scape the serpent's tongue,
We will make amends ere long:
Else the Puck a liar call.
So good night unto you all.
Give me your hands, if we be friends,
And Robin shall restore amends.
—Puck, Act V, Scene ii

This well-known speech by Puck, with its use of "mended," "mend," "make amends" and "restore amends," might be all the more reason for inclining to "Puck" rather than "pluck" as the word in question. - InvisibleSun 22:33, 5 September 2007 (UTC)

According to the Closed Captioning of the DVD, the phrase is HOT POTATO, ORCHESTRA STALLS, PUCK WILL MAKE AMENDS Is this sufficient to close the case? Unless someone has British made DVDs with Subtitles in, case closed. Sirmadness 23:06, 25 February 2008 (UTC)

If I could chime in, I am inclined to go the middle route. I agree with the quotation of "off his drawers," which can be heard relatively clearly the first time they say it, slowly. I think that the subsequent times, they are in a rush to say it, and so they go out of sync with one another, which makes their words blend together and gives the false impression of "orchestra stalls." I am still inclined to agree with "Puck will make amends," however. I definitely hear the W, short I, and L sounds of "will," but no L for "pluck," making it "Puck." --68.84.72.241 03:10, 13 July 2013 (UTC)

According to the subtitles in the Ultimate Edition, the words are, "Hot potato, off his drawers, pluck to make amends!"

Could it be possible that "pluck to make amends" refers to the 'plucking' of each others noses on completion of the chant?

17:52, 13 December 2018 (UTC)17:52, 13 December 2018 (UTC)17:52, 13 December 2018 (UTC)~ I don't know how long ago this was last contributed to, but there is an existing tweet by Tony Robinson (the actor who plays Baldrick) quoting it as "Hot potato, off his drawers, pluck to make amends". While it is fully possible that this is incorrect, I felt I could leave it here because it's a source from one of the actors. https://twitter.com/tony_robinson/status/811620449201299460?lang=en

Series3, Nob & Nobility,

There's a piece of dialogue where Blackadder explains to the revolutionary that he has rescued an aristocrat, with much hilarity ensuing "I have mur-dered the am-bass-i-dor and turned him in-to pat-te". Unfortunately, I can't grab it off the top of my head & it will be a while until I can watch my DVD's, would anyone mind putting it in?

(Yes, it's me again) 81.102.41.34 21:27, 3 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Consider it done! — Gidds 17:31, 21 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Where from?

Baldrick: "I have a plan, sir"

Blackadder: "Really, Baldrick, a cunning and subtle one?"

Baldrick: "Yes, sir."

Blackadder: "As cunning as a fox who's just been appointed Professor of Cunning at Oxford University?"

It's from the final scene of 'Goodbyeee', the final programme in Blackadder Goes Forth. It's parodied in the (awful!) Millennium Dome special.

Added to main page now.

vandalised

"Edmund: Selling the sexual favours of nuns.. you know just a f*** up the rear shall suffice...do some people actually pay?" (I substituted the stars in)found it's way into 'the archbishop' (Blackadder1). Suffice to say that isn't the real line and I'm just going to go and edit it out, but I thought I'd mention it incase anyone wants to go through the change logs and identify who put it in. -62.252.32.12 00:27, 26 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Chains, and other difficulties in transcriptions

I have added a reasonable amount of quotes just now, which I hope is to the liking of everybody. some formatting looks really ugly, especially in phrases starting with stressed "I"'s. It can even look totally unintelligible:

• Ludwig: I!... I was the tall....

Spanish

Will someone who actually speaks Spanish please have a look at: No! ¡Yo pregunto las cuestiones!¡No! ¡Yo hago las preguntas!

It would be fun to have (some of) the other spanish (or pseudo-spanish?) quotes: I cannot find them anywhere. A sample from the net:

• (leans to Melchett, says something in Spanish)

Yeah, a big help!

I'd make it something like:

Inquisitioner: [Insane laughter] Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Haaa!

Blackadder: Oh God, who's that?

Inquisitioner: [leaning towards Melchett] ¡Tipra parabarran te la caciones supplicio!

Blackadder: Aw, just wait a minute! If anyone's gonna get spoken to around here, it's gonna be me, alright? Tell him Melchy!

Melchett: Certainly! Err... Parlo con lui, no mi, gato, parlo con lui!

[Blackadder and Melchett turn around]

Inquisitioner: ¡Ah! ¡Buene! ¡El jefe! ¡Tipra parabarran te la caciones supplicio!

Blackadder: Ah that's better! [Turning to Melchett] Now, what's he saying?

But I don't speak Spanish. Some more...

• Te gusta da mucha de inquisicion.
• ¡No habla puerco!
• neccesito silencio par la commentar.
• ...tuos testicolos, (my, err, ah yes, those!) sobre un fuego grande, (over a large) fuego fuego - pff pff pff - (fire, so let's recap)
• ...remove my testicles with a blunt instrument (una padaña, una padaña) resembling some kind of gardening tool.

German accent

Should the German accent be reflected in the spelling? Shouldn't we just indicate [spoken with heavy German accent]?

Weird words

I have changed some words in Ink and The Carol to better reflect the actual sounds heard in the actual episode. I also tried to make the spelling look more English.

• andyspeptic->anaspeptic [no d heard, a muted 'e' (schwa?) not a stressed one.]
• transmotic->frasmotic (phrasmotic?) [clear 'f' sound. no n to be heard]
• exteriorilisation->extramuralisation [the first one makes a little more sense, but the second one is actually discernible]
• mamydon->marmidon [a long ah, indicative - in British English - for a mute 'r'.]
• I left Qvarnbeast because that correlates to the actual performance better than what I had in mind. It doesn't look English though. Let someone Anglify it please. Also the "'s" cannot be heard, but it wouldn't make sense without it. Nobbo->Nubbo.

--80.126.99.11 09:39, 17 July 2005 (UTC) Zanaq

According to the Ultimate Edition DVD subtitles the words are as follows:

contrafribblarities anaspeptic phrasmotic compunctuous pericombobulation pendigestatery interludicule extramuralisation

Updates

Update: ¡Parlo con lui, no mi, gato, parlo con lui! sounds more like Italian, so I removed the spanish exclamation mark.

Apparently, "guadaña" is Spanish for scythe. However, whatever he says still sounds more like "padaña". -- Zanaq

After speaking to a Spanish friend about this I can confirm that 

"Parlo con lui,no mi,gato,Parlo con lui" translates in conversational Spanish as "Talk to him,not me,gate keeper,Talk to him" which seems about right for the context of the dialogue.

---

Update: Really too bad that no-one Spanish has responded. Should I put some clear recordings of the phrases online, because spanish people only know the dubbed versions? Isn't there any english speaking person out there who happens to know enough Spanish?

When playing around with the spanish webtranslator - I use freetranslation because it seems to know a whole lot more words than the babelfish. The babelfish also screws with the word-order, in a hopeless effort to improve the result. The google translator is not a very big help.

Spanish seemed a dead end, so I tried Italian, and was a whole lot more succesful.

• Ti pra parla parante l'ocasiones supplizio.

renders as (freetranslation, Italian to English)

• You benefit speaks protecting the ocasiones torture.

Ocasiones seems to be spanish for occasions,

so the sentence would read, with españofication.

• ¡Ti pra párla paránte l'ocasiones supplício!

sounding almost exactly like

• ¡Tipra parabarran te la caciones supplicio!

• Would this get the OK as to be likely enough to be added?

Some other phrases rendered pretty well with the Spanish to English setting.

• Te gusta da mucha de inquisición. renders as "You like gives a lot of of investigation", so this seems also pretty likely.
• ¡Necesito silencio par la comentar! -> I need even silence it to comment, likely enough.

• I'd say this gets the OK as well.

• ¡No habla puerco! --> Does not it speak piggish! a likely candidate, but I speak is hablo. so this one might take some more looking into.

• tu os testículos looks ridiculos but renders fine. tuos renders not at all. The large fire etc. seems to render A-OK.

--80.126.99.11 11:21, 1 August 2005 (UTC) --Zanaq.

---

Please use basic English rules

There is a tendency on many quote pages to transcribe (or copy and paste) quote passages in variations of "Txt-speak"; that is, complete absence of capitalization and punctuation and unnecessary abbreviation. I would like to ask contributors to this and other pages to help minimize the maintenance work on quotes pages by using basic English rules, like capitalizing proper nouns, ending sentences in some kind of appropriate punctuation, and spelling out words and abbreviations as one might find in any typical reference work. Thank you for your assistance. ~ Jeff Q (talk) 12:58, 17 July 2005 (UTC)

---

UPDATE to Spanish dialogue in "Chains"

It is mostly Spanish, though not very good Spanish.

It goes:

Interrogator: Ti prepara para interrogacion y suplicio. ("Ti" is Italian. It should be: Preparate para una interrogacion y un suplicio, in the best of cases, but the grammar is all weird. Translates to: Prepare for an Interrogation and great suffering)

Then at Edmund's insistance that he should be addressed and not Melchett, the latter says:

Melchett: Parla con lui, no mi capo. (which is, I believe, something closer to Italian. And means: Talk to him, not my boss.)

Then, as Edmund asks whether he is talking to someone from the Inquisition, he is told:

Interrogator: Ti gusta mucho del Inquisicion. (and the grammar here is so apalling, that one could barely make out the meaning. They may have meant: Te gustara la Inquisicion mucho. The original line translates literally to: You like the inquisition a lot.)

then,

Interrogator: No habla, puerco. (Could be, "No hables, puerco" which translates as: Don't speak, pig. OR "No hablo puerco", which would translate as: I don't speak pig.

Both "Silencio, por comenzar!" and "Yo pregunto las cuestiones!" are understanable in Spanish, but again, not proper Spanish grammar. The first would be "Silencio, para poder comenzar" (Silence, so we can begin) and the latter "Yo hago las preguntas!" (I ask the questions)

Later, the whole insult bit would go as

Un Bastardo Hijo di perra

Or rather, "Un bastardo hijo de perra"

And:

Tus Testiculos sobre un fuego grande Guadaña.

(::put:: your testicles over a large fire....:::cut off::: with a scythe.)

In all, is sounds as if the dialogue was translated into Spanish, but kept mostly the Enlgish grammar, and threw in a couple of Italian words to the mix. Just adds to the fun of it, though.

Ade 5th July 2006

Cleanup tag

I've added the cleanup tag because the dialogue sections need to be separated with half-width dividers. Also, it does appear that some of the episodes have a bit too many quotes and require trimming (this is not the case with every episode, but there are some). ~ UDScott 15:38, 21 March 2007 (UTC)

Greyed and I have just fixed the half-width divider problem, and I've done some additional fixing of minor formatting issues. But the too-many-quotes problem remains, so I've left the cleanup tag in place and added a {{checkcopyright}} flag.

The trimming issue here is the same as it is for all TV-show articles. People treat these articles as places for fans to collect scene transcriptions, plot revelations, and generally anything of interest. We are looking for the 3-5 best quotes per episode (maximum each, not on average, and with no minimum!). Furthermore, all quotes should be something that is witty or otherwise memorable on its own; i.e., not requiring long descriptions of what's happening in the scene, and readily understandable by someone who has never seen the show. Anything that is too visually-oriented, any spoken dialog whose humor comes from the sound of the voices or other aural effects, any material that is mostly descriptions of what's happening on the television screen instead of actual quoted lines — these are all of little value to Wikiquote, even if they are the only quotes in the episode.

I'll make a special note of two more common problems. First, context lines (which introduce the scene mostly for context and to provide a video equivalent of page numbers for sourcing) should be kept short and should be composed of complete sentences. (That means a subject and a verb, folks. ☺) They should be used very, very sparingly, preferably not more than one per dialog segment, at the beginning of the segment. If the quote requires more, it may be a bad candidate for inclusion here. This article is currently littered with excessive context info, which means many of these quotes are not the best quotable lines from the show and should be deleted.

Second, stage directions (descriptions of how an actor is speaking or appearing, placed inside the quote itself — e.g. "[shouts] To the death!") are almost always unnecessary. The words, not the grimaces or volume, are what make for a good quote. (There are many hilarious and/or powerful scenes that do require knowing these directions, but that doesn't necessarily place them among the 3-5 best quotes of a work.) In general, if you can't understand the quote without stage directions, it's probably not a good fit for Wikiquote. In the rare cases that these directions are needed for the very best (and best-known) quotes, they should be incredibly brief — preferably 1-2 words — and should not be sentences. The idea is that each bit of material inside or surrounding a quoted line that isn't part of the quote itself detracts from the purpose of Wikiquote — providing excellent quotes.

To summarize, Wikiquote's goal is not to be the #1 web site for Blackadder quotes, let alone screenplay transcriptions. Wikiquote collects a select set of the very best quotes from all notable sources, and leaves the archiving to other websites. ~ Jeff Q (talk) 15:27, 1 January 2008 (UTC)

Copyright

Not to sound picky or anything, but should the copyright tag by about UK copyright law as opposed to US copyright law? Blackadder is a British show, therefore under "UK Legislation" or whatever it is. Dvp7 09:47, 23 May 2008 (UTC)