He’s been used in animated form - without permission - in government propaganda videos about the importance of protecting state secrets, alongside Spider-Man and Hitler. While international audiences were embracing Jackie Chan, Chinese audiences took Mr. This saw an influx of international shows, and nothing travels like slapstick. His peak years, the early 1990s, coincided with both mass TV purchasing in China and a slight relaxing in government control over what was broadcast on those televisions. Bean millions? China’s Clumsy COVID CorrespondentĬhina loves Mr. So if you were a slightly rubbery-looking dude with access to a tweed jacket and a teddy bear, why wouldn’t you jump on those sweet, sweet Mr. It’s an easy costume, and a character that transcends basically all barriers. Bean lookalikes - people who vaguely resemble him monetizing that vague resemblance, sometimes to pretty lucrative results. As such, there’s an international cottage industry of Mr. Naturally, this means that all over the world, people have tried to make a few bucks off of him. If you live within a mile of a TV, you’ve seen him. Bean walked in, everyone would shit their fucking pants. If Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson walked into a rural village in the middle of nowhere, people would be excited. When we think of global icons, we tend to think of people who are a bit cooler or sexier, but this dude is huge. Over 30 years, there have been two movies, an animated series, several books, an appearance at the Olympics, a starring role in British Airways’ safety videos and endless cameos, ads and one-off spots.Īll of which is to say, Mr. The episodes were sold to TV networks across the globe, and the character reached a kind of language-transcendent status. A combination of Rowan Atkinson ’s incredible performance and a minimal use of dialogue meant Bean’s slapstick antics became a worldwide success, a mainstay of in-flight entertainment systems in the days of one chunky CRT monitor at the front of the cabin. While only 15 half-hour episodes of the original series were made over a five-year period from 1990 to 1995, the character became an instant comedy icon.
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