Original artwork, not a still
It is a telegram, it is ordering an advance, but it seems to be addressed to someone called Cat-pain Black-udder.
— Blackadder · 1983
Behind the line
What it means
Our interpretation.
Blackadder grants every part of the order except the one that would make it his problem. A typist's mistake becomes a survival strategy, with the normally obtuse George and Baldrick suddenly happy to follow his reasoning. The joke belongs to a war in which finding a bureaucratic loophole can seem saner than obeying the bureaucracy.
Context reviewed
In context
Spoilers for BlackadderShow the scene
In ‘Corporal Punishment’, the second episode of Blackadder Goes Forth (1989), Blackadder tries to avoid receiving the order to advance. A telegram finally arrives, and George eagerly assumes that this must be it. Blackadder agrees about the telegram's contents but points out that the addressee's name has been mangled. George and Baldrick play along with the suggestion that nobody called Cat-pain Black-udder is present, buying their captain another brief reprieve.
Sources (1)
- Corporal Punishment subtitle transcriptCorporal Punishment — quoted sceneReference checked
Context reviewed
