Original artwork, not a still
Well, in that case, sir, I hope you will not object if I also offer the Doctor my most enthusiastic contrafribblarities.
— Blackadder ‧ 1983
Behind the line
What it means
Our interpretation.
Blackadder uses the manners of congratulations to deliver sabotage. The bogus word sounds just plausible enough to attack Johnson at the point where he is proudest: his claim to have recorded the language. It is a distinct part of the dictionary routine, an apparently gracious greeting that turns vocabulary into a weapon of social embarrassment.
Context reviewed
In context
Spoilers for BlackadderShow the scene
In ‘Ink and Incapability’, the second episode of Blackadder the Third (1987), Doctor Johnson visits the Prince Regent with his newly completed dictionary. Blackadder congratulates him using an invented word, then claims that it is perfectly ordinary language where he comes from. Johnson's confidence falters at the prospect of an omission. The butler follows up with more elaborate verbal inventions, making the dictionary's introduction an exercise in tormenting its author.
Sources (2)
- Ink and Incapability — episode subtitle transcriptBlackadder the Third — Ink and Incapability; quoted conversationReference checked
- Blackadder the Third — WikiquoteInk and IncapabilityReference checked
Context reviewed
