Original artwork, not a still
Your brain, for example. It's so minute, Baldrick, that if a hungry cannibal cracked your head open, there wouldn't be enough to cover a small water biscuit.
— Blackadder · 1983
Behind the line
What it means
Our interpretation.
The joke depends on scale: Blackadder imagines a hungry cannibal finding almost nothing to spread on a very small biscuit. It is an extravagantly constructed way of calling Baldrick stupid, and the captain's brisk certainty is part of the cruelty. Without the opening reference to the brain, the image becomes a gruesome sentence rather than a complete character insult.
Context reviewed
In context
Spoilers for BlackadderShow the scene
In ‘Captain Cook’, the opening episode of Blackadder Goes Forth (1989), Baldrick's understanding of the world gives his captain another excuse to assess his intelligence. Blackadder chooses the size of Baldrick's brain as his example. The hypothetical cannibal and the small water biscuit make a full meal of the insult, with the word ‘brain’ supplying the essential link between the person and the impossible serving size.
Sources (2)
- Captain Cook — episode subtitle transcriptBlackadder Goes Forth — Captain Cook; quoted conversationReference checked
- Blackadder Goes Forth — WikiquoteCaptain CookReference checked
Context reviewed
