Now I know they're crazy - Blackadder taken seriously

What is the world coming to. Micheal Gove, the education minister, has had a row with Baldrick after he (Gove) whined that Blackadder was wrong.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-25612369

I thought Blackadder Goes Forth was brilliant. A well produced comedy with a generous helping of the seriousness and futility of war. I never, and I don't think a kid of average intellect would, take it is gospel. So in effect, what Micheal Gove has done has insulted the intellect of the kids and the teachers. What a funny man he is.

I thought the very final episode wasn't even comedy. Sure it had the usual Blackadder humour in it, but there was, throughout, the tension and sensation of impending doom as the soldiers prepared to carry out what has got to be the most crazy plan in military history, to break cover and walk towards the enemy front line.

I don't personally know anyone that ever relied on Blackadder to give us the full factual details of the entirety of one of the most significant events in human history.

 

I'd agree, not comedy, it was very chilling.

 

Every time I have watched it I have felt churned up. Very poignant.

 

I'm struggling to understand what it is all about.
But if someone is saying the likes of Blackadder should not be considered how the events took place then I am with him.
Just cant seem to work out who is saying what.

 

Michael Gove is just another MP who hasn't got a clue.

 

It worries me, as a dad of two young kids, that people like him are ultimately responsible for what my kids are taught at school.

Will the new history of WW1 go something like this:

In 1914 some lad got assassinated, so every young man in Britain immediately volunteered to go and kick the Germans' behinds, which they did very swiftly while the french ran and hid. Under the command of British officers who never came up with daft ideas like 'break cover and walk across open ground towards the enemy front line, and shoot anyone for desertion if they refuse' they all had a jolly spiffing time in 5 star trenches, sipping Martinis and occasionally popping up to give jerry a jolly good hiding for being just not cricket. In 1918 the Germans apologised for disgracing themselves, and promised never to do it again, so we all went home for cucumber sandwiches on the lawn.

 

It's scary, that idiots like him that are in charge of education.

 

Gove is a nitwit

 

Ok so was it comedy?
Or was it trying show what really happened.
I could be misleading to anyone who didn't know different.

I'm just wondering if teachers are using 'allo 'allo, to point out to kids how things were in WW2?
Things must have changed quite a bit since I was at school, a teaching "tool" then was the black"board", not Blackadder.

With History they stuck to the facts, or at least the facts as they were known then.
Just makes me wonder why it is that our kids seem to be lagging behind a fair bit of the rest of the world when it comes to education.

 

Gove is also the same guy who has also said the latest Ashes tour was a "great triumph, not shambles"... He's really not with the rest of us...

Back on topic, WW1 was covered in my GCSE History course. We learnt about the conditions etc both sides soldiers were subject to in the trenches etc, in very graphic detail. Knowing Blackadder as I do now as a mid-30s adult, I would have liked to have had Blackadder included in the curriculum I was taught back then, to give some balance and different insight into WW1. Used as a secondary evidence tool, it would have been useful. And amusing

 

It was a comedy inspired by real events.

Have you ever watched it? Kids would have to be pretty thick to believe it was a verbatim representation of what happened. In one scene I recall, Private Baldrick asked Blackadder what all the little mushrooms were on the map. Blackadder explained they were mines. After some ridiculous humour, Baldrick asks what happens if you step on one, to which Blackadder replies "The usual procedure is to leap 200ft into the air, and then scatter yourself over a large area".

In another scene that springs to mind, the officers are looking at what appears to be a very good scale model of a chunk of land. Its about 2ft x 2ft. They are admiring the detail of this model, and patting themselves on the back for capturing such a chunk of land when one asks what scale it is at. I can't remember if it was Blackadder or Darling that got the job of explaining that it is not actually to any scale, what they are looking at is the actual chunk of land they'd captured.

Clearly this latter example very, very, very loosely reflects the stalemate situation that both sides found themselves in on certain fronts, where neither side was able to advance at all against the other. It would take a very simple mind to fail to realise that it was not actually fact. Nobody would believe that having captured 2ft square of land they would then dig it up in one piece and take it back to the officers to show them. I didn't realise until recently that some teachers were using Blackadder as part of their tuition about WW1, but it makes perfect sense. Get the kids amused, then they will pay attention, then afterwards talk to the class and get them thinking. If I was a teacher, I can imagine the bored faces I'd be looking at if I droned on about people they could never know standing in trenches in a part of the world they've probably never been to and not actually moving for years, but let them laugh at Blackadder then tell them, 'ok, so they didn't actually dig up 2ft square of land, but that represents the stalemate they were in...'. They might then just get it. Some of them might be sufficiently interested to go on to research it further in their own time.

 

So clearly there is no point in teachers using this as a teaching "tool".
It was as you say a comedy programme, nothing more nothing less, and should not be used in schools.
Morecombe and Wise used to do a few good plays "what Ernie had wrote", some were even historical.
Do teachers use these in schools?

 

As far as I'm concerned, Eric and Ernie are a million miles away from Blackadder. Their humour was very light-hearted. With Blackadder there was a strong undercurrent of the futility of war. I wouldn't for one second suggest that the average man in the trench wasn't extremely brave, but given the way in which the war was conducted, it's not difficult to imagine there must have been some callous people in charge, like those played by the Stephen Fry character General Melchett. Btw, comedy is used all the time in training courses, to make a point.
Anyway, if teachers think it's a good tool, why not let them get on with it?