憨豆先生，你憑什么走紅36年

‘Mr. Bean’ Is Still Baffled, Bumbling and Beloved

憨豆先生，你憑什么走紅36年

Quick: Which two television shows have the most Facebook fans?

速問速答：在Facebook上粉絲最多的兩個電視劇是什么?

We’ll tell you. No. 1 is “The Simpsons,” boasting 69.6 million likes on its official page. No surprise there. Smiling yellow animated families play well all over the world.

讓我們來告訴你。第一名是《辛普森一家》(The Simpsons)，它的官方主頁得到了6960萬個贊。這沒什么好意外的。這一家子歡樂的黃色動畫小人在全世界都受歡迎。

Rowan Atkinson as the title character in 1995.

羅恩·阿特金森飾演憨豆先生，1995年。

No. 2, however, may raise a few eyebrows, particularly in the United States. It’s a show whose regular run ended 20 years ago, with only 14 episodes to show for it. A show with very little dialogue, much of that consisting of wordless grunts and mumbles. A broadly comic show with a jarringly artificial laugh track that felt antiquated even in its own time. A show entirely focused on a jug-eared comedian with an unusually square face, sloping nose and beetle brows, a visage that could be alternately menacing and angelic.

不過，第二名可能有點(diǎn)出人意料，尤其是在美國。這部電視劇只有14集，而且早在20年前就已結(jié)束常規(guī)播出。它的對白很少，大部分還是語義不明的咕咕噥噥。這部非?；碾娨晞∨湟詷O不協(xié)調(diào)的罐頭笑聲——這種做法即使在當(dāng)時也感覺有些過時。它完全圍繞一個長著招風(fēng)耳、怪異方臉、大鼻子和濃眉毛的喜劇演員展開，這樣的容貌看起來時而兇惡，時而像天使。

Yes, the second-most-liked TV show on Facebook is “Mr. Bean,” at 61.5 million. To put that in perspective, “The Walking Dead,” by some measures the most popular scripted show on American television right now, has about half that number (31.9 million). “Game of Thrones”? 14.4 million.

是的，F(xiàn)acebook上排名第二的最受歡迎的電視劇是《憨豆先生》(Mr. Bean)，它獲得了6150萬個贊。我們做個比較：依照某些標(biāo)準(zhǔn)衡量，現(xiàn)在美國最受歡迎的電視劇是《行尸走肉》(The Walking Dead)，它的粉絲數(shù)只有《憨豆先生》的一半(3190萬)?！稒?quán)力的游戲》(Game of Thrones)呢?1440萬。

It’s not surprising, given that kind of social-media hegemony, that the awkward, arrogant, narcissistic naïf created 35 years ago by Rowan Atkinson (with help from the writer Richard Curtis) is enjoying his fourth or fifth life. A new animated “Mr. Bean” series, voiced by Mr. Atkinson, began in February on the children’s network CITV in Britain. (It follows an earlier animated series about a decade ago.) And on Tuesday, Shout! Factory released “Mr. Bean: The Whole Bean,” a four-DVD set with the 14 episodes of the original TV show.

35年前，羅恩·阿特金森(Rowan Atkinson)在編劇理查德·柯蒂斯(Richard Curtis)的幫助下塑造了這個笨拙、自大、自戀、天真的人物，如今他正經(jīng)歷第四次或第五次復(fù)活。鑒于如今社交媒體的霸主地位，這并不令人驚訝。新一季動畫版電視劇《憨豆先生》(Mr. Bean)由阿特金森配音，2月份在英國少兒電視臺CITV開播(它的故事情節(jié)與10年前的上一季動畫版電視劇銜接)。周二，Shout! Factory推出了四碟DVD套裝《憨豆先生全集》(Mr. Bean: The Whole Bean)，收錄了最初的14集真人電視劇。

It was Mr. Curtis — who would later become the king of the British rom-com with “Notting Hill” and “Love Actually” — who suggested to his comedy partner, Mr. Atkinson, the idea of a purely visual piece in the style of the French master Jacques Tati. “The starting point, I remember, was where he said, ‘Why don’t we try and do a sketch about a man who can’t stay awake in a situation where you’re supposed to stay awake?’ ” Mr. Atkinson, 60, said recently by phone from London.

柯蒂斯后來憑借《諾丁山》(Notting Hill)和《真愛至上》(Love Actually)成為英國浪漫喜劇之王。最初，是他向喜劇搭檔阿特金森提出創(chuàng)作一個純視覺小品，風(fēng)格模仿法國喜劇大師雅克·塔蒂(Jacques Tati)。“我記得，最初他是這么說的，‘我們何不排個小品，講述一個在應(yīng)該保持清醒的情況下卻總是犯糊涂的人呢?’”60歲的阿特金森最近在倫敦通過電話說。

That was in 1979, and the sketch — which evolved into a scene of a man struggling to stay awake in church — was performed at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Mr. Bean popped up onstage occasionally over the next decade while Mr. Atkinson appeared in the TV shows “Not the Nine O’Clock News” and “Black Adder.” Finally, in 1990, “Mr. Bean” made its premiere as a half-hour special that included the church sketch. More episodes appeared, a few per year, through 1995. Two feature films followed.

那是1979年，他們在愛丁堡邊緣藝術(shù)節(jié)(Edinburgh Festival Fringe)上表演了這個小品，那時它演變?yōu)槊枥L一個在教堂里強(qiáng)忍著不睡著的男人。在接下來的十年里，阿特金森在出演電視劇《惡搞整九新聞》(Not the Nine O’Clock News)和《黑爵士》(Black Adder)之余，偶爾也登臺飾演憨豆先生。1990年，《憨豆先生》終于以半小時特別節(jié)目的形式首播，其中包括那個教堂小品。后來每年播出幾集，直到 1995年。隨后出現(xiàn)了兩部電影版《憨豆先生》。

The character has remained steadily popular in Britain, with Mr. Curtis and Mr. Atkinson producing sketches for Comic Relief fund-raisers and Mr. Atkinson appearing as Mr. Bean in the opening ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics. (The irregularity and small number of “Mr. Bean” episodes made the show hard to program on American TV in the days before viewers became accustomed to short-season British series. Episodes appeared during the 1990s on HBO and PBS, but it never gained the kind of following here that it did in the rest of the world.)

憨豆先生這個角色在英國一直很受歡迎?？碌偎购桶⑻亟鹕粩鄤?chuàng)作憨豆先生小品，為慈善項(xiàng)目Comic Relief募捐。阿特金森還以憨豆先生的形象亮相2012年倫敦奧運(yùn)會開幕式(《憨豆先生》劇集較少，播出時間不規(guī)律，當(dāng)時美國觀眾還不適應(yīng)短小的英國連續(xù)劇，所以它很難在美國電視臺安排播出。20世紀(jì)90年代，HBO和PBS頻道播出了其中幾集，但它在美國從未獲得在世界其他地方的那種追捧)。

Bean sketches follow a formula: The character is placed in an everyday situation — taking a test, shopping, packing for vacation — that disintegrates into a cascading series of predicaments and embarrassments. Mr. Bean responds with both prancing panic and a manic ingenuity that nearly always backfires. The comedy comes equally from the slapstick contortions through which Mr. Atkinson puts his Gumby-like frame and the unraveling of Mr. Bean’s sang-froid in a welter of winces, recoils and popping eyes.

憨豆先生的喜劇套路是這樣的：他總是置身日常場景——考試、購物、為度假整理行裝——最后總是陷入越來越尷尬的窘境。他總是陷入恐慌，手忙腳亂，在狂躁中想出一些奇怪的應(yīng)對辦法，這些辦法幾乎總是適得其反。它的喜劇效果既源自阿特金森表演各種鬧劇時酷似岡比(Gumby)的表情和肢體動作，又來自憨豆先生失去冷靜時畏畏縮縮的行為和睜得溜圓的眼睛。

The lack of dialogue is commonly cited as the main reason for his universal appeal. You don’t need to know English to understand the sketch in which Mr. Bean, dressed as usual in a shirt buttoned to the chin and a pair of high-water trousers, changes into bathing trunks on the beach by pulling them on over his pants, then pulling off one pant leg and tugging it through the crotch of the trunks.

人們普遍認(rèn)為，沒有對白是憨豆在全球受到普遍歡迎的主要原因。即使你不懂英語，也能看懂這樣的橋段：像往常那樣，穿著扣子扣到下巴的襯衫和吊腳西褲的憨豆先生，為了在海灘上換上泳褲，先把泳褲穿在褲子外面，然后把一條褲腿褪下，從泳褲的襠部塞過去。

The ordinariness of the situations also plays a role — as crazy as the sketches get, the fundamental problems Mr. Bean faces are ones we all encounter, like mistakenly ordering the steak tartare or picking up the wrong credit card. Of course, when we try to exchange cards with the man who picked up ours, we don’t end up following him through the store and cowering behind him in a restroom stall while he sits on the toilet.

不過，場景日常也是憨豆先生受歡迎的原因之一。雖然這些喜劇橋段很是荒唐，但是憨豆先生遇到的基本問題是我們所有人都可能遇到的，比如誤點(diǎn)了韃靼牛排，或者拿錯了信用卡。當(dāng)然，我們想把卡片換回來時，不會跟著對方穿過商店，不會在人家走進(jìn)廁所隔間在馬桶上坐下時，還畏畏縮縮地跟在后面。

Mr. Atkinson feels that the most important factor is Mr. Bean’s innocence. “Once you’re denied language, denied words, and you need to express yourself in a purely visual way, you tend to acquire a very childlike demeanor,” he said, citing Benny Hill and Charlie Chaplin as other examples of the naïve comic hero. “There’s always this sort of feeling of a childlike innocence combined with a childlike vindictiveness and selfishness and instinctive anarchy. I think I was considering him like an 11-year-old boy who’s given the responsibilities of an adult but hasn’t learned better. So what is funny about him is watching an adult behave in a way that adults are not supposed to behave.”

阿特金森認(rèn)為，憨豆先生最重要的一點(diǎn)是天真。“當(dāng)一個人不能說話、不能寫字，只能用面部表情和肢體動作表達(dá)自己的意思時，他的行為舉止就會變得非常像小孩，”他說。他還說，本尼·希爾(Benny Hill)和查理·卓別林(Charlie Chaplin)也是天真型喜劇角色的代表。“這個角色孩子般的天真里總是帶著孩子氣的惡意和自私，以及本能的混亂。我把他看做一個11歲的男孩，他要肩負(fù)起成年人的責(zé)任，但還沒完全學(xué)會。他的好笑之處就在于，一個成年人以成年人不該有的方式行事。”

When the second Bean film, “Mr. Bean’s Holiday,” was released in 2007, Mr. Atkinson told interviewers that he was done playing the character. He was worried that it would be uncomfortable — even sad — to watch a middle-aged man playing the eternally childlike Mr. Bean. But now he’s glad he didn’t listen to his own advice. “Rather oddly, middle age suits Mr. Bean more in many ways than youth,” he said. “I suppose this sort of sad selfishness perhaps works better in an older-looking man than in a younger-looking man.”

2007年，憨豆先生系列第二部《憨豆的黃金周》(Mr. Bean’s Holiday)上映。阿特金森在采訪中說，他不會再演這個角色了。他擔(dān)心，看著一個中年男人飾演永遠(yuǎn)長不大的憨豆先生會讓人覺得不舒服，甚至覺得悲哀。但是現(xiàn)在他很高興當(dāng)時沒有聽從自己的建議。“很奇怪，從很多方面看，在中年時期飾演憨豆先生比在年輕時要合適得多，”他說。“我猜這種可悲的自私由一個歲數(shù)大些的男人來表現(xiàn)，也許比讓一個年輕男人來表現(xiàn)效果更好。”

Mr. Atkinson is now busy voicing 52 short episodes for the new animated series, and he’s well aware of, if somewhat bewildered by, the Facebook numbers. It seems safe to say that Mr. Bean won’t be going away anytime soon.

阿特金森現(xiàn)在正忙著為52集的新動畫系列短片配音。他很清楚《憨豆先生》在Facebook上大受贊揚(yáng)，雖然這也讓他感到費(fèi)解。幾乎可以肯定的是，短時間內(nèi)憨豆先生不會從人們的視線里消失。

“There seems to be nothing about the character that people feel is too dated,” he said. “I mean, there may be if I act him too much in advanced middle age. But at the moment he seems to be O.K.”

“人們好像都沒覺得這個角色有任何過時的地方，”他說，“我是說，等我年紀(jì)再大一些，演這個角色演得太多的時候，人們可能會有這種感覺。但是目前來看，似乎還可以。”