Baldrick: My father was a nun.
Blackadder: No he wasn't!
Baldrick: Yes, he was! Everytime he was up in court, the magistrate would say: Occupation? And he'd say: None.
Blackadder: Dr. Johnson has just completed his book. Apparently it has taken him ten years.
Prince George: Well, yes, I'm a rather slow reader myself.
Lord Flasheart: All right men, let's do-oo-oo it! The first thing to remember is: always treat your kite
[Flashheart taps the picture of the Sopwith Camel with his stick]
Lord Flasheart: like you treat your woman!
[Flashheart whips the air with his cane]
Lieutenant George: How, how do you mean, Sir? Do you mean, do you mean take her home at weekends to meet your mother?
Lord Flasheart: No, I mean get inside her five times a day and take her to heaven and back.
Captain Blackadder: I'm beginning to see why the suffragette movement are wanting the vote.
Lord Flasheart: Hey, hey! Any girl who wants to chain herself to my railings and suffer a jet movement gets my vote!
Wellington: The men had a whip round and bought you this. Well, that is to say I had the men roundly whipped UNTIL they bought you this. It's a cigarillo case emblazoned with the regimental crest: two crossed dead Frenchmen on a mound of dead Frenchmen motif.
[Blackadder and the Prince Regent have exchanged clothes]
Prince George: Excellent, excellent! Why, my own father wouldn’t recognise me.
Blackadder: Your own father never can – he’s mad.
Prince George: Oh yes, yes.
Blackadder: Unfortunately, sir, you do realise that I shall have to treat you like a servant?
Prince George: [sarcastically] Oh, I think I can cope with that, Blackadder.
Blackadder: And you will have to get used to calling me ‘Your Highness’, Your Highness.
Prince George: ‘Your Highness, Your Highness.’
Blackadder: No, just ‘Your Highness’, Your Highness.
Prince George: That’s what I said, ‘Your Highness, Your Highness’, Your Highness, Your Highness.
Blackadder: Yes, let’s just leave that for now, shall we? Complicated stuff obviously.
Monk: Great booze-up, Edmund! [farts, leaves]
Aunt: Do you know that man?
Edmund: [looks behind himself as though he didn't really see] No...
Aunt: He called you `Edmund'...
Edmund: Oh, know him...oh, yes, I do.
Aunt: Then can you explain what he meant by `great booze-up'?
Edmund: [thinks ... ... ... thinks ... ... ... thinks ... ... ... thinks ] Yes, I can... My friend...is...a missionary...and...on his last visit abroad...brought back with him...the chief of a famous tribe... His name is Great Bu... He's been suffering from sleeping sickness...and he has obviously just woken...because, as you heard, "Great Bu's up"...
Percy: Well done, Edmund...
I also like how the show didn't take it self too seriously at times, knowing that some of the history was flawed, but as Richard Curtis says in the dvd extras, THAT'S British history to most people - most who aren't into it only remember mish-mashes from school lessons told to them by some dry toned anorak. I also like, as you seen in some great comedies, where they're willing to toss in the lame joke and make fun of it, like when the Queen says: Oh, Sir Walter, really ... and Melchett is the only one who catches the play on words and laughs, then stops as no one else does. Really clever insertion of a lame joke to get laughs at it being lame, not the joke itself. Great shows and writers take those risks.
I think 'Private Plane' and 'Duel and Duality' are my favs. I was living in the UK in '05, and Channel 5 did this 'top tear jerking' moments in television history thing, and that final scene in Goodbyee was in the top five, with all these guys talking about how you were prepped for a laughs, as usual, and then the final scene got really serious, esp. as you realised that the date was 1917. Richard Curtis talked about choosing that ending, taking a risk, but then loving it, with the poppy-filled field. Moving stuff.