1. Mr Bean Merry Christmas Mr Bean (ITV, 1992)
Christmas arrives and, as usual, Mr Bean approaches it with his unique blend of sociopathy and complete and utter chaos, including staging a very odd recreation of the Nativity in Harrods toy department and cheating at a guess the weight of the turkey competition with the help of some bathroom scales and a calculator. In short, this episode is sheer genius. Theres not a single joke that the scripting and Rowan Atkinsons performance dont make happen perfectly. Its an incredibly rare thing for an exclusively visual comedy to be successful, particularly with so much focus being put on dialogue and verbal jokes in most modern sitcoms but
Mr Bean always pulls it off perfectly (apart from the films). And
Merry Christmas Mr Bean is the best of the lot. Its best known for the scene where Bean gets his head stuck in his turkey but theres so much more than that to enjoy. Whether its the large scale stuff like Bean switching off the Harrods Christmas lights or him stealing the towns Christmas tree, to the smaller things like him listening to some carol singing children before slamming the door on them, every single gag hits the mark perfectly. Atkinson doesnt regard himself as witty and meticulously plans every single moment in
Mr Bean. And it really shows. The episodes never without a dull moment and despite Bean being pretty sociopathic throughout the episode (he beats the Grinch in the stealing Christmas stakes by not returning the towns Christmas tree), you still feel sorry for him when hes left alone on Christmas Day with nothing but Teddy and a high-powered Christmas cracker for company. Its no exaggeration to say that its completely unique and, for me, is always a required watch at Christmas. The other episodes on this list are a great bunch but they simply cant top this small masterpiece.
Best Moment: Mr Bean playing with the Nativity display in Harrods and adding dinosaurs, toy soldiers, and a Dalek. To leave death threats against me for not including
The Office on this list, post a comment below...