Mr. Beans. The riotous one man comic. The modern day Charlie Chaplin. The man who can make you laugh you’re guts out just by his antics, not using a single word all throughout. He grins, he snorts, he chuckles, he raises eyebrows and we laugh along, amused by his idiosyncrasies and quirks.

But something that we all know but never realise is that Beans is a man lonely and alienated from society. He lives in his own world, lacks the necessary and very basic social skills ( much to our amusement) and is in more than one way a lonely heart. His only friend is a decrepit shaggy little soft toy bear that he lovingly calls teddy. Teddy’s the only person he speaks to. He lives his life alone, not knowing how to laugh with others and care for others. Its just him and his quirks.

We find him exceedingly funny. After all, the man is hilarious. No one does things the way he does. But then the question is, how many lonely heart do we know. In the Classic film “ My Heart Is A Lonely Hunter” we see how the protagonist commits suicide because he cannot tolerate the loneliness that has afflicted his life. Mr. Beans is also another victim of loneliness, of social alienation, the only difference is that he does not realise it. His quirks and idiosyncrasies actually protect him from the dark shadows of loneliness.

Charlie Chaplin is one of the greatest comic characters of all time. But he too was a sad soul. He seldom smiled, he never laughed. But this man got us all rolling on our bellies with his antics.

The fundamental question here is that are we human beings essentially heartless? We laugh at things that are not plain and simple funny, but things that have deeper implications. We laugh when a stranger trips over a banana peel. Yeah. Hilarious. We laugh when that coyote in the Road Runner show falls into an abyss. We laugh when… yeah I know I’m sounding a bit too cynical here. Some of you might even ask me to relax and not over analyse things. But these were my thoughts and I just wanted to share them. Besides, I’m no exception either, I daresay, I find Mr. Bean a rather enjoyable show.