In Monty Python’s Flying Circus episode #33, “Salad Days”, there’s a sketch about a group of mountain climbers attempting to climb Uxbridge Road. This exchange takes place between the interviewer and one of the climbers:
Interviewer: Bert, some people say this is crazy.
Bert: Aye, well but they said Crippen was crazy didn’t they?
Interviewer: Crippen was crazy.
Bert: Oh, well there you are then.
Who is Crippen? Why was he crazy?
Crippen was a doctor who killed lots of his patients.
Try doing a Google for “Dr. Crippen”.
Whoops! Guess he killed his wife, shocking 1910 England.
www.marconicalling.com/museum/html/ events/events-i=47-s=0.html
The story of Dr Crippen is about one man’s brutal murder of his wife and his attempt to get away with it. Without wireless, it is doubtful that Crippen would have been caught. He was apprehended in Canada, after an incredible transatlantic chase, which was followed by the world’s press.
Or try this link:
Or even the corrected first one:
(Mods: please correct space in first link and delete this post).
http://www.marconicalling.com/museum/html/events/events-i=47-s=0.html
Or try this badger!
… WTF is the “off-licence?”
It’s a fair cop.
An Off License is a shop where you can buy alcohol. Not sure why it’s called that, though.
I seem to remember a Dr Crippen reference in Blackadder Goes Forth, too. “It’s about as convincing as Dr Crippin’s defense lawyer,” or something to that effect. I can’t remember the episode, though.
The Blackadder DVD boxed set has little Historical Facts stuff that point out many of the references, by the way. Tony Robbins narrates, except on my discs his last few words are cut off.
And why is it these new Lurex dance tights wear out after only a couple of evenings’ fun?
Oh. Well, back to the thread.
We have the revered Off License in Canada, too. (Usually called “off-sales.”)
It means the proprieter has a license to sell bottled goods to be consumed off-premises.
What’s a non sequitur?
I like pie.
For a fun fictional take on Crippen, try Peter Lovesey’s very clever 1982 crime novel The False Inspector Dew.
Thanks for the answers. At first I thought they were saying “Cribbins”, and so I took the reference as Bernard Cribbins who, coincidentally, played the blustery Mr. Hutchinson in the “Hotel Inspectors” episode of Fawlty Towers. But then I thought, why would this affable comedic actor be crazy?, so I Googled “crippen” (I didn’t think to assume he was a doctor) and “crippen crazy” but the only returns I got were scripts to the aforementioned sketch.
In the premiere episode of the British series Coupling there was a joke about the Crippens. One of the women was talking to her boyfriend and compared their relationship to the Crippens. The boyfriend was shocked and said that Crippen killed his wife. The woman said that too many people focused on the murder and ignored all the happy years they had together before that. It was a funny joke, but apparently the Americans who remade the show felt their audience wouldn’t get it. They tried to sustitute the Titanic as the punchline which didn’t work as well.
Here’s another version of events courtesy of CourtTV’s Crime Library.
I have the same problem with my DVD player/Blackadder set, but the ends aren’t cut off when I play the same bits on my Playstation2. Just FYI.
Sorry for the hijack.
As for Crippen…How should I know, I’m not Doctor bloody Bernovski!
(And, more on-topic…is this a famous doctor? It’s from the Penguin-on-TV sketch)
Pubs, bars, etc are licensed premises as they have a license to sell alcohol for consumption on their premises. Off-licenses are not licensed to sell alcohol for consumption on their premises.