Once in awhile it’s fun to pick up an old classic, and this was a good choice. It reminded me a lot of Three Men in a Boat. Written in 1938, The Code of the Woosters features Bertie Wooster (an upper class lovable but gormless character) foolishly stumbling and bumbling through slapstick adventures, only to be saved each and every time, by his wise and intelligent butler Jeeves. Wodehouse wrote many instalments and series about these two, all poking fun at the British idle rich, and always with Jeeves cleverly and boldly unraveling the whole convoluted mess, in his calm, collected, and elegant manner.
Old British comedy is often absurd, capitalizing on simple situations and misunderstandings that just get worse and worse (think Fawlty Towers and Black Adder). Jeeves and Wooster episodes aired in Britain in the 90’s. I have included here a youtube with bits from this book. I loved watching British comedy icons Hugh Laurie (Bertie Wooster) and Stephen Fry (Jeeves), but also unexpectedly Highclere Castle (from Downton Abbey fame) makes an appearance as Totleigh Towers! Who knew?
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