Corrected entry: Both Captain Blackadder and Captain Darling make references to facetious conversations with Pope Gregory IX. Obviously they didn't speak to the pontiff, but it is not even a joke that way because Gregory IX was pope from 1227-1241; if they wanted the Pope reigning at the time of the Great War, they meant to say Benedict XV (1914-1922).
Plan E: General Hospital - S4-E5
Corrected entry: During George's first day in the hospital, he mentions in his letter that Blackadder 'lay down and stuck his foot over the side of the trench'. The trench walls are at least 8 feet tall, so there's no way Blackadder could have done this.
Correction: The exact wording is that he lay on his back and stuck his foot over the edge. That doesn't exclude the possibility that he was lying on top of something.
Corrected entry: In the opening sequence, watch the members of the band who aren't in the main cast - there are at least two shots where one or more of the band are obviously smiling/laughing at what the main cast members are doing at the time (most noticeably is when Blackadder yells the "Eyes Right" command - there's a guy a short distance behind Blackadder who grins during the salute.
Plan E: General Hospital - S4-E5
Corrected entry: Blackadder makes the joke, "I imagine he went to one of the great Universities, Oxford, Cambridge, Hull." This is probably around 1916, but Hull University didn't exist until 1927. We cannot put it down to the joke either, as he explains later the nurse failed to point out its quality, not its existence.
Correction: The original question by Blackadder was not a joke, it was a deliberate mistake to trick Nurse Mary. As for the explanation later when he reveals her to be the spy, his exact words are that only two of them are great universities. The mistake is only valid if he had emphasised the word universities which he does not. His words can easily be interpreted as saying that only two of them are universities which was, at the time, true.
Plan E: General Hospital - S4-E5
Corrected entry: In the beginning of the scene, Nurse Mary is reading a newspaper. She puts it on the sofa, but few shots later, the newspaper is gone. (00:21:50)
Correction: The end and back of the sofa are open and if you watch carefully when she puts it down, the newspaper slides off the sofa and falls on the floor. We don't see the area where it must have fallen so there's no mistake.
Plan E: General Hospital - S4-E5
Corrected entry: Black Adder says that there are four verses to "God Save the King." There are actually five, and technically there are six. However, the final verse is very anti-Scottish (added after the Jacobite rebellion of 1745-46), and is very rarely seen and even more rarely performed.
Correction: While this may be true, Blackadder is merely trying to confuse Darling into confessing he's a German spy.
Corrected entry: While it is conceivable that Flashheart would be so lost as to be unaware of which side of the lines he crashed on, it is absurd that he would mistake a uniformed British officer for a German. The uniforms are completely different - they aren't even the same colour. 'Friend or foe' recognition was hammered into pilots at every stage of their training to prevent them accidentally bombing or strafing their own side.
Correction: Blackadder is not a historical drama. It is a comedy. Flashheart is an idiot, and so obsessed with himself or certain he's right that no one else matters. All he saw was a soldier, so he attacked.
Adding deus ex machina explanations for mistakes does not invalidate them. Flasheart is an officer in the Royal Flying Corps and though he is shown as a narcissistic braggart, he is not an idiot. As part of his training, "Friend or foe" recognition would have been ground into him in order to prevent him strafing his own lines. Besides, excusing a mistake because "it's a comedy" invalidates countless postings on this site.
Correction: That's rather the point in Blackadder's case - he's being facetious, referring to a conversation that's hardly likely to happen. Picking the name of a Pope who's been dead for nearly seven hundred years is entirely in character. And as for Darling, as is established on many occasions throughout the series, he's not exactly the sharpest knife in the drawer, so he doesn't pick up on it when Blackadder claims to be the wrong Pope.
Tailkinker ★