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After having seen and laughed at Johnny English Reborn I realized that Rowan Atkinson is by far the longest running funny man I could think of.
For most men, comedy is a thing of their youth and early adulthood, or a stepping stone to something easier and less strenuous to do well; but R.A. has been very famous and funny since 1979 and Not the Nine O'Clock News and he is now even more famous and still funny.
That is considerably more than thirty years at the top of his game!
Rowan Atkinson is still primarily a comedian when all the other comics of that era have long since stopped being funny, and mostly stopped even trying to be funny.
Yet Atkinson is still there in front of the camera making people laugh by his own efforts; and has not become a presenter or actor or politician.
He is first and last a funny man - one of the greats.
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Note: the first time I saw the early TV episodes of Mr Bean I laughed so much that I it was almost uncontrollable - and I felt ill. I invited a friend around to see it on video - and he literally had to leave the room - it was simply too painful to laugh that hard.
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