It’s appropriate that our 800th Doofus award, on Veterans Day, should be awarded to the British National Archives for a veteran “Oops!”
Officials behind the launch of a major initiative detailing lives of ordinary soldiers during the First World War were embarrassed by the discovery that they had mistakenly included the work of Blackadder character, Baldrick, in the archive release.
The work, entitled ‘The German Guns’ and attributed to Private S.O. Baldrick, was actually written by the sitcom’s writers Richard Curtis and Ben Elton some 70 years after the end of the conflict. Elton was reported to be “delighted at the news” and friends said he was already checking to see if royalty payments may be due.
. . .
A spokesman for the National Archive tried to laugh off the gaffe with a bigger gaffe by saying “Someone’s going to be shot for this”, which created a immediate storm on social media for its insensitivity.
There’s more at the link. Here’s the poem, courtesy of YouTube.
Yes, I’d say that was a bit over the top . . .
Peter
Just 'slightly'… :-0
I think you've been had. That looks kind of like a British version of The Onion.
I suspect it was all part of a cunning plan.