Hugh Laurie, an athiest! This is a scene from one of his movies

[artislife]

I sent it to my friends who know that I am not a christian, I don't celebrate it...unless I get invited to have a good meal. Hey...I like it when someone cooks for me...

[beam me up scottie]

1. Excellent! How's this for a carol?

[deucemagnet]

10. I never understood that song until last year.

A reddit thread explained that Santa was actually Daddy in a Santa suit. Mom and Dad were getting a little playful with the Santa suit and the song is from the perspective of a spying child who misinterpreted the whole scene.

I still despise the song, but the new perspective makes it a little more palatable.

[Yorktown]

2. Wodehouse

[Ron Obvious]

3. Hugh Laurie was born to play Bertie Wooster

Tallish with a kind but foolish face, exactly matching the description.

[Yorktown]

4. And Fry pulls it off surprisingly well despite being a bit too young

Might have helped he's a bit depressive, adds to the stern look.

[Ron Obvious]

5. I like Stephen Fry and he did a decent job...

... but he didn't match my mental image of Jeeves at all. I would picture someone more like, oh, Anthony Hopkins maybe. Maybe not, I don't know a lot of actors. The aunt Agathas (who, as we all know, sacrificed babies at full moon and chewed broken glass for snacks) didn't look nearly fearsome enough either, really.

Great show, though.

[Yorktown]

6. Yes, Hopkins. Maybe with a twinkle in the eye.

[progressoid]

7. I used to check out those DVDs from the library.

Even got my teen aged daughter to watch it. It might have been the reason she's an Anglophile today.

[Yorktown]

8. Always been a Wodehouse addict. Then I learnt Hitchens was a Wodehouse expert.

And I felt as if the Holy Spirit had shone on me.

[Lordquinton]

12. They call it the "Woodhouse Effect"

And by "They" I mean "Me" and by "Call it" I mean "I just made that up"

[Yorktown]

14. I know you just made up 'WoODhouse'

[Lordquinton]

16. That wasn't me, that was autocorrect

Which is known to be uncultured swine.

[Yorktown]

17. I fear you 'might' have just been very incorrect toward Mr. autocorrect

Which is a paradox.

[Lordquinton]

18. Mr. Autocorrect can go duck himself

That shifting little farthing father can luck into her bassmaster while he photosynthesises monkey.

[Yorktown]

19. My good Sir, I dare hope there are no hidden spoonerisms in that sentence of yours.

[Gore1FL]

21. Good tines. Good tines. n/t

[awoke_in_2003]

20. Thanks

That is the best laugh I have had at DU in some time.

[AlbertCat]

22. Wode....

English[edit]
Etymology 1[edit]
From Middle English wode, from Old English wōd ‎ “mad, raging, enraged, insane, senseless, blasphemous”), from Proto-Germanic *wōdaz, from Proto-Indo-European *wāt- ‎ “prophet”). Cognate with Middle Dutch woet (Dutch woede), Old High German wuot (German Wut ‎ “fury”)), Old Norse óðr, Gothic 𐍅𐍉𐌸𐍃 ‎ wōþs, “demonically possessed”). The Indo-European root is also the source of Latin vates ‎ “seer, prophet”), Old Irish fáith ‎ “seer”), Welsh gwawd ‎ “song”).

Alternative forms[edit]
wood
Adjective[edit]
wode ‎ comparative woder, superlative wodest)

(archaic) Mad, crazy, insane, possessed, rabid, furious, frantic.  [quotations ▼]
Etymology 2[edit]
See woad

Noun[edit]
wode ‎ uncountable)

Obsolete spelling of woad
Middle English[edit]
Etymology 1[edit]
From Old English wōd, see above.

Noun[edit]
wode (uncountable)

madness, insanity an overmastering emotion, rage, fury
When thei saw hir for wode so wilde Thei did lede hir ... With-oute the toun ... And stoned hir to dethe. — The Laud Troy Book
At cherche kan god ... yelde þe wyttes of þe wode. — Ayenbite of Inwyt
Verb[edit]
wode (third-person singular simple present wodeth, present participle wodende, simple past and past participle woded)

To be or go mad; be or go out of one's mind; behave wildly; be frenzied; go out of control.
Vices woden to destroyen men by wounde of thought. — Chaucer
to be or become furious, enraged.
Whan I ne may my ladi se, The more I am redy to wraththe ... I wode as doth the wylde Se. — Gower
Conjugation[edit]
[show ▼]Conjugation of wode
Adverb[edit]
wode

frantically
ferociously, fiercely
intensely, furiously
Lat us to the peple seme Suche as the world may of us deme That wommen loven us for wod. — Chaucer
furiously enraged, irate, angry
He was wod wroth and wold do Thomas ... to deth. — Mirk's Festial: A Collection of Homilies by Johannes Mirkus
When þe wale kyng wist, he wex wode wroth. — Wars of Alexander
Adjective[edit]
wode

mad, insane, possessed, furious, frantic, mentally deranged, of unsound mind, out of one's mind.
rabid
wild, not tamed
Derived terms[edit]
wodeman — a madman
wode sik — insane, mad
brain wode — out of one's mind
waxen wode from — to become mad because of (sth.), be made mad by
woden-drēm — madness, insane folly
wodewosen — to run wild, become mad
woded, wodehedde — madness, lunacy, mental illness
Etymology 2[edit]
From Old English wudu see wood.

Noun[edit]
wode

wood (material).
Verb[edit]
[show ▼]Conjugation of wode
To hunt.
To take to the woods; hide oneself in the woods (also reflexive: ben woded).
Derived terms[edit]
wodewarde, forester
Descendants[edit]
English: wood


***********

all the crying smiley faces come up instead of the 1st parenthesis ( . I don't know exactly why because it doesn't do it every time, but I kept them because.... I like it

I also like how "prophet" went to "“mad, raging, enraged, insane, senseless, blasphemous” and “demonically possessed”. Makes sense

[deucemagnet]

9. As was the character Gregory House.

[artislife]

15. I am such a fan. I even belong to private fb groups!

The man and the character are both equaly fascinating.


And atheists!

[onager]

11. A great Laurie bit, and seasonally on-topic too!

From "Blackadder Xmas Carol," with Laurie playing the Prince:

Edmund:...So, shall I begin the Christmas story?

Prince: Absolutely, as long as it's not that terribly depressing one about the chap who gets born on Christmas Day, shoots his mouth off about everything under the sun, and then comes a cropper with a couple of rum-coves on top of a hill in Johnny Arab land.

Edmund: You mean Jesus, Sir...

Prince: Yes, that's the fellow. Keep him out of it -- he always spoils the X-mas atmos'.

Before that in the same show, a line actually got censored on the official DVD release:

Baldrick: Well, I was a bit rushed. I've been helping out with the workhouse nativity play.

Ebenezer: Oh, of course! How did it go?

Baldrick: Well, not very well -- at the last moment, the baby playing Jesus died!

Ebenezer: Oh, dear! This high infant-mortality rate is a real devil when it comes to staging quality children's theatre. What did you do?

Baldrick: Got another Jesus.

Ebenezer: Oh, thank goodness. ...and his name?

Baldrick: 'Spot'. There weren't any more children, so we had to settle for a dog instead.

Ebenezer: Oh, dear. I'm not convinced that Christianity would have established its firm grip over the hearts and minds of mankind if all Jesus had ever said was "Woof."

Baldrick: Well, it went all right until the shepherds came on. See, we hadn't been able to get any real sheep, so we had to stick some wool--

Ebenezer: ...on some other dogs.

Baldrick: Yeah... and the moment Jesus got a whiff of them, he's away! While the angel's singing "Peace on Earth, Goodwill to Mankind," Jesus scampers across and tries to get one of the sheep to give him a piggyback ride!

Ebenezer: Scarcely appropriate behaviour for the son of God, Mr Baldrick. Weren't the children upset?

(THE FOLLOWING LINE WAS CENSORED)

Baldrick: Nah, they loved it. They want us to do another one at Easter -- they want to see us nail up the dog.

[mountain grammy]

23. ...

[gelatinous cube]

13. Hugh Laurie...