Many of us grew up watching syndicated episodes of the British sitcom “Mr. Bean” starring Rowan Atkinson, wherein he played a largely silent, bumbling bozo who always found himself in comical situations resulting from his various eccentricities and general overall clumsiness. Whether he was stuck in an emergency room waiting area with his hand stuck in a toaster or performing a dental procedure on himself after accidentally sedating his dentist, he never failed to entertain his audience. While, sadly, the show went off the air in 1995, we may have just found Mr. Bean’s real-life counterpart!
Can you believe it?
Meet 51-year-old Robert Keenan of Enfield, England, who recently found himself narrowly escaping the path of an oncoming car as he attempted to cross Lower Thames St. in London, which forced the driver to swerve into oncoming traffic. The resulting pile-up was absolutely tragic, with 7 deaths and 3 people currently in critical care, and whole lot of gut-busting. Get this: the whole thing happened because Keenan had stopped in the middle of the crosswalk to tie his shoe!
Come on now, Robert! Didn’t you learn any lessons from your predecessor?
It seems Robert found himself in the heart of London’s financial district for a business meeting, and the poor man just couldn’t keep himself from doing something embarrassing. While this isn’t quite at the level of him placing his shoe on a parked car and hopping after it on one foot while the car drives away, we imagine he’ll get there eventually. It takes time to become a universal symbol of comedic folly, and he’s just getting started. We just have to keep an eye on him in the meantime!
What’s next for Robert? For now, we have no idea, as it seems he is pretty shaken up from his wacky London adventure and has not surfaced from his studio apartment back in Enfield for the past few days. We just want him to know that we appreciated his little nod to one of British culture’s most iconic fictional characters, even if those left dead or fighting for their lives in St. Bartholomew’s Hospital likely feel different, and we’re holding out for him to reappear (preferably in a green Austin Citron Mini with a padlock on the driver’s side door) for some more hilarious hijinks soon. We’ll just have to keep a camera crew from Channel 3 at the ready for when he inevitably finds himself in another side-splitting debacle!
Do you have any ideas for Robert’s next big adventure in the city? Sound off in the comments, and we’ll find a way to reach out to him once he’s overcome the shock and guilt of his last one!