Mincing at Versailles (Friday's Video)

Susan reporting:
We Nerdy History Girls are very partial to English humor, and when it's combined with history – whether Monty Python, Blackadder, or Horrible Histories – we're in laugh-riot heaven.

Recently I stumbled across a delicious series on YouTube staring the irrepressible Jennifer Saunders and Dawn French, cutting a hilarious swath through the court at Versailles shortly before the French Revolution. Let Them Eat Cake features Saunders as the immorally dense Colombine, Comtesse de Vache, and French as her far more clever (but equally immoral) maid Lisette, with Adrian Scarborough as the comtesse's ever-conniving hairdresser, stylist, and confidante, Bouffant - an 18th c. caricature brought to life. The series is irreverent and bawdy, full of huge wigs and extravagant gowns, and skewed appearances by everyone from Madame Vigee-Lebrun to the Marquis de Sade.

This clip features a showdown between the comtesse and her arch-rival, Madame de Plonge, both armed with huge skirts and servants. Which one will be forced to reverse down the hall so the other may pass?

If you wish for more, the whole series is on YouTube (though unfortunately each episode is cut into three parts). Here are the three links to the first episode, called "The Pox": Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.