#i believe bertie has spent enough time watching jeeves to grasp the basic theory of much of what he does | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

yeah-thats-probably-it · 19 days ago

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Once again tumblr is silencing my voice by not letting me add more than 30 tags. Okay the rest of what I was going to say is that if you gave him an assignment that was simple and out of the way enough, even upstairs, he might be able to stick it out for a couple hours. Another factor that determines how long that might be is where this is happening. Is he at Brinkley Court? Then Aunt Dahlia and the other servants (whom he seems to be on good terms with) will cover for him. No matter what he screws up, “oh, that’s Barry! He’s just new here!” Jeeves might be able to work something similar at a different manor house (presuming Bertie’s face isn’t already known there) if he’s on good terms with any of the servants there. They might agree to take Bertie under their wing as a favor to Jeeves. It also depends on whether Jeeves himself is there to help him, whether they’re working in the same area of the house, and if they’re able to inconspicuously pull each other aside to confer.

In conclusion: can’t answer question, too many variables

#this is tough because i kind of have to add some nuance #regarding the wording of the question itself #the question being asked is not how long he would last before getting found out #it’s how long he would last before saying/doing something inappropriate #the answer to the latter question is ‘within the hour’#because bertie’s model for what a proper servant is supposed to act like is jeeves. and jeeves says and does inappropriate things constantly #jeeves is not normal. he is not passing on good servantly practices. bertie does not understand that his own willingness to listen to #long lectures about pearls and shakespeare is not universal to all employers #however if the implicit question is how long before he’s caught that could vary a lot more depending on a range of factors #first of all as some have already noted i think bertie is smarter than he presents himself as #in the show he can’t make tea even with a manual but i don’t believe there’s any such scene in the books #he often is very vague about the details of jeeves’ valeting activities which could be taken to mean he doesn’t understand them #but could also just be conservation of detail or simply not seeing it as that important #everyone at this time knows what a valet does - we don’t need a detailed word picture about it #bertie has every detail of jeeves’ facial expressions and body language memorized #that speaks to many hours of staring at him and observing him #i believe bertie has spent enough time watching jeeves to grasp the basic theory of much of what he does #he would perform the task of ironing a shirt terribly but he COULD perform it #he understands the basic steps of 1. lay shirt on ironing board 2. pour water into iron 3. plug in iron #(electric steam irons were invented 1926 they could have had one from very good jeeves onwards)#and the end result would be a shirt with creases in all the wrong places that has nevertheless clearly been pressed with an iron #i think he could pass for a BAD servant for at least the better part of a day #as prev said he has better chances downstairs #you could hand him a dirty pot and a scouring pad and some soap and tell him to scrub it #upstairs he’s on very thin ice. again like prev said he has an expressive face and no filter #however i’m going to say that if he REALLY put everything he had into it he might be able to last an hour or two. again because of how much #he’s observed jeeves. if he kept mentally repeating ‘stuffed frog face. stuffed frog face stuffed frog face’ (there is a chance he would #eventually accidentally say this out loud) he could probably do a just plausible enough impression of a very distracted spaced out servant #who probably jumps every time someone speaks to him #if he DOES have to speak he knows a few scripted lines from jeeves but again jeeves is not the best model for talking like a proper servant

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