#leave it to Jeeves

[may-darling]

Corky: “Why do you have to bring Jeeves everywhere?”

Bertie: “I have social anxiety and Jeeves is my emotional support valet.”

[orangelasagnaart]

I’ve been watching “Jeeves and Wooster” on YouTube recently and every episode goes like this:

Someone: Bertie can you do this thing for me (preferably give the task to Jeeves)

Bertie Wooster: i dont really want to but i must prove that i am intelligent

(he isnt)

Jeeves: yes sir your very smart

(then solves the whole problem himself)

Then jeeves saves Bertie from getting married

Then they make out passionately

Tongue in mouth lips on lips

[idanit]

I don't think I've seen people talk about this, but it bothers me.

In "Leave It to Jeeves", Jeeves talks of his former employer:

“I wonder if I have ever happened to mention to you, sir, a Mr. Digby Thistleton, with whom I was once in service? Perhaps you have met him? He was a financier. He is now Lord Bridgnorth. It was a favourite saying of his that there is always a way. The first time I heard him use the expression was after the failure of a patent depilatory which he promoted. (...) His depilatory failed, but he did not despair. He put it on the market again under the name of Hair-o, guaranteed to produce a full crop of hair in a few months. It was advertised, if you remember, sir, by a humorous picture of a billiard-ball, before and after taking, and made such a substantial fortune that Mr. Thistleton was soon afterwards elevated to the peerage for services to his Party. It seems to me that, if Mr. Corcoran looks into the matter, he will find, like Mr. Thistleton, that there is always a way.

In "Jeeves and the Hard-Boiled Egg," he likewise mentions him:

“It was a maxim of one of my former employers, sir⁠—as I believe I mentioned to you once before⁠—the present Lord Bridgnorth, that there is always a way. I remember his lordship using the expression on the occasion⁠—he was then a business gentleman and had not yet received his title⁠—when a patent hair-restorer which he chanced to be promoting failed to attract the public. He put it on the market under another name as a depilatory, and amassed a substantial fortune. I have generally found his lordship’s aphorism based on sound foundations.

Doylistically, I think this is Wodehouse reusing his bits and tripping up, or maybe making a little in-joke for the readers who know and remember his previous stories. But watsonianly, what is happening here? Lord Bridgnorth couldn't possibly have made a depilatory that failed, rebranded it as Hair-O, amassed a fortune and a title, then made a hair restorer despite already having a successful hair restorer product, and after its failure rebranded it as a depilatory, right?

Is Jeeves misremembering? Inventing his anecdotes? Lying? And for what?

[thethirdromana]

Time for the next Jeeves and Wooster outfit poll!

From Leave It to Jeeves:

“I am putting out the brown suit, sir.” “No, I think I’ll wear the blue with the faint red stripe.” “Not the blue with the faint red stripe, sir.” “But I rather fancy myself in it.” “Not the blue with the faint red stripe, sir.” “Oh, all right, have it your own way.”

There's so much menswear in my targeted ads now. The blue suit is Pini Parma; the brown one, Cavani Caridi.

Again, not much to go on in terms of Jeeves' actual objection, so I'm forcing the choice.

[themirokai]

Jeeves smiled paternally. Or, rather, he had a kind of paternal muscular spasm about the mouth, which is the nearest he ever gets to smiling.

- Leave it To Jeeves

[red-umbrella-811]

Ok, “The Artistic Career of Corky” is a much better title, because with that title, you have some slight chance of distinguishing between it and every other Jeeves story that’s called something like “Jeeves Fixes the Problem”

[eirinstiva]

I'm speechless

Bertie: (describes how amazing is Jeeves)

Me:

Jeeves: (makes the most amazing plan)

Me:

Muriel: (got married to Corky's uncle)

Me:

[uozlulu]

I finished "Leave It to Jeeves" via Letters Regarding Jeeves.

Have some spoilers and thoughts:

Don't let your girlfriends talk to your uncles about birds. This apparently leads to babies, no bees required. Poor Corky.

Corky is like a character from Rent almost. Got to remind him you can get paid for the art you do

I know we have no canonical age for Jeeves, but I think him having a paternal smile in that moment makes me lol a little if he's like only ten years older than Bertie and Corky

Love how Jeeves was like, "The marriage was always a possibility," and Bertie and Corky being like "What?!"

Love it when Bertie sends me scandals in the mail.

[classics-cocks-and-concoctions]

girl I was also gonna fall to my knees in the middle of Cosco because what do you MEAN she got with the guys UNCLE???

[cfffrk]

What if Jeeves had worked as a page boy at a private boys' school in his youth?

[deboracabral]

very good, sir

[shittywriterbrain]

no comment just bertie bumping his head

[yeah-thats-probably-it]

Left: Psmith having an unexpected nocturnal meeting with his future wife, who’s currently preoccupied with other things

Right: Jeeves having an unexpected nocturnal meeting with his employer, who’s currently preoccupied with other things

Spot the difference

[idanit]

pipped!

[bloomfish]

u don't need to know anything about these guys just pick based on silliness of name

[sandwichsapphic]

i feel like this sums up a good lot of the jeeves and wooster books