Not quite sure where to start with this one. After the Zimbabwean cricket team pulled off one of the great results in its history, beating Pakistan by a single run in the T20 World Cup, the hardman president of Zimbabwe, Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa, sent the following tweet of congratulations:
“Next time, send the real Mr Bean …” might seem like it’s the result of autocorrect and an inattentive social media manager, but it’s actually a lot weirder. Quite a lot. It’s apparently a reference to a Mr Bean tribute act that happened in 2016 in Harare.
Pakistani comedian Asif Muhammad, known as Mr Pak Bean, performed a comedy routine in Harare impersonating British actor Rowan Atkinson’s iconic character Mr Bean. It… did not go great.
It went so badly, in fact, that six years later, Zimbabweans are still mad. The night before the game, a fan tweeted at the Pakistan cricket team: “As Zimbabweans we wont forgive you… you once gave us that Fraud Pak Bean instead of Mr Bean Rowan. We will settle the matter tomorrow just pray the rains will save you,” later adding, “We felt embarrassed in front of our families”.
Apart from being a little rough on the Pakistan cricket team, who we’re pretty sure has no power to direct Rowan Atkinson’s appearance schedule, spare a thought for Mr Pak Bean. Imagine you have a Mr Bean tribute act, and you go to Zimbabwe, and they give you a fucking police motorcade on the way to the gig.
And then you flop so hard it causes an international incident.
