Why is there Mr. Bean in Britain? It is because Britons are more aware of how they present themselves. The result is they will appear more polite and behave more a bit restricted, especially in public places. That is, they think they will get other people’s eyebrows raised if they act not polite or decent enough, thus, they choose to behave in a manner that heightens their self-awareness. And, Mr. Bean is to mock such a phenomenon and acts the opposite to make us laugh.

I am a Chinese born in Hong Kong, and I was taught to be a good girl, uphold high moral standards and avoid shame. With that, I have formed an ideology in myself that, I cannot disgrace my identity of being Chinese, so I act over-aware of presenting myself not allowing me to lose face – a Chinese family’s face – only to find I am not real at all.

Perhaps I was born valuing personal freedom over seeking identification or compliments from others. I like to be myself and I don’t want to force myself to act as the one the social norm likes or accepts. Through the process of growing up, I gain the ability to embrace my true self to undergo a personal transformation, I begin to know more about my real self and have been happy about it because I am being me.

Excessive politeness, propriety, and adherence to social norms can result in people becoming hypocritical or unhappy because those acts run counter to real human nature. While self-awareness can benefit acceptably present ourselves in terms of social norms, it can somehow lead to unnecessary negative experiences if we do it overly.

When we watch Mr. Bean, we feel happy and laugh a lot. It is because we, in a way, want to be him, thinking it is good to be Mr. Bean, who can neglect people’s and society’s eyes. With such an overt exhibition of self-unawareness Mr. Bean deliberately evinces to us, we must think he is egocentric. However; we can also see Mr. Bean sometimes wanting to be excellent and gain praise from others with many scenes as proof in the sitcom of him making a vigorous (despite being stupid and funny) effort to make himself present well.

So, is Mr. Bean aware or unaware of how he presents himself? The answer is he every time presents his true self.