Ebenezer Blackadder

Ebenezer Blackadder runs a modest shop in Victorian London and is, by universal agreement, the kindest man in England. He gives away his stock, forgives every debt, and endures a parade of relatives and swindlers who take shameless advantage of his good nature, all while insisting, with a patient smile, that kindness is its own reward.

The joke is the inversion: centuries of scheming Blackadder ancestors produce one descendant who is simply, catastrophically nice, and Atkinson plays the niceness completely straight, which makes it funnier than any smirk could. Watching goodness get systematically punished, and watching this particular actor hold his composure through it, is the whole delicious engine of the thing.