"Quick: Which two television shows have the most Facebook fans?


We’ll tell you. No. 1 is “The Simpsons,” boasting 69.6 million likes on its official page.


No. 2, however, may raise a few eyebrows, particularly in the United States. It’s a show whose regular run ended 20 years ago, with only 14 episodes to show for it. A show with very little dialogue, much of that consisting of wordless grunts and mumbles. Yes, the second-most-liked TV show on Facebook is “Mr. Bean,” at 61.5 million. To put that in perspective, “The Walking Dead,” by some measures the most popular scripted show on American television right now, has about half that number (31.9 million). “Game of Thrones”? 14.4 million.


The lack of dialogue is commonly cited as the main reason for his universal appeal. You don’t need to know English to understand the sketch in which Mr. Bean, dressed as usual in a shirt buttoned to the chin and a pair of high-water trousers, changes into bathing trunks on the beach by pulling them on over his pants, then pulling off one pant leg and tugging it through the crotch of the trunks.


The ordinariness of the situations also plays a role — as crazy as the sketches get, the fundamental problems Mr. Bean faces are ones we all encounter.


Mr. Atkinson feels that the most important factor is Mr. Bean’s innocence. “Once you’re denied language, denied words, and you need to express yourself in a purely visual way, you tend to acquire a very childlike demeanor."