![]() ![]() Rick works himself into a state of near-constant spluttering indignation over such topics as South Africa and the pop singer Cliff Richard, whom he venerates, and preeningly vents his outrage by spitting frightful verse in a loathsome lisp. Set in a dilapidated student house that wobbles like it’s fit to blow over any second, The Young Ones concerns four undergraduates at Scumbag College, among them Edmondson’s pimply, human-wrecking-ball punker, Vyvyan, and a simpering self-proclaimed “People’s Poet” in New Waver togs named Rick, played by Mayall. The most celebrated of Mayall’s unfuckables was broadcast into British living rooms the following year with the debut of The Young Ones, written by Mayall, Elton, and Mayer. Kevin’s topics included “ Death,” “ Nasty Little Sticky Things,” and, more than once “ Sex” though, despite a hang-up on a local girl named Theresa Kelly, Kevin had seemingly never “done it,” per se-a quality that he shared with many a Mayall character in years to come, including “Richie” Richard in Bottom (1991-95). Kevin’s monologues were labeled investigative reports, though his investigations never seem to take him much further afield that the Tesco in his native Redditch, and he would usually forget his topic before he even began, becoming flustered and distracted by niceties of language and wholly irrelevant details. ![]() These combined to give Kevin the air of not being quite all right, an impression furthered by his fixation on cornflakes and casual references to being sick on himself. On each episode of the sketch show A Kick Up the Eighties, which first aired on BBC2 in fall of 1981, Kevin would appear to deliver a digressive, stream-of-consciousness monologue in direct-address to “armchair Britain,” single takes infused with a nervous energy by Mayall’s fidgety presence, his slightly askance, lazy-eyed stare, and choppy done-over-the-sink-at-home haircut. Mayall made his first real impact on television by way of a character never widely known to American audiences, a shut-in Midlander named Kevin Turvey. (Such was the popularity of Mayall and other young comedians at the Comedy Store that they eventually broke away to create their own venue, The Comic Strip.) Mayall and Edmondson began performing as a two-man act called 20th Century Coyote while still at university, and after graduation they gained a degree of infamy at London’s Comedy Store, where Mayall rolled out the characters that would soon make his name. In 1975, Mayall entered the University of Manchester, and there met future collaborators Ade Edmondson, Ben Elton, and Lise Mayer. Mayall was born in 1958 in Harlow, Essex, but raised in the West Midlands, an identification which would leave a deep impression on his comedy. ![]() And while I’m not a great believer in the RIP industry and the chasing of hearses for content, once a week I fill this space with whatever is on my mind, and in this particular case, that something happens to be Rik Mayall. Last Monday, word went around that Rik Mayall, the English comedian, had died at the age of 56. ![]()
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