Rik Mayall has passed away today at the age of 56. He was part of a comedic generation that was part of my generation. As a twelve year old I watched repeats of Monty Python on BBC2, as well as Porridge, M*A*S*H, Different strokes....actually....am I trying to be trite and explain to the world Rik was the best ever comedian!!.....fuck off, he was no Spike, Peter Sellers, Peter Cook, Monty Python. However for my generation he was a comic genius....why.... well for me I first saw Rik as the beatnik, Cliff Richard influenced poet in 'The young ones'. I must have been 12/13 and yet my Dad (after initially thinking this was disgusting to actually very funny once he 'got the jokes') allowed me, but not my brother and indeed not to tell my mother who played Badminton on those nights.
So there you have it, I watched 'the young ones' so much so that when my cousin and I did the Dales Way, we were able to word for word recreate all the scripts. That is what kept us going.
Rik Mayall was special to my generation because he is part of Friday Night Live, Saturday Night Live, Comic strip, Bottom, Filthy, Rich and Catflap, Jesus Christ... the list goes on....
He is special to me because he was the alternative generation as the 80's generation we were fed up with Dads Army, Are you being served. We wanted a sitcom that said 'Fuck you!' Rik Mayall delivered and he and that generation continued to deliver with the likes of Blackadder.
I doff my hat and shout 'Bang on'
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I think Rik & crew were every bit as good as the Monty Python crew - just different for a different generation.
I was shocked when I heard, a mixture of my misspent youth and the realisation that I'm not that far away from his age..... Now that's a sobering thought.
No idea what he was like as a general person, but comic genius is ok by me as a descriptor - even if I didn't like all of his work.
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After watching The Young Ones again, Bottom, and Alan B'stard again I think he was kinda brilliant.
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That was for Bren