some random richie scs from ep1 fr&c <3

i drew some grotty students

Richard compliments ur outfit

my headcanon is that, while they're all generally broke students, mike has connections for money while rick and neil are supported by their parents just enough to get by (on lentils and half apples and cornflakes, but still.) but of course vyvyan doesn't even have that. and so he ostentatiously swipes food, eating all of neil's and rick's no matter how obviously it's labelled. and he has to do it in the most outwardly selfish, "i don't care i'm just trying to piss you off" way so that they yell at him about how much of a bastard he is and they don't notice how none of the food labelled in the fridge is his because he can't afford any, the same way they don't notice how he's the only one without a coat, etc etc.

I'm feeling so emotional about Rik and Ade tonight.

The original members of the Scumbag Server, which was founded late in the evening of 17th April 2019, first met and spoke to one another during the early hours of 18th April 2019. For the short period of time those scumbags were together in that server, they had fun. They enjoyed the thrill of having found people as completely potty about The Young Ones as they were.

Exactly 5 years later, on 18th April 2024, Bottom: Exposed has aired on Gold.

I'm no longer in that server - in fact, almost none of that original group are - and I have no idea what the majority of them are up to now. But I do know that small group of scumbags in 2019 would have gone absolutely insane over something like Bottom: Exposed. And that makes me smile.

There was a second or two where I wondered if I was going to, because I felt okay, but then I heard the waver in Ade's voice...

I ended up crying twice. And then once more afterwards just talking about them both.

cried at the Bottom documentary 👍

I mean, listen. For all my years being a young fan of this group of comics - a fan who arrived at the party almost 40 years too late - I've mostly had to make do with the strange sensation of nostalgia for a period I never lived through, coupled with a melancholic longing over the fact I can never be a part of or experience this comedy in its glowing heyday, all smashed together with the heartache of Rik Mayall's untimely death and the unspoken strain of time on the relationship of my favourite double act. There was always this huge, largely unspoken, glaringly obvious love between Rik and Ade. You could see it (paradoxically, some might say) in their characters, in their shared interviews. You could see it in the way they spoke about one another. But it was, for the most part, a subtextual thing. And then time and death came along, and the fine line between comedy and tragedy became a bit fucking too fine, and that was that. We fans today were just drifting through the dust.

But then, in the last year or so, Ade gave into his autobiographical urges. He started talking. Really talking. He's confirmed and revealed things about his life I never ever could've imagined he would. He's cried. He's made me bloody cry. And he's finally said the unsayable: that he and Rik loved each other, that Bottom grew from this love, and that he wishes this love hadn't always been so unspoken. I was standing to get off a train last autumn when I first saw the headline "Adrian Edmondson: 'Rik Mayall and I were in love with each other'". And that's it. That's everything. It felt like the truest thing I would ever read. It felt so fundamentally true that it didn't even surprise me as I read it, though it did make my heart beat a little quicker. It was a moment that reminded me why I fell in love with their comedy in the first place.

Am I being completely and utterly ridiculous here? Maybe. I don't know these men; I only know their comedy. I am not even the same person I was when I first lost the plot over them. One of them died when I was 12. For all the laughter - and, my God, there's a lot of it - there will also always be the melancholy and the sadness. And I am surely too young to be entitled to any of this pretentiousness.

But I tell you what. It's a bloody good time to be a Rik and Ade fan.

It truly is the moment to be a Rik and Ade fan right now.

It truly is the moment to be a Rik and Ade fan right now.

Tricky choice. I managed to get it down to either Ben Elton's essay on why The Young Ones is funny, the Bottom series 4 scripts, or Waiting for Godot. In the end, I went with the Bottom series 4 scripts.

I know they recycled at least bits of them into the subsequent live shows, but I'm still curious about the intentions for series 4. I'm assuming Richie and Eddie wouldn't have been magically transplanted to Hooligan's Island, because I very much doubt the BBC had the budget or the inclination to make new sets for a sitcom's fourth series (especially since Rik and Ade were no longer the new hot property, comedy-wise, by the late '90s). The whole deal with most traditional sitcoms is the situation stays roughly the same, so taking them out of Hammersmith would've been odd. I'm not sure Bottom the TV show would've worked outside the traditional sitcoms parameters it operated by - I can't see how it still would've been Bottom if they left Hammersmith, in the same way Guest House Paradiso isn't quite Bottom, more Bottom a few degrees to the left.

ANYWAY, point is, I'd like to find out what the individual episode plots were for series 4! Rik and Ade's propensity for coming up with new things for Richie and Eddie to do in that flat was impressive (and very amusing).

Another thing that springs to mind that I'd like to see is The New Statesman live show, The Blair B'Stard Project, which ran in 2006/07, and which I don't believe was ever filmed. Considering how long after the TV show it came, plus the fact there was no Piers (Michael Troughton wasn't acting at the time, as his wife had developed MS and he was her carer), it might've been... Not quite on level with the sitcom. But I'd still absolutely watch it, if I had the chance. One of my mum's friends went to see it and claims Rik called her a smart arse when he forgot a line and she shouted it out at him. 😂

To be honest, the only thing on this list I'd not totally jump at the bit to watch/read is Rik as Peeves. Once upon a time, I'd have loved to see the footage. I'm sure he knocked it out of the park. But I'm pretty content these days that he was cut from the first film and therefore isn't predominantly known for Harry Potter (because he definitely would be by the Americanised internet, if he'd been in it). I'm cool with having Drop Dead Fred take that spot for Rik, for anyone too young or not interested enough in British comedy to know otherwise who he was and what he did. When you think about it, Fred and Peeves are pretty similar, anyway.

Oh wow, just noticed I hit 700 followers. ❤️

my favourite thing ever is Rick and Vyvyan being together ‘secretly’ - except obviously they’re both bloody idiots and are very obvious when sneaking around and stuff. and Mike and Neil have been fully aware since day one, they just pretend not to be until the boys finally tell them. and on that day they’re just like yeah we know

These guys, am I right?