|
In
London, England in the early 1980’s, four
flat-mates (what
we people call roommates) share a
house and attend
Scumbag College:
Vyvian (Adrian
Edmundson) is a medical student, and a metal studded hyper-violent
punk.
Rick (Rik Mayall) is a
self-proclaimed anarchist, but is
without a clue on all levels.
Neal (Nigel
Planer) is a hippie who hates all
machines (he feels all machines
conspire against him), and has a
thing for lentils.
Mike (Christopher
Ryan) is a hipster, whose bravado
about his sexual prowess doesn’t really
match his actual experience.
Their
house could almost be considered a character
on it’s own, too -- and it
was lucky to still be standing at the end
of most episodes. Pictures came to life,
and when no
one's looking, the food usually puts on a song and
dance number in the fridge or sink; appliances animate
and hassle them, and
other inanimate objects are given lines to
advance the plot. (The toilet
usually hassles Neal.) There's
also a giant wardrobe in the hall that in
one episode leads Vyvian into Narnia, and
in another he finds the three witches from
Hamlet.
Rarely
attending classes, the four usually spend
most of the day bickering, fighting, and
destroying the house they rent from the
Russian Bolafsky family (All
of them played be Alexei Sayle). This
particular day finds Mike and Vyv at the
kitchen table, while Rick unsuccessfully
tries to tell them a joke. Outside, Neal
desperately tries to get back to the
house. He barges inside with some great
news, but the others insist he make dinner
first. Neal takes the trashcan, dumps
it on the table and proclaims it
leftovers. (Vyv finds a dead rat
and begins happily gnawing on it.)
Paranoid
Rick gets the feeling the others don’t
like him very much. He puts it to a vote
on whether he’s liked or not, and he
loses three to one (only
he votes for himself), and vows to
commit suicide. While he ingests a large
amount of pills from a bottle, Neal asks
Vyvian if someone can actually overdose on
laxatives. Vyv isn’t sure, but he’s
bound and determined to watch and find out.
This
leads to talk of hygiene and they realize
that none of them has been to the
laundromat for over four years. Just as
the laxatives start kicking in, things
take a surreal turn and we find ourselves
looking at the lads through a microscope's
lens:
We're
suddenly in a Victorian study, where a
scientist (Robbie
Coltraine) peers through his microscope at the disgusting proceedings
below, and proclaims there are people the
size of amoebas on the slide. He removes
the glass as his maid brings in some
snacks and places a sticky bun
precariously over the slide our heroes are
on. (He’s then introduced to the
Elephant Man who turns out to be a real
elephant.)
Back
on the slide, terror grips the flat as one
of Vyvian’s dirty socks has escaped.
Cornering the smoking abomination, Vyv beats it into submission with a frying
pan. They all decide to hit the laundromat
first thing in the morning and go upstairs
to bed. Two seconds later, the cock crows
and they all come back down again. Assembling
in the living room (each
actor has taken on a different character),
they
head out. Scaring all the other customers
out of the Laundromat, the machines
violently reject and regurgitate all their
clothes. Vyv decides to combine some
psychology with extreme violence -- and
convinces one of the machines that he has
some of Felicity Kendall’s underwear.
The machine lustily opens wide, and they
force all their clothes in. While Rick and
Vyv hold it shut, Mike reads the
instructions on how to operate the washer. Neal
collects some unused soap from the
receptacles of the other machines and all
seems ready to wash -- until they realize
they have to pay to make the machines work,
so they call the whole thing off.
Back
at the flat, they decide to never wash
their clothes again. Mike doesn’t think
that’ll be much of a challenge. That
triggers Neal’s memory, and he remembers
the news he had at the beginning of the
episode: They’ve been selected to
represent Scumbag College on the quiz show
University Challenge, and have only two
minutes to make the trains at the station.
Mike
cues the musical interlude, and they tear
out of house while Motörhead rips
through "Ace
of Spades".
I
should
pause to mention that almost all
episodes of The
Young Ones
included a musical guest. Artists ranged
from Dexy’s Midnight Runners and the
ska band Madness, to the lesser-known
Amazulu and Nine Below Zero.
They
make the trains, but Neal starts to panic
because he knows nothing. (None
of these guys are very bright.)
Vyvian and Neal go over useless trivia --
like who owns the record for most
marshmallows stuffed up one’s nose, and
who made the stickiest booger. (The
answer to both is obviously the same man;
Toxeth O’Grady.) Vyvian
ignores a posted warning and sticks his
head out a window, and gets it lopped off.
His body tries to find his head and put it
back on.
Eventually,
they make it to the TV station but are
stopped by the security guard (Mel
Smith). They can’t get in with
Vyvian’s pig, Bacon Sandwich. (Where
he got the pig I don’t know.) Vyvian
convinces the guard that it isn’t a pig
at all, but a ferret, and like the
elephant man, Bacon Sandwich is known as
the pig-ferret.
Bambi
(Griff
Rhys Jones), the quiz show host,
rounds them up. (Neal mistakes him
for Disney’s Bambi
until Vyvian tells him that he was in the
Video Nasty sequel -- Bambi
Goes Crazy-Eight Bonkers with a Drill.)
Rick
asks if he’s going to let them win, but
he says no, the posh kids will win because
they always do. The show starts and Bambi
introduces the participants from Scumbag:
I
note that someone has penciled in a P
before Rick’s name, making him Prick;
Vyvian gives everyone the two finger
salute, while Neal only asks for
vegetable rights and peace.
He
then introduces the Footlights College
team, and they're all snobbish rich kids. (They
also appear to be inbred and drunken
sots.) The studio audience clearly
favors Footlights. Scumbag’s only
supporter is Vyvian’s psychotic pet gopher,
SPG. (Special Patrol Group.) Bambi
asks the first question and Neal buzzes
in. But he doesn’t have the answer, he just
needs to go to the bathroom. Bambi won’t
let him. The question goes to Footlights;
they don’t have an answer either, but
with a quick bribe to the judges, it
isn’t long before Scumbag is getting
buried on the scoreboard.
Scumbag
huddles up, and Neal really, really, REALLY
has to go to the bathroom now. Losing his
temper, Vyvian uses a grenade to take out
Footlights, and then demands some easier
questions. Bambi’s next questions seems familiar: it deals with
marshmallows, noses, and sticky boogers,
which Mike answers, starting Scumbag’s
rally. His next question asks, who let the
world’s worst fart. Neal chimes in that
it was Rick (under
the influence of the laxative overdose),
which
proves correct.
Bambi
then asks whose been tampering with his
question cards. Rick mistakes it as a quiz
question and answers excitedly that he did
it. He realizes his mistake too late, and
the audience starts pelting them with
refuse. The episode ends when a giant
sticky bun falls from the sky and crushes
them.
We
switch back to the Victorian scientist, who
peels the microscope slide off the sticky
bun. He then feeds it to the elephant and the
credits roll.
The
End
I
remember back in the '70s, spending my late
Sunday nights watching reruns of Monty
Python’s Flying Circus
on PBS with my older brothers. I was too
young at the time to really appreciate
everything that was going on, but there
was enough general silliness there to keep
my four-year old mind occupied. Python
was a staple Sunday night view until Mom
walked in, just in time to see Terry Jones
playing the piano in the buff. (Oops.)
The
TV was immediately shut-off, and my Monty
Python
education was put on hold until many years
later.
Our
friends in Britain have an amazing track
record of absurd and extremely hilarious
television programs. From The
Goons, to
Monty
Python,
to Fawlty
Towers,
to Black
Adder,
there really haven't been any dull
stretches. Some shows weren’t as well
known as the others. I remember the
adventures of Tim, Graeme and Bill in The
Goodies.
The only episode I remember clearly
is when they develop a sausage with
incredible powers, including flight, and
use it for dubious purposes. There was
also The
Piglet Files,
a less than romantic look at the reality
of the spy business.
As
for The
Young Ones,
Adrian Edmondsun and Rik Mayall graduated
from Manchester College with degrees in
drama, developed a comedy act, and went to
work at the Comedy Store. Here the Dangerous Brothers set the
template for the characters of Vyvian and
Rick. Nigel Planer was part of another
comedy group, The Outer
Limits, and a decision was made to
combine the two acts. Christopher Ryan was
brought in to give them an anchor, and The
Young Ones
were born.
The
show was a nasty, disgusting, and hilarious two fingers flipped at Margaret
Thatcher’s conservative England. But the
show only lasted a depressingly small two
seasons. It was shown on MTV for awhile,
but I didn’t discover it until Comedy
Central started showing it. (Usually
really late at night right after Mystery
Science Theater.)
Other
episodes include:
Sick
-- where everyone has the plague; Neal’s
nose erupts in a volcano of snot, so they
encase him in a garbage bag that is slowly
filling up. Vyv tries acupuncture but he
doesn’t have any needles, so he uses
8-penny nails (--
just this side of a railroad spike) instead,
all the while a vicious riot rages just
outside the door. But worst of all,
Neal’s parents drop by for a visit.
Time
opens with a brilliant parody of Dallas,
with Neal as JR Ewing. Rick wakes up
with a female mass murderer and thinks
they had sex. (He
doesn’t know she’s a killer.) It
comes to light that they didn’t do it,
and Vyvian spends the rest of the episode
chasing Rick, destroying the house with
his trusty Howitzer, trying to make Rick
admit he’s still a virgin.
Nasty
finds the boys trying out a new fangled
VCR to watch a video nasty (an
X-rated film) they’ve
rented. Flood
finds the house underwater, and in Interesting
they throw a party, mixing the punks,
hippies and anarchists all in one-place
and Neal winds up on the moon.
The
show was also the television launching point of
many famous faces, including Coltraine, Smith and Emma Thompson.
Jennifer Saunders (who
incidentally is married to Edmundson) popped
up a couple of times before she went on to
fame with Absolutely
Fabulous.
The show’s leads never really hit big in
the states, but remain very popular in
Britain. Mayall had a small role in An
American Werewolf in London
and a starring role in Drop
Dead Fred.
Planer had a brief music career, cashing in
on Neal’s popularity, and was in Brazil.
An
argument can be made that The
Young Ones
were the originators of modern toilet
humor. It really is hard to do the series
justice with the written word. (The
same can be said of Monty
Python.)
It
was anarchic, violent, and destructive --
but on the same note it was ironic,
satirical, and very drool. It wore many
hats and wore them well: spoof, slapstick
and satire mixed deftly with a lot of
fart, poop and booger jokes.
Enjoy.
|
