Rik Mayall made obnoxious characters worth spending an evening with, using exact timing and an alarming appetite for excess. We rate him most highly when the writing gives that energy somewhere useful to go.
Fi1m perspective
As Rick in The Young Ones (1982), Rik Mayall makes irritation a matter of precision. The performance is deliberately trying, and making Rick more agreeable would remove much of what is funny about him. We laughed at his obnoxiousness because Mayall gives it such careful timing, even amid the programme's commotion. He can push a line hard without losing sight of why it is funny, a skill that matters when almost everything around him is competing for attention. We admire the control as much as the willingness to be disliked.
The programme was his breakthrough, but the obnoxiousness was portable. Lord Flashheart in Blackadder (1986) and Alan B'Stard in The New Statesman (1987) gave him other ways of making an overbearing man funny. By Bottom (1991), which he co-wrote and starred in with Adrian Edmondson, the partnership was extending its appetite for violent slapstick. Across these roles, Mayall kept finding comedy in men with little reason to think so highly of themselves. The physical commitment remained, though sheer force was never enough to make every joke work.
In The Young Ones, co-writers Lise Mayer and Ben Elton help give Mayall lines strong enough to survive all that emphasis. The strongest jokes do not need the performers to insist on how outrageous they are. Mayall and Edmondson also carry weaker passages through by committing to them past the point where a more cautious performer might retreat. But the programme can keep pressing a point after we have understood it, when a change of pace would serve it better. Across a 29-minute episode, that insistence can be tiring, even with performers this skilful at making a nuisance of themselves.
Cinema brought a starring role in Drop Dead Fred (1991) and a wider audience, but our recommendation begins with the television ensemble. Mayall's gift is clearest beside Edmondson: Rick's calculated irritation and Vyvyan's force give much of the commotion a purpose. That does not excuse every weak passage, but it explains why we are willing to stay through them. Start with The Young Ones, and do not expect Rick to become more agreeable once he has settled in.
Biography
Rik Mayall (7 March 1958 – 9 June 2014) was an English comedian, actor and writer. He was a leading figure in the alternative comedy scene of the early 1980s and frequently collaborated with Adrian Edmondson.
Mayall studied drama at the University of Manchester, where he met Edmondson. Their partnership began with stage and club acts before moving to television. He played the character Rick and co-wrote the BBC sitcom The Young Ones (1982–1984).
He appeared in The Comic Strip Presents... (from 1982), Blackadder (1983–1989) as Lord Flashheart, The New Statesman (1987–1994) and Bottom (1991–1995), which he co-wrote with Edmondson. Mayall also acted in films including Drop Dead Fred (1991).
