The Young Ones star Rik Mayall based his comedy style on punk icon Johnny Rotten.
Co-star Adrian Edmondson said his late pal was inspired by the Sex Pistols star’s infamous sweary appearance on Bill Grundy’s Today show. He said: “When we record The Young Ones five years later, b*****d is still a taboo word, and there is a strict limit on how often we can use it. It’s not until the 1990s and Bottom that we’re allowed more or less as many b*****ds as we like.
“The cleverest Pistol, of course, is Johnny. He’s always very eloquent, a proper wordsmith, knows the power of words and knows what he’s saying. It’s so exciting. It’s the kind of anti-authoritarian sneer that Rik’s character Rick in The Young Ones adopts, though with Rick it becomes comedic because whenever he comes up against real authority he backs down and shows his middle-class deference – he’s a wannabe anarchist, not a real one.
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“But the Johnny Rotten sneer becomes shorthand when Rik and I write together – for jokingly expressing that feeling that you have no respect whatsoever for what the other person has just said. Well, that’s just your tough s***,’ one of us will say, doing the Johnny Rotten head wobble and eye swivel. ‘It’s what?’ the other will reply. ‘Nothing, rude word, next idea’.”
In his new book Berserker! Adrian, 66, also told how he based his slapstick in BBC sitcom Bottom on getting a beating on a bus by a gang as a teenager. He added: “I have to say, it hurts getting beaten up, but I take away a piece of comedy gold – the beauty of unexpected repetition.
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“There’s an episode of Bottom in which we attack the gasman who’s come round to read the meter. I hit him a total of 17 times with the frying pan, Rik punches him 20 times. All with the gasman’s body lying inert on the floor.
“The longer we keep it up, the longer we keep our nerve, the more berserk it becomes, and hysteria starts to build, and the laughter gradually gets louder and louder. This is what I learn on the top deck of the number 16 bus. There comes a point in repeatedly punching someone in the face when it’s just ridiculous. And possibly funny.”
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