I was saddened to receive a text yesterday from my friend letting me know that Rik Mayall passed away. This was from the same friend who called and told me Phil Hartman had been murdered.

When I was in high school, I was a nerd. Seriously nerdy. I read comic books, was obsessed with music, Monty Python, comedy shows, reading, watching old TV shows and everything British and Australian (Kiwi too). Don't get me wrong, I had friends, but I was a little different. I liked my friends, but since we lived kinda far from everything, I spent loads of time on my own.

One day I discovered the Young Ones.   Since no one else had heard of it, it didn't help my nerd status, but it was so great. I had such a huge crush on both Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmonson! This show had amazing guest stars that would go on to become HUGE, although we didn't know it then. My next crushes were Stephen Fry, Robbie Coltrane, Griff Rhys-Jones , Stephan Frost and Hugh Laurie. All of them were on the show at some point. I'd already had a crush on Griff from watching him and Mel Smith on their show "Alas Smith and Jines", but it was neat seeing him on this show. Then there were the bands on the show: Madness, Motörhead, Amazulu, the Damned, Jools Holland with members of Squeeze, Ultravox, , etc. this was stuff you couldn't see anywhere!  Even Emma Thomson was on the show...

I couldn't believe my luck when, a few years later, I found a vinyl copy of " British Comic Relief Presents: Utterly Utterly Live". I got it for The Young Ones with Cliff Richard, but it opened my eyes to Billy Connolly, Lenny Henry and French and Saunders.  AMAZING.  I owe so much to the Rik and the Young Ones.

Rik was in other great things: Blackadder, Comic Strip Presents (I have a cd of Bad News!), Filthy  Rich and Catflap, Dangerous Brothers, New Statesman, the movie Drop Dead Fred, Bottom, Jonathan Creek.....all sorts of stuff. It was the Young Ones that started it all. I can still recite lines from it.  Not as geeky as when I used to recite Python lines, but close. Here is a poem I know by heart, that Rik recited while looking in the mirror, pinching his face to pop a zit. If you know the show, it should bring back good memories--

"Pollution. All around. Sometimes up. Sometimes down. Pollution, are you coming to my town, or am I coming to yours? Ha, we're on different buses pollution, but we're both using petrol...ha"

If you want, I can't recite Python too....

I have had this picture for man, many years (mainly on my fridge, where it still resides), I will raise a glass to it and miss the great, crude, filthy genius of Rik Mayall. I used to have the picture saved, but when I updated my computer, it was lost. I can't find it online anymore.  Hopefully it will show up below:

Update 6/29 = I finally tracked down the image online.