@Skunk Mantra Copyright blocked by the BBC. The BBC did a "best of the BBC" thing a bit ago and choose to protect just this scene as it was the best bits, rather than the full episode.
Ade Edmondson, Rik Mayall, Alexi Sayle, Robbie Coltrane, Ben Elton, Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, Tony Robinson, Emma Thompson, Griff Rhys Jones, Mel Smith AND fkn Motorhead all in the same half hour comedy show is just wow really.
The reason why Mötorhead were in this episode, and why every episode featured a musical act, is actually pretty simple - under BBC rules back in the day if a show featured a musical act it would be categorised as a variety show, which in those days meant it would be given a slightly bigger budget.
Fun fact, a few weeks before filming, Philthy had quit the band. It wasn't an acrimonious thing, though, so he agreed to stay on for anything that was already booked until they could hire a new drummer.
I was about 12 when this first came out, and from the next day it was all we talked about in the schoolyard. They were our Monty Python and Sex Pistols rolled into one. they were the guys who reset the mould. You can’t explain how important they were. And still are.
@@bbb462cid "I know four pound sixty is a lot of bread to layout for a lentil caserole, but... like, considering what I plan to do tonight I thought I should make, like, 13 portions."
I've been a Young Ones fans since the 80's.. And I think I felt like I was watching it for the very first time. Because of your reactions, I even enjoyed it more. I will call my brother from time to time and we will recite a lot of lines from these shows. I think it is one of the best shows in history
@@DanHintz You also have to consider the guy he kicks, Mintcakes, is played by Ben Elton one of the shows creators and writers, after Vivian says he's sick of all of the nonsense... which adds a subtle extra layer to the joke.
This was just so different than anything else at the time. Violence and slapstick, live music and having a go at the class system, how can it possibly go wrong.
It's strange that while the class system is a traditional and sacred part of Britain, so is taking the piss out of it at every opportunity. I think that's one thing we have over Americans in comedy, we know how to laugh at ourselves.
@@MegaBadgeman If you don't have a VHS player, probably nothing lol.. Jokes David. Seriously though, probably worth more holding on to them for prosperity. :)
@@wittyreviewer: One thing you have over Americans is massive institutional snobbery just so you can occasionally make fun of it? JFC. That's some bass ackwards construction.
They did an episode called "Nasty" which would be great for Halloween. It also has my favourite band performing in it (the Damned - which I happen to also share my birthday with the lead signer lol.). I'm not sure if you've come across "The Comic Strip Presents..." yet. I'd suggest maybe reacting to 'Four Men in a Car' which features the main guys from The Young Ones, except it stars Peter Richardson instead of Christopher Ryan (Mike). Interestingly, Peter Richardson was originally going to be cast as Mike in The Young Ones, but the role was given to Christopher instead. Lemmy also worked with 'The Comic Strip' group in another project, a film called 'Eat the Rich'.
Fun fact: the Damned had already split up at that point, but decided to come back for the show and did a new song. They had such a good time, they decided to reform at the spot. But when they went to eat something afterwards, they had an argument and broke up again.
@@pryingeyes1551 With the amazing Terry Jones and that awesome line of Rik. "Ashes to ashes..." "Funks to funky, we know Major Tom's a junkie, yes, yes, get on with it."
I thought this was meant to be a comedy - this is actually a true-to-life documentary about life in a student house! ;) Thanks for this - I don't think I've watched this since I was a student :D
The theme song is an old Cliff Richard song called "The Young Ones". The main lyrical difference is that the original said, "Once in every lifetime comes a love like this..." which becomes "...a *_lot_* like this..." in the theme, as in the British sense "lot" = "group of people", like if you say, "I've had it with you lot", etc.
The Young Ones is much more surrealist and anarchic than Bottom. Lisa Mayer who co-wrote with Rik and Ben, was American, and this gets listed as the most british of shows. Footlights college team were Fry and Laurie, double Oscar Winner Dame Emma Thompson and Ben Elton, co-writer of this and Blackadder amongst others. Alexi Sayle, legendary communist scouse alternative comic was the train driver and was in every episode in some way (his is the 5th head in the logo). Griff Rhys-Jones and Mel Smith, 80s alternative comedy duo, were the receptionist and Bambi. Tony Robinson (Baldrick from Blackadder) was the guy who brought in the elephant, and Robbie Coltrane (aka Hagrid) was the scottish doctor with the sticky bun. It was that sort of show; british alternative comedians of the era turned up all the time. French and Saunders, Hale and Pace, Chriss Barrie and Norman Lovett from Red Dwarf, Lenny Henry and even Terry Jones from Monty Python.
You have to remember just how groundbreaking this show was for the time. Up until this point in British television, NOTHING had come close to the clever mocking of stereotypes since Fawlty towers, some years earlier. This show came in the era of Thatcherism and all that which made it compulsive viewing for teens and twenty-somethings in the early 80's. Especially as it was seen as something quite anarchic when compared to the traditional sitcom which was considered very 'safe' by comparison.
I love how you can trace British comedy DNA to this point. My Nan would always say "this isn't really original, the Goons did it first" whenever they re-ran the Pythons. Not so much after Life of Brian mind you. But the alt comedy of this period was pretty much punk or grunge, sweeping away all that had come before. It's only recently that traditional sitcoms have regained some rose-tinted appreciation. Meanwhile TYO is still a pretty wild ride even today. I think it stands up very well honestly.
I love The Young Ones, I was a teenager when it first aired. There hadn't been anything like this on TV before it. It's mixture of surreal and anarchic humour ushered in the new wave of alternative comedy that helped define the 80s and beyond in the UK.
Bottom was Rik and Ade’s third show. Filthy Rich and Catflap was their second….. and it’s utterly brilliant. Nigel Planer was also in it (Neil from the young ones)
Fun facts: The young ones was commissioned because of the popularity of Comic Strip Presents 'Bad News Tour'. An earlier anthology alt comedy series where they and many other British Comedy legends started out. The original line up was going to be the same only Christopher Ryan replaced Peter Richardson (From Comic Strip) As he much prefered writing and producing his own stuff (Comic Strip Presents, Eat the Rich, Churchill the Hollywood Years). I'm glad The Young Ones is the line up it is, but also Peter Richardson's one of my comedy heroes so can only imagine what it would have been like as originally intended. For you or anyone interested in Rik, Ade's, Nigel's and many others previous and later work the Comic Strip Presents is more than worth a look. One of the Comic Strips named 'Mr. Jolly lives next door' was a practice run for Bottom. Rik and Ade doing all the usual things we love them for. The comedy styles vary from story to story, some are lol funny, others a chuckle, others intelligently funny etc etc. Can't praise Comic Strip and everything they've all done enough!
The Young Ones was a groundbreaking show and one of the most important comedies of all time...although (and this might be a bit of an unpopular opinion) it hasn't aged especially well, the average episode tends to be a bit of a mixed bag. HOWEVER. This episode is when everything comes together like lightning in a bottle. The writing. The slapstick. The practical effects. The cameos. Plus Motörhead! Sheer chaotic brilliance. I just wish they were all as great as this one.
Bollocks it's as perfect today (I'm 50) as it was when it aired. It's not friends or Seinfeld thank fuck. It didn't have 30 writers having to dream up shit to make up the 24 episodes. It's typical British humour. A couple of people telling their story then moving on. That is why British comedy destroys American team wrote we have to find 24 stories to tell, rather than the British ive got this story to tell. So sad
You know what is a mixed bag? That adult cartoon show that took from the Young Ones, FAMILY GUYS. That show took all the elements that made the British Show groundbreaking and kind of abused that for far too long. Maybe it's for the best that Young Ones lasted two seasons while the other show has almost twenty. Is there anything good with Family Guy nowadays?
Foot lights college is a reference on the foot lights comedy club at cambridge that hosted half of the Pythons, and also, appearing on the show - Steven Fry, Emma Thompson and Hugh Laurie which was the precivious generation of comedy greats coming out of that comedy club. With the Young Ones being the start of a new more anarchic trend in UK comedy..... i see it as sort of a nod for passing on the torch
The flashframe of the random Western at 15:50 was intentional and simply put in to mess with peoples heads. A few of the episodes have them. As a non commercial broadcaster the BBC was the only one that could legally use flash frames in the UK as otherwise they were considered to be potential subliminal advertising.
In terms of order I'd suggest watching series 1 episodes 1 + 2 in order as they connect. Watch the final episode last as it does have a resolution to the series. Other than that you're right that random order should be fine.
This arrived at exactly the right time for me starting in 1982. I’d just gone to secondary school and was 12. We could recite the scripts the next day we were that into it and watched it so many times afterwards that even 40 years on we can still remember everything about these. It perhaps hasn’t aged well, but I think you have to be born in that time to best understand it. If you are 50 and never saw it, it would still be brilliant. If you are 25, not so good. One of the best comedies ever! My favourite bit of this episode is Vyv stuffing the donut in his mouth and flicking the Vs. The lady smiles because she knows what’s happening.
MY ALL TIME FAVORITE BRITCOM! It perfectly sums up GenX humor! GREAT GREAT SMART CONEY! Add Salavor Dali, David Lynch, The Beatles, And SOOOO many awesome musical acts -and amazingly crazy storylines! I SOUGHT OUT AND FOUND THW WHOLE SET! Thanks!!! Happy you enjoyed!
Rik's line where he's taking the laxatives: "This house will become a shrine, and punks and skins and Rastas will all gather round and hold their hands in sorrow for their fallen leader, and all the grown-ups will say 'but why are the kids crying?' and the kids will say 'haven't you heard? Rick is dead, the people's poet is dead!'" hit particularly hard when Rik passed 😢
Rrrriicckk rrrriiicckk this is the voice of your conciounce rrrriicckk. Remember being about 10 or 11 and my mum telling me your not watching that filth.. that Christmas I asked for a portable TV and got a small 4" black and white TV in an osciloscope with a tape player (? I dunno lol) for some reason. It was quite good I managed to audio record live aid on it .. I digress. Needless to say that was me in my room watching that and towards the end of the 80's at around 11:00pm Sledgehammer lol
Just watched this with my missus and surprised to remember every line of dialogue. I think that much of this would go over a younger viewer’s head (British or American) without knowing the political context of the time (Thatcherism, Strikes, Impending Rail Privatisation, Race riots, high unemployment, etc.) which was pretty grim. If I think of the 80s, it’s a bit like Blade Runner with dark skies, raining, cinemas and shops closing, my dad being out of work, etc. It was a rotten decade and things like The Young Ones made it easier to bear. 🙂
When they were producing the show, by including the music, extra ‘sketches’ and puppet stuff it was considered to be an ‘entertainment’ show rather than a ‘sitcom’ so it got a bigger budget.
This was definitely a truly groundbreaking show, unlike any other sitcom that had been made. Some of the strangeness doesn't stand up so well, particularly in the first series, but it's still one of those that hits far more than it misses. One part another reactor absolutely hated about the show (despite loving it overall) were the Alexis Sayle scenes (the train driver in this one). He was kind of the leader of the alternative comedy scene, but was a terrible actor at the time, and would just be thrown into the show each week, effectively doing a bit of stand-up.
Oh and yes Lemmy was pals with Rik, Ade etc. He played himself at Donnington along with Ozzy and several others and Lemmy played an South American revolutionary Thug in South Atlantic Raiders part one and two (Comic Strip again) Also Robbie Coltrane from Harry Potter fame's first and many other roles were in Comic Strip. He played a battered Woman running a cafe and a creepy gypsy. So funny and pops up a lot!
Ade, Rik and Nigel along with other cast members on various episodes including Ben Elton and Alexi Sayle, had actually worked on many series over the years. Both Rik and Ade first met in University and honed their comedy from there. At this time they also met and befriended many of the people who would be apart of the series they would be made famous by. First series they were a part of would be the Comic Strip, look up Dangerous Bros and you will find their sketches hilarious. Then we come to The Young Ones, Filthy RIch and Catflap and then Bottom. They also appeared in one episode together in Blackadder, Rik as Sq Ldr Flashheart and Ade as Baron von Richthofen. These guys are absolute comedy legends and these series luckily were screen here in Oz for us to watch at the time. It is a real shame we lost Rik back in 2014 but at least we have these and many more series of films and tv show to still view.
Lemmy had a long association with these actors. Look up the late episodes (actually all) of The Comic Strip Presents and Eat the Rich, and Lemmy crops up over and over.
Worth trying to find Rik Mayall and Ade Edmondson’s “The Dangerous Brothers” which if I remember correctly was roughly the same time as the 2nd season of The Young Ones.
Great video! 'Bottom' wasn't their second outing though, that was 'Filthy Rich & Catflap' (1987) you should check that sitcom out. Also you can see Rik and Ade as the 'Dangerous Brothers' in skits on shows like 'Friday Night Live UK', all pre-Bottom. Enjoy!
At the time this show hailed the advent of alternative comedy in Britain ,which was aimed at the youth of the day. It was almost like the punk version of tv where your parents wouldn’t approve of. Before this era comedians were mostly gag merchants who were in general getting laughs by being sexist, racist and proponents of the droll mother-in-law jokes. I think this is why it took off like it did
That was great to see again, it had me laughing as hard as the first time. It's worth checking out some of the "Comic Strip Presents" films with a lot of the same people and from the same era. They are full length features with at least one based on Enid Blyton's Famous Five series of books. I grew up on this stuff which probably explains a thing or two
You definitely earn a like for instantly knowing who Lemmy was. First time I watched this I had no idea who Motorhead were..... but I was 10 at the time 😂
That bit with doctor Notthenineoclocknews - the one studying people the size of amoebes is a castmember of Not the Nine O' Clock News. Also, the one that's Doctor NotTheNineOClockNews - He looks like a dashing young turnip afficionado with dreams of some day owning a very big turnip to live in. He probably had some cunning plan for it... after all, he's been serving the Blackadder family for a long time. I don't remember the specifics, but some of the voice acting for the animated objects also had some legit surprise gems (things being voiced by people that were, or were going to be, among the big names that everybody would know). Vivian was always a hit with me, supplying the over-the-top violence and spot-on reactions to some of the stuff.
Next time you get to watch the film Labyrinth, check out how similar looking/acting Ludo is to Neil. It's uncanny, but I've never heard anyone else mention it.
You've got to check out Comic Strip Presents Bad News Tour, and Comic Strip Presents More Bad News. Both are on RUclips. It's Rik, Ade, and Nigel but they're in a metal band. It's hilarious. More Bad News is my favorite, but you got to watch Tour first for context
ah the Young Ones. A hit an miss comedy, but very important in the sit com history of Britain. Python, faulty towers, black adder, young ones, it crowd. boosh.... mate, you´re in for a treat with this show!!
The Young Ones aired in the States during the late 80s. I rememebr it came on right after Banana Man and Danger Mouse. Couldn't even tell you what channel it was though. I was just a kid, maybe 11 years old.
Wow, all the connections here. Griff Rhys Jones (Bambi) and Mel Smith (security guard) were in, Not The Nine O'Clock News (comedy sketch/skit series) with Pamela Stephenson (Billy Connolly's wife) and Rowan Atkinson (Mr. Bean, Blackadder, Johnny English). Tony Robinson (Dr.Notthenineo'clocknews) was also in Blackadder with Rowan along with Hugh Laurie (Lord Monty) and Stephen Fry (Lord Snot). Robbie Coltrane (Dr. Carlyle) and Emma Thompson (Miss Money Stirling) were both in the the Harry Potter movies. And Ben Elton (Mr. Kendal Mintcake) wrote this episode and most of three of the four series of Blackadder.
Just an explanation, in the 80's University was free and you got a free grant to pay for expenses, hence living in a run down house. My husband got free education and I had to pay despite only being a few years younger.
I lived in a student house in the 80s . We always said it was just like the Young Ones house . I shared with a couple of members of The Socialist Workers Party , an anarchist and an apprentice painter and decorator . The Young Ones was pretty life like to be honest
i was around 8 back in '98 when I stumbled across my dad's cheap recordings of The Young Ones and Bottom on VHS. Best thing that ever happened to me. I love you Dad.
Vyvyan Loses His Head: dai.ly/x872dpc & www.dailymotion.com/embed/video/x872dpc
They were fucked up guys doing fucked up things and it was funny
why was that part fastforwarded was it too Graffic for YT.
@Skunk Mantra Copyright blocked by the BBC. The BBC did a "best of the BBC" thing a bit ago and choose to protect just this scene as it was the best bits, rather than the full episode.
lord monty is the guy who plays doctor House, lord snot is Steven Fry, Miss money-sterling is emma thompson
10.10 Hagrid. Just so you know.
Ade Edmondson, Rik Mayall, Alexi Sayle, Robbie Coltrane, Ben Elton, Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, Tony Robinson, Emma Thompson, Griff Rhys Jones, Mel Smith AND fkn Motorhead all in the same half hour comedy show is just wow really.
It's as bad as something written by Ben Elton...
Yeah, it's a veritable "Who's who" of upcoming British talent from the early '80s.
which is why it's the best episode they ever did
I know. The 80's was a literal laugh riot. "Alternative" comedy just ran everything over. Love it!
Harry potter cast and House plus national treasures
The reason why Mötorhead were in this episode, and why every episode featured a musical act, is actually pretty simple - under BBC rules back in the day if a show featured a musical act it would be categorised as a variety show, which in those days meant it would be given a slightly bigger budget.
Fun fact, a few weeks before filming, Philthy had quit the band. It wasn't an acrimonious thing, though, so he agreed to stay on for anything that was already booked until they could hire a new drummer.
Which, considering this was the BBC, was probably another 75p.
@@GedUK 75p was a lot back then 🤣
@@grizzlygamer8891 Yeah, totally!
Oh wow, after all these years I never knew that! Did wonder why.
I was about 12 when this first came out, and from the next day it was all we talked about in the schoolyard. They were our Monty Python and Sex Pistols rolled into one. they were the guys who reset the mould. You can’t explain how important they were. And still are.
I've never thought of them that way but you are spot on there
If you're wondering about the Yellow Pages gag, the TV advert for Yellow Pages had the tagline 'Let your fingers do the walking'.
Sadly the real "Bambi" on University Challenge, Bamber Gascoigne, died today aged 87. RIP.
The reason why neither Viviyan, Rik or Mike answer the phone is because they expect Neil to do everything in the house, even when he’s not there.
Answer the door, Neil
plus you cant hear the phone in mono - but in modern day super stereo digital that phone is a pain in the arse
@@bbb462cid "four pounds, sixty three pence".
@@ronwhite8503 EACH?!
@@bbb462cid "I know four pound sixty is a lot of bread to layout for a lentil caserole, but... like, considering what I plan to do tonight I thought I should make, like, 13 portions."
I've been a Young Ones fans since the 80's.. And I think I felt like I was watching it for the very first time. Because of your reactions, I even enjoyed it more. I will call my brother from time to time and we will recite a lot of lines from these shows. I think it is one of the best shows in history
One of my favourite quotes:
This calls for a very special blend of psychology and extreme violence!
:)
The way Vivian's boot comes down to kick Kendal MintCake's head is always a sight to behold
yeah it is like a german expressionist moment, it is so weird looking and hilarious. typical genius.
@@DanHintz You also have to consider the guy he kicks, Mintcakes, is played by Ben Elton one of the shows creators and writers, after Vivian says he's sick of all of the nonsense... which adds a subtle extra layer to the joke.
I wish more peoples would cover this sitcom. Thanks for doing so.
This was just so different than anything else at the time. Violence and slapstick, live music and having a go at the class system, how can it possibly go wrong.
It’s what we need now
Got all episodes on VHS, I wonder what there're worth?
It's strange that while the class system is a traditional and sacred part of Britain, so is taking the piss out of it at every opportunity. I think that's one thing we have over Americans in comedy, we know how to laugh at ourselves.
@@MegaBadgeman If you don't have a VHS player, probably nothing lol.. Jokes David.
Seriously though, probably worth more holding on to them for prosperity. :)
@@wittyreviewer: One thing you have over Americans is massive institutional snobbery just so you can occasionally make fun of it?
JFC. That's some bass ackwards construction.
The scene with the pig ferret is just a slice of comedy gold. Utter genius. One of my favourite scenes from this entire show.
They did an episode called "Nasty" which would be great for Halloween. It also has my favourite band performing in it (the Damned - which I happen to also share my birthday with the lead signer lol.).
I'm not sure if you've come across "The Comic Strip Presents..." yet. I'd suggest maybe reacting to 'Four Men in a Car' which features the main guys from The Young Ones, except it stars Peter Richardson instead of Christopher Ryan (Mike). Interestingly, Peter Richardson was originally going to be cast as Mike in The Young Ones, but the role was given to Christopher instead.
Lemmy also worked with 'The Comic Strip' group in another project, a film called 'Eat the Rich'.
Peter Richardson was supposed to be the original Mike in the first place... Cant remember why he didnt do it
Fun fact: the Damned had already split up at that point, but decided to come back for the show and did a new song. They had such a good time, they decided to reform at the spot. But when they went to eat something afterwards, they had an argument and broke up again.
"Oh, have we got a video!?"
"Nasty" was the first one I saw when Comedy Central reaired this in the mid-'90s. Still my favorite episode.
@@pryingeyes1551 With the amazing Terry Jones and that awesome line of Rik.
"Ashes to ashes..."
"Funks to funky, we know Major Tom's a junkie, yes, yes, get on with it."
The Yellow Pages was a telephone directory listing local businesses, advertised with the slogan "let your fingers do the walking".
I thought this was meant to be a comedy - this is actually a true-to-life documentary about life in a student house! ;)
Thanks for this - I don't think I've watched this since I was a student :D
You can watch them in any order, but please, please trust me when I say that you should definitely save the final episode, Summer Holiday, for last.
The theme song is an old Cliff Richard song called "The Young Ones". The main lyrical difference is that the original said, "Once in every lifetime comes a love like this..." which becomes "...a *_lot_* like this..." in the theme, as in the British sense "lot" = "group of people", like if you say, "I've had it with you lot", etc.
The Young Ones is much more surrealist and anarchic than Bottom. Lisa Mayer who co-wrote with Rik and Ben, was American, and this gets listed as the most british of shows.
Footlights college team were Fry and Laurie, double Oscar Winner Dame Emma Thompson and Ben Elton, co-writer of this and Blackadder amongst others. Alexi Sayle, legendary communist scouse alternative comic was the train driver and was in every episode in some way (his is the 5th head in the logo).
Griff Rhys-Jones and Mel Smith, 80s alternative comedy duo, were the receptionist and Bambi.
Tony Robinson (Baldrick from Blackadder) was the guy who brought in the elephant, and Robbie Coltrane (aka Hagrid) was the scottish doctor with the sticky bun.
It was that sort of show; british alternative comedians of the era turned up all the time. French and Saunders, Hale and Pace, Chriss Barrie and Norman Lovett from Red Dwarf, Lenny Henry and even Terry Jones from Monty Python.
She was born in the US, but she's about as British as you can be though.
Another fun fact: Ade Edmondson is married to Jennifer Saunders, 'Eddie' from Absolutely Fabulous. Talk about comedy gold!
You have to remember just how groundbreaking this show was for the time. Up until this point in British television, NOTHING had come close to the clever mocking of stereotypes since Fawlty towers, some years earlier. This show came in the era of Thatcherism and all that which made it compulsive viewing for teens and twenty-somethings in the early 80's. Especially as it was seen as something quite anarchic when compared to the traditional sitcom which was considered very 'safe' by comparison.
I love how you can trace British comedy DNA to this point. My Nan would always say "this isn't really original, the Goons did it first" whenever they re-ran the Pythons. Not so much after Life of Brian mind you. But the alt comedy of this period was pretty much punk or grunge, sweeping away all that had come before. It's only recently that traditional sitcoms have regained some rose-tinted appreciation. Meanwhile TYO is still a pretty wild ride even today. I think it stands up very well honestly.
I love The Young Ones, I was a teenager when it first aired. There hadn't been anything like this on TV before it. It's mixture of surreal and anarchic humour ushered in the new wave of alternative comedy that helped define the 80s and beyond in the UK.
One of my favourite bands is madness... And that down to them being on an episode of the young ones...
As a 52 year old, I watched this show on MTV ....hilarious and my brother and I memorized the entire dialogue
I'm 60 now and so did I!
This is like the OG Inbetweeners
Bottom was Rik and Ade’s third show. Filthy Rich and Catflap was their second….. and it’s utterly brilliant. Nigel Planer was also in it (Neil from the young ones)
Fun facts: The young ones was commissioned because of the popularity of Comic Strip Presents 'Bad News Tour'. An earlier anthology alt comedy series where they and many other British Comedy legends started out.
The original line up was going to be the same only Christopher Ryan replaced Peter Richardson (From Comic Strip) As he much prefered writing and producing his own stuff (Comic Strip Presents, Eat the Rich, Churchill the Hollywood Years).
I'm glad The Young Ones is the line up it is, but also Peter Richardson's one of my comedy heroes so can only imagine what it would have been like as originally intended.
For you or anyone interested in Rik, Ade's, Nigel's and many others previous and later work the Comic Strip Presents is more than worth a look. One of the Comic Strips named 'Mr. Jolly lives next door' was a practice run for Bottom. Rik and Ade doing all the usual things we love them for. The comedy styles vary from story to story, some are lol funny, others a chuckle, others intelligently funny etc etc. Can't praise Comic Strip and everything they've all done enough!
The Young Ones was a groundbreaking show and one of the most important comedies of all time...although (and this might be a bit of an unpopular opinion) it hasn't aged especially well, the average episode tends to be a bit of a mixed bag.
HOWEVER. This episode is when everything comes together like lightning in a bottle. The writing. The slapstick. The practical effects. The cameos. Plus Motörhead! Sheer chaotic brilliance. I just wish they were all as great as this one.
The series is a mixed bag. It was very much of its era.
"Groundbreaking and important" doesn't "not age well".
Bollocks it's as perfect today (I'm 50) as it was when it aired. It's not friends or Seinfeld thank fuck. It didn't have 30 writers having to dream up shit to make up the 24 episodes. It's typical British humour. A couple of people telling their story then moving on. That is why British comedy destroys American team wrote we have to find 24 stories to tell, rather than the British ive got this story to tell. So sad
This one is very funny, but I've always thought it was one of the weaker episodes. Still, I've not aged especially well either, so what would I know?
You know what is a mixed bag? That adult cartoon show that took from the Young Ones, FAMILY GUYS. That show took all the elements that made the British Show groundbreaking and kind of abused that for far too long. Maybe it's for the best that Young Ones lasted two seasons while the other show has almost twenty. Is there anything good with Family Guy nowadays?
This is definitely the most talked about episode. for me the music interludes are some of the best moments of the show.
Rik Mayall was also in American werewolf in London, playing chess in the pub.
Foot lights college is a reference on the foot lights comedy club at cambridge that hosted half of the Pythons, and also, appearing on the show - Steven Fry, Emma Thompson and Hugh Laurie which was the precivious generation of comedy greats coming out of that comedy club. With the Young Ones being the start of a new more anarchic trend in UK comedy..... i see it as sort of a nod for passing on the torch
Stephen fry, hugn Laurie, Ben Elton, Robbie Coltrane and Tony Robinson.
So how many housemates are there I wonder..? 🤔
5
:)
I was a child in junior school when this was aired on the telly in the 80s.
It was all that was talked about the following day.
Loved the look on your face when Motorhead came on, it's how we all felt
The flashframe of the random Western at 15:50 was intentional and simply put in to mess with peoples heads. A few of the episodes have them. As a non commercial broadcaster the BBC was the only one that could legally use flash frames in the UK as otherwise they were considered to be potential subliminal advertising.
That random western was acto the end of "carry on cowboy"
Its actually the end shot of "Carry On Cowboy". Freeze frame and it says "Made in Pinewood studios"
There was going to be a joke about them in S2ep6 but had to cut it for the runtime
In terms of order I'd suggest watching series 1 episodes 1 + 2 in order as they connect. Watch the final episode last as it does have a resolution to the series. Other than that you're right that random order should be fine.
Agreed 👍
30:30:"hey!"(was a reference to the fact that he recognized "HOUSE";)
This was one of the most brilliant shows ever!!! (I’m an American)
This arrived at exactly the right time for me starting in 1982. I’d just gone to secondary school and was 12. We could recite the scripts the next day we were that into it and watched it so many times afterwards that even 40 years on we can still remember everything about these.
It perhaps hasn’t aged well, but I think you have to be born in that time to best understand it. If you are 50 and never saw it, it would still be brilliant. If you are 25, not so good.
One of the best comedies ever!
My favourite bit of this episode is Vyv stuffing the donut in his mouth and flicking the Vs. The lady smiles because she knows what’s happening.
MY ALL TIME FAVORITE BRITCOM! It perfectly sums up GenX humor!
GREAT GREAT SMART CONEY! Add Salavor Dali, David Lynch, The Beatles, And SOOOO many awesome musical acts -and amazingly crazy storylines!
I SOUGHT OUT AND FOUND THW WHOLE SET!
Thanks!!! Happy you enjoyed!
Some famous people there ....
dumbledor , nanny McPhee and House ...
Baldrick from black Adder at the end
Rik's line where he's taking the laxatives: "This house will become a shrine, and punks and skins and Rastas will all gather round and hold their hands in sorrow for their fallen leader, and all the grown-ups will say 'but why are the kids crying?' and the kids will say 'haven't you heard? Rick is dead, the people's poet is dead!'" hit particularly hard when Rik passed 😢
Wow! The Young Ones. Watched reruns of this with college buddies in the dorm in the late 80s. Forgot all about this one.
Neil: "We sow the seed. Nature grows the seed. Then we eat the seed."
Vivian: "Shut up, hippy!"
Oh no i killed a hippy
@@shenysys he just killed a hippy everybody he just killed a hippy
I watched this episode over and over as a kid
Please, please keep reacting to this it's so good , and full of memories for me when I was young in the eighties.
Rrrriicckk rrrriiicckk this is the voice of your conciounce rrrriicckk.
Remember being about 10 or 11 and my mum telling me your not watching that filth.. that Christmas I asked for a portable TV and got a small 4" black and white TV in an osciloscope with a tape player (? I dunno lol) for some reason. It was quite good I managed to audio record live aid on it .. I digress. Needless to say that was me in my room watching that and towards the end of the 80's at around 11:00pm Sledgehammer lol
Please could you react to “The Grimleys.” It was a comedy about a lad growing up in the 1970s. It was on ITV and is available on RUclips.
❤️ The reaction to motorhead appearing out of nowhere😁
Believe me it was weird back when it first aired but totally excellent 👍🏻 great reaction to a classic show👍🏻
After Young Ones they also did Filthy, Rich & Catflap.
Just watched this with my missus and surprised to remember every line of dialogue. I think that much of this would go over a younger viewer’s head (British or American) without knowing the political context of the time (Thatcherism, Strikes, Impending Rail Privatisation, Race riots, high unemployment, etc.) which was pretty grim. If I think of the 80s, it’s a bit like Blade Runner with dark skies, raining, cinemas and shops closing, my dad being out of work, etc. It was a rotten decade and things like The Young Ones made it easier to bear. 🙂
To put it into context, the host of University Challenge was Bamber Gascoigne, hence the nickname ‘Bambi’
British Humour at it finest! Still my absolute favourite 👌
When they were producing the show, by including the music, extra ‘sketches’ and puppet stuff it was considered to be an ‘entertainment’ show rather than a ‘sitcom’ so it got a bigger budget.
it's just a pity most of these episodes were cut to ribbons to please the PC brigade. Fortunately I have the original recordings on VHS
As a kid this was the greatest show at the time 👍
This was definitely a truly groundbreaking show, unlike any other sitcom that had been made. Some of the strangeness doesn't stand up so well, particularly in the first series, but it's still one of those that hits far more than it misses. One part another reactor absolutely hated about the show (despite loving it overall) were the Alexis Sayle scenes (the train driver in this one). He was kind of the leader of the alternative comedy scene, but was a terrible actor at the time, and would just be thrown into the show each week, effectively doing a bit of stand-up.
I couldn't stand him when I first watched it in the 80s and still can't 🤣
I love the Young Ones, one of the best sitcoms ever.
Now, tell them there's a fifth housemate and she appears in several episodes, you just won't see her until someone points her out.
Or he!😃😃
Nah, watch them enough times, you'll see her. She's very obvious in a couple.
@@themudpit621 After you've seen her once, you can't not spot her again. Very weird.
The young ones- I loved this show as a teenager in the 80’s. Loved Rick.
They did other stuff as a group (also with French & Saunders and many other comic actors) under the name Comedy Strip Presents....
They had some awesome groups in each episode
4:52 Neil: Oh, floppy disks!
Packed FULL of comedy faces!
It was a breath of fresh air as a show. Loved it.
Oh and yes Lemmy was pals with Rik, Ade etc. He played himself at Donnington along with Ozzy and several others and Lemmy played an South American revolutionary Thug in South Atlantic Raiders part one and two (Comic Strip again)
Also Robbie Coltrane from Harry Potter fame's first and many other roles were in Comic Strip. He played a battered Woman running a cafe and a creepy gypsy. So funny and pops up a lot!
"Secrets and signs and...threats.. Hello master Toby!"
"give me some ginger beer and chocolate cake old woman!"
Ade, Rik and Nigel along with other cast members on various episodes including Ben Elton and Alexi Sayle, had actually worked on many series over the years. Both Rik and Ade first met in University and honed their comedy from there. At this time they also met and befriended many of the people who would be apart of the series they would be made famous by. First series they were a part of would be the Comic Strip, look up Dangerous Bros and you will find their sketches hilarious. Then we come to The Young Ones, Filthy RIch and Catflap and then Bottom. They also appeared in one episode together in Blackadder, Rik as Sq Ldr Flashheart and Ade as Baron von Richthofen. These guys are absolute comedy legends and these series luckily were screen here in Oz for us to watch at the time. It is a real shame we lost Rik back in 2014 but at least we have these and many more series of films and tv show to still view.
Their second show was called Filthy Rich and Catflap. You should give it a watch! Its on youtube as far as I know.
I've just seen that you have seen it. Nevermind lol
Oh yes you also need to react to the comic strip which all these lot and others so good, and the comic strip film the super grass.
The Young Ones was the best thing on TV BITD and this episode with University Challenge and Motorhead absolutely smashed it
Lemmy had a long association with these actors. Look up the late episodes (actually all) of The Comic Strip Presents and Eat the Rich, and Lemmy crops up over and over.
Worth trying to find Rik Mayall and Ade Edmondson’s “The Dangerous Brothers” which if I remember correctly was roughly the same time as the 2nd season of The Young Ones.
Bottom is pretty tame compared to the Young Ones.
Legendary series.
Great video! 'Bottom' wasn't their second outing though, that was 'Filthy Rich & Catflap' (1987) you should check that sitcom out. Also you can see Rik and Ade as the 'Dangerous Brothers' in skits on shows like 'Friday Night Live UK', all pre-Bottom. Enjoy!
They had a show called the Comic strip presents that was right after the Young Ones
Could be a tough one this, it was very much of its time and flies over the head of most younger British people.
I just want to point out that they did a show called Happy Families straight after the young ones, but it bombed.....
At the time this show hailed the advent of alternative comedy in Britain ,which was aimed at the youth of the day. It was almost like the punk version of tv where your parents wouldn’t approve of. Before this era comedians were mostly gag merchants who were in general getting laughs by being sexist, racist and proponents of the droll mother-in-law jokes. I think this is why it took off like it did
That was great to see again, it had me laughing as hard as the first time. It's worth checking out some of the "Comic Strip Presents" films with a lot of the same people and from the same era. They are full length features with at least one based on Enid Blyton's Famous Five series of books.
I grew up on this stuff which probably explains a thing or two
You definitely earn a like for instantly knowing who Lemmy was.
First time I watched this I had no idea who Motorhead were..... but I was 10 at the time 😂
That bit with doctor Notthenineoclocknews - the one studying people the size of amoebes is a castmember of Not the Nine O' Clock News. Also, the one that's Doctor NotTheNineOClockNews - He looks like a dashing young turnip afficionado with dreams of some day owning a very big turnip to live in. He probably had some cunning plan for it... after all, he's been serving the Blackadder family for a long time.
I don't remember the specifics, but some of the voice acting for the animated objects also had some legit surprise gems (things being voiced by people that were, or were going to be, among the big names that everybody would know).
Vivian was always a hit with me, supplying the over-the-top violence and spot-on reactions to some of the stuff.
The first episode of this was written overnight by Ben Elton.
Next time you get to watch the film Labyrinth, check out how similar looking/acting Ludo is to Neil. It's uncanny, but I've never heard anyone else mention it.
Finally. Someone does The Young Ones. Is it Christmas?
p.s. Did you recognise Hugh Laurie?
p.p.s. Do you know of the 1979 TV series, Monkey?
Bottom was Rik & Ade's third show. There was a trial run, for want of a better phrase, of Bottom called Filthy, Rich & Catflap.
Their first show was the dangerous brothers 1981 on Saturday Live, Young ones 1982, Filty Rich and Catflap 1987, Bottom 1991.
You've got to check out Comic Strip Presents Bad News Tour, and Comic Strip Presents More Bad News. Both are on RUclips.
It's Rik, Ade, and Nigel but they're in a metal band.
It's hilarious. More Bad News is my favorite, but you got to watch Tour first for context
ah the Young Ones. A hit an miss comedy, but very important in the sit com history of Britain. Python, faulty towers, black adder, young ones, it crowd. boosh....
mate, you´re in for a treat with this show!!
The Young Ones aired in the States during the late 80s. I rememebr it came on right after Banana Man and Danger Mouse. Couldn't even tell you what channel it was though. I was just a kid, maybe 11 years old.
This show spoke to all of us in the punk rock scene in the early 80's. It spoke to our sensibilities, humor, and lack of concern of social convention.
Apparently there was an American version of this called Oh No Not Them, a pilot was made but never even broadcast it was so bad.
because of this episode I spent many years thinking this was how the university challenge was laid out 😂
What a show, and Motorhead!!😊
It's one of the best british comedies ever, and one of my favourite episodes 👍🏻
Wow, all the connections here. Griff Rhys Jones (Bambi) and Mel Smith (security guard) were in, Not The Nine O'Clock News (comedy sketch/skit series) with Pamela Stephenson (Billy Connolly's wife) and Rowan Atkinson (Mr. Bean, Blackadder, Johnny English). Tony Robinson (Dr.Notthenineo'clocknews) was also in Blackadder with Rowan along with Hugh Laurie (Lord Monty) and Stephen Fry (Lord Snot). Robbie Coltrane (Dr. Carlyle) and Emma Thompson (Miss Money Stirling) were both in the the Harry Potter movies. And Ben Elton (Mr. Kendal Mintcake) wrote this episode and most of three of the four series of Blackadder.
Just an explanation, in the 80's University was free and you got a free grant to pay for expenses, hence living in a run down house. My husband got free education and I had to pay despite only being a few years younger.
I lived in a student house in the 80s . We always said it was just like the Young Ones house . I shared with a couple of members of The Socialist Workers Party , an anarchist and an apprentice painter and decorator . The Young Ones was pretty life like to be honest
Loved when MTV used to run this awesome show…
Love your new logo introduction
i was around 8 back in '98 when I stumbled across my dad's cheap recordings of The Young Ones and Bottom on VHS. Best thing that ever happened to me. I love you Dad.