On what would have been the 60th birthday of the late comedian, social media has been abuzz with the #RikMayallDay hashtag.
An unofficial day to celebrate the beloved funnyman’s career, fans have been paying tribute to a tremendous comic writer and performer.
Here are 25 of the best lines and jokes across Mayall’s brilliantly funny career, from The Young Ones and Bottom to The New Statesman.
As Lord Flashheart in Blackadder: “It’s me, Flash! Flash by name, Flash by nature. Hurrah!”
Blackadder: “Where have you been?”
Flashheart: “Where haven’t I been! Woof!” As Rick in The Young Ones: “The bathroom’s free. Unlike the country under the Thatcherite junta!” Flashheart: “She’s got a tongue like an electric eel and she likes the taste of a man’s tonsils!” Rick: “I live on the limit, Vyvyan. The limit, because I’m a rider at the gates of dawn and I take no prisoners!” Flashheart: “Enter the man who has no underwear. Ask me why.”
Others: “Why do you have no underwear, Lord Flash?”
Flashheart: “Because the pants haven’t been built yet that’ll take the job on.” As Alan B’Stard in The New Statesman: “We hear an awful lot of leftie whingeing about NHS waiting lists. Well the answer’s simple. Shut down the health service. Result? No more waiting lists.”
Rick: “Typical. Five minutes before the most important party of my life and the house is destroyed by a giant sandwich!”
As Richie in Bottom, trying to impress a rare date: “This is just my London pomme-de-terre. My main castles are scattered all over the place, you know, ’cause I never know where I’m going to be… Bloody fox hunts go on for ever these days, don’t you find?”
“Why did the pervert cross the road? Because he couldn’t get his kn*b out of the chicken.”
Rick: “I’m going to write to my MP!”
Neil: “But you haven’t got an MP, Rick, you’re an anarchist.”
Rick: “Oh right. Then I shall write to the lead singer of Echo and the Bunnymen.”
Flashheart: “Captain Darling? Funny name for a guy isn’t it? Last person I called darling was pregnant 20 seconds later!”
Alan B’Stard: “Why should we, the country that produced Shakespeare, Christopher Wren – and those are just the people on our banknotes for Christ’s sake – cower down to the countries that produced Hitler, Napoleon, the Mafia, and the Smurfs?!”
Richie, while camping: “Can we just get our equipment out? I mean, I mean get our tackle out? I mean, get our gear… oh God, you can’t say anything without some dreadful double entendre lurking around the corner!” Rick on University Challenge: “We’re getting thrashed, we’re getting completely thrashed. Isn’t there some way we can cheat?” Alan B’Stard: “What is the result of this sloppy socialist thinking? More poor people. In contrast, my policies would eradicate poor people, thereby eliminating poverty. And they say that we Conservatives have no heart.” Rick [seeing his first tampon]: “You bought me a present. What is it? Let me guess: It’s a telescope! With a mouse in it!” Rick [as the TV stops broadcasting for the night]: “Shut up, you fascist Tories. No one tells me what time to go to bed!” On his quad-biking accident in 1998: “I was in a coma for five days – I was dead longer than Jesus before he was raised from the dead.” Rick’s ‘Ode to Cliff Richard’: “Oh Cliff / Sometimes it must be difficult not to feel as if / You really are a cliff / when fascists keep trying to push you over it! / Are they the lemmings / Or are you, Cliff? / Or are you, Cliff?”
Flashheart: “Mind if I use your phone? If word gets out I’m missing, 500 girls will kill themselves.”
Richie (upon noticing a certain resemblance to the nativity): “Gold, Frankenstein, and Grrr. And you’re all wearing crowns. And I’m a virgin!”
Alan B’Stard: “Who in this country was not moved when that great Englishman, Gazza, wept bitter tears at the World Cup last year? People thought that he was crying because he had been booked by the umpire and so would miss the final. But that was not the reason. He was crying at the thought that the Conservative government, the only government this young hero had ever known, was behind in the opinion polls.”
Another of Rick’s thought-provoking poems: “Pollution, all around. Sometimes up, sometimes down. But always around. 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… bombs.”
Rick: “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!'”
“I don’t have moments of weakness. I’m Rik Mayall.”
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It would have been Rik Mayall’s 60th birthday on Wednesday and people are sharing lots of clips and memories online.
But maybe the funniest of all are the replies Mayall used to send to people who got in touch asking for a signed photo or something like that.
They are utterly devastating and brilliant. Here are 4 of the best.
1.
It would have been Rik Mayall's 60th birthday today, so here's a brilliant reply from him to an autograph hunter.#RikMayallDay pic.twitter.com/BVXthOFG3V — Amanda (@Pandamoanimum) March 7, 2018
2.
Rik Mayall's letters to fans crack me up every time, an absolute genius #RikMayallDay pic.twitter.com/BYaaPjjLq3 — Clenelo (@GassievFan) March 7, 2018
3.
I asked Rik Mayall for some help when I was Best Man 3 years ago. This is his letter to the happy couple… Genius! pic.twitter.com/SX7jErd1dr — The Morecambe & Wise Archive (@eric_ernie_col) June 11, 2014
4.
The late great Rik Mayall would have been 60 years old today. #RikMayallDay pic.twitter.com/WYCiWXE3QE — Last Exit To Nowhere (@LASTEXITshirts) March 7, 2018
And just in case that last one is a bit tricky to read, here it is in close-up.
Just perfect. Here’s what other people are saying about the great man online.
1.
Happy birthday, Rik! 🎉🍾🎂 Today would have been Rik’s 60th birthday. Let’s show just how much we love him! A celebration of all things Rik. Let’s see if we can get him trending! ✌️❤️#HappyBirthdayRik #RikMayallDay #RememberingRik #RikMayall pic.twitter.com/KA86OqVj0i — Remembering Rik (@Remembering_Rik) March 7, 2018
2.
“FISH I LIKE…” Happy 60th birthday to the much missed Rik Mayall. Treat yourself to this classic today https://t.co/weLJpyksGU pic.twitter.com/ZD1Oe9yRi2 — Phillip Jupitus (@jupitusphillip) March 7, 2018
3.
In honour of #RikMayallDay my @guardian article from when he died. Still gutted.https://t.co/oiujbgw2OR — Jamie Reed (@JamieFonzarelli) March 7, 2018
And here’s just a taste.
Buddy Holly made my father pick up a guitar, Rik Mayall made me crave comedy, satire and politics. He made me want to write, he made me want to think and he made me and every one of my friends want to be him. The character of Prik (silent “P”) was like nothing I had ever seen before. He made me want to hold up a bank and threaten Margaret Thatcher, he made me fancy Felicity Kendal and I still avoid the rickety chair. Our playground used to echo with “Vyvyan, you bastard!” and “Hands up who likes me?” Watched for the first time towards the end of primary school; at secondary school the repeats were looked forward to like Christmas Day. There was nothing like The Young Ones and nobody like Rik Mayall. For me and my friends, he taught us dissent – the same spirit that drove rock and roll decades before.
4.
Remembering Rik Mayall on his birthday. My generation grew up on The Dangerous Brothers, Kevin Turvey, Rick, Richie, Alan B'stard, Flash, Drop Dead Fred, the Comic Strip, up to his wonderful turn as Greg Davies' infuriating father. Still such a shocking loss. #RikMayallDay #rik pic.twitter.com/r12sMgRiV0 — TracyK (@Perlalaloca) March 7, 2018
5.
Love the footage of him rehearsing the song for Nether Wallop and making Billy Connolly, Peter Cook, Mel Smith and Arthur Smith piss themselves laughing https://t.co/wUmTHvTBlX — John Rain (@MrKenShabby) March 7, 2018
6.
It’s #RikMayallDay to celebrate his 60th Birthday! ❤️ The perfect excuse to share this amazing clip again… https://t.co/uZJV9XVHpH @andycrane64 — CBeebies Grown-Ups (@CBeebiesHQ) March 7, 2018
7.
Why you should never randomly vox pop Rik Mayall https://t.co/gAaO9ZQdYZ — John Rain (@MrKenShabby) March 7, 2018
Here’s to you, Rik Mayall.
It’s Rik Mayall Day, celebrating the late, great man’s birthday when he would have turned 60 today.
There have been lots of memories and clips shared online and this is probably one of the most outrageous, when he was stopped in the street by someone doing a vox pop for Channel 5’s The Wright Stuff.
Why you should never randomly vox pop Rik Mayall https://t.co/gAaO9ZQdYZ — John Rain (@MrKenShabby) March 7, 2018
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4 times Rik Mayall sent the best replies to fan mail by anyone ever
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Rik Mayall Day is trending on social media as today would have been the anarchic comic and actor’s 60 birthday.
Rather like discovering David Bowie for the first time, Mayall changed my limited 11-year-old world view in 1981 when I watched the first episode of The Young Ones. It blew my tiny mind.
So I jumped at the chance of interviewing the man in 2006 when he was touring the stage version of The New Statesman to the Theatre Royal in Plymouth.
They say never meet your heroes (or talk to them on the phone) and this was definitely a case in point.
Below is the original interview from the pages of the West Briton newspaper. There were things I didn’t mention at the time: the way he scoffed when I told him how much The Young Ones meant to me and the constant smattering of vaguely frightening, aggressive eff words fired in my direction.
Everything I said seemed to irritate him.
The interview finished abruptly with Rik telling me to “**** off” as he slammed down the phone.
I heard afterwards that he was charm personified to all the women who interviewed him for the tour and horrendous to most of the men.
I have to add that someone I know worked with Rik on a project, with the comedian enjoying a stay at his home in Falmouth. By all accounts he was a riotous joy.
Everyone has their off days I suppose, but my encounter with Rik Mayall tainted my view of him forever. If I could have written his name with an invisible P I would have. He still remains my worst interview subject 12 years later ... and, in many ways, my favourite.
B’stard by name, B’stard by nature?
Rik Mayall is a hero of mine; as a kid his anarchic series The Young Ones opened my eyes to comedy, politics, music and talking pants. So I was delighted to interview him as he resurrects that most vile of MPs Alan B’stard at the Theatre Royal Plymouth in The New Statesman.
Now, I don’t know if he had an off-day or perhaps the radio journalist before me was to blame; "a t**t" reckoned Rik but I can quite honestly say that Mr Mayall was my most difficult interview subject in nearly 20 years of journalism and that includes the odd Cabinet Minister or two.
In some ways you wouldn’t want it any other way; his opening gambit of “the best way to treat journalists is to rip out their hair and tear out their teeth" but what would you do with the teeth?” was perfect from the man who gave us such twisted, OTT characters as Bottom’s Ritchie, Lord Flashheart in Blackadder and, of course, B’stard.
Maybe I was naive to think he’d be any different from the aggressive, self-centred, vaguely frightening figures he has portrayed over the last 25 years. I had the “pleasure” of talking to Rik about the return of The New Statesman after 14 years away from our screens.
The new stage version sees Alan B’Stard as part of the New Labour elite after defecting from the Conservative party. As Tony Blair’s popularity dwindles, the Lib Dems become embroiled in scandal and the Conservatives are attempting to reposition themselves as serious opposition, B’Stard is attempting to keep Labour in power … for his own gains.
Rik told me: “My hero Little Richard told me once 'get 'em high and keep 'em high' – that’s why we ended The Young Ones after two series, why we finished Bottom when it was popular and why The New Statesman went out on top. I said ‘never again’ but having Alan as part of the Labour Party with Blair as his whipping boy was too good a chance to miss. Plus it means I get to **** Condoleeza Rice.”
Rik, who lives in Totnes, is pleased to be back on stage: “Television is so reactionary now, there’s no way a lot of this material would be allowed on TV. Plus it evolves as the tour continues which is great fun. With writers of the calibre of Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran we can get together and get things like John Prescott ****ing his secretary into the show.”
For someone who prides himself on still being anti-authoritarian, Rik has the air of an old-fashioned headmaster about him.
“Why did you get into journalism, Lee?” he asked witheringly after a question I thought perfectly reasonable. When I said it was me who was asking the questions, he replied aggressively: “No, I’m asking the questions now.”
I really did it, though, when I dared ask if his band of alternative comedians from the early ’80s had now become the establishment. “Tell me who thinks that,” he said petulantly before a long period of silence. “I work in the theatre – that’s hardly establishment, it’s the last bastion of freedom of speech. And if Tony Blair realised that, he’d close all the theatres.
“Look, I don’t know what you want,” said a peeved Rik. Well, I wanted him to tell me about the play if that wasn’t too hard. But apparently it was.
“It’s really difficult discussing the show as myself,” he said rather cryptically. Oh, so you’re in character then? That would explain why you’re being so difficult. He denied he was doing the interview as B’stard but there were definitely hints of the spoilt Rik from The Young Ones.
It seems Mr Mayall has a dislike of journalists. Just as well I didn’t mention his “classic” films Bring Me The Head of Mavis Davis and Hotel Paradiso then.
Despite our little run-in there’s no denying that Mayall is a comic genius and with the added weight of writers Marks and Gran, who gave the world Shine on Harvey Moon, Birds of a Feather, Goodnight Sweetheart and Love Hurts among others, The New Statesman is surely not to be missed?
This interview was originally printed in The West Briton in July 2006
