RIP Rik Mayall

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Rik Mayall
British comedian and actor Rik Mayall (PeekYou profile here), co-creator and star of groundbreaking 80s sitcom The Young Ones, and one of the leading lights of the U.K.’s so-called “alternative comedy boom,” has died at age 56.

At this time, no reason has been given, but a spokesman has said that “We will be issuing a further statement in the fullness of time.”

Best known to American audiences as the insufferable, spotty, pretentious, “people’s poet” Rick on BBC‘s early-80s phenomenon, The Young Ones, Mayall’s career of scathing satire and gleefully hilarious violence, squalor and idiocy ran through numerous notable projects over the past three decades. Often working as part of a double-act with his college friend, comedian Adrian Edmondson (PeekYou profile here), some of Mayall’s additional credits included the pair’s unspeakably bleak and unrepentantly silly sitcom (and touring act) Bottom, and their feature film Guest House Paradiso. Mayall also starred in such respected series as the Thatcher-era satire, The New Statesman.

In 1998, Mayall was nearly killed in a motorcycle accident which left him in a coma for many days.

Mayall’s roots in comedy reach back to The Comic Strip club, where he worked alongside Edmondson, and Young Ones co-creator Ben Elton, as well as others who went on to be big names in British comedy (such as Edmondson’s wife, Absolutely Fabulous‘ star and co-creator, Jennifer Saunders).

We report this news today with heavy hearts. A visit to Rik’s PeekYou profile will provide you with many opportunities to explore the life and career — including episodes of The Young Ones, Bottom, and more — of this brilliant and strange comic genius.

Below, Rik and Ade behaving precisely as two grown men should.