An interesting phenomenon in this post-internet world is the way that something can be hugely popular in the United Kingdom, yet still remain undeservedly obscure here in the United States.
Case in point: While American audiences fell in love with the British import comedy series, The Young Ones in the 1980s, when MTV begain airing edited episodes of the series, not many people realize that there was a pseudo-sequel series, starring Ade Edmonson (who played the punk med student, Vyvyan Basterd in The Young Ones) and the late Rik Mayall (who played the poser-poet, Rick).
In Bottom, Mayall played Richard Rich, and Edmonson played Edward Elizabeth Hitler, but basically it was just Rick and Vyvyan twenty years later, forced to live together in squalor because nobody else could stand to be around them. The series ran for three seasons on the BBC, then spawned five very successful live tours of the UK throughout the 90s and beyond. There was even a movie, Guest House Paradiso, that sort of adapted the characters into grungy hoteliers.
Aside from a brief run on BBC America more than a decade ago, squeezed in between feature-length commercial breaks, the series never had much exposure in America. The entire series is available on DVD from Amazon, but the movie never made it across the pond and the DVDs of the live shows have never had an official US release.
However, at least one of those live shows has turned up on YouTube, and we bring it to you today. If you like anarchy and comic violence, you are in for a treat. Bottom is what would have happened if The Sex Pistols had been inspired by The Three Stooges instead of The Ramones. This is a hilarious show, loaded with strong language and inappropriate behavior. Don’t watch it at work.
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