A forgotten classic: RIP Mr. Mayall (updated)

Rik Mayall, who played the anarchist/mod on the class British sitcom, The Young Ones, has died. Mayall, according to the British press, helped define alternative comedy in the Thatcher era. The Young Ones, Sky News wrote, “featured anarchic, offbeat humour and it helped to bring alternative comedy to television in the 1980s.”

The show ran in two installments in Great Britain, with 12 episodes appearing over the course of two years (1982-1984). It showed up here on MTV in 1985 — a brilliant, surreal ensemble comedy that grew out of British punk and the detritus of the ’60s and ’70s as we entered the political desert that was the Thatcher/Reagan era. Structurally, it borrowed from the standard sitcom format, but undermined it with a heavy dose of anti-establishment sketch comedy. Its four student foils — stereotypes of the yuppie, hippie, punk and anarchist/mod — and its willingness to bend all rules was a direct reproach to Thatcherism’s prim lie, and by extension the bullshit Reagan patriotism that had America in its grips.

It would be disingenuous for me to say much more — it has been years since I considered the show and, had you mentioned Mayall’s name last week, I wouldn’t have recognized it. But the show was important and Mayall had a solid career afterward.

His death at 56 is a sad piece of news. The show lives on in DVD form — Netflix is not offering it as a stream, which is unfortunate. Maybe news of Mayall’s death will prompt MTV (of more likely IFC)  to bring it back one last time.