The Young Ones: Every Stoopid Episode

BBC Home Video ($59.98)

This mid-Eighties BBC import (and later MTV staple) gave Monty Python a run for its lunacy and introduced a generation of gobsmacked yanks to the concept of bogeys, Motörhead, and the obscure Cockney comedy of Alexei Sayle via the misadventures of a quartet of student flatmates forever on the outs with reality. Comic geniuses Rik Mayall, Adrian Edmondson, Nigel Planer, and Christopher Ryan were, respectively, Smiths-loving poseur Rik, daft punk Vyvyan, vegan-hippie Neil, and diminutive ladies-man Mike, who variously farted, drank, and very nearly shagged their way through a variety of guest stars including Emma Thompson, Robbie Williams, Stephen Fry, and, lest we forget, the Damned. This three-disc set also features a pair of minidocs on Britcoms and the standard making-of piece, as well as two lesser-known follow-up series examples, Filthy Rich & Catflap and Bottom 2001: An Arse Oddity. Sick and wrong in all the right ways.

This article appears in December 13 • 2002.

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