Bottom (television)
Bottom was a British sitcom of the early 1990s written by Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson, who were the show's main stars, playing Richard Richard (Richie) and Edward Elizabeth Hitler (Eddie) respectively; they share a flat in Hammersmith.
Richie is a perpetually optimistic dimwit; Eddie is a cheerfully violent dipsomaniac. Their arguments often lead to exaggeratedly violent fight scenes. Some have likened this to a live action cartoon, however, the violence contained in the series is somewhat more graphic - heads slammed in and under refrigeraters, hands stapled to tables, legs being chainsawed of, candles shoved in eyes, penises set on fire, fingers cut off, televisions smashed over heads, darts thrown in eyes, faces shoved in camp fires, legs broken or teeth knocked out.
Richie is known to be a virgin, and has a microscopic penis. He usually wears a white shirt and black tie, blue jeans (with Y-fronts clearly visible) and he has a light brown raincoat. Eddie is an alcoholic (he claims that this is because he 'drinks a lot'). He wears glasses akin to those of Eric Morecambe, a brown suit and a white shirt with a black tie. He also has a brown pork pie hat and a navy blue overcoat. He has two real friends, called Spudgun (Christopher O'Donnell) and Dave Hedgehog (Christopher Ryan).
The characters Richie and Eddie bear perhaps closer inspection than any of Rik and Ade's other characters. Despite sharing a deep mutual hatred, the two are eternally entwined due to their basic character flaws. Eddie's alcoholism and violent nature means that he has not been able to hold down a steady job since his very short lived career as a 'bunny girl', back in the '70s, and it is unlikely that any landlord would grant him tenancy, even if he could afford the rent, therefore he is forced to rely upon Richie's charity. Richie, on the other hand, is such a self-obsessed, perverted, wittering git that without Eddie, it is unlikely that he would make another friend. The two have an unspoken acceptance of their co-dependancy and their relationship tends to fluctuate between acting like a married couple (filling in the crossword together, Richie putting an unconcious Eddie to bed every night) and frustrated (often violent) desperation, so much so that both have attempted suicide - Eddie drinking bleach (albeit drunkenly) and Richie trying to gas himself in the oven (albeit merely an attempt at getting Eddie to buy him a drink).
Although Richie is the loud one, who claims to know a great deal, he is actually a complete fool (he once announced 'I really am more of an Elizabethan type, you know, 13th century, Shakespeare, the French Revolution', he later tried to convince a Falklands veteran that he had fought three years there and had seized the fictitious 'Straud Hill' and liberated the Port Stanley's branch of Tesco). Eddie, on the other hand seems to have quite good general knowlege, which he keeps to himself. He can play chess (and spends 6 hours trying, unsuccessfuly, to teach Richie), he knows a fair amount about Napoleon and Wellington (who Richie claims invented the Chelsea Boot) and appears well versed in the works of Vivaldi (who Richie believes to be a football player). Eddie is also a great one for plans (though most involve trying to get a free pint from the landlord at the Lamb and Flag, Dick Head). One such plan involved Eddie printing fake money. Instead of making counterfeits which appear real, he plasters them with pornographic doodles of the Royal Family and other such celebrities (on the £5 the Queen 'gets her jugs out', on the £50 note there is an orgy involving the Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh and Bobby Charlton £27 note there is a picture of Sylvester Stallone 'fisting' Mr MacHenry from The Magic Roundabout).
Richie and Eddie are basically variations on characters the duo had been playing for years; the earlier Filthy, Rich and Catflap had featured a slightly more watered-down version. The Dangerous Brothers, their sketch in Saturday Live in 1985, also featured violent slapstick.
They also both starred in The Young Ones.
Often considered to be the most violent and profane example of the Britcom genre, the programme ran for three series of six episodes each.
Five live theatre shows have been spun off over the years, the most recent show toured in 2003 and was called "Bottom: Weapons Grade Y-Fronts" Recordings of all five stage shows have been released on video and DVD.
Another loose (in more ways than one) spin off from the series is the movie Guest House Paradiso, in which Mayall and Edmondson use the big screen as an opportunity to take the "comic" depiction of extreme violence and bodily functions to even greater extremes; the film climaxes with an orgy of projectile vomiting that has to be seen to be disbelieved.
Bottom was broadcast by the Dutch VPRO.
Episode list
(Episode titles are intended to be preceded by the word "Bottom")
Series 1
Series 2
Series 3
