This sitcom is wonderful, outlandish (to say the very least) and completely insane. Two of the main stars are Rik Mayall and Adrian Emondson, which does mean that sometime in the show the stars just go for meaningless, whacked out violence (mostly done by Emondson). This show starts Mayall and Emondson's list of sitcoms they did together (which are quite like this, Bottom and Filthy, Rich and Catflap).The main plot of this show is basically 4 university students that really shouldn't belong in the same room together for 15 minutes let alone them all living together. What they get up to is so outlandish that it makes the Oz books look like realistic fiction.So if you want dumb, violent, outlandish comedy then this maybe the show for you to watch. If you hate dumb, violent outlandish comedy then go watch something else, you will not like this (or any other Mayall/Emondson collaboration despite them being less outlandish).

... How fortunate that on this one project the nations foremost figureheads in alternative comedy were gathered together and allowed to give their imaginations free reign. I don't think you'll ever see a sitcom as gleefully silly or unconventional as this one, partly because of the personalities involved in making it and partly due to the regular musical interludes that were thrown in purely to give the team more cash.Incidentally, "Cash" from series two is my favourite episode, and Neil my favourite member of the gang. What can you say about a scenario where Vyvvian (a bloke) learns that he's pregnant, except that it's utter genius?! Neil's whole demeanour seals it for me; he doesn't even have to say anything, and Nigel Planer's mournful expression will still crack me up, without fail.It's the absolute opposite of those cosy, easygoing shows where everybody likes one another really. You can't really call it 'The Good Life' when you're living in what most would describe as 'a hole'... As it happens, I don't really have any objection to such a nice '70's comedy, although listening to Vyvvian launch into a verbal tirade against it almost changed my mind, delivered as it was with such unchecked outrage. You can always trust "The Young Ones" to offer some biting political comment, unless you're talking to Rick, that is... !

Ah yes, The Young Ones. This is a quintessential British 80's comedy series. As much as I enjoyed Monty Python (as a kid I was a total Python freak), the Young Ones really put me over the edge. I think that it was that The Young Ones was basically a sit-com with some elements of a variety show thrown in (according to the IMDb it was so they could get a bigger budget for the show).The premise is extremely simple; four college students live in squaller in North London. The roommates are Rik, the people's poet who no one else likes, Vyvvian, the punker medical student, Mike the cool person, and Neil the depressed hippie. The foursome go around being all in all bastards to each other and have the occasional run in with their landlord (Alexi Sayle) who is constantly trying to bilk the four for every penny he can get out of them.All of this is punctuated by explosions, filth and things that are very boring. Vyvvian's hamster is also pretty amusing.

These twelve episodes hit the UK screens in the early 1980's and have shaped our comedy scene for the better. It consists of four students living in a North London house, who all attend Scumbag College and whom rarely see eye-to-eye. Rik is the wannabe anarchist of the house. Fiercely socialist, a radical self-styled "People's Poet" and secret transvestite. Vyvyan Basterd is the medical student who enjoys inflicting physical pain upon others and is a mad psychopathic punk rocker. A softer side of him is revealed by his affection for his equally lunatic pet hamster, SPG, and his love for his plant, a Begonia (which we find out he waters every day as "he can't be bothered to walk upstairs to use the toilet." Neil Pye is the house hippy. Passive, moaning, and a Vegan. Neil loves Genesis, Hawkwind & Marillion and owns a loudspeaker which Jimi Hendrix "once p*ssed on". The final housemate is Mike Thecoolperson. A sophisticated lounge lizard who boasts of his many female conquests, although an episode featuring a vampire reveals that he is in fact a virgin. The landlord is one Mr Balowzci, who's family feature in each episode.The episodes are unconnected and are complete stories with many, many sub-plots to follow. Episode 1 - Demolition - Fascist oiks at the town hall want to demolish the house. But Vyvian decides to do it for them. Episode 2 - Oil - they arrive at a new house, greeted by the naked talking statue by the front door which culminates in a workers revolution against Mike's insistence that Neil & Rik dig for oil in the cellar and a fully fledged benefit concert in the lounge. Episode 3 - Boring - Life has become very Booooring for the students. But if they paid more attention to what was occurring around them, they would have witnessed a terrorist siege in their lounge, a visitation from hell, a fairy tale world that flourishes while they are asleep. Neil is so bored he digs himself a grave and Vyvian chops his finger off in a joke-gone-wrong. Epside 4 - Bomb - The guys wake up in the morning to find that a nuclear bomb has landed in their kitchen. Things can't get any worse for them as it is blocking the refrigerator causing Vyv to put Ketchup on his cornflakes. Worse still, the TV licence man calls around! Episode 5 - Interesting - It's party time! But what other party can you mingle with the four horsemen of the apocalypse, a gigantic sandwich and a singing tomato. Featuring Jim Morrison as Rik's sociology lecturer, Father Christmas & Oliver Twist stuck up the chimney and Neil's hippy mate cryogenically chilled in the fridge. Episode 6 - Flood - While London floods, Rik keeps everybody amused with a game of hide-and-seek.Meanwhile his Sociology file is set on fire by Vyv, Mike's room is occupied by a pride of lions and the Landlord turns out to be an axe-wielding, homicidal maniac.Series 2 Episode 1 - Bambi - Who produced the world's stickiest bogey and who's the world's stupidest bottom-burp? Who's smashing the oiks on University Challenge, and who's swotting away for teacher, like a total ... Yes, the guy's represent Scumbag college on TV's University challenge against Footlight's college, Oxbridge. Motorhead kill five minutes by playing "Ace of Spades" in the lounge. Episode 2 - Cash - Hey man! It's really weird! Strange thing keep disappearing and the table is shrinking. The guy's think there is a "poltergoost" in the house, unaware they really are haunted. Episode 3 - Nasty - Ashes to ashes, Funk to funky, Mike borrows a video recorder from "Harry the B*stard" and him and Vyv plan to spend the night whole night watching banned video nasties. Unfortunately, a vampire is delivered by the postman, disrupting the night's entertainment... Episode 4 - Time - Vyv is violently and copiously sick after hearing the gory details of Rik's alleged night of passion with a strange girl. Even better than that, she turns out to be a psychopathic maniac on the run, and then the whole house goes through a time warp into the medieval ages. Episode 5 - Sick - Their's bogeys on the blanket and snot on the sheets as the guys come down with the worst colds in history. Neil's parents visit at the same time as an escaped criminal "Brian Damaged-Balowski" holds them all hostage. Episode 6 - Summer Holiday - Exam results are posted, and the guy's have come bottom in the whole world. Evicted from their house for destroying the fridge with a hand grenade, squashing an elephant-headed man (who was singing "Stop! In the name of love") under the rug and not paying any rent, they live on the street overnight until they decide to rob the Fascist Pig-Bank and flee on a red, double decker bus, to their demise!