Back before mortgages, budgets and bills were of any
interest in my life, the family I was part of could have read like the cast of
The Young Ones.
The cool older brother who I looked up to and yearned to be like,
the peaceful chilled out middle one who liked calm and serenity and the slightly
anarchic youngest of the brood who had a penchant for doing his own thing no
matter what trouble it got him into.
And then there was me the person who tried so hard to fit in
and be popular whilst only ever succeeding in making myself look like even more
of a prat than I already did.
Yet unlike the inhabitants of that houseshare back in the
1980s we got on harmoniously and whenever we watched the works of someone who was well acquainted with those
dysfunctional students of Scumbag College ,any differences we had would fall
from us like a Double Decker bus hurtling through a Cliff Richard poster before plunging headlong into the ravine beneath.
And the creator of those shows and characters that bought us
so close together was Rik Mayall.
Through characters like The Young Ones would be anarchist
Rick we glimpsed a comedy version of ourselves and our struggle to be taken
seriously as we made the giant leap from teenager into adult hood. His desire
to be seen as different and weird , going over people’s heads “ like an
aeroplane , Mike “ reminds us of how hard we sometimes try to be someone other
than ourselves whilst not realising everyone sees through that fake hip facade
to the as square as a four sided quadrilateral could be person he's so
desperately trying to disguise underneath .
In bottoms hapless losers Richie and Eddie we encountered
the sad cases we could become if we didn’t get our lives sorted and the dashing
Lord FlashHeart in Blackadder reminded us that if we want something badly enough
we should damn well make sure we take it....within reason, of course.
And I’m pretty sure no-one could deny they wish they’d had
an imaginary friend as fun as drop dead Fred. Fred’s influence on my life even
stretches so far to me knowing I’d made a friend for life even before I’d had a
conversation with somebody when i saw they had that DVD in their collection
Maybe it’s that childlike humour and almost youthful
exuberance of rik that endeared us to him and made us all take a gasp of
disbelief when we heard of his sudden death at 56.
His jokey take on life even making fun nearly losing his in
the quad bike accident in 93 saying ” I was dead for 5 days , Jesus was only
dead for 3, so i beat Jesus 5-3” makes you realise how too serious about life
we can all be sometimes and that we forget to have fun once we turn into boring
grown up adults. And he must have been onto something good because he got
another 16 years out of his life with that positive outlook on mortality.
So let’s remember Rik not with sadness but with joy and
laughter at all the ways he made us happy. Made us realise life is not just
about how much money we have in the bank or what car we’ve got its about the
fun, the comedy and the slapstick that goes on around us everyday .Not
forgetting he provided us with some of the best catchphrases with which to live
a fulfilled life with or at best wind people up with as you recite them word
for word over anything they are watching.
So rest in peace Rik, thank you for making me laugh and
teaching me you don’t have to take life too seriously, this girl from the neck
down and her family and friends will miss you .
MEDWAY MESSENGER COLUMN -GIRL FROM THE NECK DOWN
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