As I alluded to in the short film section with the hilarious and dark "Don't Fear Death," we lost one today.  Rik Mayall, best known in the states for Drop Dead Fred, Blackadder, and The Young Ones (which apparently was on MTV all the time despite having only 24 episodes).

This is the photo they ran in the paper.  it's SO perfect.


Seriously, outside of the sad fact we lost this dude at the age of 56 to causes unknown (but likely related to a near-fatal crash in 1998 that left him in a coma), the memorials have been gut-wrenchingly hilarious, all the clips and stories.  The dude was to comedy what punk was to music.

[cemter]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6q0CkeuSqxk[/center]

In case you can't view/understand the video, it's Rik in the Young Ones, determined to commit suicide by overdosing on pills.  Laxative pills.  And yes, this is actually what people have been saying today verbatim when discussing his passing.

This house will become a shrine! And punks and skins and Rastas will all gather round and all hold their hands in sorrow for their fallen leader! And all the grown-ups will say, "But why are the kids crying?" And the kids will say, "Haven't you heard? Rick is dead! The People's Poet is dead!"

I only know him from The Young Ones and he was great in that. Beyond that, I haven't seen him in anything since then. Same goes for everyone involved with TYO. And yes, they played it endlessly on MTV.