Remembering Rik Mayall: RIP, King of Subversive Comedy

Rik Mayall, the British actor who died heartbreakingly young Monday at the age of 56, wasn't just the consummate comedian of his age. For a certain generation who followed his every appearance on the BBC and then regurgitated it faithfully on the playground the next day, Mayall was a revolutionary

Wild-eyed, in-your-face and obstreperous, Mayall and his collaborators made their on-screen Oxbridge predecessors — the Monty Python generation — look as staid as bowler-hatted bankers. Even as kids, we knew there was something dangerous about Mayall, something our parents and teachers didn't approve of, something that somehow threatened to turn us all into screaming punks. Read more...