We know these things, but they still represent humorous exaggerations of personality traits we really possess. I don’t think people are satirically identifying with Rik because he’s a poet, but because they recognize a certain kind of pretension within themselves. What young writer or poet or (as in my case) songwriter hasn’t indulged in ridiculous fantasies of becoming a populist icon?
Neil is pathetic, but he’s an exaggeration of a certain kind of depressive, non-confrontational personality that really exists. Vyv is an exaggeration of a kind of affected, anti-social nihilism which is a fairly common phase for people to go through. We’re not literally identifying wholesale with the characters, but recognizing, in a self-deprecating way, the kernels of authenticity which we recognize in ourselves.
The funniest thing about it though was when people who hadn’t seen The Young Ones didn’t get it and would look at me askance as a puffed up pretentious writer. I had to tell them that just like the Eiffel Tower, it was irony, man…
I don’t think I identified with any of the characters in The Young Ones, though I did find it hilatious – perhaps as an image of just how bad things could have been at university/college (if they’s been ten times worse than reality). The only nice one is Neil, but he’s just too pathetic to identify with. The next nicest is probably Jerzy Balowski and his family.