# Your favorite "Young One"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 9, 2001, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-young-one/92456 "2001-11-09T16:19:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2001, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-young-one/92456/21 "2001-11-11T14:14:08Z")
“Harry the Bastard” was also the [_Nasty_](http://www.ironworks.com/comedy/youngone/nasty1.htm) episode. Here’s the dialog from the scene (with Mike and Vyv; Neil was up in the yucky bathtub): > [@](#): > > MIKE: Maybe you shouldn’t have poured all of that washing-up liquid in it. > > VYVYAN: But it says here, Michael look, “Ensure machine is clean, and free from dust”! > > MIKE: Yeah, but it don’t say, “Ensure the machine is full of washing-up liquid”! > > VYVYAN: No, but it doesn’t say, “Ensure the machine isn’t full of washing-up liquid”! > > MIKE: Well, it wouldn’t would it! I mean, it doesn’t say, “Ensure you don’t chop up your video machine with an axe, put all the bits in a plastic bag, and bung 'em down the lavatory”! > > VYVYAN: Doesn’t it? Well maybe that’s what’s going wrong! > > [picks it up as if to start following these new instructions] ---
**Author:** ![Spiny\_Norman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@Spiny\_Norman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiny_Norman)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2001, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-young-one/92456/22 "2001-11-11T14:53:40Z")
- but reading those bits of dialogue, I can hear the exact voices. Dammit, I miss that series. How can one pick a favourite ? Impossible. (OK, Mike’s character never really git to the front, so it’s a three-way tie. Aw heck - I’ll just say SPG is my favourite.) Favourite episode: Has to be “Bomb” - how it upsets the domestic routines when there’s suddenly a nuclear bomb in front of the fridge. ---
**Author:** ![Ross](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e274bd/32.png) [@Ross](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ross)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2001, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-young-one/92456/23 "2001-11-12T01:02:56Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Cholo \* > **I really enjoyed all of the boys but my personal fave “Young Ones” skit was when Alexi gave the benefit show in the living room and Neil was the only spectator. Still cracks me up to this day.** Me too. During his vicious attack on Neil for not paying £200 for his own benefit show, Rik announces, “Watch out Norman Tebbit!” Once Neil has sullenly handed over his last 50p, he mutters, “Well, he’d better be good, this Norman Tebbit…” I took this line to Disneyland with me. In fact whenever I’m sitting waiting for a show to start, in public, I always mutter it in a stage whisper. Always bugs someone nearby. I like Rik best, meself. I always felt bad for Mike, though, because he was potentially a terrific character. Didn’t quite work but that was the script’s fault, not Chris Ryan’s. I think they were genuinely just so into the anarchy of the concept that a normal cool person wasn’t easily conceived. He’d have been much better as a version of, say, Mayall’s Lord Flash-heart. Neil’s great. Vyvyan is just a plot device on legs if you ask me, turned into a fiery reality by Adrian Edmondson’s brilliance. ---
**Author:** ![Kayeby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9de0a6/32.png) [@Kayeby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kayeby)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2001, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-young-one/92456/24 "2001-11-12T03:13:16Z")
Another Vyvyan here. Although I liked the carrot in one of the episodes. He was dancing with some sort of food (a cheese? We’ll just say it was cheese) and the cheese gets squished. **Cheese:** Darling carrot. Could you _ever_ love a cripple? **Carrot:** No. I don’t think so. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2001, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-young-one/92456/25 "2001-11-12T04:02:53Z")
When I first got into _The Young Ones_ I was a teenager, it was the mid-80’s, and Mike was not very popular as a character. But in retrospect he actually is a lot better than people give him credit for. The problem is that his character isn’t as wacky and caricatured - he’s understated and has a sophistication (as far as it goes) that makes him seem less interesting. Chris Ryan’s ‘Dave Hedgehog’ in _Bottom_ though is excellent! He and ‘Spudgun’ are wonderfully gormless. Brilliant! ---
**Author:** ![diku](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4af34b/32.png) [@diku](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/diku)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2001, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-young-one/92456/26 "2001-11-12T05:08:49Z")
Not sure what the name of the episode is, but Mike sealed up my vote when he nailed himself to the table, trying to keep the plates from being burned. That whole scene just kills me. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2001, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-young-one/92456/27 "2001-11-12T14:09:52Z")
> [@](#): > > Not sure what the name of the episode is, but Mike sealed up my vote when he nailed himself to the table, trying to keep the plates from being burned. That whole scene just kills me. That would be [Cash](http://www.ironworks.com/comedy/youngone/cash1.htm). ---
**Author:** ![jinty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/dbc845/32.png) [@jinty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jinty)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2001, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-young-one/92456/28 "2001-11-12T14:29:15Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Otto \* > \*\*Favorite episode has to be University Challenge. > \*\* Ah yes, watching that episode was an epiphany for my dad :). He used to hate TYO, usually leaving the room when it came on, and made it pretty clear that he hated _us_ kids watching _that_ rubbish on _his_ TV. One day he decided to sit & sulk through it rather than leave the room, and when it got to the bit where Vivian loses his head to a passing train and then his body starts kicking it down the track, my dad couldn’t stop himself from laughing. From then on, he was a fan. The older generation, huh? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-young-one/92456.md?page=1)