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{{quote|'''Richie:''' Why can't we ever bloody win anything?
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'''Eddie:''' Well, there's the telly... }}
 
The [[Britcom]], stripped down to its absolute minimum requirements: two [[Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist|idiots]], sharing living space, passing the [[Idiot Ball]] back and forth so fast that you can't distinguish between the two.
 
Richie Richard -- aRichard—a sex-starved, sadistic, physically repugnant loser with delusions of sophistication -- takessophistication—takes out his frustrations at life upon Eddie Hitler, his boozy, slightly more intelligent, equally sadistic flatmate. Frequently, this involves [[Comedic Sociopathy|over-the-top violence]] that would make ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|Itchy and Scratchy]]'' wince. Eddie, for his part, is quite willing to respond in kind.
 
The [[Spiritual Successor]] to ''[[The Young Ones]]'' and ''[[Filthy Rich and Catflap|Filthy, Rich & Catflap]]'', inspired loosely by ''[[Waiting for Godot]]''. It ran to three series on [[The BBC]] before transferring to [[Theatre]] as a series of two-man shows.
 
Came forty-fifth in ''[[Britain's Best Sitcom|Britains Best Sitcom]]''.▼
 
▲Came forty-fifth in ''[[Britain's Best Sitcom|Britains Best Sitcom]]''.
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* {{spoiler|[[Bolivian Army Ending]]}} {{spoiler|thanks to Richie finding a porn film involving the PM.}}
* [[Bottle Episode]]: Series 3's "Hole", which takes place solely on a ferris wheel car, which they manage to completely destroy.
** Season 1's "Contest" also takes place entirely within the confines of the flat.
* [[Born in the Wrong Century]]: Richie's common lament, which his cultural illiteracy fails to back up. [[Anachronism Stew|He thinks Shakespeare and the French Revolution were in the same century -- the 13th]].
* [[British Brevity]]: The show ran for 18 episodes.
* [[British Footy Teams]]: Eddie is mentioned several times as being a fan of Queens Park Rangers. Dick Head also played for them for a brief period, which ended in disaster after he turned out not to know such basic things as ''which goal to aim for''.
* [[British Pubs]]: The Lamb and Flag, in which Richie and Eddie have made themselves obnoxious more than once, and not always by being drunk.
* [[Calvin Ball]]: Eddie's version is the card game 'One Card Slam' in which Eddie turns over a single card and demands twelve quid from Richie. Since Richie knows nothing about card games (to the extent of not spotting Eddie's ''five'' king poker hand) this works very well for Eddie.
* [[Can't Hold His Liquor]]: Richie needs only one sip of scotch to either become drunk or begin ''thinking'' that he's drunk (which amounts to the same thing).
** In the fourth live show he doesn't even take a sip, but still believes he is drunk.
** One's tempted to conclude that it's all in his head. On one occasion, when he needed a stiff drink to settle his nerves, Eddie offered him a shot of Tizer (a soft drink, for non-Brits), which did the trick anyway.
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[[Puff of Logic|*hand disappears*]] }}
* [[The Ditz]]: both of them.
* [[Does This Remind You of Anything?]]?: Eddie and Richie are often referred to as being a married couple; Richie is Eddie's 'wife', they call each other 'darling' and 'dreamboat' in front of strangers, and they are keeping some liqueur chocolates for their anniversary.
** Also in the first stage show Eddie becomes Richie's legally adopted son and wife (the lawyer ran out of adoption papers) to get at £15,000, which turns out to be a debt from Richie's great uncle Norman.
* [[Double Entendre]]: Richie frequently misunderstands innocent questions like "How's your sausage?" and "May I drink your juice?", and Eddie lampshades it in the last episode.
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Eddie: Theres a note sellotaped to my knee. it says Sue Carpenter
Both: (make an raunchy noise and mousetraps catch their balls) }}
* [[Expy]] (of the characters they played in [[Filthy Rich and& Catflap]])
** ...also pretty similar to the characters they played in ''[[The Comic Strip Presents]]: Mr. Jolly Lives Next Door'', ''[[The Young Ones]]'', and their "Dangerous Brothers" stage act.
* [[Extreme Omnivore]]: Eddie has eaten lard, straight from the pack and washed down with cooking oil, as well as yoghurt that was so old it had sprouted ''grass''.
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* [[Halloween Episode]]: "Terror"
** And fitting in with the unusual scheduling of their Christmas episode, this one was originally broadcast in January.
* [[Heterosexual Life Partners]]: Richie and Eddie. Oh, so much (except that Richie is arguably <s> pansexual</s> suicidally desperate). And they've been at it for decades, too.
* [[Hideous Hangover Cure]]: Made from 7 raw eggs, washing up liquid, Domestos and ant spray, and apparently intended to be ingested through the nose.
* [[Horrible Camping Trip]]: On Wimbledon Common, no less.
* [[I Want You to Meet An Old Friend of Mine|I Want You To Meet An Old Housemate Of Mine]] -- Christopher—Christopher Ryan, who starred alongside Edmondson and Mayall as the suave Mike in ''[[The Young Ones]]'', turns up every so often as Eddie's decidedly-less-suave mate Dave Hedgehog. If they'd just gotten Nigel Planer to play Spudgun we'd have had a whole cast reunion.
* [[Immune to Drugs]]: Or alcohol, in Eddie's case. Technically, he's only been drunk once -- foronce—for about 17 years and counting.
** Then again, Eddie does imply he [[Cloudcuckoolander|might already be dead]], and thus, unable to get drunk.
* [[Is That What They're Calling It Now?]]: There's a joke like this in practically every episode.
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* [[Noodle Incident]]: [[Running Gag|Constantly.]]
* [[Oh My Gods]]: "What in the name of Satan's ''[[Unusual Euphemism|portion]]''..."
* [[Once an Episode]]: Planned, but not carried out. The original plan was for every episode of the third series to end with Richie and/or Eddie loudly exclaiming "SHIT!!" -- for—for whatever reason this only ended up being done in two out of the six episodes, but the setups for the gag are still there in the remaining episodes (Richie standing next right next to a box of highly explosive carrots as it detonates; Richie and Eddie being confronted by "Skullcrusher" Henderson and unable to pay him; Richie and Eddie being knocked out by the crazy Welsh cricketer whose honeymoon they've stolen).
* [[Only Sane Man]]: In as much as this show can be said to have one, it's Spudgun, oddly enough; he's an idiot, but he's also often the only one who ever points out that some of the insane things that Richie has them do (such as drinking gravy instead of sherry for Christmas and wearing inside-out dressing gowns when [[It Makes Sense in Context|summoning the Devil]]) are, in fact, quite stupid.
* [[Ontological Mystery]]: The second half of one ''Bottom'' live show involves the characters suddenly finding themselves inside a mostly featureless steel dome. Neither of them can quite recall how they got there.
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* [[Puff of Logic]]: They're trapped on a Ferris wheel that's due to be demolished. The Hand of God Himself appears to offer them a lift, but disappears when they realize they're both atheists and must therefore be hallucinating.
* [[Punny Name]]: There's about 3 in the second live show: Micheal McHooligan, Patricia O'Violence and Pat O'Cake.
* [[Repetitive Name]]: Technically a [[Running Gag]]; [[Filthy Rich and& Catflap|this is not the only time Rik Mayall has played a character named Richard Richard]].
* [[Shout-Out]] / [[Take That]]: A lot of guest characters and minor characters share names with various well-known footballers of the day (Lineker, Grobbelaar, etc). The references are not always flattering.
* [[A Simple Plan]]: Example from an early episode: Richie and Eddie have been stealing from the neighbor's gas line; now they have to come up with a way to disconnect it without getting caught...the kitchen explodes in the process.
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'''Richie:''' What, your face? }}
** Another when they try to steal a [[Falklands War]] veteran's leg to put the money on a three-legged, blind race horse whose jockey gets shot.
** Averted when Richie get an apparant death curse from a fortune teller, which he believes was a plot by Eddie to steal the other half of his inheritence from auntie Olga.
** In general, Richie and Eddie will inevitably let their fundamental stupidity, lack of foresight and inability to solve problems without violence bollocks up any kind of plan they make, no matter how seemingly straightforward and simple it should be.
* [[Spiritual Successor]] (Successor to ''[[The Young Ones]]'' and ''[[Filthy Rich and& Catflap]]'')
** It was inspired by their West End production of [[Waiting for Godot]].
* [[Spot of Tea]]: A [[Running Gag]] with several disgusting variations, such as coagulated three-month-old tea, or elm tea
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** And the hangover cure made of 7 raw eggs, washing up liquid, Domestos, Jeff Micro liquid and ant spray.
** In the third live show Richie offers Eddie some cocktails made of the most disguisting ingredients.
*** 1)Gin,blood and porcupine shit (without the gin)
*** 2)Coconut milk and napalm
*** 3)tree bark, sea water and porcupine urine
* [[Strange Minds Think Alike]]:
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[[Category:British Series]]
[[Category:Britcom]]
[[Category:Bottom]]▼
[[Category:TV Series]]
[[Category:Britain's Best Sitcom]]
▲[[Category:Bottom{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:Live-Action TV of the 1990s]]
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