ARCHIVE: REMEMBERING RIK MAYALL NINE YEARS LATER

Rik Mayall, star of The Young Ones, The New Statesman, and Blackadder suffered a fatal heart attack and died in June, 2014, aged 56.

He’ll be remembered mostly for his legendary sketches and TV shows. But he’ll also be remembered for his prose. Some of that prose came in the form of a book – like his autobiography Bigger than Hitler, Better than Christ, which featured this opening paragraph:

And the rest came in the form of letters, some of which have been collected by the celebrated blog Letters of Note.

Here are Mayall’s funniest and crudest missives, according to The Kicker.

1: RIK CONGRATULATES COUPLE ON THEIR WEDDING DAY…

2: RIK WRITES BACK TO A MEDIA STUDENT WHO SOUGHT ADVICE FROM HIM…

3: RIK NOT SO HELPFUL TO TEACHERS…

4: RIK PITCHES AN IDEA TO HARRODS BOSS MOHAMED AL FAYED…

5: RIK LOSES TRAIN OF THOUGHT WHEN WRITING TO CARPET CLEANING FIRM SHAKE ‘N’ VAC.

6: RIK WRITES BACK TO A FAN WHO REQUESTED AN AUTOGRAPHED PHOTO…

7: RIK SENDS LETTER TO FAN’S FATHER FOR HIS 60TH BIRTHDAY…