British comedian and actor Rik Mayall has died at age 56.  Audiences first knew him from the 1980s TV show “The Young Ones” in which he played the obnoxious self-styled revolutionary sharing a small house with three equally loony mates who attended the fictional Scumbag College.

Mayall’s friend and frequent partner Adrian Edmondson, who played the violent punk rocker Vyvyan on “The Young Ones”, recalled, “There were times when Rik and I were writing together when we almost died laughing.  And now he’s died for real.  Without me.  Selfish bastard,” Edmundson added.

The two would appear on another sitcom “Bottom” which displayed the same cheeky schoolboy humor and which also earned cult status among loyal viewers.  Their humor often involved fires, explosions, and blows to the head with frying pans and hammers.  Mayall also gave Hollywood a go with the movie “Drop Dead Fred”.

Mayall’s biggest challenge would occur on Easter weekend, 1998, when he crashed his all-terrain vehicle and was plunged into a coma.

“I was dead for five days.  Jesus was only dead for three, so I beat him – 17 April 1998 was the day I was sent back from heaven,” he joked years later.  But the severe head injury left him with epilepsy. 

Monty Python star Eric Idle called Mayall “a very funny and talented man”, while Ricky Gervais said he was “an icon of British comedy”.  Writer Hugo Rifkind suggested that fans of Mayall should pay tribute in his style of humor:  “Go home tonight, find someone you love, and hit them with a frying pan.”