Characters / The Young Ones

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The Main Four

In General

• Dysfunction Junction: An arrogant, hypocritical, attention whoring manchild, a depressed, unhygienic, passive-aggressive hippie, a psychopathic, ultraviolent punk and a shady con artist and criminal all living under one roof.
• Lack of Empathy: Everyone. Mike is notably bad, especially towards Neil; Rick is even worse.
  Rick: My parents are dead... THE SELFISH BASTARDS!
• Lazy Bum: All four are students, but they spend most of their days squabbling and abusing one another than studying. In fact, the very thought of actually going into college is enough to make them squirm.
• Perpetual Poverty: The lads never have much money, being Starving Students dependent on their grants. They're pretty much forced to live on lentils and cornflakes. By the finale, it turns out they are seriously behind on their rent and are evicted as a result.
• Starving Student: Taken to ridiculous extremes. The lads can't actually afford the rent on their shithole of a house, serve one corn flake to each guest at their party and their staple diet appears to be cornflakes and lentils (which almost always end up spilled on the ground). "Cash" shows them burning everything in the house so as not to freeze to death.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: They were already flat-out awful human beings to start with, but by the second series they're downright despicable to one another. Rik Mayall admitted that the writers tried to make them nastier and less cute.
• Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist: Undeniably so, which is why they're so damn entertaining. Even Neil, the only semi-sympathetic one of the bunch, is prone to being standoffish.
• Weirdness Magnet: All manner of strange things happen to them over the course of their student lives, which they don't really take much notice of. This is most appearent in the episode "Boring", in which the lads see, overhear, and/or smell hints that one remarkable thing after another is happening all around them, but are too wrapped up in their boredom and bickering to notice.
• With Friends Like These...: All of them, except Vyvyan and Mike, who have a Kid with the Leash relationship.

Rick

Rick (or Wick, a.k.a. Prick):

Played by: Rik Mayall

The hypocritical, Cliff Richard-loving lefty activist who was convinced that he was a Marxist rebel, a poetic genius, the voice of an entire generation and the most well-liked and attractive member of the household; he was spectacularly wrong on all counts.

• AM/FM Characterization: He's a massive Cliff Richard fan. In "Bomb", he sings "Revolution" by The Beatles and in "Interesting", he's about to put on a record by The Human League before the police arrive.
• Ambiguously Bi: Although he shows some interest in girls, Rick fits a few gay stereotypes. Plus, he has more than enough Foe Romance Subtext with Vyvyan to fit this trope and to a lesser extent, with Neil as well. Not to mention the fact that he’s an obvious Crossdresser as shown when Neil reveals that Rick owns a dress and keeps it in his cupboard.
• Attention Whore: Oh yes. Almost everything he says is just to get people to pay attention to him.
• Bad Liar: He once tries to convince an axe-wielding landlord not to enter a room by shouting, "There's no one in here, Mr. Balowski! We're all holograms!"
• Blatant Lies: He insists a dress Neil finds in his wardrobe isn't his, despite it being in his size and having his name on it.
• Butt-Monkey: Along with Neil.
• Can't Hold His Liquor: According to Neil, Rick has passed out after half a glass of cider
• Casanova Wannabe: Without any possibility of success.
• Catchphrase Insult: He shares "You bastard!" as his catchphrase with Vyvyan.
• Character Tics: Putting his hands on his hips when annoyed.
• The Chew Toy: Well, strictly Neil is this for the rest of the four, but Rick is the one who spends most of his time being beaten up/whacked over the head/told to shut up, generally by Vyvyan.
• Crossdresser: Although he is never seen in women's clothes, he's obviously a crossdresser. At one point, Neil comes downstairs in a Gingham dress and says that because he couldn't get into his own room to get dressed, he went into Rick's room and found a dress. When Rick denies it, Vyvyan points out the nametag says 'Rick'. Also, Rick has several very feminine habits, such as braiding his hair and crossing his legs and reading Cosmopolitan. In addition, when Vyvyan asks Rick if he intends to "burn his bra" when he gets a bit political, he replies "Well, someone's got to."
• A Degree in Useless: His and Vyv's fields of study are the only ones that have been confirmed onscreen. Rick's choice of Sociology is fairly stereotypical for someone with his political views and no real plan for what to do after he leaves Scumbag College.
• Dirty Coward: Seen when he tries to convince a vampire to bite Neil instead of him.
• Disco Dan: At a time when his fellow students would have been listening to Joy Division or The Smiths, he's a Cliff Richard fan.
• Elmuh Fudd Syndwome: He has a very noticeable case of rhotacism, which Rik Mayall actually had a mild case of in real-life, and massively exaggerated when playing Rick.
  "And Young Ones... / Shouwdn't be afwaid..."
• Establishing Character Moment: The very first scene shows him dancing to the title song.
• Expy: Mayall had done a very similar character in his stand up routines. In turn, his character from Bottom is essentially an older Rick.
• The Fashionista: Kicks in the tv when he sees the "Young Ai-dolts" on Nozin' Aroun' are still wearing flared trousers.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: Even his own conscience doesn't like him.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: The Sanguine - Very extroverted and often irresponsible.
• Genre Savvy: When an explosion goes off in "Time", Rick's first instinct is that Vyvyan is to blame.
• Giftedly Bad: Rick's poetry is howlingly wretched, and it's actually better read than recited.
  Pollution
  All awound
  Sometimes up
  And sometimes down
  But always around.
  Pollution, are you coming to my town?
  Or am I coming to yours?
  We're on diffewent buses, pollution
  But we're both using petrol...
  BOMBS!
• Hair-Trigger Temper: Nobody takes it seriously.
• Hypocrite: He talks about peace and love, when he rarely does anything that can be considered brotherly love.
• It's All About Me: Rick's response when he finds out his parents are dead? "THE SELFISH BASTARDS!"
• Jerkass: Apart from being a left wing nutjob, he's also an obnoxious, pretentious and arrogant wanker.
• Keet: Possibly ties into him being a Manchild. He's very hyperactive, loud, and effeminate.
• Large Ham: Constantly swerving between emotions, often Suddenly Shouting or Milking the Giant Cow, and constantly overreacting to the smallest issue.
  Rick: Neil! Are these lentils South Afwican?
  Neil: Well, um...
  Rick: YOU BASTARD! You complete and utter BASTARD! Why don't you just go out and become a policeman?! Become a pig?! There's no diffewence you know! I suppose you hate gay people too! Hippie!
• The Load: He thinks it's Neil, but since Neil is the Team Mom, Mike is often Team Dad and Vvyan is The Big Guy, Rick's usually the one to panic and generally be unhelpful.
• Loony Fan: He's completely obsessed with Cliff Richard.
• Miles Gloriosus: Brags about being “The People’s Poet” and an infamous anarchist, but when things even start to smell bad he’ll either duck and cover, beg for mercy or try and betray his flat mates just to save his own pathetic skin.
• Manchild: Oh yes. Attention-seeking, tantrum-throwing, first to panic in a crisis, can't pronounce his 'R's, can't tell the time.
• Meaningful Name: Rick Pratt (a synonym for "arse" and a slang term for a person of minimal intelligence and inflated ego).
• Momma's Boy: He still refers to her as "Mummy" despite being in his early twenties.
  • It's worth noting it's jokingly said in the U.K that a good indicator of how posh a certain person is is how long they call their parents "Mum" or "Dad" instead of their names, with special points being given for "Mummy" or "Mater" (so posh it's probably fictional).
• My God, What Have I Done?: When he mistakenly thinks he's killed Neil.
• No Indoor Voice: Not on the same scale as Vyvyan, but shifts into Suddenly Shouting when he's annoyed, which is fairly often.
• No Sense of Personal Space: Particularly with Neil.
• Only One Name: Although the book Bachelor Boys (by Ben Elton and Mayall himself) lists his surname as "Pratt"; Even when he's on University Challenge only their first names are given.
• Smug Snake: He practically oozes smugness when he thinks he’s got the advantage in a situation, as well as portraying himself as a so-called hero to the people. However, he’s unabashedly arrogant, condescending to everyone he meets, is quick to fold under the slightest amount of opposition and is just all-round hopeless.
• Sibling Rivalry: His interactions with Vyvyan come off as this.
• Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: With Vyvyan.
• Small Name, Big Ego: Thinks he's "The People's Poet." He's very, very wrong; the closest he gets to punk poetry is a few sarky comments about Thatcher.
  • He thinks he's an anarchist, but is a big fan of Marx, who is more associated with communism, and upon any pressure whatsoever morphs back into a social conservative.
• Spoiled Brat: If his current behaviour is any indication. His family's indicated to be fairly wealthy, no matter how anarchic he tries to be.
• Squee: When he and the others got to sing "Living Doll" with Cliff Richard for Comic Relief, he was overjoyed.
• Strawman Political: He's more making fun of university students who become political without really studying up on the subject. Or alternately, a parody of how conservatives see leftists.
• Tantrum Throwing: Whenever he wants attention. Which is often.
• Teacher's Unfavorite Student: In one episode, Rick shows off his old schoolbook with a written note from his old schoolmates to prove how much they all liked him. As soon as Neil reads it, Rick is Instantly Proven Wrong by the note saying, "Prick is a wonker, signed, the rest of the class", and his attempts at passing it off as friendly jokes are punctured by a follow-up note saying, "I agree with the rest of the class, signed, Teacher."
• Took a Level in Badass: Robbing a bank robber (with a water pistol) and stealing a bus in "Summer Holiday"- easily the most anarchic (and only useful) thing he's ever done.
• Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist: An arrogant, radical poseur.
• Wrong Genre Savvy: His ideas about the life and music of Cliff Richard. In particular, his conviction that "Devil Woman" is a song about Margaret Thatcher.

Vyvyan

Vyvyan Basterd:

Played by: Adrian "Ade" Edmondson

The psychotic and child-like, but strangely insightful punk who couldn't go a single episode without destroying something or someone— or, usually, several.

• All Men Are Perverts: Spends the entire time when Helen Mucus^note portrayed by Jennifer Saunders, who later married Ade is in the house staring at her chest (very obviously and even moving his chair closer), happily volunteers to wear tights a girl might have worn, briefly checks out Amazulu when they perform in the house during "Time", tricks the washing machine into opening its hatch by claiming to have Felicity Kendall's underwear, etc.
• Ambiguously Bi: While Vyvyan is clearly into women, he’s far too interested in the fact that Neil is wearing Rick’s dress. He also has quite a bit of Foe Yay with Rick.
• AM/FM Characterization: Despite being a punk, he's clearly a fan of Heavy Metal, judging by his t-shirts and having "Very Metal" written in studs on his shirt.
• Ax-Crazy: One of the most violent characters in a Britcom ever - played entirely for laughs. Vyvyan is perhaps the closest live action TV has ever come to a Warner Bros. animated character.
  • This counts for both violence inflicted and violence received, although usually due to his or his housemates' stupidity: from getting a pickaxe through the skull to decapitation to exploding architecture, Vyvyan has survived it all.
• Berserk Button: It's fairly easy to annoy Vyvyan, but he really hates The Good Life, Rik's pretension and being reminded he has a girl's name (in fact, Vivian is a male name; the female spelling is Vivien).
• Boisterous Bruiser: With emphasis on "bruiser".
• Catchphrase Insult: His catchphrase is "You bastard!"
• Character Tics: Scrunching up his face.
• Charles Atlas Superpower: Vyv can survive decapitation, eat pretty much anything and perform absurd feats of strength (such as pushing the wall of the house just so the lads can hook up the video).
• Cloud Cuckoolander: has elements of this, especially with regards to his Insane Troll Logic and Dull Surprise reaction to every unusual event that happens throughout the programme.
• Cranium Chase: Happens when he gets his head knocked off by looking out of a train window. His body is directed by his head to pick it up, but his head gets so insulting and verbally abusive that the body keeps kicking it along instead.
• Deadly Doctor: He's a medical student at Scumbag College. Worse yet, his entire class is pretty much like him too.
• Deadpan Snarker: Especially in response to Rick's questions.
• Disappeared Dad: When he hopefully asks his mother, "How's Dad?" in the third episode of the first series, "Boring", she responds, "Honestly, Vyvyan, I wish you wouldn't ask me that! ...You know I have absolutely no idea who he is!"
• Drink-Based Characterization: Babycham, for Vyvyan. Which is laughably ironic, since it's considered a rather girly drink.
• Drives Like Crazy: Any time he gets behind the wheel of his Ford Anglia, he crashes it into something. This should probably double as Foreshadowing, as he is driving the bus when it crashes over a cliff.
• Dynamic Entry: His first appearance involves him smashing through the kitchen wall, clutching a severed leg.
• Embarrassing Tattoo: Subverted- When his hair falls off in "Party", he has a 666 on the side of his head, but he doesn't seem remotely bothered by it.
• Extreme Omnivore: Eats a dead rat, a brick, snow and even the telly, so that the lads don't have to pay their TV licence fee.
• Fiery Redhead: Assuming it's not dyed: Adrian Edmonson was a natural blonde, but it's never indicated whether it's natural or not within the series.
• Flipping the Bird: Flipping a V is practically his second Catchphrase Insult.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: The Choleric - Ultra-violent, but ultra-childish as well.
• Gadgeteer Genius: Is able to supercharge the vacuum cleaner (which works too well) and has a good working knowledge of explosives.
• Gender-Blender Name: Just don't remind him of that.
• Genius Ditz: Despite being unable to tell the time and generally being Ax-Crazy, Vyv has a surprising knowledge of machinery (as evidenced by his souped-up vacuum cleaner) and can be surprisingly insightful and even manipulative. Plus, he's a medical student.
  • He can create a potion that makes anyone who drinks it as Axe-Crazy as he is, somehow, and is implied by the ending of "Oil" to have manipulated the other lads For the Evulz. Then again, he didn't realise the obvious problem that would arise from keeping that potion in a coke can, (sure enough, the Balowski of the week drinks it and goes librarian), and his involvement in "Oil" resulted in a pickaxe to the skull from Neil.
• Genki Guy: And HOW. Fitting as his name means "lively".
• Good Thing You Can Heal: He's recovered from accidentally cutting his finger off and being decapitated.
• Heroic Comedic Sociopath
• Hidden Depths: Some episodes imply Vyvyan isn't quite as stupid as he pretends to be; He starts accurately describing how the human body produces vomit in "Time", tricks the vampire into revealing it's a vampire in "Nasty" through his detailed knowledge of road safety and his potion to turn Balowski into an axe-wielding maniac did actually work. When he actually does go to uni, he's a medical student.
• Hot-Blooded: More than any other housemate.
• Hypocritical Humour: Mocks a Narnia-esque dwarf for being called "Shirley", despite having a girl's name himself.
• Iconic Item: His nose ring, chain looped around his neck, and the four metal stars hammered into his forehead.
• Implacable Man: He gets decapitated by a train and survives. Played for laughs, as his disembodied head starts shouting abuse at his body (which, in turn, starts kicking his head down the tracks).
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He has more Pet the Dog moments than Rick, and he genuinely get along well with Mike.
• Large Ham: Has No Indoor Voice and, while not as flail-y as Rick, tends to over-emote physically.
• Limited Wardrobe: While all the lads have this, Rick, Mike and Neil do occasionally wear a different outfit in certain episodes, Vyvyan only seems to have the one, although his t-shirts differ in a few episodes.
• Mad Bomber: Rigs up a bomb to the doorbell (and blames whoever rang the doorbell for setting it off) in "Nasty", throws a Molotov Cocktail at Rick and Neil in "Sick" and makes use of grenades on two occasions, most notably in the famous "University Challenge" scene in "Bambi".
• Made of Iron: Not even being decapitated by a train is enough to kill him.
• Mad Scientist: Has tendency to muck around with appliances like supercharging the vacuum cleaner or rigging explosives to the doorbell. He also develops a cure for not being an axe wielding homicidal maniac, claiming that the market for such a cure is enormous.
• Meaningful Name: Vyvyan (translates to "lively") Basterd.
• Metal Head: He wears KISS, Saxon, Rush, and Whitesnake shirts. In a more literal sense, he's never seen without his nose ring and a forehead studded with metal stars.
• Misfit Lab Rat: He's a complete punk (loves punk rock, has piercings, generally anti-establishment) and is studying medicine. And when the boys throw a party, all his "medical student friends" that attend are punks too.
• Mister Seahorse: Subverted. It's actually just gas.
• No Indoor Voice: Has this trope down in spades. Hearing him speak normally in Blackadder almost comes as a shock.
• No Sympathy: Usually acts pretty harsh, not only to Rick, but to Neil and even Mike as well.
• Not a Morning Person: To the point where he'll scream at birds and church bells to shut up.
  Shut up you bastards, IT'S ONLY ELEVEN O' CLOCK!
• Organ Autonomy: After his head was decapitated in "Bambi", his body acts on its own accord when trying to get the head back.
• Parental Abandonment: When his mother is introduced in "Boring", it's mentioned she hasn't seen him in years and has absolutely no idea who his dad is.
• Person of Mass Destruction: His last act was to crash a double-decker bus over a cliff and into a ravine, which was pretty much typical for him.
• Pet the Dog: Treats Neil as horribly as the others, but steps up to help him in "Bambi" when he asks after the laundry machine refuses to take their clothes.
• The Pig-Pen: Vyv's personal hygiene is so poor that his socks are sentient beings, and he's been wearing the same three pairs of pants for six months.
• Psycho Knife Nut: Throughout the first series, he makes frequent use of a large knife until he upgrades to hand grenades in the second.
• Psychopathic Man Child: He's basically an unruly five-year-old in the body of a grown man.
• Real Men Wear Pink: His favourite drink is the decidedly girly Babycham, he has a girl's name and a pet hamster, albeit a very aggressive one.
• Reduced to Ratburgers: He eats a dead rat he finds in the lentil pot. "Brilliant!"
• Refuge in Audacity: Lives and breathes this trope with such acts as bursting through walls, surviving decapitations, rigging up insanely powerful vacuum cleaners and bombs to doorbells, and blowing up the other team so the lads can win University Challenge.

• Super-Strength: Can kick a sink over, push the entire house forwards (though said house is poorly built), bite through brick (disintegrating it), lift Neil over his head, survive being decapitated...
• Tsundere: Surprisingly, but Vyvyan has the most friends out of the group, as seen in "Interesting", but Vyvyan claims he "doesn't like any of them." He's also like this towards SPG; SPG is as much on the receiving end of Vyvyan's violence as Rick or Neil, (although SPG usually provokes him) but Vyvyan still cries when SPG dies.
• Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist: An ultraviolent, psychopathic punk.

Neil

Neil Pye:

Played by: Nigel Planer

The whining, put-upon and suicidal hippie who acted as the dogsbody for the entire house and is convinced (accurately) that no one likes him and everyone is out to get him.

• Berserk Button: He very nearly hits Rick with a frying pan for mocking his flares.
• Beware the Nice Ones/Break the Cutie: He also delivers Rick a The Reason You Suck speech in the final episode.
• Brilliant, but Lazy: Like all of them, he barely studies, although when he's not being apathetic he's probably the most studious of the four, and suggests they attend some classes in "Boring". In the final episode, it's stated that he did the best out of the four lads in their exams, though it's kind of a moot point since they all apparently came "bottom in the entire world".
• Butt-Monkey: Along with Rick.
  Neil: "When you guys said 'panic', I didn't think that meant 'hang me'."
• Captain Obvious
• Character Catchphrase: There are several catchphrases unique to him.
  • "Oh, heavy!"
  • Often comments people/things are "really bringing him down" and "hassling" him.
  • Often utters a drawn-out "Oh, nooooo..." whenever something unpleasant happens to him.
  • In the second series, he takes to referring to Rick as a "yellow chicken" on a couple of occasions.
• Cordon Bleugh Chef: None of the others like his cooking, which consist entirely of lentil casserole.
• Driven to Suicide: Tries to kill himself three times in the pilot, and digs his own grave in "Boring" to try and cure his boredom. It's Played for Laughs, obviously.
• The Eeyore: Constantly having a "really bad time". Sharing a house with Rick and Vyvyan will do that to you.
• Extreme Doormat: Most of the time, but he will stand up to himself if pushed.
• Expy: Nigel Planer portrayed a depressive hippie in a 1980 TV special.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: The Melancholic - The whining shut-in of the four.
• Friend to All Living Things: In "Flood", he manages to rescue some kittens on the way back from the shops, and mentions in one episode wishing people could live a pastoral existence.
• Gentle Giant: The tallest of the guys, but he's passive and generally rather calm.
• Genius Ditz: Though he often is Comically Missing the Point, Neil is shown to be fairly clever, is the only one who bothers to study properly for university challenge, quite knowledgeable on Oscar Wilde and he scores the best out of the lads in their exams.
• Hey, You!: Rick and Vyvyan both refer to him as simply "Hippy" a good few times, generally in a tone of disgust.
• Hopeless with Tech: He can barely use a phone properly and when he tries to use a washing machine, it spits out his clothes out of disgust. He's convinced machinery hates him.
• I Cannot Self-Terminate: He botches his every attempt at suicide (too disgusted by the filthy gas oven to suffocate himself in it, rope too long to hang himself on a self-built gallows), so eventually resorts to putting his head in the path of a worker's sledgehammer, remarking "You'll be doing me a favor." The worker just lifts the hammer higher to strike the wall above Neil's head.
• Iron Butt Monkey: "Time" has him clocked on the head several times with little damage. When Vyv throws a Molotov Cocktail at him and Rick in "Sick", despite destroying the wall between his and Rick's room, the only effect it has on him is temporarily clearing his sinuses.
• The Klutz
• Literal-Minded:
  • Uses this to annoy Rick in "Bambi."
  • His mother told him about the birds and the bees, but he didn't believe it, as the two animals were incompatible.
  • When Rick says, "Talk about Oscar Wilde", Neil does so.
  • When his mother asks if he made his bed, he replies that he bought it.
  • Before the bank robbery when Mike is asked about the water pistols:
  Mike: Let's just say, I did't get 'em Tescos, alright?
  Neil: (Pointing his gun at the camera) I didn't get 'em at Tescos, alright?
• Long Hair Is Feminine: Frequently mocked for it by Vyvyan. In "Time", Sir Boryn mistakes him for a damsel.
• New-Age Retro Hippie: He likes "Rock Around The Clock", is severely depressed, is into New Age and has friends called Warlock, and claimed Jimi Hendrix once pissed on his guitar amp. All in the early '80s.
• Nice Guy: The only "good guy" of the apartment, if passive-aggressive sometimes.
• One-Note Cook: He does the cooking for the household; unfortunately, he only seems to be able to cook lentils.
• Only Sane Man: As the episode "Bomb" shows.
• The Pig-Pen: Not as much as Vyvyan, but several characters (and the occasional complete stranger) often complain that he smells terrible. Mike even orders him to have a bath in one episode.
• Shirtless Scene: Gets one in "Summer Holiday", after imagining himself to be the Incredible Hulk.
• Stoners Are Funny: As seen in 'Party', plus his friends Warlock and Stonehenge are almost perpetually stoned.
• Team Mom: He's responsible for the cooking and cleaning and tends to be the more emotional one of the group.
  • Lampshaded at one point
  Neil: I do all the cooking, and the cleaning. I might as well be your mothers.
  Rik: That's not entirely true Neil, we don't hate our mothers!
  Neil: All right, so not all metaphors stand up to close comparison!
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: In "Sick", he manages to trigger a riot in the neighborhood just by sneezing out the window.
• Walking Techbane: See above under Hopeless with Tech.

Mike

Mike (The cool person):

Played by: Christopher Ryan

The Charmer of the flat; a smooth, flash and mysterious con-artist who tried it on with every girl he came across; he's still waiting for it to actually work.

• Affably Evil: Sort of. He's not really evil, but he is implied to be involved with numerous criminal dealings and occasionally acts immaturely or insane, such as in "Oil". Despite that, he's also probably the most likeable member of the flat along with Neil and seems to be an honestly nice person at times.
• "Blackmail" Is Such an Ugly Word: He is revealed to be blackmailing his tutor in "Summer Holiday", which explains how he managed to get through the year despite never going to university.
  • Muses he might ask for a Ph.D. from the Dean, implying he has dirt on him, too.
  • In the opening credits for the first series, he's seen bribing a lecturer at his graduation.
  • Subverted in the final episode, where he's failed his final exams along with the rest of the lads.
• Casanova Wannabe: Although the reactions of the girls at the party and Vyv's mum imply that he's less of a wannabe than Rick, a later episode confirms that all four of the lads are virgins.
• The Charmer: He attempts to enforce this reputation on himself, but isn't very successful. The other lads find him charming and he was found attractive by the girls at their party (and Vyvyan's mother), but otherwise doesn't seem to be very popular, especially with the ladies.
• Cool Shades: Wears 'em almost the entire time.
• Deadpan Snarker: Constantly makes one-liners the rest are too dim to get, most of which are pretty lame. He does have his moments, however.
• Distracted by My Own Sexy: In "Bomb", just the atom bomb in their living room is about to go off, Mike is distracted by his own reflection.
  Mike: Mike, the cool person, stays steady as a rock while all around him is chaos! He checks his reflection! (looks out window) That's good! That's very good! That's the only way to go!
• Extreme Omnivore: During the first episode, while trying to seduce the woman from the council, he eats the cube he was chalking a pool cue with. Either that, or he was using a marshmallow because he didn't have a real chalk-cube.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: The Phlegmatic - The easy-going, fun-loving one of the bunch.
• Have I Mentioned I Am Sexually Active Today?: To the point of strewing women's underclothes around his bedroom.
• Hell-Bent for Leather: Sometimes wears a leather jacket.
• Incredibly Lame Pun: He's known for making these.
• Kid with the Leash: In relation to Vyvyan. Why they have the most amicable relationship among the lads is never explained.
• Made of Iron: He recovers very quickly from having nailed his own legs to the table, and may have felt no pain initially, considering he did it twice.
• Meaningful Name: Parodied. While he speaks of himself as "Mike the cool person", there is no indication in the series that that is his last name. There is however is a book of the series, Bachelor Boys in which they feature official paperwork about the characters. In the book at least Mike's surname is Thecoolperson. The book's canonicity has been debated.
• Mysterious Past: He's the only lad for whom no definite Backstory is given.
• The Napoleon: Subverted. He's the shortest member of the flat but at the same time The Ace. His height is Lampshaded twice-in "Bambi" in the Swapped Roles bit with Christopher Ryan as Neil, now suddenly much shorter; and in "Nasty", when the boys are carrying the coffin, Mike is simply holding his arm up and walking along side them.
• No Sympathy: Far moreso than Vyvyan, he's just nice about it.
• Not So Above It All: Despite being the member of the house least likely to start shenanigans and most likely to point out flaws in the others' wackiness, he somehow manages to stupidly nail both legs to the table in "Cash".
• Only Sane Man: Well, 'saner' compared to the antics of the other three.
• Real Men Wear Pink: He's seen wearing a pair of pink pyjamas early in "Bomb".
• Small Name, Big Ego: He repeatedly insists he is a suave and sophisticated ladies man, even though everyone outside of the main cast seem to hate him as much as they hate the others and he is later revealed to be a virgin. The other housemates swing between actually treating him like "the boss" and treating him as if they're just playing along with his delusion.
• Standardized Leader: He's the "leader" of the house, and is relatively grounded and subtle in his mannerisms. He helps to balance out the craziness of everyone else, and has his own gems occasionally though, as well as driving key "plot" moments and setting up some jokes for the rest of the cast. One could say he gives a little more direction when it's needed, and comes up with all the plans.
• Sugar-and-Ice Personality: He's generally aloof and cold, but has moments of warmth towards the others (except Rick). Particularly towards Vyvyan, like teaching him to tell the time and comforting him when Vyv's car gets destroyed and SPG dies. With Neil this is especially exaggerated, being harsh and cruel to him sometimes, or being helpful or oddly kind other times.
• Sunglasses at Night: Frequently, although he is sometimes seen without them.
• Team Dad: By virtue of being the oldest. The others always look to him for leadership and his own behaviour towards them, such as teaching Vyvyan and Rick to tell the time or scolding Vyvyan for not controlling his socks, can often come across as parental.
• Two Decades Behind: Mike has been at college for much longer than the other three, something demonstrated by the fact his fashion sense is still stuck in The '70s: Aviator specs, huge ties, three-piece suits with bell-bottom trousers and so on... In fact, this pretty much cements his status as The Napoleon by making him look even shorter.
  • Averted in later appearances after the show ended: By now he was sporting Wayfarers, a striped 2-piecer with shoulder pads and a slim tie. His hair was also updated as well.
• Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist: A shady con artist.
• Yank the Dog's Chain: Almost manages to score with Cinderella in "Interesting", but she turns into a pumpkin just before he can.

Recurring Characters

The Balowski Family

The Balowski Family:

Played by: Alexei Sayle

Jerzei Balowski is The Young Ones' landlord. His numerous other family members look just like him.

• Arms Dealer: Reggie Balowski is an international arms dealer and scrap merchant who Mike tries to sell the bomb to.
• Ax-Crazy: Jerzei becomes this after drinking Vyvyan's Psycho Serum.
• Cloud Cuckoolander: His characters are possibly the biggest ones on the show. And that's saying a lot. Billy Balowski takes this up to eleven.
• Drop-In Landlord: He's the main cast's deranged Russian landlord, and is frequently around, his eccentricity standing out even amongst the rest of the characters.
• Expy: The police recruiter from "Cash" is an in-universe one for Benito Mussolini. It's given him a crappy life that's Played for Laughs.
• Fake Nationality: In universe, Jerzei claims to be Russian, but he breaks character and tells the audience that he "Only does it to appear more sophisticated."
• The Friend Nobody Likes: In "Nasty" in one of his Breaking the Fourth Wall moments he mentions the other actors hate him. We get a Cutaway Gag showing the four actors Adam Westing themselves saying that they do hate him (Christopher Ryan doesn't even remember who he is).
• Our Vampires Are Different: "Nasty" features a South African Vampire Driving Instructor who turns out to be "Harry the Bastard" in disguise. who can enter without being invited in if he's in a package, and is able to deny he's a vampire.
• Overly Long Name: In "Oil", the leader of the band Rick hires to play a concert says his name is Alexei Yuri Gagarin Siege of Stalingrad Glorious Five-Year Plan Sputnik Pravda Moscow Dynamo Back Four Balowski. It seems his dad was "a bit of a Communist".
  • Actor Allusion: Alexei Sayle was famously a Marxist.
• Talkative Loon: The Balowskis in a nutshell.
• Throw It In!: A lot of his material is ad-libbed.
• You All Look Familiar: An entire family played by one guy. Lampshaded once or twice.

SPG

SPG:

Voiced by: Rik Mayall

Aka 'Special Patrol Group' (or 'Cliff Richard' just to get on Rick's nerves), he is Vyvyan's destructive, Scottish-accented pet hamster, whom he has a volatile love-hate relationship with.

• Art Evolution: Has a different appearance in each episode he shows up in.
• Balloon Belly: Has one of those after eating all of Neil's lentils in one gulp. When Vyvyan drops him he smashes through the floorboards.
• The Chew Toy: Usually he deserves it, though.
• Kick the Dog: Is abused practically anytime he appears.
• Rodents of Unusual Size: He's played by a puppet that's closer to guinea-pig-size than hamster-sized.
• Talking Animal: Possesses the ability to speak.
• Team Pet: The closest to a consistently present animal in the share house, anyway. Vyvyan takes good care of him.
• Violent Glaswegian: Like owner, like hamster. The violent part, anyway.

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