The Comedy of Rik Mayall

Today I learned of the death of Rik Mayall, a genius of comedy. One of my friends is mourning one of her heroes and I empathize with her, comedy actors have gotten me through a lot of things in my life especially dark things and I will always consider them heroes.

I started watching "The Young Ones" way after it was aired and my absolute favorite scene of the entire show was from the episode "Interesting" when Rick thought a tampon was a telescope with a mouse inside of it.

Here's the clip

I treasure comedians, they have helped me through some dark spots in my life, they've helped me even though I didn't know them. Laughter is important to make it through the day and it takes a truly talented person to make one laugh, I'm fortunate to have many heroes like that even though not all of them are still living. Fortunately, Rik Mayall left a huge body of work to be enjoined even though, sadly, he is no longer with us. I hope all of his fans pop in their favorite show or movie of his and enjoy his talent on this sad day. What is your favorite moment of Rik Mayall's career?

The Turtles: Tuesday Music Post

Everyone knows at least one song by the Turtles, if you don't at least know "Happy Together" than you probably live under a rock

The best part of this video is Mark Volman dancing with his french horn. 

The Turtles formed in 1965 and disbanded in 1970 although they still tour from time to time. They had a monster hit in 1967 with "Happy Together" and did not want to be tied to the bubblegum image so they released "Elenore" in 1968 to parody the song but it didn't really work. People loved the song and, for the most part, didn't get the joke. 

It may have been a joke, but it's a catchy joke. 

"Elenore" came from the album "The Turtles Present the Battle of the Bands" where the band pretended to be 11 different groups with different musical styles.

The Turtles produced a lot of great tunes but one of my favorite things about them is they injected their humor into their work. One of the songs on "The Turtles Present the Battle of the Bands" is titled "Food" and the lyrics are list of different foods and a recipe for pot brownies, so not only do you get a record with great tunes you get a recipe, what a value. When you watch videos of them performing you can obviously tell they're having a good time. 

"She'd Rather Be With Me"

Their last big hit was "You Showed Me", it's hauntingly beautiful. 

So, do you have a favorite Turtles tune or any Turtles trivia to share?