Maybe it's my age, my upbringing, or just my puerile sense of humour, but for me it's Rik Mayall and Ade Edmondson in anything they've written and performed in together.
Wrongly derided as mere cock 'n' fart humour, their stuff also had some very intelligently scripted dialogue and clever wordplay. My favourite exchange between the pair might have been completing the crossword in Bottom episode "Culture" but I think it's narrowly pipped by (also from Bottom) the post-looting conversation about the duck from "Carnival."
Eddie: Still, at least we got the duck. [holds up a small yellow rubber-ducky]
Richie: The duck?
Eddie: Yeah! It's made out of plastic!
Richie: Eddie, what, in the name of Greek Buggery, is the use of a plastic duck?
Eddie: It floats in the bath. ['floats' the duck up to Richie] Hello!
Richie: But why?
Eddie: It's hollow!
Richie: No... (exasperated) I mean : why the duck??
Eddie: It came free with the telly.
Richie: (angry) Eddie, everything came free with the telly!! We were looting! Why didn't you get a free telly with the telly?!
Eddie: Well it'd sink in the bath!!
OK the live shows were a bit ropey, but the three series of the tv show were golden. And the Young Ones was possibly better still. Possibly my favourite bit of TV ever is the argument between Rik and Vyv about who gets the bedroom, Vyv throwing all his clothes on the floor as if to prove it, Rik throwing the clothes out of the window, and Vyv's characteristically violent response.
"Neil, your bedroom's on fire!!"
Just the look they give each other before sprinting out of the inferno and shouting in unison creases me ; as much as they hate each other, they unite in an instant in the opportunity to offload their problem on Neil.
Who are these people? What's wrong with them??
