The Young Ones
Stories were set in a squalid house where the students lived during their time at Scumbag College. It can be classified as a comedy of manners.
When it was first broadcast, the show gained attention for its violent slapstick, which Mayall and Edmondson had been using in 20th Century Coyote for some time. The show also featured surreal elements, such as puppets playing talking animals or objects. Confusion was added with lengthy cutaways with no relation to the main plot.
Throughout the series, the fourth wall was frequently broken for comedic effect by all characters at various parts of the show. The wall was usually broken as either a punchline to a joke or to make a plot point more obvious. On several occasions, Alexei Sayle broke both the fourth wall and character to address the audience in his real-life Liverpudlian accent.
The series featured a wide variety of guest appearances by comedians, actors, and singers, including co-creator Ben Elton, Dawn French, Jennifer Saunders, Hale and Pace, Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, Mark Arden, Stephen Frost, Jools Holland, Mel Smith, Griff Rhys Jones, Terry Jones, Chris Barrie, Norman Lovett, Lenny Henry, David Rappaport, Robbie Coltrane, Tony Robinson, Andy De La Tour and Emma Thompson.
Episodes in the second series sometimes included "flash frames" (three frames, equivalent to one eighth of a second), but these were edited out of some repeats. These were included as a mockery of the public's fear of subliminal messages in television and music. Unlike original flash frames, which lasted only one frame, these were long enough to be noticeable without being identifiable. The images included the end caption of Carry On Cowboy, a rusty dripping tap, a leaping frog, a dove in flight, a skier, and a hand making pottery.  The episodes lasted 35 minutes, and episodes were often edited to half-hour when repeated on the BBC or satellite channels.
psychedelic, comedy, satire, violence