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Bigger Than Hitler: Better Than Christ
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Is he full of himself or what?
Review date: 2008-12-07 Rating: 10 out of 10
Absolutely not! We're talking The Rik "no BS" Mayall. He proves his points thoroughly and perfectly, and you are left in no doubt that The Rik Mayall is in fact both bigger than Hitler and better than Christ. And I would say it is fruitless to try and prove him wrong.
If you're not familiar with television smash hits like "The Young Ones" and "Bottom" you won't ... never mind this warning, that kind of people don't exist.
This is an honest to Rik Mayall, unlimited, beyond imagination, selfless, hit-him-in-the-stomach revelation of the life of a mega-celebrity. And it comes with a surprising insight to the worlds cultural, political and royal elite and several top birds as well.
Misspellings are surely intentional in order to emphasize accent and actual, emotional pronunciation. If not, then don't blame the publisher for trying to keep up with a communication virtuoso.
This is truly a great book - sorry The Great Book. The Rik Mayall can't hide - therefore he doesn't try at all - the fact that he is the icon of light entertainment in our day and age. Even when deadly serious he'll make you laugh. But I have to warn you - don't embark on this rollercoaster ride of modern literature if you're underage, pregnant, suffering a heart condition, easily nauseated and/or offended. I present to you: The Rik "no holds barred" Mayall!
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Reviews
Shorter Than War and Peace: More Words Than Spot's First Christmas
Review date: 2008-05-23 Rating: 4 out of 10
`Bigger than Hitler, Better than Christ' is Rik Mayall's provocatively titled autobiography. In it Rik takes us from his childhood of blackmailing teachers, to his student years, through inventing alternative comedy with Kevin Turvey and the Dangerous Brothers, to revolutionising television with `The Young Ones', to revolutionising film as part of `The Comic Strip', bringing down the Tory Government with his satire the `New Statesman' before his legendary portrayal as the voice of the Andrex puppy and the Toilet Duck. Rik lets us in to his life of debauchery and infidelity before telling us of his Quad bike accident which left his in a coma for five days and reveals that God spoke to him during this time and told him of his plan for Rik to be the new messiah.
And so we see that although Rik's life is very much the framework for this book it is, of course, somewhat fictionalised to give us the full gambit of his TV persona which he has carefully honed over the years, possibly on the main the voice of Richy Rich the light entertainment genius of `Filthy, Rich and Catflap' Mayall's comedy walks the high wire between laugh out load and cringe with embarrassment. On the main the book is a success although as an autobiography it leaves you more curious than before with all the facts obscured by a massive, although fictional, ego.
Not bigger than Hitler; certainly not better than Christ; more entertaining than an actor's biography; as illuminating as a spent candle.
It's like watching him live
Review date: 2008-02-20 Rating: 10 out of 10
He writes the way he acts and it's glorious. A mixture of truth and complete bollocks, don't expect to find out too much about his personal life. Most of it utter egotistical drivel but it wouldn't be The Rik Mayall any other way. Even the publisher page is funny. And the footnotes... well you could make a whole other book of them.
If you don't like the comedy of Rik Mayall then logic dictates you will hate it, but if you do, just don't read it on the train.
Could the Real Rik Mayall please write a book!
Review date: 2007-12-21 Rating: 2 out of 10
I'm a big fan of Rik Mayall, from the Young Ones, to guest appearances in Blackadder, and on to The New Statesman and Bottom.
But this is utter tripe.
It tries to be "zany" and "out-there", but instead just forces me to believe that Mayall was convinced that this would be a good idea, and when he actually came to do it realised that he wasn't a writer at all.
To be honest, it feels like it's actually written by his "Ritchie" character, in the whole "look at me - I'm brilliant" anarchic sense.
I hope that Mayall writes a proper autobiography, rather than this sad attempt.
Worse than Mao
Review date: 2007-03-06 Rating: 2 out of 10
I adore Rik Mayalls and Ade Edmondson's sitcoms. The Young Ones, Filthy Rich & Catflap, Bottom, in my opinion they're all masterpieces. So I was really looking forward to reading this auto-biography.
Ouch. Ouch, ouch, ouch. For some reason Mayall decided to write the whole thing in a style similar to that of his Richie Rich character (from Filthy, Rich & Catflap). So it's an endless stream of mega-macho ego trips about how wonderful he is, how huge his d*ck is, how many 'birds' he sh*gged, and how everybody loves him.
On TV, with other actors around, this works brilliantly. But in the book there are no other voices to balance the act and after a dozen paragraphs the joke wears pretty thin. And then you still have 200 pages to go.
There are also (fake) letters "from the archives" which are supposed to be funny, dozens of pointless footnotes¹) and let's not forget²) the 'amusing' typos which have been left in the book "on purpose". Yeah right. Yawn. It is all very, very weak.
The only readable (and more or less serious) part deals with the quad accident Mayall had a few years ago, a crash that nearly cost him his life. Apart from that the book is an exercise in telling the same 3 jokes over and over and over again. And again. It's very boring and very not funny. And if you think there's some interesting background info hidden between the tired jokes, forget it. There isn't. There's only a comedian on auto-pilot, repeating himself and pumping out weaker versions of the same old stuff. Man, it almost made me mad.
¹) Like this one.
²) Or perhaps we should.
Product Details/Specifications
Authors:
Rik Mayall
Recording label: HarperCollins Entertainment
Manufacturer: HarperCollins Entertainment
EAN: 9780007207282
Binding: Paperback
Dewey decimal number: 791.45028092
ISBN: 000720728X
Number of pages: 328
Publication date: 2006-04-03
Language: English (Original Language)
Language: English (Unknown)
Language: English (Published)