Bottom Live 2003: Weapons Grade Y-Fronts Tour

Bottom Live 2003: Weapons Grade Y-Fronts Tour is the fifth and final live stage show based on the UK TV series Bottom. It ran in 2003 (ten years after the first stage show) and was recorded for VHS and DVD release at the Cliffs Pavilion Theatre in Southend-on-Sea. It was written by and starred Rik Mayall as Richie and Adrian Edmondson as Eddie.

Plot

Act one

No longer on Hooligan’s Island, Richie and Eddie find themselves back in their flat in Hammersmith. Having locked himself in the lavatory for fifteen days, Eddie is disrupted when Richie barges in, discovering that his friend has transformed the room into a laboratory. Inside are various inventions, including "The Evacuator", a super-powerful vacuum cleaner that Eddie uses as a toilet, "The Patent Painless Tattoo Remover", alias a blunt hammer, and "Weapons Grade Lager", a self-perpetuating alcoholic drink that leads to a prolonged period of unconsciousness. Richie then discovers a trunk sent to him from his deceased uncle Peregrine Richard. Inside are the plans for the various inventions Eddie has supposedly stolen. However, one invention remains untouched: Peregrine Richard's "Elixir of Life". Richie hurriedly drinks the potion hoping to gain immortality but is shocked when Eddie discovers that the substance is poisonous. In order to save his friend, Eddie reluctantly uses his very own time-traveling toilet (i.e. the "TURDIS"), to reverse time and stop Richie drinking the Elixir. Fully restored, the two friends then realise that they can use the TURDIS to reach the bar of the theatre before the audience, and depart immediately.

Act two

Richie and Eddie continuing their search for the bar, having found themselves unsuccessful for three and a half years. In the course of their escapades, Eddie manages to lodge Richie's head in the door of the TURDIS (only to dislodge it again with a stick of dynamite), Richie is forced to re-power the ship via the friction caused by him pleasuring himself (leading to a mass-heckle from the theatre audience as orchestrated by Eddie). As an unforeseen result, the pair find themselves traveling further and further back through time, right back to the beginning of time itself. After a narrow escape from his shrinking underpants (triggered by the reversal of time), Eddie joins Richie as they discover the meaning of everything: pants (thanks to the appearance of the Mother Pants), and they depart by singing an ode to the ever-useful undergarment.

Trivia

As Richie, Rik Mayall once again mentions his quad bike accident he had in 1998 and he makes out it was Eddie who caused it. "It's just like the last time, except this time Eddie isn't standing there with a brake cable in one hand and some scissors in the other." To which Eddie grins and mimes holding something and cutting across it.

Both Rik and Ade impersonate Rick and Vyvyan out of the Young Ones much to the delight of the audience. To which Rik, as Richie, casually says to Ade that he hasn't changed his material very much. Eddie, corpsing replies, "stick with what works, that's my motto."

The name of Eddie's time traveling toilet, the TURDIS, is a direct parody of the TARDIS from the sci fi series Doctor Who. Ironically two years after this live show the series' hiatus would end and the series would start broadcasting again.

Due to the death of Rik Mayall in 2014 this live show would be the last proper Bottom show Rik and Ade would work on together.

Tour dates