It was like an atomic bomb exploding all over television screens, the show combining slapstick and surrealism with jokes about politics, class and giant sandwiches falling from the sky.
The show's surreal humor, slapstick gags and frequent breaking of the fourth wall helped pave the way for more "alternative" comedy, and it even aired on MTV in 1986 as one of the network's first non-music shows.
Heralding in alternative comedy's 80s boom, The Young Ones swapped plotlines for surrealism, dialogue for a hail of "bastards!" and the pretence of a structurally sound set for a load of kicked-in prop walls.
