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Eddie

Edward Elizabeth Hitler was a drunken, violent, perpetually unemployed, illiterate, psychopathic dole scrounger. He was Richard Richard's flatmate/archnemesis/best friend/ closest/ only companion/ tormenter. He spent most of his time cheating Richie out of what little cash they both had and getting drunk and picking fights with people. He was played by Adrian Edmondson.

Fictional Character Biography[]

Edward Elizabeth Hitler was abandoned by his birth mother a wrestler named Adolf Hitler when he was just an infant. She merely left a note by him stating "Please look after my baby, I can't be bothered"  he never met nor did he even know who his real father was. Other than a brief stint as a bunny girl in the 1970's which ended when he showed off his genitals, Eddie has not been able to hold down a steady job for his entire life, described by Richie as "some vast slug" that hangs around the flat all day, and thus he is forced to live with Richard Richard as whilst Richie hasn't ever done a days work in his entire life either, all of the bills in his flat are paid for by his wealthy aunty. Both Eddie and Richie however are still forced to try and con Richies aunt of money at times in order to pay the rent and are also forced to run criminal activities suck as stealing their next door neighbours gas supply and forge money in order to pay the bills and even just pay for a pint at the local pub. Whilst Eddie is dependent on Richie's charity, at the same time Richie is entirely dependent on Eddie too. As Richie is such a perverted, nasty, boring, withering, prattling, physically, mentally and sexually repulsive individual that without Eddie who is forced to live with him there would be no way he could ever possibly make another companion. Whenever he and Eddie are seperated Richie is shown to fall into a state of severe depression not because he misses Eddie personally but just because he simply wants someone to talk at. Richie often needs Eddie to help him run his numerous scams and schemes to get money and avoid paying the bills. He needs Eddie not just as a sidekick to help him carry out these schemes and do the more dangerous things Richie is reluctant to do such as collecting the poison pellets on the roof to kill the burglar they have hostage or sneak into their neighbours flat and undo the illegal gas connection they have hooked up but also to serve as a fall guy in case anything goes wrong. Thus the two men are entirely dependent on one another and are aware of this yet they still are unable to conceal their intense hatred for one another. In the earlier episodes Eddie was often able to hide his hatred for Richie more tha Richie was towards him. With Eddie often not retaliating whenever Richie abused him both physically and mentally and playing along with Richies ridiculous charades such as pretending that ABBA and Rod Stieger are sending him birthday cards. Richie on the other hand often went to great lengths to torment Eddie such as refusing to allow him to watch anything he likes on the television and  ruining his birthday by pretending to be ill and glueing up the letter box to stop him from getting any cards and then gloating about it on his birthday to Eddie. Ironically however as time went on Richie began to become more deluded and believed he and Eddie were great mates whilst Eddie's hatred of Richie only intensified to the point where he makes frequent attempts on Richie's life including attempting to poison him, and hack him to pieces in a threshing machine and bury his shredded remains in a small coffin under a head stone marked "The fat twat is dead hooray piss here" .  Whilst Eddie is portrayed as being illiterate, he nevertheless has greater general knowledge than Richie being aware how to play chess which he spends hours trying to unsuccessfully teach Richie and knows a fair bit about history having detailed knowledge of Napoleon and Wellington as well as the works of Vivaldi. He has even demonstrated a genius level intellect at times such as inventing a time travelling toilet which he dubs the TURDIS and proving to be capable of diffusing a nuclear bomb though his attempt at doing so failed due to Richie's incompetence. He is also able to interact with ordinary people much better than Richie is too having two genuine friends outside of Richie, Dave Hedgehog and Spudgun. He also has a large group of casual friends he hangs around the pub with including several women who he invites back to the house after Richie breaks his leg. These friends appear to not know Richie however as none of them recognise Richie when he arrives and ruins their party.  Eddie has also had several relationships with many women throughout the series including two women who Richie was interested in which he often brings up to torment Richie. In addition to being more intelligent and sociable than Richie Eddie is also a far more capable and dangerous fighter than Richie too. Though Eddie has been overpowered, beaten, tortured and even killed by other characters throughout the series, such as being kicked in the bollocks on Richie's urging by a gangster whose eye he shot out, choked by his neighbour along with Richie, having he and Richies skulls slammed together fatally by Skullcrusher Henderson, beaten along with Richie by the police men on chief inspecter Grobolarb's orders after their attempt at mugging him, and beaten and castrated with a mouse trap by a burglar alongside Richie. He has nevertheless still proven to be a fairly skilled brawler not only winning 95percent of his fights with Richie but also winning fights against others to such as a Johovah's Witness whom he knocked out with a single punch and a charity worker collecting for victims of domestic violence whom he killed with a hammer. Often despite being a greater fighter however in the earlier episodes Eddie tended not to retaliate against Richie's violence as much due to the fact that Richie was in the more dominant position being capable of throwing Eddie out of his house if he wanted. However Eddie would still nevertheless retaliate on many occassions and later when the two men became stranded on a desert island and Richie had no power over Eddie anymore whatsoever, then Eddie would not only always retaliate against Richie but also initiated the vast majority of their fights too, which he almost always won. Eddie is an alcoholic, stating that he does not want to be a failed alcoholic, drinking is his favourite past time.

After living in his squalid little flat with Richie for many years where he along with Richie ran foul of everybody from local gangsters to their neighbours to the Prime Minister whom they attempted to blackmail only to be gunned down by the SAS. The two men would eventually flee to a tropical island where Eddie was shown to cope much better than Richie with Eddie finding a secret Japanese bunker which he converted into a bar called Eddi's Bra. He was also shown to forge relationships with many of the animals on the island including a cheetah who became his new girlfriend. He and Richie eventually escaped the desert island and returned to Hammersmith where Eddie invented a time travelling TURDIS which he and Richie used to travel back to the beginning of time where they discovered the meaning of everything was pants.

Notable Victories against Richie[]

Eddie has won the vast majority of his fights with Richie. According to his journal he has defeated Richie several thousand times and has beaten him at everything not just fights. However this an exaggeration as whilst Eddie has won the vast majority of their fights Richie has defeated Eddie on at least a few occassions. These are a few of Eddies most notable victories against Richie though by no means all of them.

  • Along with several of his friends he threw Richie up to the roof when Richie's legs where already broken which caused Richie's legs to shatter into bits. Eddie taunted Richie before hand stating "Happy Birthday Richie break a leg"
  • Trapped Richie's head under a fridge then used his ticket for his girlfriend to come on a holiday with him and kicked him in the knackers
  • Smashed the duo's beloved television over Richie's head after beating Richie in the Chess Fight.
  • Smashed Richie over the head with a mallet after he realized Richie couldn't move in his sleeping bag.

Trivia[]

  • Eddie is a bisexual as he has been in love with both Tony Blair and Harry Bellefonte.
  • Throughout the entire course of Bottom both the live tours and television series Eddie has won 11 fights against Richie (13 if you count the fights in both the opening and closing credits where Eddie defeats Richie) whilst Richie has won one fight at the end of the episode S'out where he punched Eddie off of a roof. Though he has had other victories against Eddie such as in Appocalypse where he convinced a gangster to kick Eddie in the bollocks, Richie has only won one actual fight against Eddie. He has however drawn against Eddie one one other occasion during the Hobnob Fight
  • It is possible that Edward Elizabeth Hitler is the same character as Eddie Elizabeth Ndingombaba in Guest House Paradiso under an assumed name. However Ndingombaba is hown to be far more passive and considerably less intelligent and violent than Edward Elizabeth Hitler and even loses the only fight he has against Richard Twat a character with similar character traits to Richard Richard.
  • Edward Elizabeth Hitler is very similar to other characters Edmondson has played throughout his career. He is called Eddie just Eddie Catflap in Filthy Rich and Catflap. He also has a girls name just like Vyvyan Basterd and Lady Adrian Dangerous. Finally he is portrayed as being the more violent one between his and Mayall characters.
  • Many comparisons have also been drawn between Eddie and Richie's relationship and Sid and Tony's relationship in Hancock's half hour with Eddie being seen in the Sid James role and Richie being seen in the Tony Hancock role.
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