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Edward Elizabeth Hitler.

Edward Elizabeth "Eddie" Hitler is a main character in the British sitcom Bottom. He is the creation of and is portrayed by British actor, comedian and musician Adrian Edmondson.

Summary[]

He has appeared in all 18 episodes of the TV series, the movie, and the five live shows. In the dynamic "married couple" relationship between Richie and Eddie, he is considered to be the "male" half of the duo, but not necessarily the one who wears the trousers.

Appearance[]

Bald, bespectacled and perpetually drunk, Eddie lives at the bottom of the social heap with his mate Richie at 11 Mafeking Parade, Hammersmith, London. He was born in Hammersmith and has spent the best part of his life there. Like Richie, he always wears the same clothes; a dark brown suit with a black patterned tie and white long-sleeved shirt. When he leaves the flat he wears a long charcoal coloured trench coat and a brown Trilby hat. In Bottom Live 3: Hooligan's Island , he has taken to wearing a gaudy multi-coloured Hawaiian shirt and a pair of beige shorts, and in Bottom Live 2001: An Arse Oddity he is wearing similar attire, but this time sporting a tall sailor's hat.

Personality & Lifestyle[]

Eddie is depicted as the "cooler" counterpart to Richie's sad lonely git. He lives off the dole and pays rent to Richie, however in the episode "Contest" it is revealed that he is in arrears of £11,645.66. He enjoys gambling and regularly bets on the horses. In "Contest" he places a bet on Miss China winning the Miss World Competition, however this is later revealed to be a ruse. Eddie has been more successful with women than Richie, something he likes to brag about, particularly Ethel Cardew, whom Richie once went out with. In "‘S Out" he tells Richie that he has a girlfriend in Chiswick and another who works in Sketchley's. 

He is socially more popular than Richie, having two close friends in Spudgun and Dave Hedgehog, and an array of unnamed others, normally fellow drinkers, who have appeared sporadically throughout the series. 

Eddie is a skilled handyman, engineer, and inventor, and has been seen to be able to fix various appliances, construct exercise equipment and invent bizarre devices. He owns a large array of tools, including drills, hammers, lopping shears and a blow torch. In "Dough" he builds a counterfeit currency machine in his bedroom, which appears to work well until he starts producing paper money with outlandish denominations and depictions. In Bottom Live 2003: The Weapons Grade Y-Fronts Tour , he constructs an industrial vacuum cleaner, a tattoo remover and a time machine in the confines of the bathroom. In the 1999 film Guest House Paradiso, his bedroom houses an elaborate Rube Goldberg-type device designed to fool Richie into thinking he is home.

Unlike Richie, Eddie has a number of hobbies, including model-making ("Contest") and playing the piano ("Accident.") He is also a skilled chess and Poker player, but when playing with Richie he likes to make up his own rules, demonstrated when he wins a hand of Poker with five kings ("Gas.") Like Richie however, he has no qualms about starting a fight, especially if it involves creative use of household objects to inflict pain and injury.

Eddie owns an old World War 2 service revolver, put to good use when the flat is burgled. Firing it however was futile as the barrel flowered after only a few shots, probably due to a stuck round in the chamber. In Bottom Live, Eddie brandishes a new revolver which he uses to shoot the television when he and Richie realise they have accidentally turned the channel on to Richard and Judy. He later uses the same revolver in Bottom Live 2 to put a caged parrot out of its misery.

He spends most of his time drunk and has an array of bottled alcoholic beverages secreted in the lining of his trench coat ("Hole.") Eddie has on a number of occasions brewed his own alcohol, most of it out of household ingredients and exotic spirits ("Hole" "Terror" and Bottom Live 5.)

Eddie provides contradictory explanations of his parentage. In "'s Up" he explains that his mother was a wrestler, but later on in "Break" he explains that he was abandoned at birth with only a service revolver and a note placed in his crib which said "Please look after my baby, I can't be bothered." Moreover, his mother's first name may have been Adolf, as mentioned in "Digger" when Lily Linneker nervously questions the origins of his surname. His father is only mentioned once in "Hole," when he comments that the fairground organ music playing on the ferris wheel reminded him of his funeral. He has an Uncle Stalin who served in World War 2.

Eddie's middle name of Elizabeth was not revealed until Bottom Live, upon which it was used in dialogue in the subsequent third series, live shows and film. For Guest House Paradiso, his surname was changed to Ndingombaba

Nicknames[]

  • Chopper
  • Mystic Eddie
  • Dirty Eddie
  • Chernobyl Anus

Quotes[]

"Because I was drunk!"

"This is a sex shop isn't it? I'll have five quids worth then!"

Trivia[]

  • Adrian Edmondson also portrayed the character of Vyvyan in The Young Ones, alongside Bottom co-stars Rik Mayall and Christopher Ryan.
  • Adrian Edmondson has stated that he based Eddie's voice on the parrot from the song "Mr Slater's Parrot" by The Bonzo Dog Band.
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