Celebrating Our Comic Genius Rikki Fulton Helped Define and Shape Scottish Culture

Summary

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Mourners (how inappropriate a noun that turned out to be) had been advised that black ties were not necessary. Traffic-police officers on motorcycles paid their own tribute yesterday, inspired by one of Rikki Fulton's most memorable comic creations. At the conclusion of a moving speech that drew laughter as well as tears, Tony Roper, one of his closest friends, asked the congregation to join him in a standing ovation. Applause rang out in Clydebank Crematorium. In other circumstances, it would have been incongruous or unseemly.

But this was an occasion for celebrating a life of immense talent. There was more laughter when the Reverend Alastair Symington, friend as well as spiritual confidant, recalled that, if Fulton had chosen an epitaph, it would have been: "Here Lies Rikki Fulton. Oh, So It is." An explanation was not really necessary because the many Scots who loved his humour could conjure up for themselves the image of a couple of punters passing Fulton in the street, stopping 10ft on, and saying to each other: "Oh, so it is." Fulton had a genius for homing in on the commonplace and making it hilarious, without causing offence.

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Celebrating Our Comic Genius Rikki Fulton Helped Define and Shape Scottish Culture

He could laugh at himself and thoroughly enjoy the experience. When h...

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