Overview
"Contest" is the third episode of the first series of British sitcom Bottom. It was first broadcast on Tuesday 1 October 1991.
Synopsis
With Eddie having spent most of their remaining £11.80 on a second-hand copy of Parade magazine, he and Richie spend a night watching Miss World on the television.
Plot
The episode begins with Richie placing his head in the oven in a suicide attempt. He has left a suicide note on the table for Eddie to read. It is revealed that this is in fact a ploy to guilt-trip Eddie into buying him a drink. Eddie enters the room, places his briefcase on top of the note and proceeds to read the newspaper. When he notices Richie with his head in the oven, he shrugs indifferently, and Richie relents.
It emerges that while Eddie has been out at the office trying to claim his dole money, Richie has spent all day making an inexpensive dinner for the pair (everything has been grown, found or foraged), which turns out to be inedible. Eddie refuses to eat the dinner and reveals he has been denied his dole as he has too much in savings - £11.80, which ought to last him two months - but he has "invested" the majority of it in a secondhand copy of Parade magazine. Eddie sits down to watch the Miss World contest on TV, but Richie refuses to let him. The two have an argument and Richie throws Eddie out of the flat. He then settles down to masturbate while watching Miss World. Eddie, who has been preparing to apologise to Richie, catches Richie in the act and agrees to keep it a secret if he is allowed to return and watch Miss World.
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