Suicidal Syd

Suicidal Syd (AKA Chris Cowan) is a character in the British adult comic "Viz".

He is an extreme manic depressive, who becomes suicidal over minor occurrences and then attempts to commit suicide in various different ways that are often surreal, topical and farcical; eg. in one strip he draws what he thinks is a cartoon of Muhammad and shows it to a group of fanatical Islamists, hoping they will murder him, but he then realizes he has actually drawn a picture of Muhammad Ali. All of his attempts fail. He then recovers from his depression, only to be killed in some other way afterwards, which is often related to the reason why he became depressed in the first place.

For example, in one story he becomes depressed at the lack of moral standards in the world after being invited to take part in a threesome with a man and his girlfriend. Eventually he gets a toy car lodged in his throat, and a passer-by performs the Heimlich manoeuvre to dislodge the car. Syd then regains his faith in humanity... and then a pair of Neo-Nazis club him to death believing that he is gay. Another darkly amusing strip sees him walking into a local overspill estate dressed up as a paedophile, but then the baying mob does not kill him as a coach load of trainspotters getting off confuses them. Later on in the strip he goes into a pub in the East End of London and threatens the local gangsters. Characters who bear uncanny resemblances to Dave Courtney and the late Lenny McLean say they would love to kill him but they are too busy signing copies of their biographies.

Occasionally, Syd's demise refers to a recent topical event or celebrity scandal. Examples include winning a flight to New York only for the flight to be hijacked by terrorists, getting to sleep with an attractive rich woman whose husband turns out to be O.J. Simpson, getting to go to a private pool party organized by Michael Barrymore and getting to present "Top Gear" with his first assignment to try and break the land speed record in the same car driven by Richard Hammond.