The idea for Bottom was spawned when, in 1991, Mayall and Edmondson co-starred in the West End production of Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot at the Queen's Theatre. Mayall and Edmondson have said Bottom was often aimed to be more than just a series of toilet gags but a cruder cousin to plays like Waiting for Godot, about the pointlessness of life.

However, the origins of the characters are rooted much deeper. Mayall and Edmondson had been working together since the late 1970's when they teamed up as "20th Century Coyote". Over the course of their career, they developed the characters of Richie and Eddie, based loosely on their own relationship. The names themselves come from Mayall's and Edmondson's own nicknames for each other - many of Mayall's characters are referred to by some variation of the name "Richard" and "Eddie" is taken from "Eddie Monsoon", Edmondson's nickname since University which is a play on his surname (compare with Edina Monsoon in Absolutely Fabulous, played by Edmondson's wife Jennifer Saunders).

The duo would use characters similar to Eddie and Richie in The Dangerous Brothers (Sir Richard Dangerous and Sir Adrian Dangerous, 1985); The Young Ones (Rick and Vyvyan, 1982 & 1984); Filthy Rich and Catflap (Richie Rich and Eddie Catflap, 1987); Mr. Jolly Lives Next Door (names not mentioned, 1988); and finally in their adaptation of Waiting for Godot.

Mayall and Edmonson originally planned to call the series Your Bottom, intending viewers to say such things as "I saw Your Bottom on television last night". Eventually they settled for just Bottom, which both suited the toilet humour of the series, and the fact that Richie and Eddie were 'at the bottom of life's heap'. It also provided the ability to produce episodes titled "'s Up" and "'s Out".

Adrian Edmondson and Rik Mayall originally planned to call the series 'Your Bottom' - so that viewers would be heard to say such things as, "I saw Your Bottom on television last night".

The last episode of the second series ("'s Out") featuring Richie and Eddie camping out on Wimbledon Common, was due to be broadcast on 5th November 1992. However, a real-life murder on Wimbledon Common shortly before transmission meant that the episode was pulled, and was not seen on TV until after the third series in 1995.