The "Four Yorkshiremen" sketch is a parody of nostalgic conversations about humble beginnings or difficult childhoods. Four Yorkshiremen reminisce about their upbringing, and as the conversation progresses, they try to outdo one another, their accounts of deprived childhoods becoming increasingly absurd.
The sketch was originally written and performed for the 1967 British television comedy series At Last the 1948 Show by the show's four writer-performers: Tim Brooke-Taylor, John Cleese, Graham Chapman and Marty Feldman.[1][2] The original performance of the sketch by the four creators is one of the surviving sketches from the programme and can be seen on the At Last the 1948 Show DVD.
The sketch has much in common with the humorous story 'Self Made Men', by Stephen Leacock, published in Leacock's Literary Lapses (f.p. 1910), in which the characters take part in a session of "one-downmanship":
Performances
The "Four Yorkshiremen" sketch has been performed by Monty Python during their live shows, Live at Drury Lane (1974, no video recording available) and Live at the Hollywood Bowl (1982), each performance varying slightly in its content. It was also performed by Michael Palin, John Cleese, Rowan Atkinson and Terry Jones for The Secret Policeman's Ball, the 1979 Amnesty International benefit gala.
In a conscious salute to its performance at the 1979 Amnesty show, the sketch was revived for the 2001 Amnesty show We Know Where You Live, Live – performed by Harry Enfield, Alan Rickman, Eddie Izzard and Vic Reeves. In 1989 the script was published in the charity fundraiser The Utterly, Utterly Amusing and Pretty Damn Definitive Comic Relief Revue Book under the title "The Good Old Days", with the characters named as Joshua, Obadiah, Josiah and Ezekiel.
Eddie Izzard later nods to the sketch in his show The Riches where he and his boss talk about their poor upbringing.
As a result of the numerous Python performances and the comparative obscurity of At Last The 1948 Show, the "Four Yorkshiremen" sketch is widely and incorrectly credited to Monty Python's Flying Circus.[citation needed]
References
- ^ Radio interview with Tim Brooke-Taylor — includes comments about the "Four Yorkshiremen sketch"]
- ^ The story of Britain's favourite sitcom "Fawlty Towers", by Graham McCann, published by Hodder & Stoughton Ltd, England, U.K., in 2007 ISBN 978 0 340 898116 (hardback) — ISBN 978 0 340 898123 (paperback)
External links
- "Four Yorkshiremen" performed live at Hollywood Bowl at YouTube (requires Adobe Flash)
- "Four Yorkshiremen" sketch - transcript from the album Monty Python Live at Drury Lane, 1974
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