Four Yorkshiremen sketch

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The “ Four Yorkshiremen ” sketch is a parody of nostalgic conversations about simple ancestry or difficult childhood. Four Yorkshiremen sit together and exchange childhood memories. Since everyone tries to surpass the previous speaker in terms of human misery ("You all lived together in one room? What would we have been happy if we had a room at all!"), The stories increase into the completely absurd ("we had to work 29 hours a day - and still pay the factory owner for it! ”) and culminate in the punchline“ If you tell young people this today - they will not believe it ”.

The sketch was originally written for the 1967 British television series At Last the 1948 Show , with all four writers and cast members on the show: John Cleese , Graham Chapman , Tim Brooke-Taylor , and Marty Feldman . The first performance of the sketch by the four inventors is one of the few remaining skits from the program and was last seen on the At Last the 1948 Show DVD.

The "Four Yorkshiremen" sketch was 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 being slightly different from the other in terms of content. The sketch was also performed by three pythons (John Cleese, Michael Palin , Terry Jones ) and Rowan Atkinson for The Secret Policeman's Ball , the 1979 Amnesty International Benefit Gala.

In a deliberate tribute to its performance on the 1979 Amnesty show, the sketch was re-performed for the 2001 Amnesty show We Know Where You Live, Live by Eddie Izzard , Harry Enfield , Alan Rickman and Vic Reeves .

Because of the many python performances and the relative obscurity of the show At Last The 1948 Show , the "Four Yorkshiremen" sketch is often mistaken for an original Monty Python's Flying Circus sketch.

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