Four Yorkshiremen
A sketch where four men outdo each other with absurd stories of childhood deprivation.
The 'Four Yorkshiremen' is a classic comedy sketch parodying nostalgic conversations about humble beginnings and difficult childhoods. It features four men from Yorkshire who reminisce about their upbringing, attempting to outdo one another with increasingly absurd accounts of deprived pasts. A typical exchange involves one man asking, "We had to live in a cardboard box?" only for another to reply, "A cardboard box? You were lucky! We lived for three months in a rolled-up newspaper in a septic tank." Written by Tim Brooke-Taylor, John Cleese, Graham Chapman, and Marty Feldman, the sketch was originally performed in 1967 on the TV series At Last the 1948 Show. Although later strongly associated with Monty Python due to Cleese and Chapman's membership, it began as a collaborative effort by its four creators before evolving into a staple of their live shows.
Lore & Background
The sketch originated as "Good Old Days" for the 1967 British television series At Last the 1948 Show, performed by its four writer-performers: Brooke-Taylor, Cleese, Chapman, and Feldman. Marty Feldman also appeared as a wine waiter in this original performance and is credited as a co-writer of the sketch. John Cleese cited Stephen Leacock's 1910 short story "Self-Made Men" as the inspiration. The surviving camera script names the characters Obadiah, Ezekiel, Josiah, and Hezekiah, though only Obadiah and Josiah are addressed by name in the original performance.
This version is available on the At Last the 1948 Show DVD as the closing sketch of series 2, episode 6, which was broadcast on 18 January 1968. A near derivative appeared in the BBC Radio show I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again (Series 7, Episode 5) on 9 February 1969, where the cast employed the same trope of out-doing each other regarding how far and slowly they had to walk to places in former days.
Reader's Guide
Beyond the UK, the sketch has seen international adaptations. In the mid-1990s, the Hungarian comedy group Holló Színház translated and adapted it, substituting "four millionaires" for the Yorkshiremen. For Red Nose Day 2015, Davina McCall, John Bishop, David Walliams, and Eddie Izzard revived the sketch in a live television performance, exaggerating their own fundraising efforts rather than childhood poverty. The core mechanic remains constant: four characters engage in competitive anecdote sharing where claims of hardship escalate until they become impossible to believe. The punchline often involves a character noting that if they told these stories to young people today, they wouldn't be believed.
Did You Know?
- Michael Palin is the only member of Monty Python actually from Yorkshire.
- The 2014 Monty Python Live (Mostly) performance featured John Cleese replacing Graham Chapman.
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