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.
- Primary Activity
- Competitive anecdote sharing
- Famous Trait
- Exaggerated claims of poverty and starvation
Verified Timeline
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. Barry Cryer appeared as a wine waiter in this original performance and may have contributed to the writing. 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 used at the start of the original performance. This version is available on the At Last the 1948 Show DVD as the closing sketch of series 2, episode 6. 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.
In Their Own Story
The sketch became a fixture in Monty Python's live repertoire after Cleese and Chapman joined the group. It was performed at Live at Drury Lane (1974, no video recording), Live at the Hollywood Bowl (1982), and Monty Python Live (Mostly) (2014). The 1982 performance featured Graham Chapman (replaced by John Cleese in 2014), Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin; notably, Palin is the only member actually from Yorkshire. Tim Brooke-Taylor and Marty Feldman received special thanks in the Hollywood Bowl credits for their role in creating the sketch. The routine also appeared at The Secret Policeman's Ball in 1979 with Cleese, Jones, Palin, and Rowan Atkinson. In 2001, Harry Enfield, Alan Rickman, Eddie Izzard, and Vic Reeves performed it for We Know Where You Live. A 1989 publication titled The Utterly, Utterly Amusing and Pretty Damn Definitive Comic Relief Revue Book featured the script under "The Good Old Days," with characters named Joshua, Obadiah, Josiah, and Ezekiel, performed on Wogan by Terry Wogan, Stephen Fry, Gareth Hale, and Norman Pace.
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?
- The sketch was inspired by Stephen Leacock's 1910 short story "Self-Made Men."
- In the original 1967 performance, Barry Cryer played the wine waiter.
- Michael Palin is the only member of Monty Python actually from Yorkshire.
- The Hungarian adaptation substituted "four millionaires" for the four Yorkshiremen.
- The 2014 Monty Python Live (Mostly) performance featured John Cleese replacing Graham Chapman.
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