The "Four Yorkshiremen" sketch was originally written for the British television comedy series At Last the 1948 Show, and was co-written by the show's four writer-performers: John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Tim Brooke-Taylor, and Marty Feldman. The original performance of the sketch by the four creators is one of the surviving sketches from the program and can be seen on the At Last the 1948 Show DVD. Note that in the original sketch paying the mill-owner to come to work hadn't been invented yet. January 2006 : January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September - October - November - December- → 31 January 2006 (Tuesday) U.S. President George W. Bush delivers the State of the Union Address to a joint session of the U.S. Congress (the House of Representatives and the Senate). ... From top to bottom: Aimi MacDonald, Graham Chapman, Marty Feldman, Tim Brooke-Taylor, and John Cleese. ... John Cleese as Q in Die Another Day. ... Graham Chapman Graham Chapman (8 January 1941–4 October 1989) was a British comedian and writer. ... Tim Brooke-Taylor (April 2000) Tim Brooke-Taylor (born July 17, 1940 in Buxton, Derbyshire, England) is a British comic actor most well known in Britain as a member of The Goodies comedy trio and as one of the panel members of the comedy radio show Im Sorry I... Actor Marty Feldman in Young Frankenstein (1974) Martin Alan Marty Feldman (July 8, 1934 – December 2, 1982) was a writer, comedian and film and television actor in the UK, famous for his bulging eyes, which were the result of a thyroid condition. ...

The "Four Yorkshiremen" sketch has been performed by Monty Python on their live shows, "Live at Drury lane" (1974, no video recording available) and Live at the Hollywood Bowl (1982). It was also performed with three Pythons and Rowan Atkinson on The Secret Policeman's Ball (1981), an Amnesty International fund raising stage show. Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl is a 1982 film in which the Monty Python team perform many of their greatest sketches and skits in the Hollywood Bowl, including a couple of pre-Python ones. ... The Secret Policemans Balls is the collective name for a series of fund raising performances featuring big-name comedians and musicians and other celebrities, held at various London venues, and once at a Nottingham television studio, to raise money for (and awareness of) Amnesty International. ... Amnesty International logo Amnesty International (commonly known as Amnesty or AI) is an international, non-governmental organization with the stated purpose of promoting all the human rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international standards. ...

The original show had long been thought lost until it was released on DVD recently and this has resulted in the "Four Yorkshiremen" sketch now being considered a Monty Python sketch, with its origins, and also the co-authorship of the sketch by the non-Pythons Tim Brooke-Taylor and Marty Feldman, being forgotten by many people. All four of the original cast have the writer's credit however.

The sketch was most recently reworked for the We Know Where You Live Amnesty show, performed by Eddie Izzard, Harry Enfield, Alan Rickman, and Vic Reeves. Eddie Izzard Eddie Izzard (born 7 February 1962) is a British stand-up comedian, actor and transvestite. ... Harry Enfield Harry Enfield (born May 30, 1961 in Sussex, England) is a comedian educated at Derwent College at the University of York who quickly came to prominence after appearing on Channel 4s Saturday Live in a number of different personae created with Paul Whitehouse. ... Alan Rickman as Severus Snape in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. ... Vic Reeves in the mid 90s Vic Reeves (born James Jim Roderick Moir January 24, 1959) is an English comedian, best known through his double act with Bob Mortimer. ...

The sketch

The sketch involves four Yorkshiremen at a resort comparing childhood difficulties. Hilarious oneupmanship turns to hyperbole by the end of the sketch. One of many versions of the sketch begins with the four Yorkshiremen sitting in their fine suits, sipping wine and smoking cigars, and saying: The White Yorkshire rose. ... Look up hyperbole in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Wine is an alcoholic beverage produced by the fermentation of grapes and grape juice. ... This page is about the tobacco product; for other meanings of Cigar, see Cigar (disambiguation). ...

First Yorkshireman (Michael Palin) : Ahh.. Very passable, this, very passable bit of risotto.

Second Yorkshireman (Graham Chapman): Nothing like a good glass of Château de Chasselas, eh Josiah?

Third Yorkshireman (Terry Jones): Eh, you're right there Obediah.

Fourth Yorkshireman (Eric Idle): Who'd a thought thirty years ago we'd all be sittin' here drinking Château de Chassela, eh?

One of them relates how he only ever had tea to drink as a child, albeit with no sugar or milk. Or tea. Another expresses envy at this, and after he has related his awful childhood, another Yorkshireman steps in with an even more woeful (and obviously fictitious) tale of childhood horror. It all spirals out of control and finishes as follows:- Michael Palin (1999) Michael Edward Palin, CBE (born May 5, 1943 in Broomhill, Sheffield, Yorkshire, England) is an English comedian, actor and television presenter best known for being one of the members of the comedy group Monty Python, as well as for his travel documentaries. ... Graham Chapman Graham Chapman (8 January 1941–4 October 1989) was a British comedian and writer. ... Terry Jones Terence Graham Parry Jones (born February 1, 1942) is a British comedian and writer. ... Eric Idle Eric Idle (born March 29, 1943) is an English comedian, actor and film director, as well as an author and guitarist/songwriter. ... Tea leaves in a gaiwan. ... Magnified view of refined sugar crystals. ... A glass of cow milk Milk most often means the nutrient liquid produced by the mammary glands of female mammals. ...

Third Yorkshireman: Well we had it tough! We used to have to get up out of the shoebox at twelve o'clock at night, and LICK [the] road clean with our tongues. We had half a handful of freezing cold gravel, worked twenty-four hours a day at the mill for fourpence every six years, and when we got home, our Dad would slice us in two with a bread knife.

Fourth Yorkshireman: Right...(rolls up sleeves and takes a deep breath) I had to get up in the morning at ten o'clock at night, half an hour before I went to bed, eat a lump of cold poison, work twenty-nine hours a day down mill, and pay [the] mill owner for permission to come to work, and when we got home, our Dad would kill us, and dance about on our graves singing "Hallelujah."

First Yorkshireman: But you try and tell the young people today that... and they won't believe ya'.

ALL: Nope, nope..

There is also a game based on this sketch, called "Yorkshiremen." Yorkshiremen is a game of perpetual one-upmanship based on the Four Yorkshiremen sketch, attributed to the Monty Python team, but originally from the comedy series At Last the 1948 Show (John Cleese and Graham Chapman are the common factor). ...

External link

• "Four Yorkshiremen" sketch - from the album Monty Python Live at Drury Lane, 1974