Help me identify this British comedy sketch about the middle classes
July 18, 2010 1:18 AM Subscribe
I need help identifying a British comedy sketch about the middle classes.
It was riffing on the tendency of middle class Brits to over emphasise their working class rootes. It was people at a dinner party bragging about what middle class upbringings they had.
"We always had a wooden bowl full of fruit in our house."
"Yeah? Well my parents arranged for me to have cello lessons!"
This would have been aired on British TV in the late nineties/early noughties.
I blame Quantum's Deadly Fist for getting this sketch fragment stuck in my head.
It was riffing on the tendency of middle class Brits to over emphasise their working class rootes. It was people at a dinner party bragging about what middle class upbringings they had.
"We always had a wooden bowl full of fruit in our house."
"Yeah? Well my parents arranged for me to have cello lessons!"
This would have been aired on British TV in the late nineties/early noughties.
I blame Quantum's Deadly Fist for getting this sketch fragment stuck in my head.
It seems to be an inversion of the Four Yorkshiremen Sketch, but unfortunately googling on that basis hasn't come up with what you're looking for.
posted by Coobeastie at 3:15 AM on July 18, 2010
posted by Coobeastie at 3:15 AM on July 18, 2010
Best answer: It was The Fast Show. Can't find it on YouTube, but there is a transcript here (sketch 12).
posted by Electric Dragon at 3:33 AM on July 18, 2010
posted by Electric Dragon at 3:33 AM on July 18, 2010
It was riffing on the tendency of middle class Brits to over emphasise their working class rootes.
What they're actually doing is emphasising that they are in fact working class. You don't get to be middle class with working class roots.
Another great sketch which inverts this that you'd enjoy is the (Monty Python?) sketch where the simple working class poet rejects his "fancy" miner son.
posted by atrazine at 7:17 AM on July 18, 2010
What they're actually doing is emphasising that they are in fact working class. You don't get to be middle class with working class roots.
Another great sketch which inverts this that you'd enjoy is the (Monty Python?) sketch where the simple working class poet rejects his "fancy" miner son.
posted by atrazine at 7:17 AM on July 18, 2010
Here is the "Northern Playwright" Monty Python skit that atrazine referenced.
posted by Third at 7:32 AM on July 18, 2010
posted by Third at 7:32 AM on July 18, 2010
Response by poster: Thanks Electric Dragon, that's exactly what I was thinking of. And thanks to Third and Atrazine for putting me on to the Python sketch, which I hadn't seen before.
atrazine: "You don't get to be middle class with working class roots."
Really? Because I'd argue that's what I am. Where would you place the OP from this thread, then?
posted by the latin mouse at 9:02 AM on July 18, 2010
atrazine: "You don't get to be middle class with working class roots."
Really? Because I'd argue that's what I am. Where would you place the OP from this thread, then?
posted by the latin mouse at 9:02 AM on July 18, 2010
I thought I was middle class - dad did a professional job, we ate 'foreign food', took broadsheets and went to museums. Then I left the town I was in and realised that while in comparison to my friends I was middle class, when meeting real middle class people I wasn;t.
Middle-class people take those things for granted and don't tend to brag about them - that's the point of the sketch. By turning it into one-upmanship they are showing they aren't really part of that world.
posted by mippy at 9:28 AM on July 18, 2010
Middle-class people take those things for granted and don't tend to brag about them - that's the point of the sketch. By turning it into one-upmanship they are showing they aren't really part of that world.
posted by mippy at 9:28 AM on July 18, 2010
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by tsh at 1:28 AM on July 18, 2010