“Gap Yah” satirical sketch lands Youtube comedy crown
A sketch designed to satirise the student gap year has been recognised by Youtube as the channels biggest homegrown comedy hit of 2010.
“Gap Yah” is a viral vid created by Oxford University graduate Matt Lacey of sketch comedy theatre troupe The Unexpected Items.
Featuring an upper middle class public school student named Orlando, it captures his end of a telephone conversation with a friend from a fake jungle. The clip begins with Orlando answering the phone: “Oh no Tarquin, I can’t come shopping on the Kensington Road with you today because I’m literally in Burma. I’m on my gap year at the moment.”
Orlando then recounts: “I was in Africa in Tanzana and I saw this woman with Malaria, she had like flies all round her eyes and she looked at me with this vacant stare but with a sense of endearing hope. As if to say despite our differences, you and I are one, we’re kindred spirits… yeah and then I just chundered everywhere! I’d been on the lash the night before, bit of a wreck… best night of my life, best night of my life… ahurr.”
The infectious vid has currently amassed some 2.8m views since it was first posted in March 2010.