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''Gap Yah'' is a
comedy sketch Sketch comedy comprises a series of short, amusing scenes or vignettes, called "sketches", commonly between one and ten minutes long, performed by a group of comic actors or comedians. The form developed and became popular in vaudeville, and is ...
that gained widespread popularity and press coverage, especially in the
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, after being published on the video-sharing site
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in February 2010. It was created and performed by the
University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...
graduate
Matt Lacey Matt Lacey (born 1987) is a British actor and comedian. He is best known for his recurring role as Ben in the BBC television series ''Cuckoo'' and as Orlando in the Gap Yah viral comedy sketch. Life and career Lacey was born in the United Kin ...
of sketch comedy theatre troupe The Unexpected Items. The video was produced and directed by VM Productions and The Unexpected Items. The video became a
viral Viral means "relating to viruses" (small infectious agents). Viral may also refer to: Viral behavior, or virality Memetic behavior likened that of a virus, for example: * Viral marketing, the use of existing social networks to spread a marke ...
hit, with 660,000 views in its first month and around 50,000 views a day in late March 2010. As of September 2018, the original video has been viewed over 6.3 million times. The video depicts a student named Orlando describing to his friend Tarquin several of his experiences and encounters during a
gap year A gap year, also known as a sabbatical year, is typically a year-long break before or after college/university during which students engage in various educational and developmental activities, such as travel or some type of regular work. Gap yea ...
in Tanzania, Peru and Burma, all of which resulted in him vomiting—or "chundering"—everywhere. The video is a spoof of the British upper-middle-class ex-public school students (using distinctively drawn-out vowels)—commonly known as '' rahs''—who boast about their experiences, typically in the
third world The term "Third World" arose during the Cold War to define countries that remained non-aligned with either NATO or the Warsaw Pact. The United States, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Western European nations and their allies represented the " First ...
, prior to attending university. The sketch has resulted in the term being increasingly used in schools and universities across the United Kingdom. An online following has developed, with tribute
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pages as well as several remixed versions of the video having been created by others. Phrases from the video have become cultural
memes A meme ( ) is an idea, behavior, or style that spreads by means of imitation from person to person within a culture and often carries symbolic meaning representing a particular phenomenon or theme. A meme acts as a unit for carrying cultural i ...
, with the phrase "...and then I just chundered everywhere" being added to satirise election posters of Conservative Party leader and former UK
prime minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...
David Cameron David William Donald Cameron (born 9 October 1966) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2010 to 2016 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2005 to 2016. He previously served as Leader o ...
as well as events such as the eruption of the Icelandic Eyjafjallajökull volcano. ''Gap Yah'' is described by its creator as follows: Lacey also states that "depressingly, there are a lot of these people and I even have elements of them myself." A sequel to the sketch, entitled ''Gap Yah 2: Afterparty'' was released on 26 April 2010, it was also highly successful, reaching over 1.4 million views by September 2018. It featured Orlando, again chatting to his friend Tarquin on his mobile, while he and his friend Pandora place posters around a town to advertise a fund-raising event for "
Haiti Haiti (; ht, Ayiti ; French: ), officially the Republic of Haiti (); ) and formerly known as Hayti, is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and ...
, in
Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
". An official Gap Yah single called 'Gap Yah ft. The Banter' was released in June 2010 and ''Gap Yah 3: Intahnshup'' was released on 12 December 2013.{{cite video, url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLm2wv4r2ss, title=Gap Yah 3: Intahnshup, publisher=The Unexpected Items (YouTube), date=12 December 2013, accessdate=1 April 2014


References


External links


Gap Yah video
on YouTube
Gap Yah 2: Afterparty
on YouTube
Gap Yah 3: Intahnshup
on YouTube
Gap Yah ft. The Banter – Official Single
on YouTube
VMproductions
official website Viral videos Comedy sketches British comedy 2010 works Middle class culture Upper class culture 2010 YouTube videos