My favourite
comedian, perhaps? He was not part of
Monty Python but worked with many of them before the Flying Circus was formed. For example the
Four Yorkshiremen sketch was written by him,
John Cleese,
Graham Chapman, and
Tim Brooke-Taylor. It was originally performed by the four of them on
At Last the 1948 Show on 31st October 1967, and he played the part of
Joshua, who begins and ends it. In this role Marty Feldman said:
"Very passable. Not bad at all."
...
"Aye! In those days we were glad to have the price of a cup of tea."
...
"Aye, and a cracked cup at that!"
...
Because we were poor. My old dad used to say, "Money doesn't bring you happiness, son."
...
Then the bit about "Ooh, I used to dream of living in a corridor!", then he was the first one to mention having to clean their home (a rolled-up newspaper in a septic tank) and eat a crust of stale bread; and finally he closes the sketch with 'and they won't believe you".
Another Feldman sketch from the same show - from the very same episode, in fact - was the one where he's the annoying little man called Mr Raymond Pest, who can't decide which seat to occupy, who tries to get a cigarette from the city gent (John Cleese), and who has a speech impediment which consists of occasionally going scream!!! at unexpected times. Mr Pest works in an office with a Mr B.J. Ectoplasm.
Another skit that Feldman co-wrote and acted in was the bookshop skit, where he asks for David Coperfield with one P by Edmund Wells, Olsen's Standard Book of British Birds (B-I-R-D-S) without the gannet (they wet their nests), Rarnaby Budge by Charles Dikkens with two K's the well-known Dutch author, and Ethel the Aardvark Goes Quantity-Surveying.
He also did a good gypsy offering a lucky gypsy poke in the eye.