One Leg Too Few

"One Leg Too Few" is a comedy sketch written by Peter Cook and most famously performed by Cook and Dudley Moore. It is a classic example of comedy arising from an absurd situation which the participants take entirely seriously (comic irony), and a demonstration of the construction of a sketch in order to draw a laugh from the audience with almost every line. Peter Cook said that this was one of the most perfect sketches he had acted in, and that it amazed him, later in his career, that he could have created it so young, at the age of 17 or 18.

It first appeared in a Pembroke College revue, Something Borrowed, in 1960 (where it was titled Leg Too Few as the show had an alphabetical theme and the sketch appeared under the letter "L") and later the same year in the Footlights revue, Pop Goes Mrs Jessop. It appeared on the West End stage for the first time in 1961 as part of One Over the Eight, a revue starring Kenneth Williams. Its first public performance with Dudley Moore in the role of Spiggot was as part of Beyond the Fringe at the Cambridge Arts Theatre on April 21, 1961. Although it was initially omitted from the London production of Beyond the Fringe (due to One Over The Eight running concurrently at a nearby theatre), it was reinstated for the show's transfer to Broadway. Cook and Moore also performed the sketch in their 1973 stage show Behind the Fridge (retitled Good Evening! in the USA), and also gave standalone performances on various occasions, including the 1965 Royal Variety Performance, a 1976 episode of Saturday Night Live, and the 1989 charity show The Secret Policeman's Biggest Ball. A version of the sketch, in which Spiggott is applying for a job as a runner, appeared in Cook and Moore's 1978 film The Hound of the Baskervilles.

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