Gap Yah performer spent year out in Africa

Comedian Matt Lacey - creator of the infamous Gap Yah sketch - spent his own gap year in eastern Africa, it has been revealed.

Speaking to This Is London, the satirist explained how he took a trip to Tanzania after college, at what was "a formative time" in his life.

"When you are 18 you are bounding off after every opportunity. You don't quite realise how ridiculous you are," he said.

"There is a process of growing up that happens anyway over the course of a year but if you take someone out of their frame of reference and put them in some random area in the globe it means the learning curve is even steeper."

Mr Lacey explained that this period of his life - which involved a lot of "silly behaviour", gave him the inspiration for Gap Yah, which has proved to be an internet smash on YouTube.

The Oxford University graduate, who performs as part of The Unexpected Items comedy troupe, has received more than four million video hits since it was published in spring 2010.

It depicts student Orlando telling his friend Tarquin about various experiences and encounters during a gap year - all of which resulted in him vomiting everywhere.

Read about gap year stories.