Before Alarm Clocks, There Were ‘Knocker-Uppers’

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Imagine life without alarm clocks. Workdays would start at noon, breakfast would be brunch, and no one would make it to class before the first bell. From the early 1800s through the 1960s, factory workers didn’t have much of a choice. To get to work on time, they relied on “knocker-uppers,” aka, human alarm clocks. Using long bamboo sticks, or peashooters, Britain’s knocker-uppers would stroll down the streets rapping at windows to help their patrons kick-start their days.
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Опубликовано:

29 сен 2024

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Комментарии : 1,3 тыс.

@Kidsnd274 5 лет назад

Imagine being the knocker-upper and you overslept. You have just made a 100 people late for their jobs.

@sytharsenal 5 лет назад

that must be sucks yet too awesome to imagine.

@cjyo9123 5 лет назад

101 because the knocker-upper made himself late lol.

@Snort70 4 года назад

Cj Yo maybe he was supervising 99 people

@oncebacksliden9653 4 года назад

In other words, YOUR FIRED!!!!!!!!

@nathanperez9596 4 года назад

Multi kill

@NaiefThegoony 5 лет назад

I feel like in the future they're gonna be like " collecting garbage was a job ?"

@pokapig3425 5 лет назад

Throwing garbage?

@YurinovichDornburg 5 лет назад

Throwing garbage?

@dastrangedoctor 5 лет назад

Throwing garbage?

@iyunganam3885 5 лет назад

Trowing garbage?

@Komi_kaze 5 лет назад

Throwing garbage?

@schtinky1151 6 лет назад

Knocker uppers came about before the milkman showed up and started knocking up other people's wives. The knocker uppers are called knocker uppers for a reason.

@HaydenTheEeeeeeeeevilEukaryote 6 лет назад

*Seth Begley* Well fuck..... ...get it?

@HaydenTheEeeeeeeeevilEukaryote 6 лет назад

*Seth Begley* so you’re saying the knocker upper knocks wives up, then the milk man comes and milks them? Quite the combo...

@fulcrum2951 6 лет назад

I dont even

@javenrichardson3272 6 лет назад

Wanna see my knocker

@jasperfk 6 лет назад

You’ve got that the wrong way round. Getting ‘knocked up’ means to be woken up in England (they _knocked_ on the window to wake you _up_ ), with a euphemistic meaning meaning pregnant. Knocker uppers ‘knocked up’ people’s wives and the euphemism spawned from the name of the profession.

@dharanen4206 6 лет назад

So they knock the windows like that meaning the myth about ghosts are just knocker uppers

@janaekelis 6 лет назад

dha ranen so then the ghosts were past knocker-uppers

@dharanen4206 6 лет назад

Ghost Shrimpe seems like so that it wasn't either ghosts or imagination

@dgray7537 3 года назад

"Lies, no one existed before I was born." -some kid

@csg.k 4 года назад

0:23 "Do I sit here or..." Yes, you sit in the only chair with a backdrop and industrial lights with the camera facing it.

@Lost69Minds 4 года назад

that's exactly what i was thinking 😂

@AdamUPNow 6 лет назад

No snoozing the knocker uppers.

@100tinka 6 лет назад

AdamUPNow you have to open the window qnd say stop to snooze them

@Eralen00 6 лет назад

I don't think he'd stay at each window to make sure you're up ... If you snooze, you lose ... your minimum wage job at the factory in terrible working conditions, but still.

@ben9820 6 лет назад

That's what large objects are for, my dear friend.

@banana_man_101 4 года назад

The knocker upper didnt knock up the knocker upper so we didnt get up because the knocker upper didn't knock us up

@arjent8247 5 лет назад

The job title sounds like it involves impregnation, lmao

@EmaA-pu7nc 4 года назад

Arjent It’s because impregnation is associated to knocker-uppers, from what I’ve read. It’s because, after they wake up everyone and the husbands leave their wives, the knocker-uppers have some fun with them. So yes, the two terms are related.

@crazyd4ve875 4 года назад

@@EmaA-pu7nc I want to be a knocker upper now

@bangbangrogers2750 4 года назад

Arjent 69th like

@crazyd4ve875 4 года назад

@@bangbangrogers2750 nice

@ericbrockie1191 4 года назад

Really?

@saintfisuto1072 6 лет назад

That word has a different meaning in America.

@PiOfficial 6 лет назад

マシンフィスト same in the uk haha

@echo8481 3 года назад

i remember watching a video of 'Knocker-Uppers'. This was very sad in my opinion due to the pay of the job and the time they have to wake up.

@yidy1 3 года назад

"Who knocks up the knocker upper"?... We see what you did there!

@shianchangaming 6 лет назад

That tongue twister at the last part of the video tho 👌👌

@D0RYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY 5 лет назад

Damn this was the job for me. Up all night to make sure people get up for work then sleep all day. I missed out

@7_y1ar 3 года назад

a knocker upper had a knocker upper, and that knocker upper also had a knocker upper

@Jakecooks 3 года назад

I dont need an alarm clock, I have a daughter who is happy to do that job.

@godbrixe1064 5 лет назад

No one: Mom:Wake Up Knocker uppers: Want me to knock u up?

@vmarzein 5 лет назад

1:26 - 1:29 was the best seconds of my life

@ARFallaha 5 лет назад

We still have this in the Middle east in Ramadan season But here we use *_Drums_* to wake everyone up, to eat before the dawn breaks and the fasting starts! By the end of the season they knock on peoples doors for tips (since they were never hired in the first place)

@simplyyomar8312 3 года назад

Plot twist - a knock upper needed an another knock upper to wake him up and that knock upper had too

@aroobaamirr 6 лет назад

I would probably ignore them

@user-cp1ce5mu2v 3 года назад

Knocker uppers: Messing up OUR sleep schedule for YOU

@zoeydominguez5725 5 лет назад

Britain and Ireland: knocker uppers = alarm clock America: knocker uppers = men

@condor3112 6 лет назад

Who woke up the knocker uppers one they had to do their job?

@MrDawg-dx6wt 6 лет назад

Knocker up has a different meaning where im from

@NamLe-gr6xp 6 лет назад

But how do the knocker-uppers know when to wake up? DUN DUN DUN!

@Thoroughly_Wet 5 лет назад

That's what I call my ding dong... Yep, I call my door bell a knocker upper

@bigfrankfraser1391 2 года назад

my great grandadfather was a knocker upper from 1903-1950

@megapistol64 3 года назад

You told me you were british even before telling me you were british

@chopzzz1556 5 лет назад

From Knocker Uppers knocking with stick to FBI OPEN UP

@spetsnatzlegion3366 4 года назад

I was a knocker upper once. Stopped because child support payments started to rack up

@theepumpkinman 6 лет назад

Did any female knocker uppers get knocked up by a male knocker upper?

@patmaloney5735 3 года назад

My dad told me about these guys. he was born on D-day, 44.

@Hamatorasu 5 лет назад

Knock up has a whole new meaning today

@kuyawill25 4 года назад

Well, In the Philippines, Knocker-Uppers still exists... In a Form of Our Parents, Especially if you're a Student

@RPbirdzz 3 года назад

I could use a knocker upper since I haven't had a consistent sleep schedule since quarantine started

@CorpseCircus 4 года назад

That boy spitting bars

@ahmadnacash4975 3 года назад

Alarm clock? Before Upper Knockers there's this woman we call "Mom"

@Aahil008 3 года назад

“Do I sit here?”. *A R E Y O U K I D D I N G M E?!?!?!*

@Weeping-Angel 3 года назад

My question is who is paying them and how do they know which window to knock? How far away are these homes from the knocker upper? How many people do the wake?

@the_hanburger 6 лет назад

Knocker-upper 5: Wake up. Knocker-upper 4: *wakes up* Knocker-upper 4: Wake up. Knocker-upper 3: *wakes up* Knocker-upper 3: Wake up. Knocker-upper 2: *wakes up* Knocker-upper 2: Wake up Knocker-upper 1: *wakes up* Knocker-upper 1: Time to wake someome else up.

@vincentcarmona4933 4 года назад

So how did he wake up in time if he was their knocker upper

@lilsatanex 3 года назад

Imagine being a knocker upper and getting knockered out for knockering someone up

@PsychoSemanticBlockage 3 года назад

They went from knocker uppers to the peaky blinders.

@spaghettininja4209 6 лет назад

The question is, who would wake up the knocker-uppers?

@t.purkess9682 3 года назад

I need to get my mind out the gutter, this just sounds like one big innuendo

@encandle4825 5 лет назад

Must've felt horrible to be the most hated person in town.

@ieatdust8666 3 года назад

My cat is a knocker-upper. She screams at my door at 5:00 in the morning.

@name-fi2iv 5 лет назад

So a knocker upper got woken up by a knocker upper and the knocker upper that woke the other knocker upper got woken by another knocker upper and the knocker upper that woke the other knocker upper and the one that woke up the other knocker upper woke the other knocker upper Reply if u got lost i dont need likes im kind of a more reply guy xd

@69adrummer 4 года назад

*ONLY* chair in the room in front of a big goddamned screen and cameras ............. "Do I sit here?!"

@memeboij5656 6 лет назад

Then they could come in and actually wake me up

@stantweddle8898 6 лет назад

My great grandad was one of these

@ray7419 3 года назад

My cousin has 6 kids from 6 different men. She’s an expert on the knocker uppers.

@arandomguyonthenet5941 6 лет назад

Yo what if back then people are actually terrified by the knocking in the windows?

@vonilla2947 5 лет назад

thats my mom when she's too lazy to go upstairs and wake me up

@mittpatel5270 5 лет назад

Wait who would wake up the knocker uppers? Were there knocker uppers that woke up knocker uppers? But who would wake those knocker uppers?

@asneakylawngnome5792 3 года назад

Imagine losing your job because someone made alarm clocks.

@bixby2152 5 лет назад

Knocker-uppers are still real

@slog_000 4 года назад

so, how did these knockers wake up so early, i wonder?

@gh0stlyonyoutube 4 года назад

But the question is: *How does the Knocker-Upper wake up?*

@bosnian.gamer.2006 3 года назад

the dude in the thumbnail reminds me of that one character in half life lost coast

@fighternight34 3 года назад

So the knocker uppers have to wake up the other knocker uppers

@freedeeztallbikes82 3 года назад

*"WHO KNOCKS UP THE KNOCKER UPPER" Lmao*

@macadonards1100 3 года назад

That’s what my mom calls my dad.

@LoveBoatPirate 3 года назад

Nice One Pal! 👍

@mr.sandman4054 3 года назад

Legend of the knocker-upper is true! Soon they will return to wake up the snoozers. Beware for your fate.

@theonlyfard 5 лет назад

How did they wake up that early then

@brianzuniga670 4 года назад

But who wakes up the knocker upper???? The world may never know

@sanuku535 3 года назад

I prefer knocker uppers You can scold someone when you have to Wake up. Its also a conversation..funny, if you know what I AM trying to say.

@TheOddJapaneseGuY 3 года назад

Everyone asks who is “Knocker-Upper”. But no one asks HOW is knocker upper.

@RobertDaHobbit2 4 года назад

The knocker upper forgot to knock up the knocker upper who was supposed to knock up the knocker upper of the knocker upper.

@alessa9464 3 года назад

The end gave me brain damage

@jacksonwilson5890 3 года назад

Noting people up what a dream job

@rinrin153 5 лет назад

Just for the peashooters..

@juliancastillo9570 4 года назад

If they had people waking them up, then who woke up the knocker uppers

@antoniobryand1889 5 лет назад

The only knocker upper I see is my dad...

@NathansWargames 6 лет назад

who wakes the knocker uppers ? who wakes the people that wake the knocker uppers

@anonymousstout4759 5 лет назад

Did they tolerate 5 minutes more?

@TheMaster4534 3 года назад

Church and clock tower bells: *are we a joke to you?* Update: industrial sirens as well, considering this was up until the 1960s

@swirlandtwirl5417 5 лет назад

I have knocker-upper and its my Mom.

@farajaraf 6 лет назад

They have something similar in Muslim countries during Ramadan to wake people up to eat before fast starts, they just play drums and sing in the streets though

@1audivate504 4 года назад

But...Who had to wake up knockers uppers?..

@gagecurtis6163 4 года назад

I think the knocker up did a little more just knocking up if you know what I’m saying

@kiana387 3 года назад

So how did they wake up them self to wake up people ?

@sid2037 4 года назад

Anyone gonna say how the alexa not even plugged in

@jessicaang2156 5 лет назад

Why does the man talking sounds like my social study teacher? (my teacher is from england)

@ASul1010 5 лет назад

Waking up is the second hardest thing in the morning. First ones me wood

@thedonster926 6 лет назад

Wouldn’t jack/Sean be good at this TOP O THE MORNIN TO YA LADDIES WAKE TF UP

@meesamali1119 3 года назад

How did the knocker-upper wake up???

@ZaphkieI 4 года назад

Do knocker-uppers wake themselves up, or do they have their own knocker-uppers? But then who is their knocker-upper? Is there a never-ending chain of knocker-uppers waking up other knocker-uppers?