It's many people's favourite Christmas movie - now superfan Richard Marsh performs a "poetic homage" to Die Hard clad in a vest and specs.
Named after the immortal line uttered by Bruce Willis' hardbitten detective John McClane, Yippee Ki Yay runs at The King's Head, Islington over the festive season.
The one man show, which recieved rave reviews at the Edinburgh Fringe, parodies the 1988 movie as an epic poem and "love story" between McClane and estranged wife Holly. It also offsets the silliness with details of Marsh's own domestic life - after meeting his wife on Reddit message board, connecting through their mutual love of the movie, and having kids.
"It's about this couple trying to reunite," says the poet and actor.
"One of the interesting things about adapting the film as a dad in mid-life is it seems very different from watching it as a boy. Instead of a story of an action hero kicking arse against the odds, I now see it as a love story about a marriage.
"One of the reasons people love it is there's an emotional story to it. A couple have an argument, this man is trying to say sorry to his wife, but can't unless he dispatches 12 Eurotrash terrorists. The hero is not an Arnie or Stallone, he is flawed and believable, he's sweaty, beaten up, barefooted, and often fortunate not to die."
The former London Poetry Slam champion has previously written plays, a spoof panto and a musical adaptation of movie Son of Rambow. He says his work usually starts with "something that makes me laugh".
"What's funny is something that seems incongruous or strange, like Die Hard as a poem and my skinny, speccy little face - very much not the Hollywood leading man - being John McClane."
Marsh first watched the film as a child and would tune in every Christmas. But while writing the show, he paid closer attention to the story of an LA skyscraper taken over by Alan Rickman's terrorist Hans Gruber during a Christmas Eve party, with McClane on an odyssey to save the day. 
"He's on his own for much of the film. He has no-one to talk to until he finds the radio, and so he talks to himself," says Marsh. "I seized on that because beyond being funny, it suits the poetic form I am using."
Aware that many 80s films don't stand up to modern scrutiny, he's given Holly "a different voice to the one she gets in the movie."
"The show celebrates what's great about Die Hard but we also talk about how the film ends when Holly gets saved and she kisses him. But in our show she gets to tell the audience what she feels and thinks of her husband and boss.
"Hopefully the show comes from a true place. I am a massive fan, I have fun with it and get a lot of comedy out of it, but it's from a place of love and admiration.
"I hope to find the humanity truth and emotion in the story, but it's also important to me that the audience laugh in my shows. That communal experience of people laughing is such a fantastic unifying thing that's essential to humanity."
Yippee Ki Yay runs at The Kings Head Theatre, Islington from November 29 to December 31. https://kingsheadtheatre.com/whats-on/yippee-ki-yay
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here