Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(Irish) a joke, a game.

1754		Trial of Elizabeth Canning in Howell State Trials (1816) 485: Here was a young man came and said, He'd give half-a-crown to see him; I was told this was some scheme or skit.
1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (3rd edn) n.p.: Skit. A joke. A satirical hint.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum [as cit. 1796].
1820		Jack Randall’s Diary 30: The Kids were pleas’d at this rum skit.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1859, 1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1895		C. Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 74: Skit, a joke; a squib in the newspaper.
1896		Dubbo Liberal (NSW) 17 June 3/3: When a local ‘skit’ appears, / And flattens someone fair, / The public, in its wisdom, blames / That beastly pair.
1942		J. Lees-Milne Ancestral Voices diary 9 May (1975) 56: The beast had, by way of skit, written a mock review of all those artists’ works which he would have liked to see exhibited.
1958		(con. 1940s) B. Behan Borstal Boy 262: It was more for skit and diversion.
1985		M. Johnston Around the Banks of Pimlico 79: He could be very abusive with strangers passing by and the children going to school in Francis Street were forever jeering him for a bit of a skit .
1995		Leinster Leader (Naas, County Kildare) 27 July n.p.: She denied a suggestion [...] that she and staff at Abrakebabra were ‘in the habit of having a bit of a skit at his expense’ [BS].