Dead Parrot sketch
A satire on poor customer service, it was written by John Cleese and Graham Chapman and initially performed in the show's first series, in the eighth episode ("Full Frontal Nudity", which first aired 7 December 1969).
[1][2] The sketch portrays a conflict between disgruntled customer Mr Praline (played by Cleese) and a shopkeeper (Michael Palin), who argue whether or not a recently purchased parrot is dead.
"Dead Parrot" was voted the top alternative comedy sketch in a Radio Times poll.[4]Mr.
After listing several euphemisms for death ("is no more", "has ceased to be", "bereft of life, it rests in peace", and "is an ex-parrot") he is told to go to the pet shop run by the shopkeeper's brother in Bolton, Lancashire for a refund.
During this performance something occurs on stage that does not translate into audio, but causes the audience to break into hysterics upon Cleese's follow-up line "Now that's what I call a dead parrot".
A live performance from the 1976 Amnesty International benefit show, A Poke in the Eye (With a Sharp Stick), has Palin cracking up while Cleese declares "Pining for the fjords?
[7] In 1989's Amnesty benefit show, The Secret Policeman's Biggest Ball, the sketch opens similarly, but ends very differently: Margaret Thatcher famously used the sketch in a speech at the Conservative Party Conference in 1990, referring to the Liberal Democrats and their symbol being a dove, before ending the speech by commenting, "And now for something completely different.
In a 1997 Saturday Night Live performance of the sketch, Cleese added a line to the rant: "Its metabolic processes are a matter of interest only to historians!
"[7] In an interview on NPR's Fresh Air, Palin attributed an almost dead audience to his seeing guests reverently mouthing the words of the sketch, rather than laughing at it.
To end the sketch, Palin reused the punchline from City Center and asked Cleese, "Do you want to come back to my place?"
Using much of the dialogue from the original sketch, it ends with Terry Gilliam's animations playing around with Cartman before everything is crushed by the giant foot.
He has ceased to be, bereft of life, he rests in peace, he has kicked the bucket, hopped the twig, bit the dust, snuffed it, breathed his last, and gone to meet the Great Head of Light Entertainment in the sky."
"[15] During the Monty Python Reunion at London's O2 Arena in 2014, UKTV channel Gold commissioned sculptor Iain Prendergast to create a giant fibreglass version of the mythical "Norwegian Blue".
The 50-foot long (15m) bird was displayed, appropriately "resting" on its back, inside the O2 during the run of the shows there, as well as at Potters Fields Park in South London, in view of Tower Bridge.
[16] The sketch was extensively referenced in a 2021 British Columbia court opinion allowing a class action lawsuit for dietary supplements which did not contain the advertised ingredients.
"[19] In Mark Twain's humorous short story "A Nevada Funeral", two characters use a series of euphemisms for death including 'kicked the bucket' and 'departed to that mysterious country from whose bourne no traveller returns'.
