Dead Parrot sketch culture. The "Dead Parrot" sketch was inspired by a "Car Salesman" sketch that Palin and Chapman had done in "How to Irritate People". In it, Palin played a car salesman who repeatedly refused to admit that there was anything wrong with his customer's (Chapman) car, even as it fell apart in front of him. That sketch was based on an actual incident between Palin and a car salesman. In "Monty Python Live at Aspen", Palin said that this salesman "had an excuse for everything". John Cleese said on the same show that he and Chapman "believed that there was something
Broad-billed parrot sexes may have had different colours, which would explain some of the discrepancies in old descriptions. Johannes Pretorius (on Mautirius from 1666 to 1669) kept various now-extinct Mauritian birds in captivity, and described the behaviour of the broad-billed parrot as follows: Though the broad-billed parrot may have fed on the ground and been a weak flier, its tarsometatarsus was short and stout, implying some arboreal characteristics. The Newton brothers and many authors after them inferred that it was flightless, due to the apparent short wings and large size shown in the 1601 "Gelderland" sketch. According to Hume, the underlying pencil