Dead Parrot sketch Dead Parrot sketch The "Dead Parrot Sketch", alternatively and originally known as the "Pet Shop Sketch" or "Parrot Sketch", is a sketch from "Monty Python's Flying Circus". 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). 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 "Norwegian Blue" parrot is dead. It pokes fun at the many euphemisms for death used in British
Mascarene parrot of the scientific names, such as "Mascarinus obscurus" and "Coracopsis obscura". The unidentified parrot may have been a grey parrot ("Psittacus erithacus") instead. Another unidentified parrot specimen, this one brown and housed in Cabinet du Roi, was described by the French naturalist Comte de Buffon in 1779 under his entry for the Mascarene parrot, in which he pointed out similarities and differences between the two. The English palaeontologist Julian Hume has suggested the possibility that this might have been a lesser vasa parrot, if not a discoloured old Mascarene grey parakeet ("Psittacula bensoni"). The specimen is now lost. English zoologist