Parrot Sketch Not Included – 20 Years of Monty Python Fliegender Zirkus". True to its title, the popular Dead Parrot sketch is not included. The special was broadcast in the US on the Showtime network on 17 March 1990. This was 90 seconds shorter than the UK version due to a cut scene from the end of the pre-credits sequence which had Steve Martin revealing, via a slowed down clip of the Bruces sketch, that the Pythons were Satanists. This shorter version was released on VHS in the UK by CBS/Fox in 1990 and later on DVD in the US by A&E in 2001, as part of their "Monty Python
Dead Parrot sketch bourne no traveller returns'. In 1959, Tony Hancock and Sid James performed a similar sketch involving a dead tortoise. In 1963, Benny Hill performed a sketch entitled "The Taxidermist" (written by Dave Freeman) on "The Benny Hill Show" in which he attempted to pass off a stuffed duck as a parrot (blaming its different appearance on "the steaming" and "the shrinkage"). John Cleese later admitted that he watched Hill's show during this period, but didn't recall this particular piece. In the 1960s Freddie "Parrot Face" Davies included an obviously stuffed caged parrot as part of his stage routine, occasionally complaining