Dead Parrot sketch appearance on "The Muppet Show", Cleese appears as a pirate attempting to take over a spaceship during a "Pigs In Space" sketch. At the end of the sketch, he demands of the smart-mouthed talking parrot on his shoulder, "Do you want to be an ex-parrot?" In 1989's "The Secret Policeman's Biggest Ball", a benefit for Amnesty International, the sketch opens similarly, but ends very differently: 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!" In an interview on NPR's "Fresh Air",
Elegant parrot Elegant parrot The elegant parrot ("Neophema elegans") is a species of parrot in the family Psittaculidae. It is endemic to Australia. The elegant parrot was originally named by the renowned ornithologist and artist John Gould in 1837, its specific name Latin for "elegant". It is one of six species of grass parrot in the genus "Neophema", and within it a member of the subgenus "Neonanodes". Its common name is elegant parrot, but has also been called elegant parakeet, elegant grass parakeet, and grass parrot in the past. The elegant parrot is long and predominantly golden olive in colour with a