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#Post#: 23059--------------------------------------------------
Dead Parrot Sketch - True Story
DIR By: Mac
Date: October 1, 2013, 2:06 pm
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[glow=red,2,300]Monty Python: The true story behind the ‘Dead
Parrot Sketch’[/glow]
HTML http://images.dangerousminds.net/uploads/images/nilapeseelctorrapdaed.jpg
--- Quote ---
> John Cleese would spend hours finessing a script—choosing the
right word, or considering where best to place a comma for
greatest comedic effect. His writing partner, Graham Chapman
preferred to sit quietly, listening, smoking his pipe, and from
time-to-time suggest an idea that would often turn an average
sketch into something extraordinary. One such example, was
Chapman’s inspiration to insert a dead parrot into some old
material that led to the writing of one of Monty Python‘s most
famous routines.
>
> The “Dead Parrot Sketch” developed out of something Cleese and
Chapman had previously written for a one-off special called How
to Irritate People. Produced by David Frost, How to Irritate
People was a collection of sketches introduced by Cleese, and
co-starring Chapman, Tim Brooke-Taylor, Michael Palin, Connie
Booth, Gillian Lind and Dick Vosburgh. The programme was notable
for being the first time Palin worked with Cleese and Chapman, a
year before they created Monty Python’s Flying Circus, as Palin
explained in Bob McCabe’s biography of Chapman, The Life of
Graham:
>
> ‘...that was the first time I’d ever worked with John and
Graham, as an actor, and that was very much like a miniPython,
except that I wasn’t writing with Terry [Jones]. I was an actor
with their material, but we changed it a little bit in rehearsal
and we’d really enjoyed doing that, even though the end result
had not been successful, largely due to problems with
recording.’
>
> The show appears never to have been shown on British
television, but was aired in the US on January 21st, 1969. The
programme contained elements of material later used on Python,
in particular the “Car Salesman” sketch, which eventually became
the famous (Dead) “Parrot Sketch.”
>
>
HTML http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9igQ18GIqvc
>
> The “Car Salesman” was more than a piece of creative comedy,
it was an idea suggested by Palin, and based on his own dealings
with a less than scrupulous garage owner, as Cleese explains:
>
> ‘..that was based on a man called Mr Gibbins, which is Helen
[Palin’s] unmarried name. And Mr Gibbins ran a garage somewhere
in Michael’s area, and Michael started to tell me about taking
his car in to Mr Gibbins if there was something wrong with it,
and he would ring Mr Gibbins and say, “I’m having trouble with
the clutch,” and Mr Gibbins would say, “Lovely car, lovely car.”
And Michael said, “Well, yes, Mr Gibbins, it is a lovely car,
but I’m having trouble with the clutch.” “Lovely car, lovely
car, can’t beat it.” “No, but we’re having trouble with it.”
“Well, look,” he says, “if you ever have any trouble with it,
bring it in.” Michael would say, “Well, I am having trouble with
it and I have brought it in,” and he’d say, “Good, lovely car,
lovely car, if you have trouble bring it in,” and Michael would
say, “No, no, no, the clutch is sticking,” and he would say,
“Sign of a quality car, if you had a sticky clutch first two
thousand miles, it’s the sign of good quality,” and he was one
of those people you could never get to take a complaint
seriously. And Michael and I chatted about this, and I then went
off and wrote a sketch with Graham about a man returning a
second-hand car…’
>
> The sketch has Chapman, as a Jacques-Tati-like customer,
dealing with Palin’s furtive car salesman.
--- End Quote ---
HTML http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npjOSLCR2hE
--- Quote ---
> How to Irritate People wasn’t successful, but when they
started writing sketches for the first series of Monty Python,
Cleese recalled the “Car Salesman Sketch,” instinctually
recognizing there was “something funny in it”.
>
> Cleese considered the garage a cliched location and together
with Chapman, it was changed to a pet shop. They then discussed
whether the pet should be a dog, whereupon Chapman suggested the
idea of a parrot. (An earlier idea had a customer attempting to
return a non-functioning toaster.)
>
> Chapman’s partner, David Sherlock described the working
relationship between Graham and Cleese to that of Gilbert and
Sullivan:
>
> ‘I think Cleese is definitely W. H. Gilbert, who was an
absolute stickler for the words being said correctly…And Graham
was a great believer in a broad sweep and then thinking about
how it could be shaped.’
>
> Chapman preferred to interject ideas, or lines, rather do the
hard, sedentary toil of writing. Yet, it was Chapman’s anarchic
view of the world that inspired another famous Python sketch.
>
> ...His contribution to Python was immense and immeasurable—not
only shifting a dog to a parrot, but coming up with such
classics as the famed “Ministry for Silly Walks,” an idea
sparked off when [Graham] saw an elderly man struggling to walk
up Southwood Lane near his home on London. Both him and Cleese
being too busy to write the idea themselves, [Chapman] phoned up
Palin and Jones and insisted they write something based on his
original observation.
>
>
HTML http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZlBUglE6Hc
>
>
> After Chapman’s death in 1989, Cleese re-worked the “Dead
Parrot Sketch” as the opening of his eulogy to Chapman.
>
>
HTML http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkxCHybM6Ek
>
>
--- End Quote ---
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