Editing Dead Parrot sketch (section)

==Plot==
Mr. Praline (Cleese) enters the pet shop to register a complaint about the dead Norwegian Blue parrot (actually [[Spix's macaw]]; parrots are not native to [[Norway]]) just as the shopkeeper (Palin) is preparing to close the establishment for lunch. Despite being told that the bird is deceased and that it had been nailed to its perch, the proprietor insists that it is "pining for the [[fjord]]s" or simply "stunned".<ref name=AllTheWords-p104>''All the Words: Volume One''. pp. 104–106.</ref>

As the exasperated Praline attempts to wake up the parrot, the shopkeeper tries to make the bird move by hitting the cage, and Praline erupts into a rage after banging "Polly Parrot" on the counter. After listing several [[euphemism]]s for death ("is no more", "has ceased to be", "bereft of life, it rests in peace", and "is an ex-parrot") he is told to go to the pet shop run by the shopkeeper's brother in [[Bolton]], [[Lancashire]] for a refund. That proves difficult, as the proprietor of that store (who is really the first shopkeeper, save for a fake moustache) claims this is [[Ipswich]], prompting Praline to return to the railway station, where the station attendant ([[Terry Jones]]) assures him that he is actually in Bolton after all.<ref name=AllTheWords-p104/>

Confronting the shopkeeper's "brother" for lying, the shopkeeper claims he was playing a prank on Praline by sending him to Ipswich, which he claims was a [[palindrome]] for Bolton; Praline points out that the shopkeeper was wrong because a palindrome for Bolton would have been "Notlob" (i.e., it would not be spelled the same backwards).<ref name="McCabe"/> When the shopkeeper demands to know what he wants, Praline refuses to continue this conversation, saying that "this is getting too silly". The no-nonsense [[The Colonel (Monty Python)|Colonel]] ([[Graham Chapman]]) then bursts in to concur and orders the sketch stopped.<ref name=AllTheWords-p104/>