Editing Dead Parrot sketch (section)

== Background ==
The "Dead Parrot" sketch was inspired by a "Car Salesman" sketch that Palin and Chapman had done in ''[[How to Irritate People]]''. In it, Palin played a [[car salesman]] who repeatedly refused to admit that there was anything wrong with his customer's (Chapman's) car, even as it fell apart in front of him. That sketch was based on an actual incident between Palin and a car salesman.<ref>{{cite book |title=The First 28<s>0</s> Years of Monty Python |last=Johnson |first=Kim "Howard" |year=1999 |location=New York |publisher=[[Thomas Dunne Books]] |isbn=0-312-16933-7 |page=[https://archive.org/details/first28yearsofmo0000john/page/96 96] |url=https://archive.org/details/first28yearsofmo0000john/page/96 }}</ref> In ''[[Monty Python Live at Aspen]]'', Palin said that this salesman "had an excuse for everything". John Cleese said on the same show that he and Chapman "believed that there was something very funny there, if we could find the right context for it". In early drafts of what would become the Dead Parrot Sketch, the frustrated customer was trying to return a faulty [[toaster]] to a shop. Chapman realised that it needed to be "madder", and came up with the parrot idea.<ref name="McCabe">McCabe, Bob (2005). ''The Life of Graham, The authorised biography of Graham Chapman''. pp. 90–91. London: [[Orion Books]].</ref>