Editing Dead Parrot sketch (section)

==Precedents==
The ''[[Philogelos]]'', the oldest surviving joke book from antiquity written in the fourth century AD, contains a joke widely reported as an "ancestor" to the Dead Parrot sketch.<ref>{{Cite news |date=2008-11-13 |title=Dead Parrot sketch ancestor found |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7725079.stm |access-date=2024-06-05 |work=[[BBC News]] |language=en-GB}}</ref> In the joke, a man complains to a [[History of slavery|slave trader]] that a slave recently sold to him has died, to which the slave trader replies, "When he was with me, he never did any such thing!"<ref>{{cite news | url = https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/3454319/Dead-Parrot-sketch-is-1600-years-old.html | title = Dead parrot sketch is 1600 years old: It's long been held that the old jokes are the best jokes - and Monty Python's Dead Parrot sketch is no different | first = Stephen | last = Adams | newspaper = [[The Daily Telegraph|The Telegraph]] | date = 13 November 2008 | access-date = 2 April 2018 | archive-date = 28 May 2018 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20180528123854/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/3454319/Dead-Parrot-sketch-is-1600-years-old.html | url-status = live }}</ref>

In [[Mark Twain]]'s humorous short story "A Nevada Funeral", two characters use a series of [[euphemism]]s for death including '[[Kick the bucket|kicked the bucket]]' and 'departed to that mysterious country from whose bourne no traveller returns'.<ref>{{cite news | first = Mark | last = Twain | author-link = Mark Twain | title = A Nevada Funeral | newspaper = [[North Otago Times]] | volume = XVIII | issue = 825 | page = 4 | date = 18 April 1873 | url = http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&d=NOT18730418.2.25 | access-date = 5 June 2010 | archive-date = 30 September 2012 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120930061250/http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&d=NOT18730418.2.25 | url-status = live }}</ref>

In 1963, [[Benny Hill]] performed a sketch entitled "The Taxidermist" (written by [[Dave Freeman (British writer)|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 did not recall that particular piece.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Lewisohn|first1=Mark|title=Funny Peculiar: The True Story of Benny Hill|date=2002|publisher=[[Sidgwick & Jackson]]|location=London|isbn=0-330-39340-5|page=277}}</ref>

In the 1960s, the comedian  [[Freddie Davies|Freddie "Parrot Face" Davies]] included an obviously stuffed parrot in his act, berating its seller for having cheated him.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01pm7zk |title=Blackpool: Big Night Out |publisher=BBC |date=6 January 2013 |access-date=6 March 2013 |archive-date=18 February 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130218224752/http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01pm7zk |url-status=live }}</ref>