John Cleese Remembers Monty Python's "Dead Parrot" Sketch - Late Night with Seth Meyers

Seth and John Cleese chat about one of Monty Python's most iconic sketches.
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John Cleese Remembers Monty Python's "Dead Parrot" Sketch - Late Night with Seth Meyers
/ latenightseth

[@QuayNemSorr]

It's a wonderful bird the Norwegian blue, lovely plumage.

[@davebuchan81]

The plumage don't enter into it!

[@ivucica]

Pining for the fjords?!

[@talemwillis7947]

Ivan Vučica what kind of talk is that?

[@zZWolfyZz]

And now for something completely different

[@RichelleBremner]

Right on 😂😂😂😂

[@MikeKobb]

"It's muttering a bit tonight." Brilliant.

[@jasonc.parker4644]

Seth is completely living his comedy geek fantasy in this, and it is absolutely adorable.

[@alexlandherr]

Seth telling Cleese about the fact that he performed the dead parrot sketch in high school is as much a comedy fan boy as one can be.

[@Lyktwz]

He's probably pining for the fjords

[@Lucas-bq8mw]

PINING FOR THE FJORDS?! What kind of talk is that?

[@Crispy_Horse]

@@Lucas-bq8mw look why did it fall flat on its back the moment I brought it home!?!

[@inigoiraetau1903]

@Crispy_Horse The norwegian blue prefers keeping on its back!! Remarkable bird the norwegian blue, eh? BEAUTIFUL PLUMAGE!!!

[@DXKramer]

But the parrot was not dead, He was tuckered out from having a prolonged squawk.

[@BrianKishreviews]

shagged out

[@smwca123]

Pining for the fjords....

[@Verbindungsfehle]

it was stunned, geez

[@bradcraig2978]

I'm sorry I have a cold.

[@hellraiser338]

He wasn't pining! He's passed on! The parrot is no more! He has ceased to be! He's expired and gone to meet his maker! He's a stiff! Bereft of life, He rests in peace! If he hadn't been nailed to the perch he'd be pushing up the daisies! His metabolic processes are now history! He's off the twig! He's kicked the bucket, he's shuffled off his mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleeding choir invisible!! IT IS AN EX-PARROT!!

[@WhiteBloggerBlackSpecs]

I particularly love the sketches between Cleese and Palin, their chemistry is unrivaled

[@bradwilliams1691]

Fish slapping dance. Hilarious.

[@markgarner2725]

The Argument Clinic...

[@WhiteBloggerBlackSpecs]

@@markgarner2725 classic sketch 🤣

[@GamingSuccub]

John Cleese is the man. I saw him live around 6 years ago. Laughed my ass off.

[@acs197]

He deserves to have a paunch.

[@Skyprince27]

MiyuChan Saw him live in 1973... Weight has doubled since...

[@doctorthirteen5727]

I saw him dead, but he got better.

[@Jay-ei4cr]

You know the f*cking thing better than we do. that is now one of my favorite lines ever... 😂

[@octaviancaesarhibernicus4447]

Seth is genuinely happy to have him there!

[@B13ET]

John Cleese

[@FutureAbe]

There's a stage version of that sketch somewhere here on youtube, and it's the funniest thing ever. Michael Palin is so close to cracking up

[@crazyfulla]

In my opinion the Drury lane live show is best (its only audio but its the best version)

[@danijelujcic8644]

He cracks, composes himself in 2 seconds, and when Cleese repeats "Pinning for the fjords?" and adds "What kind of talk is that?", they both crack. There's one more version from 1989 ... Cleese brings his parrot, and Palin basically says yup, it's dead. Gives him money, takes the cage and leaves the stage.

[@christianfarmer]

any idea where?

[@MegaVikingen]

2:50 / 3:00 Well I guess it's somewhat similar to music. Even if you know the song by heart and can sing it with brilliant passion/dedication, it still doesn't compare to having your favorite song performed live in front of you by the actual artist(s). It's not quite the same because you're hearing the same jokes and punchlines that you already know very well, but I think it's something about having the material delivered by it's original creators that makes it special.

[@Daggie49]

I like that it was a Norwegian Blue, pinning for the fjords...Really funny.

[@TheTsar1918]

Beautiful plummage.

[@roselover411]

"Nobody likes parrots; even people who have parrots hate parrots." *dies laughing*

[@carolinej3661]

John Cleese - such a polite guest, patiently enduring Seth's yammering....

[@parrot027j8]

John Cleese is one of the most funny, most symphatic people ever on screen!

[@Skyprince27]

Parrot027 J He does have a potty mouth, though...

[@LellePrinter82]

Me and my girlfriend was happy to see him live on stage here in sweden earlier this year.

[@heathermackinnon9527]

A comic legend.

[@carolinej3661]

John, it WAS funny! Possibly the funniest thing I've ever seen!!!

[@jboquiren1]

The dislike came from the dead parrot.

[@dwightdaone2815]

Or it was the shop keeper and his brother

[@TheRealYTIAN]

Oo so we finally have the proof that bloody bird is indeed alive!

[@bra-balllegend3940]

He muscled up to those bars, and VOOM!

[@jiridvorak]

or from BBC guys,which removed many Pythons videos from KZbin

[@kayfey9544]

I simply adore Cleese. :D

[@aatragon]

My one late friend & I also did the Parrot Sketch as an "afterglow" after curtain calls at a theater in the 1970's, just to entertain those who stuck around.

[@JohnnyRoseofVersailles]

Well, we know song lyrics and the song too, but we still go to concerts to enjoy the performer live. It's the same thing with comedy! To us, comedy nerds, comedians are sometimes even more rock stars than rock stars.

[@MisterAppleEsq]

Didn't someone say "comedy is the new rock and roll"?

[@Davysitter]

My best friend and I did Dead Parrot in High School as well - 1st time 2 girls did it I bet 1978!

[@maddiehj9246]

Davysitter haha my best friend and I performed it in a show about 3 weeks ago 😂

[@marshwetland3808]

My best friend and I "did" it throughout our art class in about that year. Couple of stoners asked us why do we talk like that.

[@DasObscure]

Two girls and a parrot.

[@alexandervoog9396]

@@DasObscure das ist obscura! ... and a cup...

[@mellowgeekstudio]

"Excuse me miss" "What do you... I mean, yes?"

[@magnum8264]

The parrot sketch, is epic!

[@Rollin_L]

I think doing the Dead Parrot sketch in a high school talent show must be a thing. In 1977, a friend and I did that as well, and I imagine more examples could be told of.

[@christinedaae1986]

I love Cleese's responses in this--particularly the last one--but I disagree that nobody cares about parrots.😅My parrot speaks French and is the softest, sweetest, albeit sassiest little bugger ever and I absolutely adore him.

[@morningcoffeecat2271]

Its muttering a bit😂

[@chaser107]

lovely plumage

[@bnikolab]

That "What happened?!?!" always cracks me up.

[@notlobparrot3057]

This....is an EX-Parrot. (Yup, this sketch is pretty important to me.)

[@TarhosTheKnight]

It has ceased to be! It's expired and got to meet its MAKER!

[@julesnominal1804]

well i think the next line is " well that's scarcely a replacement now is it?" lol

[@richallenxbox1976]

We're doing this at FlyCheese Productions at the moment, me in the Cleese role (I do a great angry customer), I even recently bought a blue Parrot figure on eBay, and a cage.

[@OGM_OriginalGameMusic]

What a brilliant man

[@manuelwolff_intlcomedian]

He's talking about Manchester High School WEst, and I'm not sure if I remember correctly, but I think I saw that sketch, when I was an exchange student there in 90/91 :-)

[@GlennTillema]

@2:30 They play off of each other really well in the cheese shop sketch as well

[@cassuttustshirt4949]

Love Monty Python, love the Dead Parrot sketch, love my parrot who's been a member of the family for 12 years =)

[@u.v.s.5583]

A solid perch and a solid nail will hold a pining parrot even longer than 12 years!

[@cassuttustshirt4949]

Except he's not a pining parrot. I promise, he's not pining for the fjords ;-) And he'll be around another 20 years at least! As I hope the popularity of this sketch will be.

[@redwatch.]

One of the few heroes left.

[@dasdovian7785]

That sketch was my first introduction to Month Python. It was performed in my H.S. Drama 1 class by two friends of mine and had us rolling.

[@slebbeog]

Awww Seth, keep up! :D

[@flwrfan1752]

I love Python!

[@Jerepasaurus]

John should meet Apollo the African Grey. That bird would absolutely sass him, then turn to the camera and bob his head in silent laughter.

[@studywithmay5872]

monty python: kings of swearing 😂

[@RAFMnBgaming]

So could we train a parrot to recite the dead parrot sketch?

[@chrismanuel9768]

...I'm interested

[@christinedaae1986]

I have a parrot! So far he only speaks French, but I'll make this my next big project.😅

[@schpek]

@@christinedaae1986 is it done yet

[@christinedaae1986]

@@schpek No, but I taught him some fun tricks in the meantime. :)

[@schpek]

@@christinedaae1986 damn it

[@TarhosTheKnight]

It's not pining, it's PASSED ON!!! 🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@kellybertei1582]

The 41 dislikes are parrot lovers

[@michaell.8938]

Brilliant. Monty Python is/was the best!

[@u.v.s.5583]

But it is no more! It's Monty the Ex-Python!

[@robertmiller1655]

I love John Cleese and The Flying Circus, especially the Ministry of Silly Walks. Government satire at its finest.

[@mrclueuin]

...He's join the Choir Invisible! 😂

[@m.narcissus1209]

I don't understand the Parrot sketch but the commentary is so much funnier

[@shadefang9023]

Anyone else only here for that sweet old late night outro? Just kidding. Love you, John Cleese!

[@jeanmariezeyen111]

he's not quite dead, sir !

[@525Lines]

+jean-marie zeyen The anagram of bolton is notlob.

[@jeanmariezeyen111]

+525Lines i didnt know THAT !!aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh. ...

[@Lyktwz]

+525Lines Are you sure it's not Ipswich?

[@kimmolaine8069]

No this is an EX parrot. He has ceased to be.

[@gustavosanabio473]

He's not quite dead, but I wouldnt say he's very well my lord.

[@darthjayder2927]

John Cleese is great

[@lilxsweet]

My favourite sketch is the dead parrot 🦜. I love John Cheese, he's so old now 😔

[@STNeish]

I did the argument clinic sketch in high school, as part of a Saturnalia show (Latin class thing...).

[@Gypsy_Danger_TMC]

My favourite is the one where he just gets a refund lol

[@dasaggropop1244]

this reminds me to watch the hungarian pfrasebook sketch

[@anthrocultur5116]

My hovercraft is full of eels...

[@Niece-vz4zg]

My nipples explode with delight!

[@mithfilth]

It's shuffled off 'is mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin' choir invisible

[@blodgettshouseofinsanity]

I adore parrots. But I still love the skit

[@deannalong5547]

There is NOTHING funnier than the DPS. "He's joined the Choir Invisible"

[@Tht1Gy]

Back is 76, my friends and I were going to do the sketch for our HS talent show. We had a spot, had rehearsed it to a "T". Then, I had a near fatal accident about a week before the show.... So, that didn't happen.

[@XtineJohnes]

I love Parrots

[@MrUndersolo]

When I was a teacher in Japan, I used Monty Python sketches to teach business people the quirks of English. It worked quite well... Albatross.

[@carygson]

Stormy Petral on a Stick

[@p.f.r.5985]

Did you use the hungarian phrasebook? Could have tought two languages at once

[@anariondanumenor9675]

ALBATROSS!

[@Celisar1]

Seth Meyer star struck, that's funny :)

[@iconoclast137]

it just dawned on me the parrot is called the "norwegian blue." how many parrots do you suppose they have in norway?

[@gabecarlos61]

I wanna know which Meyer brother played what character in the talent show

[@ingriddubbel8468]

Funniest sketch EVER!

[@525Lines]

Norwegian Blue! Norway don't have parrots!

[@martinzhang5676]

525Lines Well, they did but they all dead and joined the choir invisible.

[@breakalime]

+525Lines They have blue, though.

[@kooora18]

Well obviously they are "ex parrots"

[@terizierer175]

Dog videos

[@Tmanaz480]

525Lines ... The parrot's a tropical bird, this is a temperate zone!

[@1ouncebird]

Wow! Imagine that. Seth Myers with a guest who isn't someone from Saturday Night Live. How on earth did they pull that off? P.S. Love Python.

[@ZergrushEddie]

I often get into arguments with my friends over the Parrot Sketch. Because which is better: the parrot sketch or Biggus Dickus?

[@u.v.s.5583]

What's wrong with Biggus Dickus?

[@allentanner9290]

Parrot sketch. Good for all ages

[@hughbrackett343]

He has a wife you know....

[@lauramalek3128]

I'd say it's between Dead Parrot and Cheese Shoppe.

[@Skyprince27]

In college some classmates and I performed men in the lifeboat (They propose cannibalism, remember?) We used an actual life raft on stage...

[@u.v.s.5583]

There is no cannibalism in the Brittish Navy. And when I say there is no cannibalism...

[@Skyprince27]

U.V. S. , I mean there is a certain amount.

[@katg9507]

U.V. S. What about marchin up and down the square??

[@philipmonihan8222]

I'll bet Cleese will want residuals from that High School performance.

[@farmbrough]

funny how they are so prissy about the swearing.

[@AJ-pv7is]

It's bleeding demised

[@ElvarMasson]

😂

[@hunterbeatbilly9836]

Its expired and gone off to meets its maker. this is the late parrot.

[@vladtepes7539]

dead animals are just hilarious - a truth close to the scientific fact that is gravity, which is what makes them drop in funny ways. n with the parrot in name of the sketch, you also know what animal is dead, which basically translates without loss into whats supposed to be funny about the sketch.

[@wizmine49]

The sketch is the perfect example of our society's current proclivity to embrace Orwell's "Double Think." Both sides can be guilty, but honestly I'm with Bill Mahr that the extreme left has left sanity. Here is Orwell's definition. I use this video often to illustrate the point with a bit of humor and civility. "The power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them....To tell deliberate lies while genuinely believing in them, to forget any fact that has become inconvenient, and then, when it becomes necessary again, to draw it back from oblivion for just so long as it is needed, to deny the existence of objective reality and all the while to take account of the reality which one denies - all this is indispensably necessary. Even in using the word doublethink it is necessary to exercise doublethink. For by using the word one admits that one is tampering with reality; by a fresh act of doublethink one erases this knowledge; and so on indefinitely, with the lie always one leap ahead of the truth" -- Orwell from novel, "1984"

[@StanSwan]

No disrespect to late nite but Python is beyond most of their audience. That or I got a bit old and spent too much time at the bleeding pub looking for watery tarts to slog with. Say no more...

[@beardednortherner64]

I ate a parrot once. It kept repeating on me

[@orbison]

Ironically, John and Michael Palin re-did the Parrot sketch on SNL in 1997. Wonder if Seth knew that when he later joined SNL.

[@JamesWilson-vr3ql]

Say what you will about Thatcher, but some things have changed.

[@vladtepes7539]

well, thats something, id say.

[@peterhoeller7811]

ONLY Cleese (or really, any Python) could turn to a live audience and say "what's the line?" and have it WORK.

[@66kprdwd]

I hate parrots, but love the skit.

[@douglasbuck8986]

If it wasn't nailed to the perch it'd be pushing up the daisy's...............

[@googlesucks7840]

I wish to register a complaint.......

[@airdriver]

What's the point of it, John? It was a chance to see comedic geniuses perform one of their greatest sketches in person.

[@whenthemusicsover6028]

It was a pun.

[@DavidLS1]

I wonder if kids today know the dead parrot sketch?

[@gundamprototypessr6773]

Why is John Cleese laying his arms on a cushion all the time?

[@thejoint25]

23 dislikes from Notlob.

[@johnwalsh2759]

I wish to register a complaint about this interview..

[@duckduckgoismuchbetter]

And here I thought he was pining for the fields. I knew they didn't willingly live in fields...but fjords???

[@guyguyguy362]

Seth leaves out if his high school friend and he learned it from a Monty Python LP yes an audio record nothing to look at imagine.

[@petrino]

cheese shop is superior to the dead parrot

[@margaretthatcher3832]

*I STILL DON'T GET IT!*

[@No-hl4qm]

wait...the parrot was dead?

[@thebrazilianatlantis165]

Tired and shagged out. Beautiful plumage!

[@doctorthirteen5727]

Joseph Scott No, stunned

[@youtubeinquiry8664]

4th comment