Britain is all a-twitter with news of the parrot that died of the avian flu – there are a lot of unanswered questions, such as “was it infected before it entered the British quarantine facility, or did it pick up the virus there?”

I was considering doing the obvious “dead parrot sketch” comparison, but the staff writer for MedPage Today, an otherwise serious health-news site, has done it for me. Thanks, Michael Smith!

Just as a correction, though, the “shifty pet shop owner” is played by John Cleese, and the timid but plucky erstwhile parrot purchaser is played by Michael Palin. It is the latter that delivers the classic rejoinder.

Dead Parrot at Center of British Avian Flu Mystery – CME Teaching Brief – MedPage Today

Inevitably the dead parrot in London dredged up memories the extinct Norwegian Blue famously purchased by actor John Cleese in a classic Monty Python television skit a generation ago.

In the television sketch, actor Cleese (actually, Michael Palin), having found that his newly purchased parrot is dead, tries to return it to the shifty pet shop owner (played by John Cleese), who insists the bird is simply “pinin’ for the fjords.”

Cleese (again, Michael Palin) replies: ” ‘E’s not pinin’! ‘E’s passed on! This parrot is no more!…’E’s kicked the bucket, ‘e’s shuffled off ‘is mortal coil, run down the curtain, and joined the bleedin’ choir invisible!! THIS IS AN EX-PARROT!”