Cleese replies, " No, it's not attacking the Church, necessarily.

During this performance something occurs on stage that does not translate into audio, but causes the audience to break into hysterics upon Cleese's follow-up line " Now that's what I call a dead parrot "; since it occurs after the part of the sketch where Cleese bashes the dead bird on the counter, it's possible a part of the prop broke off.

Graham Chapman, still suffering from alcoholism, was so determined to play the lead role – at one point coveted by Cleese – that he dried out in time for filming, so much so that he was also able to act as the on-set doctor on top of his acting duties.

John Cleese ( later part of Monty Python and star of Fawlty Towers ; formed his own production company Video Arts to make business training films, which contained much Python-esque / Basil Fawlty-style humour, as well as making films including A Fish Called Wanda and Fierce Creatures ).

Was originally written for the TV series by Cleese and Chapman but somehow never got on the air ( although its punchline, " I don't know much about art but I know what I like " was featured in a different Season 1 skit ), and was first performed for one of the Secret Policeman's Ball shows.

# How Not to Be Seen: A government film which first displays the importance of not being seen, then devolves into various things being blown up, much to the amusement of the narrator ( John Cleese ).

John Cleese, in a 1963 Cambridge University Footlights Review (" Cambridge Circus ") sketch " Judge Not " described a watering can as: " a large, cylindrical, tin-plated vessel with a perforated pouring piece, much used by the lower classes for the purpose of artificially moistening the surface soil ".

Instead, the music stops, Cleese reveals his fish — a much, much larger halibut — and clobbers Palin on the head with it, knocking him into the water several feet below.

In various sketches, Cleese demonstrates exactly what the title suggests — how to irritate people, although this is done in a much more conventional way than the absurdity of similar Monty Python sketches.

During the drive back, Graham Chapman said that Cleese should eat something and asked him whether he fancied anything ; Cleese replied that he fancied a piece of cheese.

Upon seeing a chemist's shop, Cleese pondered whether the shop would sell cheese, to which Chapman responded that if they did it would be medicinal cheese and that Cleese would need a prescription to buy some.

Cleese thought that they should instead write a sketch about someone attempting to buy cheese in a cheese shop that had no cheese whatsoever.

Cleese plays an erudite customer ( Mousebender in the script ) attempting to purchase some cheese from ' Ye National Cheese Emporium, purveyor of fine cheese to the gentry ( and the poverty-stricken too )'.

" Eventually, Cleese asks if Palin has any cheese at all, to which Palin replies " yes ".

Perhaps the first time that Wensleydale cheese was thrust into the limelight was as one of the cheeses mentioned by John Cleese in the Monty Python sketch " The Cheese Shop ", which originally appeared in a 1972 episode of Monty Python's Flying Circus.

In the Dead Parrot sketch, written mostly by Cleese, the frustrated customer was initially trying to return a faulty toaster to a shop.

In one sketch on 1 March 1967, Feldman's character harassed a patient shop assistant ( played by Cleese ) for a series of fictitious books, achieving success with Ethel the Aardvark Goes Quantity Surveying.

# John Cleese, Michael Palin-Pet shop ( aka the Parrot Sketch )

# Dirty Hungarian Phrasebook: A Hungarian gentleman ( John Cleese ) enters a tobacconist's shop and reads from his phrasebook the declaration: " I will not buy this record, it is scratched " ( believing it to be a request for cigarettes ).

# The Lumberjack Song: The shop owner ( Palin ) sings about his desire to be a lumberjack, and his desire to be female, the latter revelation surprising his best girl ( Connie Booth ) and the background singers ( nine Canadian Mounties -- five of whom are Chapman, Cleese, Idle, Jones and Gilliam ), who storm off and throw fruit at him.

# Bank Robber: A bank robber ( Cleese ) mistakes a lingerie shop for a bank, and attempts to rob it.

In 1969, Chapman and Cleese joined the other Pythons including Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin for their sketch comedy show Flying Circus.

In Monty Python Live at Aspen, Cleese said that the original idea came from a man Palin bought a car from, who had endless excuses for everything that went wrong with it.

Cleese and Palin assisted the theatre company in adapting the play.

Those present at the time of Chapman's death in a Maidstone hospital included his brother, sister-in-law, partner David Sherlock, and his former Python fellows John Cleese and Michael Palin, who had to be led out of the room to deal with their grief.

The voices of Cleese, Gilliam, Jones, and Palin will be spliced into commentary recorded by Chapman reading from his memoir and taped shortly before his death.

Spacey hosted Saturday Night Live twice: first in 1997 with musical guest Beck and special guests Michael Palin and John Cleese from Monty Python's Flying Circus ; and again in the last episode of season 31 with musical guest Nelly Furtado.

Shortly after the film was released, Cleese and Palin engaged in what would become a notorious debate on the BBC2 discussion programme Friday Night, Saturday Morning, in which Malcolm Muggeridge and Mervyn Stockwood, the Bishop of Southwark, put the case against the film.

Cleese expressed that his reputation had " plummeted " in his eyes, while Palin commented that, " He was just being Muggeridge, preferring to have a very strong contrary opinion as opposed to none at all ".

The " Pythonesque " film explored the events surrounding the 1979 television debate on talk show Friday Night, Saturday Morning between John Cleese and Michael Palin and Malcolm Muggeridge and Mervyn Stockwood, the then Bishop of Southwark.

John Cleese ( right ) attempts to return his dead Norwegian Blue parrot to Michael Palin

The sketch portrays a conflict between disgruntled customer Mr Praline ( played by Cleese ) and a shopkeeper ( Michael Palin ), who hold contradictory positions on the vital state of a " Norwegian Blue " parrot.

Over the years, Cleese and Palin have done many versions of the " Dead Parrot " sketch for various television shows, record albums, and live performances.

" According to Michael Palin's published diary, Palin changed his response in order to throw Cleese off.

On the Rhino Records ' compilation Dead Parrot Society, a live performance has Palin cracking up while Cleese declares " Pining for the fjords?

" The audience cheers this bit of breaking character, but Palin quickly composes himself and Cleese declares " Now, look!

To end the sketch, Palin asked Cleese " do you want to come back to my place?

In a 2002 interview with Michael Parkinson, John Cleese said that when he and Palin were performing the sketch on Drury Lane, Palin made him laugh by saying, when asked if his slug could talk, " It mutters a bit " instead of " Not really.

Michael Palin ( left ) and John Cleese ( right ) of Monty Python performing the Cheese Shop sketch. The Cheese Shop is a well-known sketch from Monty Python's Flying Circus.

Cleese then tells him that he will ask the question again, and if Palin says " no ", he will shoot him through the head.

Palin answers " no " the second time, and Cleese immediately shoots him, then muses, " What a senseless waste of human life!