MONTY PYTHON - DEAD PARROT

View this video from Youtube on Monty Python's Dead Parrot routine (If you want the words because to make it easier to follow along, here is the script Come to class prepared to discuss this in small groups for about 15 minutes: 1) It doesn't matter whether YOU thought this was funny. Many people do. Others don't. The first question: What about this sketch creates humor? 2) How does "language" (verbal, visual, other(?)) create the meanings that are intended to be funny? Drawing from the lecture on language and how it shapes how we interpret meanings and act on them, what is required to understand this sketch? 3) What cultural assumptions about humor, life, or culture are reflected here? 4) Is there any cultural commentary hidden in this sketch that, although British, reflect something about all cultures/ 5) How would you look at this as data? What preliminary cultural meanings could you take from it as tentative concepts, themes, or even hypothesis? (this requires thinking outside-the-box)

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