In celebration of this momentous occasion, here is the obligatory "Dead Parrot" sketch...
Think I'll pop in Monty Python and the Holy Grail on my DVD player (one of the first DVDs that I ever bought) later tonight :-)
This was a sales gimmick from the very beginning (see my post from November when Monty Python launched the channel) and, apparently (LOL!) it has been an earth-shattering success! Monty Python is now sitting pretty in the #2 slot on Amazon.com for TV and movies, and as Mashable notes that's likely because of all of the links embedded in the YouTube clips that take viewers to the appropriate product page at the Amazon site.
The lesson from this should not be lost on those from the RIAA, and others who have been overly-zealous in enforcing "copyright" on the flimsiest of grounds. This story demonstrates more than adequately that YouTube can be a marketing powerhouse and that it is a friend to commercial art, not a foe to be shunned.
(Thanks to Phillip Arthur for passing along the story!)
A Greek scholar has conclusively proven that the classic "Dead Parrot" sketch made famous by Monty Python's John Cleese and Michael Palin actually goes back sixteen hundred years.Hierocles and Philagrius were the original comedy duo who came up with the concept. Except in their version it wasn't a dead bird, but a deceased slave. One man complains to a friend that the slave he bought from him died not long after purchase. The friend replies "When he was with me, he never did any such thing!"
Also among the 265 jokes found in the Philogelos: The Laugh Addict collection are some poking fun at marriage. One of them goes: "A man tells a well-known wit: 'I had your wife, without paying a penny'. The husband replies: 'It's my duty as a husband to couple with such a monstrosity. What made you do it?'"
