Monty Python's Dead Parrot sketch voted nation's favourite

Comedy fans pick favourite Python moment ahead of Monty Python Live (Mostly), Sun 20 July at 7.30pm on Gold

Dead Parrot sketch

The parrot may have kicked the bucket years ago, but the sketch itself shows no sign of pushing up the daisies any time soon.

In a poll to celebrate Gold showing the last-ever Monty Python show (Sun 20 July, 7.30pm), a massive 45% said the Pythons' iconic dead parrot sketch was their favourite.

The Lumberjack Song came second with 28% while The Ministry Of Silly Walks er, walked off with third place after 23% of the 2,000 Brits polled chose it as their top moment.

The full top ten favourite Monty Python sketches looked like this:

Dead Parrot ? 45%
The Lumberjack Song ? 28%
The Ministry of Silly Walks ? 23%
The Spanish Inquisition ? 16%
Spam ? 15%
Four Yorkshiremen ? 12%
Nudge Nudge ? 11%
Fish Slapping Dance ? 8%
The Restaurant Sketch (Dirty Fork) ? 7%
The Killer Joke ? 6%

Honorable mentions should go to Silly Olympics, Hell's Grannies and the Gay Policemen who all narrowly missed the countdown.

Gold also pulled off their biggest-ever publicity stunt by suspending a massive 50 foot parrot from a crane in central London before laying it to rest on the South Bank near Tower Bridge.

The fibre glass model took a team of three sculptors over two months to design and construct. Fans going along to see the Pythons at the O2 will be able to have their photo taken with the parrot which will be outside the arena ahead of the final shows.

You can watch a behind-the-scenes video about the giant dead parrot below.

Go behind-the-scenes of the giant dead parrot