John Cleese's Parrot Is Still Dead
Friday, May 6, 2011 at 06:03PM 
A catalog—a description that contains a list—doesn’t simply have to describe a variety of traits and objects. You can Catalog a single trait or object by rendering its synonyms. It’s an excellent way to exaggerate a particular characteristic. Remember the Monty Python dead parrot sketch?
John Cleese: ‘E’s not pinin’! ‘E’s passed on! This parrot is no more! He has ceased to be! ‘E’s expired and gone to meet ‘is maker! ‘E’s a stiff! Bereft of life, ‘e rests in peace! If you hadn’t nailed ‘im to the perch ‘e’d be pushing up the daisies! ‘Is metabolic processes are now ‘istory! ‘E’s off the twig! ‘E’s kicked the bucket, ‘e’s shuffled off ‘is mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin’ choir invisibile!! THIS IS AN EX-PARROT!!
Mulitple Synonyms. Technical term: synonymia (sin-o-NIM-ia).
You can see a kind of repetition going on here, except that it’s repetition of a concept rather than of words. The image the audience gets is of one extremely dead parrot.
In this same vein of exaggeration, piling on synonyms also helps convey multitudinousness.
He was big, huge, linebacker huge, refrigerator huge, large. He contained multitudes.
To make your own Multiple Synonyms, boil down your point to just one key word, then return to your favorite thesaurus. I just keyed “dead” into thesaurus.com, and found some additions to John Cleese’s parrot eulogy.
This parrot has bought the farm. He has checked out. He’s defunct, departed, gone to meet his maker. He is a bygone parrot whose date has expired. He is exsanguinous, spectral and eternally imperturbable.
Reader Comments (1)
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