History Main / DeadPetSketch

* Implied in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33UX8Lbruos this controversial ad]] for Saladitas crackers, where a boy returns home to a poorly-made taxidermy sculpture that looks like his dog. When the kid points out the sculpture, the family deflects the issue by talking about the product, to which the boy shrugs it off and eats the crackers as well. A [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=AWtr6kdlPjs short version]] of this commercial has an epilogue where the sculpture's tail falls off and the family tells the kid it "wagged its tail."

* One ''ComicStrip/ShermansLagoon'' arc had Sherman ''eating'' a neighbor's pet catfish. He tries to get a new to replace it, only to learn that catfish are a pain to deal with, and the neighbor hated the pet to begin with. He ended up stuck with the replacement, up until Megan found a recipe for [[EatTheDog cooking catfish...]]

Someone has to take care of someone else's pet while the someone else is away. The pet ends up dying (usually through carelessness, though sometimes just an accident or through bad luck). The caretaker often ends up buying a replacement and trying to pass it off as the real thing. Sometimes this works, but in most cases, the owner isn't fooled for one second, as they instantly notice changes in the pet's behavior and/or appearance (or even the sex, for particularly clueless caretakers).

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* There's a Ragu pasta sauce ad in which a young girl finds her hamster, which was sick, has "mysteriously" turned from gray to white. It's implied her father replaced the gray one after it died, then made her pasta for supper to further cheer her up.
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* [[InvertedTrope Inverted]] in ''Series/MalcolmInTheMiddle'', where Dewey is promised a dog if he can take care of a goldfish. His parents, not wanting a dog, pull a reverse ReplacementGoldfish by putting a dead one in the bowl. Only for Dewey to walk in the next morning [[AchievementsInIgnorance with the goldfish still alive]].

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}'': In "I Remember Melville," Chuckie's [[FriendToBugs pillbug]] Melville dies while Tommy, Phil and Lil are watching him. They consider replacing him with a snail, but Chuckie yells angrily, "That's not a bug, it's a snail!".

* Implied in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33UX8Lbruos this commercial]] for Saladitas crackers, where a boy returns home to a poorly-made stuffed dog sculpture that looks like his dog. When the kid points out the sculpture, the family deflects the issue by talking about the product, to which the boy shrugs it off and eats the crackers as well. A [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=AWtr6kdlPjs short version]] of this commercial has an epilogue where the sculpture's tail falls off and the family tells the kid it "wagged its tail."

* Implied in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33UX8Lbruos this commercial]] for Saladitas cracker, where a boy returns home to a poorly-made stuffed dog sculpture that looks like his dog. When the kid points out the sculpture, the family deflects the issue by talking about the product, to which the boy shrugs it off and eats the crackers as well.

* Implied [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33UX8Lbruos this commercial]] for Saladitas cracker, where a boy returns home to a poorly-made stuffed dog sculpture that looks like his dog. When the kid points out the sculpture, the family deflects the issue by talking about the product, to which the boy shrugs it off and eats the crackers as well.

Not to be confused with ''[[Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus Monty Python]]'''s "Dead Parrot Sketch", which is an altogether different [[{{Pun}} beast]] entirely... in which the Norwegian Blue Parrot was... resting.

* Played for horror in ''Series/TheFallOfTheHouseOfUsher'''s take on "Literature/TheBlackCat". Leo accidentally kills Julius' cat while high, and gets a replacement lookalike from Verna (who is out to kill him). [[spoiler:The new cat torments him until he falls to his death trying to get to it.]]

Someone has to take care of someone else's pet while the someone else is away. The pet ends up dying (through carelessness, though sometimes just an accident or through bad luck). The caretaker often ends up buying a replacement and trying to pass it off as the real thing. Sometimes this works, but in most cases, the owner isn't fooled for one second, as they instantly notice changes in the pet's behavior and appearance (or even the sex, for particularly clueless caretakers).

Sometimes the pet in question is not actually dead, just missing, in which case TheReveal often centers around the substitution succeeding until the real pet turns up. Either way, the caretaker will have some explaining to do.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheCasagrandes'' episode "Croaked" centers around Sid's little sister, Adelaide, who's upset over the death of her pet frog, so Ronnie Anne teaches her about the Day of the Dead to try and help her cope.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'' has an episode wherein we discover every time Timmy goes to summer camp, his parents are in charge of his pets. Since his parents' negligence is the reason Timmy ''has'' Fairy Godparents, you do the math. HilarityEnsues when Timmy wishes for everything in his mom's garden to be "filled with life," and all the pets who "ran away" come back as zombies.

* ''Literature/MillyMolly'': In "Harry's Mouse", Molly starts to look after her classmate Harry's pet mouse Brian, but he escapes and Mrs. Horren, who [[WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes is afraid]] [[EekAMouse of mice]], disallows Brian to be in her house and so Milly has to look after him instead. He escapes again, and the girls fear that Milly's cat Marmalade had eaten him, so they buy another mouse and pass it off as Brian. Then, the real Brian shows up and [[YourTomcatIsPregnant the other mouse turns out to be a doe and gets pregnant by him.]] Harry gives the babies away and keeps the doe, naming her Brioni.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}'': In "I Remember Melville," Chuckie's pillbug Melville dies while Tommy, Phil and Lil are watching him.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' episode "I was a Teenage Gary", [=SpongeBob=] leaves Gary in Squidward's care when he leaves, and Squidward immediately forgets about him. He doesn't try to replace him though, because he doesn't remember until [=SpongeBob=] returns.

* In one episode of the Israeli sitcom ''[=HaPijamot=]'', the LocalHangout owner Gary, who has already killed some of his daughter’s pets by accident, accidentally kills another, a white mouse. When he can’t find one to replace it, he winds up stealing a mouse from a lab, [[spoiler:on which researchers were testing the hair-growing formula Gary wanted to use and was now lost for years to come--the mouse was used as a feeder rat for the snake in his daughter’s biology class]].

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* In the ''WesternAnimation/MyGoldfishIsEvil'' episode "Sewer Adventures" Admiral Bubbles fakes his death and Beanie's mom, thinking she killed him from overfeeding (which she did to her childhood goldfish) flushes him down the toilet and buys a replacement goldfish. Beanie isn't fooled when the goldfish does nothing but swim and around instead of hatching evil plans, and goes into the sewers to find Bubbles. At the end Beanie decides to keep both goldfish, but the replacement goldifsh goes down the sink drain when Bubbles tricks him with fish food.

* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' has a variant in the episode "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS1E22ABirdInTheHoof A Bird in the Hoof]]"; it differs in that Fluttershy literally ''steals'' the Princess' pet bird in order to give it medical attention, and the drama lies in her caring for it adequately before giving it back to her. The bird dies at the last possible moment... [[spoiler: before it is resurrected from its own ashes, because it's a phoenix.]]
* Played with in ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'' - Baljeet is to watch Perry and make sure he doesn't run away. Because Perry is a secret agent, he manages (with much difficulty) to escape to perform his mission, as he does [[OnceAnEpisode every day]]. Baljeet is convinced that he lost Perry and weeps incessantly. Buford tries to make a fake Perry, and Baljeet points out the boys wouldn't be fooled. When Phineas returns, Baljeet is just about to break the news to him when Perry shows up and Phineas says "Oh, there you are Perry."

* Played with in ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'' - Baljeet is to watch Perry and make sure he doesn't run away. Because Perry is a secret agent, he manages (with much difficulty) to escape to perform his mission, as he does [[OnceAnEpisode every day]]. Baljeet is convinced that he lost Perry and weeps incessantly. Buford tries to make a fake Perry, and Baljeet points out the boys wouldn't be fooled. When Phineas returns, Baljeet is just about to break the news to him when Perry shows up and Phineas says "[[CatchPhrase Oh, there you are Perry]]."