History Main / DeadPetSketch

* Real Life Example: The original Petra on ''BluePeter'' died after only her first appearance. Pet shops were scoured to find a replacement, as it was felt to be to upsetting for viewers. It worked too, and no-one knew for years.

* In ''Series/{{MADtv}}'''s dead pet sketch, a house sitting friend is feeding the homeowner's pet parrot [[http://youtu.be/iuuywzyDIjg when it bites him and he flings it to the floor]], killing it. He then goes on to [[AccidentalMurder kill the friend when he returns]], the [[LeaveNoWitnesses friend's mother, and several bystanders including the mailman and a water deliveryman]] - the last of which is lampshaded as a ContrivedCoincidence by the house-sitter. He also calls ''in'' a jogger across the street, claiming he's addicted to it. But, of course, at the end we find out [[spoiler: the parrot wasn't dead, only unconscious. However, it saw all the ''actual'' murders [[NotInFrontOfTheParrot and is killed to prevent it from telling anyone.]]]]

Not to be confused with ''[[Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus Monty Python]]'''s "Dead Parrot Sketch", which is an altogether different [[IncrediblyLamePun beast]] entirely... in which the Norwegian Blue Parrot was... resting. Here is an external [[http://www.mtholyoke.edu/~ebarnes/python/dead-parrot.htm link]] to that sketch.

* ''Series/{{Alice}} had an episode where Vera bought a parrot named Birdie, who keeled over and died while she was away from the diner. The gang buy another one just like it and try to pass it off as the original - until the bird says "My name is Irving" to her.

* ''WorstWeek'', the US adaptation of ''TheWorstWeekOfMyLife'', had one episode which was entirely centered around this trope. The lead character feeds his in-laws' bird an avocado... unfortunately, it turns out that avocados are deadly for that kind of bird. So the lead character then buys a replacement... and, trying to avoid suspicion, carries it back in his ''pocket'', leading to a rather awkward moment when the bird starts moving around. He manages to kill ''that'' bird too while trying, a bit too forcefully, to keep it quiet in his pocket...

* ''TrafficLight'', with a stuffed dog named CJ that Adam won for Callie

* TheOffice subverts this somewhat, in that Dwight, while supposed to be caring for Angela's sick cat, intentionally kills it to put it out of its misery. He then tells her that it was dead when he got there. (He gave it pills and put it in the freezer) Naturally, the truth comes out and there is hell to pay.

* TheGoldenGirls does this during an EmptyNest crossover. Dreyfuss runs away when Sophia is supposed to be watching him, and she gets a replacement lookalike. The real Dreyfuss then comes back, and the girls wind up with both of them, with Rose having to ferret out the real one before Harry gets home and take back the duplicate. It's indicated, though, that the wrong dog got taken back.

* One 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...]]

** This can happen often on shows where an animal is the main character. For example, eight generations of (male) collies played Series/{{Lassie}}. And when Moose, the dog who played [[Series/{{Frasier}} Eddie]] retired, his son took over the role. Averted with Series/{{MarriedWithChildren}}. Buck the dog died when his "actor" retired.

* In the ''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.

** A very similar scene occurs in ''.hack//Legend of the Twilight'', but the grunty lives (and its owner is admonished for the irresponsibility of palming it off on someone else when it was sick).

* In ''[[DotHack .hack//SIGN]]'' a girl PC asks Tsukasa to take care of her grunty (a small, pig-like virtual animal) for a couple of days while she's away. The grunty gets sick (or apparently, was already sick and she didn't notice it) and dies despite Tsukasa's heroic effort to find a cure (in a very cold place, and he's the only one who can feel the cold). He doesn't try to lie.

* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' has a variant in the episode "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 form its own ashes. The bird (a phoenix) was just pretending to be sick to carry out an elaborate prank.]]

* The driver of the plot in the play ''The Lieutenant of Inishmore''. Padraic's cat Wee Thomas is killed by rival IRA thugs, and his father and neighbor spend much of the first act trying to find a replacement. They do, but he ends up shooting it when he finds out its not really his cat.

* ''TheAmazingWorldofGumball'' actualy did this with Penny's pet spider.

* A rather over-the-top example in''Series/HowIMetYourMother'', where in a flashback Robin's parents replace her pet dog with a ''turtle''.

* TheOffice subverts this somewhat, in that Dwight, while supposed to be caring for Angela's sick cat, intentionally kills it to put it out of its misery. He then tells her that it was dead when he got there. Naturally, the truth comes out and there is hell to pay.

* Lampshaded in ''TheKingOfQueens'', where the dog Doug's had from childhood dies and his family scrambles to replace it. [[spoiler: Turns out that this is actually the ''fourth'' version of the dog. When he died the first time his parents replaced it, and then kept doing it. When the truth comes out, Doug has to admit that a 32 year old dog is pretty unlikely[[hottip:*:(that's 224 dog years)]]-and then makes himself pretend it's the same dog as they celebrate the dog's 32nd birthday.]]

* ''{{Scrubs}}'' did a unique inversion wherein Carla loses Turk and J.D.'s stuffed dog Rowdy. [[spoiler: Janitor offers to replace Rowdy by ''killing and stuffing another dog.'' After that idea was rejected, he found another, already stuffed dog, nearly the same, this one named Steven.]]
** Also a multi-season delayed BrickJoke, [[spoiler: as J.D. and Turk didn't find out for a long time.]]

* In ''MadTV'''s dead pet sketch, a house sitting friend is feeding the homeowner's pet parrot [[http://youtu.be/iuuywzyDIjg when it bites him and he flings it to the floor]], killing it. He then goes on to [[AccidentalMurder kill the friend when he returns]], the [[LeaveNoWitnesses friend's mother, and several bystanders including the mailman and a water deliveryman]] - the last of which is lampshaded as a ContrivedCoincidence by the house-sitter. He also calls ''in'' a jogger across the street, claiming he's addicted to it. But, of course, at the end we find out [[spoiler: the parrot wasn't dead, only unconscious. However, it saw all the ''actual'' murders [[NotInFrontOfTheParrot and is killed to prevent it from telling anyone.]]]]

----

* ''SavedByTheBell'', with Slater's chameleon

* ''SagwaTheChineseSiameseCat'' did this with a cricket.

* ''MyWifeAndKids'', with the school's hamster. First, the family tries to convince Kady that he's just sleeping, then Michael buys a replacement. When the replacement has babies, they confess the truth; Kady is nonplussed ("I touched a dead hamster?! Eeew!!").

* In ''MadTV'''s dead pet sketch, a house sitting friend is feeding the homeowner's pet parrot [[http://youtu.be/iuuywzyDIjg when it bites him and he flings it to the floor]], killing it. He then goes on to [[AccidentalMurder kill the friend when he returns]], the [[LeaveNoWitnesses friend's mother, and several bystanders including the mailman and a water deliveryman]] - the last of which is lampshaded as a ContrivedCoincidence by the house-sitter. He also calls ''in'' a jogger across the street, claiming he's addicted to it. But, of course, at the end we find out [[spoiler: the parrot wasn't dead, only unconscious. However, it saw all the ''actual'' murders and is killed to prevent it from telling anyone.]]

* In ''MadTV'''s dead pet sketch, a house sitting friend is feeding the homeowner's pet parrot when it bites him and he flings it to the floor, killing it. He then goes on to kill the friend when he returns, the [[LeaveNoWitnesses friend's mother, and several bystanders including the mailman and a jogger]] - the last of which is lampshaded as a ContrivedCoincidence by the house-sitter. But, of course, at the end we find out [[spoiler: the parrot wasn't dead, only unconscious. However, it saw all the ''actual'' murders and is killed to prevent it from telling anyone.]]