Pirate Parrot: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

The parrot may or may not:

 

For capuchin monkeys, see [[Everything's Better with Monkeys]].

{{examples}}

* On ''[[Cowboy Bebop]]'', Vicious has an exotic bird perched on his right shoulder most of the time. This only heightens his mystique (and overall evil aura). It's a cormorant (a kind of sea bird that has acidic droppings and a nasty temper). This, combined with the fact that he [[Kick the Dog|blows it up]] in one of the final episodes, probably does say something about [[Names to Run Away From Really Fast|Vicious]]. It's inspired by Harlock's bird, noted below.

** [[Truth in Television]]: Cormorants are trainable to a certain extent, and some fishermen in Asia use them as pretty much an aquatic equivalent of hunting hawks. Having one would probably be ''more'' useful to a pirate than a parrot.

* Amazingly, ''[[One Piece]]'' has, up to yet, averted this, despite being all about pirates. And considering the series' track record. If one ever showed up, it will be the single most awesome parrot ever seen. The closest to this tope thus far is Doma's, one of Whitebeard's New World allies, trained [[What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?|gun-using]] Monkey.

* The manga ''[[Mobile Suit Crossbone Gundam|Crossbone Gundam]]'' gives [[The Captain]] a robot parrot as part of their fully embracing the "pirate" part of [[Space Pirate]]. Said parrot spouts random lines that [[Shout-Out|reference]] older ''[[Gundam]]'' works, leading to the [[Epileptic Trees|theory]] that it was made from [[Mobile Suit Gundam|Amuro Ray's]] [[Team Pet]] and ''Gundam'' [[Series Mascot]] Haro.

 

== Comic Books ==

* [[Deadpool]] forced Bob to wear a parrot costume and squawk like a parrot during their short stint as pirates.

* [[Ruthless Modern Pirates|Ruthless modern pirate]] Mojo in the story "How Daphne lost her Mojo (and got it back!)" in the graphic novel ''Sex Ed 101'' by Enrique Villagran, has a parrot who comments on the action.

 

* Iago from Disney's ''[[Aladdin (Disney film)|Aladdin]]'' is worth mentioning, even though he's not affiliated with a Pirate... {{spoiler|Then in ''Aladdin and the King of Thieves'' he goes off with Cassim, Aladdin's long-lost father and former leader of a band of thieves who would occasionally use ships.}}

* In ''[[Treasure Planet]]'', Long John Silver's pet was a small shapeshifting creature called Morph, who could mimic people in more ways than one.

* The villains of ''[[Rio]]'', though technically not pirates, actually both own a sulphur-crested cockatoo named Nigel.

* The Captain in ''[[Raggedy Ann and Andy A Musical Adventure]]'' has a pet parrot.

* The ''[[Pirates of the Caribbean]]'' trilogy:

** A mute pirate named Cotton owns a parrot who does the talking for him. It mostly says "parrot" stuff like "Ready the sails!" -- "We figure that means 'yes'." The parrot's repetition leads to a hilarious scene in the second movie:

'''Nitro Mike:''' [[Talk Like a Pirate|Arr.]] }}

* Captain Hook and his crew of pirates finally get one in the 2003 film ''[[Peter Pan (film)|Peter Pan]]''. (This trope had been averted in previous adaptations.)

 

== Literature ==

* This probably started (as most pirate-related tropes are) with Long John Silver, from ''[[Treasure Island]]'', who has a parrot named Captain Flint. Which makes this [[Older Than Radio]]. Also, Captain Flint's most common phrase is "Pieces of eight! Pieces of eight!".

* The ''[[Spellsinger]]'' novels have talking animals. In ''Day of the Dissonance'' there's a pirate who ''is'' a parrot.

* The pirate Littlejohn in [[James Thurber]]'s ''The Wonderful O'' has a parrot that annoys the book's [[Big Bad]] (by [[It Makes Sense in Context|using words containing the letter "O"]]); notable for repeatedly being on the receiving end of the memorable threat, "I'll squck its thrug till all it can whubble is geep!"

* Comic inversion: In the sequence that gave stand-up comedian Mike Hardin's book ''The Fourteen and a Half Pound Budgie'' its title, Hardin describes a parakeet that he's supposed to pet-sit as being "so nasty it had a ''pirate'' on its shoulder."

* Invoked in one of [[Timothy Zahn]]'s stories, but not with an animal: Marines in [[Powered Armor]] wore shoulder-mounted weapons, apparently slaved to aim wherever the wearer's eyes focused, known as "parrot guns".

* Though pirates are not featured anywhere in the stories, Harold of ''[[Bunnicula]]'' reads about pirates and wonders whether a "parrot" is an umbrella or a female pirate. Chester puts him straight.

* In ''[[Swallows and Amazons]]'', Nancy and Peggy's uncle, "Captain Flint", owns a parrot. Nancy and Peggy have often tried to teach it to say "Pieces of eight", and are disappointed that all it will say is "Pretty Polly".

 

== Live-Action TV ==

** An interviewer slowly turns into a Long John Silver impersonator, complete with quotes. On YouTube [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DlN4Sh06po here].

** The "Confuse a Cat" sketch.

* The ''[[Blackadder]]'' episode "Potato" guest-stars Tom Baker as Captain Rum. He's not a pirate, but he has a ''dead'' parrot lying on his shoulder.

* Navi the robotic parrot in ''[[Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger]]''. Also the one responsible for leading the team towards the Greatest Treasure in the Universe through vague clues that only come about after she hits her head on the ceiling.

 

== Puppet Shows ==

** The game of the film features a parrot called Stevenson (as in Robert Louis) as the [[Exposition Fairy]].

 

 

* In the ''[[Paranoia (game)|Paranoia]]'' adventure "Vapors Don't Shoot Back", the [[Big Bad]] pirate-wannabee Black-U-Brd has a parrot robot on his shoulder that repeats old pirate movie dialogue.

* ''[[Shadowrun]]'' supplement ''California Free State''. Captain Monday of Moro Bay not only dresses like a pirate but has a parrot on one shoulder. A decker posts a message that it isn't a parrot but a miniaturized eyekiller, an Awakened (magical) creature that can fire lightning bolts.

* The ''Asteroid 1618'' supplement for the ''Encounter Critical'' game. Space pirates can buy space parrots at a pet store on the asteroid. The parrot costs 75 gold credits if it already knows pirate lingo, or only 25 gold credits if it needs to be taught.

 

== Video Games ==

* In ''[[Skies of Arcadia]]'', [[Chivalrous Pervert|Gilder]] has a parrot that helps him get out of jail. [[Does This Remind You of Anything?|His name is Willy.]]

* The smuggler in both ''[[Ratchet and Clank|Ratchet & Clank Future]]'' games is accompanied by a parrot-like alien. Ironically, there are actual pirates in the games, none of whom have parrots.

* Raz, a minor character from ''[[Final Fantasy XII]]'', can always be seen with a small parrot [[Head Pet|over his head]].

* Parrots naturally show up in ''[[Puzzle Pirates]]'', although they are fairly rare.

* Your explorer can find a rather foul-mouthed one in ''[[The Wager]]''.

* In ''[[The Sims Medieval]]'' expansion "Pirates and Nobles," most NPC pirates have parrots, and Hero Sims can get them whether they're members of a pirate crew or not.

 

== Web Comics ==

* [http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff1400/fc01345.htm Parodied] in ''[[Freefall]]''; after Sam suggests that he and his crew become space pirates, Helix adopts an emu and names it "Polly", suggesting that it would be more threatening than a parrot.

{{quote|'''Sam:''' I know I'd be respectful of a pirate with an emu on his shoulder.}}

 

== Web Original ==

 

== Western Animation ==

** "The Mansion Family" has Homer borrowing a cruise ship from Mr. Burns, which is boarded by pirates. Their captain has an absurdly large number of parrots perched on him, and Homer's attempt to fight him merely knocks the parrots off his body one by one.

** And of course, Pirate Captains use to write their treasure maps on crackers and give them to their parrots for safe keepin'. That's why there is treasure everywhere... well, according to Bart anyway.

* In ''[[Transformers]]'', Laserbeak, a robot condor, perches on the shoulder of whomever happens to be the Decepticon leader at the time. Usually, this means he occupies Megatron's shoulder, but he moves to Shockwave or Galvatron... but never [[The Starscream|Starscream]]: proof that all his treachery means nothing toward becoming leader. Step 1: Get the bird. Everything else falls into place.

** That bird defeated Optimus Prime and is nigh-undetectable. That is a damn important bird.

** Also, one of the villains keeps a little parrot-like beast on his shoulder. In turn with the depiction of Merians using animals as devices, it is a living dictaphone, known as a "memorrot". What it knows becomes a plot point.

* On ''[[SpongeBob SquarePants]]'', Patchy the Pirate has a parrot named Potty who he doesn't get along with at all.

* ''[[Family Guy]]'', episode "[[wikipedia:Long John Peter|Long John Peter]]". Peter steals a parrot and starts carrying it around with him. He starts dressing as a pirate, recruits three other pirates and starts terrorizing the town. His parrot is severely injured during the fighting and later dies at the veterinarian's office.

* ''[[Casper the Friendly Ghost|Casper's Scare School]]'': During Casper's trip to Scare School, he meets a blind pirate and his seeing eye parrot who sail a flying ship to pick up students.

* ''[[The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack]]'': In "Ben-Boozled", the captain masquerading as a parrot (in paper-thin disquise) becomes the pet of another pirate who thinks he is the most beautiful bird he's ever seen.

* ''[[Jake and the Never Land Pirates]]'': The [[The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything|good pirates]] have the talkative parrot Skully on their team.

* In the ''[[Rocko's Modern Life]]'' episode, Mr. Bighead starts sleepwalking, dreaming that he's a pirate. He sees Rocko's house as an enemy ship, and Spunky as a parrot, which he steals in order to extort a treasure map from Rocko.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Pirate Tropes]]

[[Category:Older Than Radio]]

[[Category:Loyal Animal Companion]]

[[Category:Avian Tropes]]

[[Category:Alliterative Trope Titles]]