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Sick as a parrot
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Someone commented to me last night that they were 'sick as a parrot'. Are parrots really always sick or is there another explanation?
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has something to say on the subject. Dates from about the 1970s, apparently.
"Sick as a parrot" as a term for disappointment, especially in a football context, arose in the 70s, along with the opposite term for euphoria - "over the moon". This was about the same time as the Monty Python Dead Parrot sketch was televised and became famous, and I think there may have been a connection. Possibly, the phrase was originally "as sick as Monty Python's parrot", which then quickly got shortened.