I Inherited a Parrot
The Creative Constraint
Unlike Robota Black, this project required me to put myself directly into the work.
The challenge was not just to build a believable world, but to place a younger version of myself inside it and make the performance feel emotionally grounded rather than cartoonish.
The premise is ridiculous.
The execution could not be.
A man inherits his late father’s parrot. The father was abusive. The parrot repeats the same insults, judgments, and emotional damage the father inflicted while he was alive. The inheritance is not money or closure. It is trauma with feathers.
The humor only works if everything is played straight: the grief, the exhaustion, the quiet humiliation of living with a bird that will not let the past die. The parrot becomes both the antagonist and the punchline. Holding that balance was the entire problem to solve.
Writing the Song
The song itself was written quickly.
Once the idea landed, I moved immediately into lyric writing. AI tools were used as a drafting partner to help shape structure and phrasing, not to invent the voice. Within about an hour, the song existed.
It leans into classic country storytelling: sincere, sentimental, and emotionally direct, with the absurdity buried just beneath the surface rather than pushed for laughs.
Early reactions from friends and family confirmed the instinct. It was funny, but not cruel. Dark, but accessible. Safe for work. Something you could show to anyone, including my grandmother, who laughed harder than anyone else.
That reaction mattered. The goal was always broad, human humor, not irony for its own sake.
Building the World
The video took much longer.
This project required extensive traditional post-production work using Adobe Premiere and After Effects. At the time, AI-generated footage suffered heavily from visual drift and continuity issues, which meant most of the real labor was in correction, alignment, and restraint.
One key decision was choosing an African Grey parrot. Their subdued coloration reduced visual inconsistency across scenes, making the bird feel like a single, persistent character rather than a collection of mismatched assets. This was a practical production decision rooted in coherence, not aesthetics.
Every scene required iteration. Most of the work was not flashy. It was timing, pacing, and problem-solving. I was inventing a usable pipeline while actively producing the piece.
Why This Project Matters
I Inherited a Parrot was released in September 2025, after Robota Black, and it shows growth.
Where Robota Black focused on plausibility and world-building, this project was about tone control and performance. The skills developed in the first project were applied here to tighten pacing, improve continuity, and push emotional clarity further.
The song took roughly an hour to write.
The video took roughly a month of part-time work while learning, testing, and refining the process.
That ratio matters. It reflects where the real work actually happens.
A Personal Note
I love parrots. We have birds at home. Working on this project sent me deep into learning about their behavior and personalities, and that affection is part of why the piece works.
The bird is cruel, but never evil. It is only repeating what it was taught.
That detail turns the joke into something quieter and more human.
In the end, this project was less about comedy than control: could I take an absurd idea, apply modern tools, and still land something emotionally coherent and widely accessible?
The answer, again, was yes.