So the story is that Andrew Jackson was so vulgar, his parrot picked up the habit of shouting obscenities at inopportune times. As often happens the parrot, Pol, outlived its owner. As rarely happens, the parrot attended the funeral but had to be removed because it wouldn’t stop swearing.
Growing up reading the Straight Dope, I cannot believe this story without a reputable citation (in fact, if this too-perfect-to-be-true story ends up being accurate, I’m going to have to make a pretty major adjustment to my world view). I’ve yet to find such from searches online other than references to books like 1000 Wacky Presidential Facts.
Anyway, is there anything that points to this being anything other than one of those pieces of trivia that just isn’t true? (And is there a name for that kind of thing?)
There is. The technical term is “a lie.”
A story that is clearly acknowledged to be false, but is still amusing enough to be repeated, and considered to be largely benign is called “apocryphal.”
This story isn’t clearly acknowledged to be false, is my point. I guess that’s why we have the modifier, “possibly”. And it’s clearly needed given that this thread already shows up on the first page of results in Google for Jackson parrot apocryphl. And everything after isn’t relevant.
This is exactly what the parrot of a rough and tumble cursing man would likely do. Why is this story so hard to believe?
The story is all over the internet. The most “authoritative” cite I’ve seen so far is classroomhelp.com, which includes it among other biographical anecdotes. But it doesn’t cite the source.
Oh yes, several sources claim the parrot could curse in English and Spanish.
Ok, a somewhat more credible source, Cornell University, confirms that Jackson did in fact have a parrot, but says the profanity at the funeral story is apocryphal.
The Hermitage was Jackson’s home, and is now a TN tourist attraction. The audio tour for children is “led by Jackson’s pet parrot, an African Grey named Poll.”
It would be really funny if every tour had to be stopped due the parrot cursing out the children. 
Agreed.
A close friend had an African Grey parrot that would mimic various people. In particular, Pete (the parrot) would let loose with “Asshole!” (in the voice of my friends deceased mother) at the most inopportune times, long after she had passed away. :eek:
ETA: “Taint of Creation”… Cracks me UP, everytime I read it!
bwahahahahaha
I finally found a first hand account:
http://books.google.com/books?id=wikWAAAAYAAJ&dq=andrew%20jackson%20parrot&pg=PA54#v=onepage&q=parrot&f=false
For a name, how about “factoid?” From the OED…
factoid: n. Something that becomes accepted as a fact, although it is not (or may not be) true; spec. an assumption or speculation reported and repeated so often that it is popularly considered true; a simulated or imagined fact.