The $65 Funeral
The other day, I had a meeting with the funeral director to go over some of the obviously-necessary plans for my dad's passing. It actually went well, and the fellow was reasonably personable. All things considered. But throughout the meeting as he laid out all the various issues, I couldn't help think of this utterly-wonderful and classic sketch by the great Mike Nichols and Elaine May. In fact, I even told the funeral director about it, and later sent him a link.
This version came from an appearance on The Jack Paar Show and, unfortunately, appears to be part of a larger TV special, hosted by Steve Allen, whose voice cuts in at the end, so the conclusion of the sketch isn't heard. As best I recall, in the full version, the Nichols character finally breaks and calls out that he doesn't want the option, that he has no more money. And May's funeral director pauses, shrugs, and replies, "Well...it's your funeral.". Here 'tis --
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