When People Die Around You, Put the ‘Fun’ Back Into Funeral Homes

No, I’m not sick, hit my head, or popping pharmaceutical psychedelics. I’m listening to podcasts.

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Another friend died two days ago, and it hit me rather hard. I mean, people have been dying around me for quite a number of years. Not directly due to my influence, so you know, but because ‘life’ tends to tease me. Hold promising things in front of my face, then smack my hand away when I reach for it.

In particular, friends. 

I’ve tried to live a life worthy of friends — good people around me that I can admire, counsel with, praise — and maybe have a comical conversation with once or twice a year. 

…if they return my texts.

Yes, Caleb, I’m talking about you. 

No, not McClellen,…Koerner. 

I know a few Calebs.

POINT is, anOTHER friend of mine died recently, and I thought, "Well, this sucks. Carl was a good man. Sarcastic to perfection, and one of the few people in my life that was always,…ALWAYS kind to me. 

I remember things like that.

Did we chat over BBQs? No.

Did we hang out together over a beer? 

Uhh, I don’t think he drank. So, no.

Did we go bowling, play basketball, soccer, shoot pool or even dip our toes IN a pool?

Well,….no.

Come to think of it, I don’t recall a single activity we attended at the same time, directly because we invited one another over the last 25 years.

Huh.

Still liked him though, so shut up.

He’s left a great family, and I know his kids very well. 

Those I DO spend time with.

Ever though,….they don’t….like ME much.

Ahh, sod it.

I miss Carl, and he’s topping more than a dozen people I know and love that I’ve watched pass and/or buried over the last 2 years, and I’m done with it. There just aren’t any more tears left in me.

Yes, I’m still sad. Yes, it still hits the heart like a Mac Truck, but people die more and more there older I get. It’s never ‘if’, only "when"…and ‘how’.

Moving on.

Bummed out, I sought for mental and emotional relief. Something to pull my attention away, allowing me to breathe and lend a shoulder while other people mourn the loss. Something that might allow me to put a hand slowly over my mouth, looking like I’m weeping, while in truth, I’m laughing to the point of peeing.

How does that sound any more rude than life plucking out the gems of my associations, and hitting me in the gut with a sucker punch?

Exactly.

That’s why I started looking at Funeral Homes.

Putting the ‘Fun’ Back in Funeral Homes

If you pull out your Spotify, you’ll notice a growing number of quality podcasts available. I enjoy fictional podcasts — the plays — created to entertain through drama stories. This time it’s comedy, and they’re pulling out all the stops.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

Wooden Overcoats is a British sitcom podcast created and written by David K. Barnes, and directed and produced by Andy Goddard and John Wakefield. It premiered on September 24, 2015, and completed its run on March 31, 2022 with the conclusion of its fourth season.

The series is set in the fictional Channel Islands village of Piffling Vale and follows the rivalry between two funeral directors, after the members of the family-run funeral home who had been in charge of all of the village's funerals find their lives turned upside down by another undertaker who moves in right across the street to open a competing business.

The Plot

Stubborn undertaker Rudyard Funn runs Funn Funerals with the help of his asocial sister Antigone and their assistant Georgie Crusoe. Funn Funerals, which was previously owned by Rudyard and Antigone's parents, is the only funeral parlour in the village of Piffling Vale, which is located on a small, isolated English island; as such, despite Rudyard's unpopularity within the community, his business has remained successful due to the absence of available competition.

This all changes with the arrival of dashing new undertaker Eric Chapman, who sets up his business across the square. Chapman immediately becomes popular with the citizens of Piffling Vale, and with his modern, joyful company instantly becoming more popular than the sober, traditional style of Funn Funerals, the work-obsessed siblings find their business threatened, setting off a bitter rivalry with Chapman in which Funn Funerals will do anything they must to ensure the business survives.

Tensions progressively heighten as the feud spirals out of control, with Funn Funeral's increasingly over-the-top attempts to sabotage Chapman soon affecting the entire village. These unfolding events are narrated by Madeleine, a mouse that resides in Funn Funerals and is Rudyard's best friend.

Is It Good?

Does a live jazz band liven up an open casket viewing?

Does a dash of cinnamon and cloves in the embalming formaldehyde fluid make the dead bodies smell a bit better?

The answer to both is, of course.

I’m listening to it right now, as you’re reading this solid recommendation, encouraging you to listen to it via iTunes of Spotify. If you’d like to see the website, then go to https://www.woodenovercoats.com/

This show won’t stop people, even your friends, from dying…but at at least you’ll have a chuckle when they do.

Okay, that didn’t come out the way I thought it would.

You get my point.

…or maybe you don’t.

In which case, this was a pointless exercise.

*sigh*

Just listen to the podcast. 

Cya next time.

Jaime

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Paid subscribers can comment, access the archive of this site, along with other stories, art, and any article I’ve ever written. If you aren’t a paid subscriber, you can access the archive for free with a 7-day trial OR earn a paid membership by joining the referral program! Contact me if you need our ‘hardship scholarships’ — used for military, first responders, homeschoolers and those in countries with horrible exchange rates — we have a deeeep discount for you.