Vaginacam POV

It’s hard to say whether it bodes well for an episode that it begins with an upskirt of a corpse.  I can’t even say it depends on the corpse.  But the corpse is on a gurney, and it is over quick.  Even stranger, the next shot seems to be a POV from a vaginacam showing the outstretched legs and red toenails. ^[1]

Security guards Richard and Charlie escort funeral director Ben Stein, looking more cadaverous than the corpse, to the exit of the funeral home. ^[2] He berates the two security guards and warns them there better be no funny business.  Seconds after Stein leaves, the guards spot the gurney.  A man is attempting to snatch the body, a crime which really needs a catchy name.  When they bust him, he offers them $500 to help.

They help the man, Orloff, back to his house and carry the corpse to his laboratory in the cellar.  Maybe mad scientists are mad because they work in cramped, dark, dank cellars.  Props to Dr. Frankenstein for his revolutionary open space design and unique skylight feature.  Still mad though, but at least he learned his lesson and didn’t play God a second time . . . oh yeah.

Orloff cuts open up the corpse looking for soul, but comes up empty.  He has a walk-in freezer full of empties proving that his strategy of trawling for souls at Moby concerts is quixotic at best.  There is a funny exchange where Orloff asks the guards to dispose of the bodies.  After getting $500 to help with one body, Richard shrewdly negotiates only $600 to dispose of 10 bodies.

On the way to the well where they will dump the bodies, Charlie expresses some remorse about what they are doing.  Richard — in a movie trope never once performed in real life — kisses the wad of cash and says, “I got $1,000 right here, baby!”  Wait, they got $500 for the first gig, then $600 for this one.  Where is the other hundred?  Is he not splitting the dough with Charlie?  And why is it still in his hand while he’s driving?

Charlies fears that if the bodies are buried without souls they will be “lost forever.”  Well, whatever your beliefs, doesn’t the soul leave the body at the time of death?  How is this different?

Anyhoo, they transport the bodies in the open bed of an El Camino, but did at least put them in trash bags so the corpses wouldn’t be embarrassed by being seen in an El Camino.  On the way back, after ditching the bodies, Richard is still trying to cheer Charlie up by waving the cash in his face.  Does this guy not have a wallet?

They concoct a brilliant plan to pretend to have fallen asleep at work.  Ben Stein arrives in the morning and catches them sleeping.  He yells, “Goddammit, get up you idiots!”  Well wait, why did they need the snooze ruse?  They could have just been doing normal security guard things things like walking patrols or masturbating when Ben Stein got there.

Ben Stein notices that Ms. Myers, presumably the first body we saw, is missing.  Wait, how does he know that?  He just got there.  The guards are actually in the Cadaver Storage room, so he did not look for her before he got to them.  He accuses the guards of stealing the body and leaves to call the police.  Richard brains him with a Maglite.

They take Ben Stein’s body to Orloff.  Even though he is still alive, Orloff cuts him open to look for a soul.  For the first time, he actually discovers one.  In Ben Stein.  Who knew?  And so on.

Kissing the cash

Despite my bellyaching, it is a good outing.  Things get crazier from that point in the way that TFTC is supposed to.  Hank Azaria, Ben Stein, and Austin Pendleton are all perfectly suited to this series.  They know how to work it better than the producers seem to sometimes. Travis Tritt was in there also, but as the moral center of the episode he didn’t have much opportunity to shine.

In some ways, it was a good example of what TFTC should be — over the top acting, a little gore, some laughs, and revenge.

Other Stuff:

• [1] Director Larry Wilson’s other credits are for writing 5 TFTCs, 1 AHP, The Addams Family, Beetlejuice, and The Little Vampire.  This guy just loves dead people.  He also wrote The Year Without Santa Claus . . . uh oh, where’s Santa?
• [2] Why is it called a Funeral Home?  The funeral does not happen there.  Hmm, I guess it does.  Wikipedia says it is just the ceremony connected to a burial.  I did not know that; but I bet Larry Wilson did.