2009-11-03
Explanation
This comic presents "Funeral Bingo" as a concept. The scene takes place at a funeral, where a woman at the podium is delivering a eulogy, saying "I can't imagine life without him--" when a man in the audience jumps up and shouts "BOOM! B-1! It's all over, baby! Wooh!" The caption below reads: "My new favorite game: Funeral Bingo."
The joke imagines someone playing bingo using common phrases heard at funerals. The eulogist's phrase "I can't imagine life without him" is exactly the kind of predictable, stock phrase one hears at every funeral, and the man has apparently been using a bingo card filled with such cliches. When the eulogist hits his final square, he erupts in celebration, completely oblivious to the solemn setting. The humor derives from the extreme social inappropriateness of turning a funeral into a game, as well as the implicit commentary that eulogies tend to rely on the same tired phrases.
The votey panel extends the joke further: the bingo player asks, "Oh, wait, did you say 'life' or 'living'? I need 'living' or I don't win a toaster." This adds the detail that there are actual prizes at stake, and the man is so invested in the game that he is quibbling over exact wording during a eulogy -- treating the grieving speaker like a game show host who needs to use the precise phrase on his card.