The Kashley Show

Funny Tombstones

Kevin and Ashley

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0:00 | 23:51

What would you want your last words to be, the ones carved in stone for strangers to read for centuries? Most of us never think about it. But a few people did, and their choices are truly brilliant.


https://wintersong.wordpress.com/favorite-quotations/headstone-humor-here-lies/

​​https://www.rd.com/list/funniest-tombstones-that-really-exist/

https://discover.hubpages.com/entertainment/Weird_but_True_Strange_Unusual_Tombstones



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SPEAKER_00

Welcome to the Cashley Show. We are Kevin and Ashley. Hi, Kevin.

SPEAKER_02

Guess they can't hear my winks.

SPEAKER_00

Nope. Still can't hear it. We start this podcast after recent tragedies to take a break from negativity and discover the good things happening all around us. Today we are doing a word of the day.

SPEAKER_02

Okay.

SPEAKER_00

So Kevin, I'm gonna tell Kevin a word and the definition, and he gets to use it sometime during today. Oh boy.

SPEAKER_02

Oh boy.

SPEAKER_00

Ready?

SPEAKER_02

Okay. Yep, ready.

SPEAKER_00

The word is teradiddle.

SPEAKER_02

What what? Come on now.

SPEAKER_00

This is a petty lie, fib, or pretentious nonsense.

SPEAKER_02

Teradiddle.

SPEAKER_00

Teradiddle.

SPEAKER_02

Okay. Oh boy.

SPEAKER_00

Good luck.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, that's for real. That's sounds like a made-up word.

SPEAKER_00

All right. Today's shout-out. Kevin, who are we doing a shout out for? I didn't do this one. I left it up to you because I did the last two.

SPEAKER_02

Um boy, I'm on the spot. I'm thinking about terraiddle right now. I don't have time for shout-outs.

SPEAKER_00

Teradiddle cannot be your shout-out.

SPEAKER_02

I mean, I can just do like this is taking a way back. I just do a shout-out to my mom. Okay. Like she listens to a lot of episodes. Thanks, mom, for listening and being a part of things and letting us know. We appreciate it.

SPEAKER_00

Thank you. All right. Our laffy taffy is how do you weigh a millennial?

SPEAKER_02

Oh boy. How do you weigh a millennial? Should I on these should I actually guess or should I just be like, I don't know. How do you weigh a millennial?

SPEAKER_01

You should guess.

SPEAKER_02

Oh, I should guess. How do you weigh a millennial? So millennials you put avocado toast on a scale.

SPEAKER_00

No. In Instagram's nice.

SPEAKER_02

I gotcha.

SPEAKER_00

Alright. Next up is Cashley's take. Kevin?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Do you prefer f the smell of freshly cut grass or the smell of rain?

SPEAKER_02

Rain. I already knew what what you were going to say as soon as you said grass or I was like, it's gonna be rain. And rain.

SPEAKER_00

It just rained a little bit outside.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, it's nice. I I love like the I don't is it ozone? Like I don't know what that smell is called. And I don't does it happen everywhere or like I'm used to it being like I'm gonna say in the city, but I'm not we don't live in the city. Yeah. But like there's pavement and asphalt, so it's hot, and when the rain like, is that like the rain hitting the pavement like Do you want me to look it up? I don't know.

SPEAKER_00

You don't know if you want me to look it up?

SPEAKER_02

Okay, look it up.

SPEAKER_00

Okay.

SPEAKER_02

Because I pretty sure I've heard people say that like that's ozone.

SPEAKER_00

Mine is grass.

SPEAKER_02

Smell. Fresh cut grass.

SPEAKER_00

I do like the smell of rain by like grass. Sure.

SPEAKER_02

I mean they're both, yeah, they're both nice. But if I have to choose one, I'm gonna choose the one I'm not allergic to. The one that doesn't give me the sniffles. Oh plus, I guess I also like just like after it rains, except for in Texas, it was super muggy. It would rain, you know, it's like a hundred and five degrees, it rains, and then it's done, and it's just like ninety thousand percent humidity and then back to ninety-five degrees or whatever.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

So that wasn't as fun.

SPEAKER_00

This scent is known as pet richer, right?

SPEAKER_02

Pet richer. I don't know. After it rains is known as pet richer.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, it comes from a combination of things. So it says soil bacteria, oh, plant oils and ozone. Okay.

SPEAKER_02

So that's partially right.

SPEAKER_00

Yep.

SPEAKER_02

Hmm. So I love I love the smell of plant oils and soil bacteria. Hmm. Doesn't seem great.

SPEAKER_00

No. Alright. Today's episode is funny tombstone sayings.

SPEAKER_02

These always remind me, this is maybe a little bit morbid, but of like senior quotes in like the yearbook, right? Like your picture and then your quote.

SPEAKER_00

That's kind of what we didn't do that in high school.

SPEAKER_02

You guys' high school was kind of lame. These always kind of remind me of that. Like we had a lot of people, so didn't have time to get all their quotes.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, you had not very many people.

SPEAKER_02

I mean it was smaller than yours, yeah. Like my class was like four hundred and something people. So not like tiny, but I don't remember how many were in my yeah, I would imagine like 600 plus, probably maybe closer to 800.

SPEAKER_00

Who knows?

SPEAKER_02

Who knows?

SPEAKER_00

Sorry, keep going. What were you gonna say?

SPEAKER_02

Uh I think that was it. Oh, okay. It was all done.

SPEAKER_00

All right, a great epitaph is part punchline, part final statement, and completely unforgettable.

SPEAKER_02

Is that what that's called? The saying on tombstone? What'd you say? Epitaph?

unknown

Epitaph.

SPEAKER_00

It's a short phrase of poem honoring a deceased person.

SPEAKER_02

Okay, yeah, never heard that word before.

SPEAKER_00

The ones collected here range from dark comic to uh delightfully absurd, showing that with the right words on your headstone, you can really have the last laugh. Alright, so Mel Blanc brought some of the most iconic cartoon characters to life, including Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Tweety Bird, Woody Woodpecker, and Porky Pig. He was also the voice behind Looney Toon's famous sign-off. That that's all, folks. When Blanc died in 1989, his tombstone made sure he had the last word. That's all, folks. Mel Blanc, man of one thousand voices.

SPEAKER_02

That's pretty good. That's all, folks.

SPEAKER_00

I forgot about that one until I did this.

SPEAKER_02

Oh. Like, did you know about it before?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, but I just hadn't heard it for so long. I'd forgotten about that saying. Yeah. Some epitaphs capture an entire story in just one sentence. Harry Edsill Smith of Albany, New York, has one of the darkest and funniest. Born in 1903, died in 1942, looked up the elevator shaft to see if the car was on the way down. It was.

SPEAKER_02

I wonder if that's really how he died.

SPEAKER_00

I think so.

SPEAKER_02

Uh because what? He was only like what 30 something years old, 40 years old?

SPEAKER_00

Almost 40, 39.

SPEAKER_02

Or what if he was like sick and knew that he was dying, so like he put that just as funny tombstone things.

SPEAKER_00

I don't know. Next is TV legend Merv Griffin. He hosted his own talk show from 1962 to 1986. He performed on Broadway and created Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune.

SPEAKER_02

Who's this guy?

SPEAKER_00

Merv Griffin.

SPEAKER_02

You should bring him a picture of him.

SPEAKER_00

Do you remember his name?

SPEAKER_02

Merv Griffin? Hmm. I don't think so. Okay. Nope, don't recognize him. I mean, it almost looks like uh his talk show ranch.

SPEAKER_00

Andy Griffith. Yeah, kind of. So you probably wouldn't have ever seen his talk show. Yeah. Always a showman, Merv planned his final sign-off ahead of time. His epitaph says, I will not be right back after this message. In Princeton, New Jersey, William Hahn, Jr. knew exactly what he wanted to say and made sure he would say it. A week or two before he died, he ordered his own headstone. The back reads, I told you I was sick. Rodney Dangerfield spent his career saying he got no respect.

SPEAKER_02

Finally, a name that I recognize.

SPEAKER_00

And he made sure his final act was the same. His headstone reads, There goes the neighborhood.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. Yeah. To say for sure.

SPEAKER_00

A cemetery in Thurmont, Maryland has an epitaph that is both thoughtful and funny. Here lies an atheist, all dressed up and no place to go.

SPEAKER_02

Nice.

SPEAKER_00

In 1880, in Naco, Arizona, Lester Moore worked as a Wells Fargo station agent. A risky job that meant moving money and chasing robbers. One day he delivered a packet, a damaged package to Hank Dudson, who shot him. Became furious. Their argument turned violent. Both men died. Lester's grave fittingly in Tombstone, Arizona, sums it up. Here lies Lester Moore, four slugs from a forty-four, no less, no more. Winston Churchill faced death with the same sharp wit he showed in life. His epitaph reads I am ready to meet my maker. Whether my maker is prepared for the great ordeal of meeting me is another matter.

SPEAKER_02

He thinks quite highly of himself.

SPEAKER_00

Or maybe he was naughty and was like, Oh man, he's gonna be.

SPEAKER_02

There's a lot to deal with here. Yep. A lot to unpack. From old Winnie.

SPEAKER_00

Frances Aline Thatcher seemed to enjoy a bit of drama. The back of her tombstone reads, Damn, it's dark down here.

SPEAKER_02

She's not dead. Get her back out.

SPEAKER_00

Not all epitaphs are funny. Some are chilling. One simply reads, murdered by human wolves.

SPEAKER_02

Whoa. Whose is that? I kind of want to know a little bit more about their story. Because I are they talking about werewolves? Or just the capitalist system and they're not a fan of it? Killed by human wolves. Oh. It's too small, I can't read it.

SPEAKER_00

It says, so this girl was 18, despite local legends of werewolf's attack. This is from 1917. Said that it was actually her death was actually from a botched illegal abortion.

SPEAKER_02

Oh. So this is maybe a pterodidal.

SPEAKER_00

Got it.

SPEAKER_02

Check.

SPEAKER_00

All right. Dr. Edward Russell Gann died in 1983 in Sigourney, Iowa. It seems he had a favorite place in mind. The back of his headstone reads, I'd rather be in Acapulco.

SPEAKER_02

Can you choose? Like, I mean, Acapulco, that's Mexico, right?

SPEAKER_00

Right.

SPEAKER_02

So I wonder, like, I mean, I get that it's it's a joke and it's funny. But could he actually I mean like you just buy a plot, right?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

But can you do it in another country? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

I don't know. You could just cremate them and spread their ashes there. Same but cheaper.

SPEAKER_02

You can't just dump body ashes anywhere you want.

SPEAKER_00

You can dump them in the ocean, the fish will eat them. Doesn't seem illegal. Seems like food for the fish.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. I don't want you to do that to me.

SPEAKER_00

I know. I already know what you want.

SPEAKER_02

I've been fighting drowning and water my whole life. It's not where I want to end up.

SPEAKER_00

You want to be compressed into a gym.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, and you have to wear me.

SPEAKER_00

Okay. Alright. Time for a riddle.

SPEAKER_02

Okay.

SPEAKER_00

Forward I am heavy. Backward I am.

SPEAKER_02

Sorry. Alright, now I'm listening. Here I am. I'm focused.

SPEAKER_00

Forward I am heavy. Backward I am not. What am I? Kevin stumped. I am.

SPEAKER_02

Forward I am heavy. Backward I am not.

SPEAKER_00

It's simpler than you're thinking.

SPEAKER_02

It always is. The last one that we did, I don't remember what the last one was, but I was like way too deep into it. And it's like just a simple, dumb. Forward I am heavy. Backward I am not. So like a spring? But is that along the lines of like not deep?

SPEAKER_00

No.

SPEAKER_02

Oh.

SPEAKER_00

Even more basic than that.

SPEAKER_02

I don't know.

SPEAKER_00

Ton. Dang it.

SPEAKER_02

The word play.

SPEAKER_00

Got me again. Alright. We have this is like the newly wed game.

SPEAKER_02

For me and you? Yep. Okay. So I mean, I don't know who else it would be. There's only two of you. This is not going to go well.

SPEAKER_00

It's not.

SPEAKER_02

Okay.

SPEAKER_00

Where and on what day did you go on your official first date? I don't know if it means us or you specifically.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. You want to know like my first date in my entire life? I would think like our first date. Yeah. Yeah. That makes more sense. And it's going to be your dad's house where you you tricked me into thinking that you always made chicken pot pie and made it delicious.

SPEAKER_00

You're the one that chose chicken pot pie.

SPEAKER_02

Never to be made again, folks.

SPEAKER_00

I have made chicken pot pie a lot of times.

SPEAKER_02

Not that one.

SPEAKER_00

Because I could never find the recipe again.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, the one that the one you bait and switched me and hooked me with. I was like, dang, this is delicious. I'll probably spend the rest of my life with this.

SPEAKER_00

You forgot what day.

SPEAKER_02

Never oh what day? Oh, Wednesday. Oof.

SPEAKER_00

Don't worry, I don't know the day either. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

But like, okay, but what about time frame? It would be like summertime, right? Or like fall.

SPEAKER_00

I would say it was winter-ish. Oh. Because like you came in and opened, I worked at a bank. He came in and opened his account. And my aunt has just died. And your family had had a fight, and it was Thanksgiving at your dad's house. You guys had a fight. And so we both had like a not great Thanksgiving. So it was after that, I would have said, I would say. So probably in December.

SPEAKER_02

Really?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Hmm.

SPEAKER_00

Maybe January.

SPEAKER_02

It's almost as bad as starting dating someone in February. Like, what are you doing? Now I gotta buy this girl I've been dating for a few weeks a Christmas present.

unknown

Hmm.

SPEAKER_02

I guess you were worth it.

SPEAKER_00

You don't know. You don't remember.

SPEAKER_02

I don't remember. I was high on Pop Pie.

SPEAKER_00

Alright.

SPEAKER_02

Okay, well, we at least both didn't know the same information.

SPEAKER_00

We both don't know what day we first went on a date. We probably also don't know a lot of things since that was a long time ago. Twenty years ago. That's a long time. Yeah. Alright, back to tombstones. Okay. This one is a pyramid tomb in New Jersey.

SPEAKER_02

That seems big.

SPEAKER_00

This one is a crazy car in New Jersey. Just like a cement car.

SPEAKER_02

Right. That's their was it what is that called? The sarcophagus? Like the thing up it's up above ground? Right? Like they're they're buried inside the car? That's what I would say.

SPEAKER_00

In the cement of that car?

SPEAKER_02

I would think so. Isn't that what a sarcophagus is? Like it's the like in the the mummy movies, right? Like they f they make it into the pyramids or they do whatever. I think that they like they take the top off of the giant tub thing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Spelled that very wrong.

SPEAKER_02

That's okay. I wouldn't know how to spell sarcophagus.

SPEAKER_00

Burial container.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. So that's what I meant. Or made of cement around them or displayed above ground rather than buried. Yeah, that's what I imagine that car is.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Pyramid too? Uh probably. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

It's weird. John Denby was a dentist, and his son Maurice became one too. When John died in 1927, his tombstone said, I'm f I'm filling my last cavity. Maurice died in 1964, and his stone just added two words. Made two.

SPEAKER_02

That's pretty good.

SPEAKER_00

Look at this one. This one's also in New Jersey. Yeah, so there's like it looks like I don't know if that's a train behind it. Then there's like a digger in a parking lot, and there's just like this cement slab above ground with a headstone and a fence around it. Enough for one plot. It was one burial plot. In the middle of a parking lot. So that is also New Jersey.

SPEAKER_02

Well, sub with New Jersey and weird burial stuff.

SPEAKER_00

Crazy stuff. Texas has a lot of really cool big things.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, like big monuments on the on the graves. Yeah. But they're not like sarcophaguses. Yeah. Sarcophagi.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, like an aim big angel or yeah, lot of lot of cool stuff.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. A lot of s in the town we lived in, a lot of like what were there was like what three, four cemeteries? Yeah, there was I mean the town only had what like 8,000 people like in it. Oh, it had that big. Yeah, but it had like there were a lot of people buried there. Anyways.

SPEAKER_00

In Rudoso, a man named John Yeast could not resist one last pun. Here lies John Yeast. Pardon me for not rising.

SPEAKER_02

Hate when the yeast doesn't rise.

SPEAKER_00

A cemetery in Uniontown, Pennsylvania offers a cautionary tale in this verse. Here lies the body of John Blake, stepped on the gas instead of the break. Poor John.

SPEAKER_02

Nice little nice little poem.

SPEAKER_00

At Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia, Margaret Daniels gets the last laugh. She always said her feet were killing her, but nobody believed her.

SPEAKER_02

She must have been diabetic.

SPEAKER_00

Maybe she had plantar fasciitis.

SPEAKER_02

That is maybe she had both. Not all.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. In Atlanta, Georgia, a widow made sure her husband's reputation stayed with him even after death. His epitaph simply reads, Gone but not forgiven.

SPEAKER_02

Oh dang. Spiteful.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, well, make better choices, husband. In a cemetery in Hartscombe, England, a musician's passing marked with a fitting melody and sense of finality. On the 22nd of June, John Fiddle went out of tune. That's in a couple days. A headstone in Stowe, Vermont is both mysterious and defiant. I was somebody who is none of your business.

unknown

Oh.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, and it just says a headstone. So we don't know. We can't look him up.

SPEAKER_00

Well, what if that's all that's on there at all? There's no name.

SPEAKER_02

I think that's what it's saying. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Well, that's sad for you.

SPEAKER_02

I bet it's Edward Snowden's relatives.

SPEAKER_00

You're never going to know where your loved ones are buried. I think it was in the early 1800s or something. Anna Hopewell's grave in Innosburg Falls, Vermont, might be the most dedicated to its joke. Here lies the body of Anna, done to death by a banana. It wasn't the fruit that laid her low, but the skin of the thing that made her go.

SPEAKER_02

Oh, she slipped on a banana peel?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

I wonder if this is another pterodidal.

unknown

Maybe.

SPEAKER_02

Do I get extra credit for using it more than that?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, good job moving it, using it twice. The tomb of John Davis and wife.

SPEAKER_02

Whoa.

SPEAKER_00

That's a lot of money.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

It's like a big monument kind of, not big. Right, but it I mean it's it's got like people, like stone people standing in it.

SPEAKER_02

It's like twenty feet by twenty feet or so.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, it's big. More pictures of it. Oh, there's some fellas sitting in a chair, stone people in stone chairs.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, what is this all about? Why would you do this? Do we do that?

SPEAKER_00

Alright. In Winslow, Maine, someone enjoyed making a pun with a man's surname. The epitaph of Beza Wood reads, In memory of Beza Wood, departed this life November 2nd, 1837, aged forty-five years, here lies one wood enclosed in wood, one wood within another. The outer wood is very good. We cannot praise the other. Yeah. Headstone in Wimborn England doubles as a treasure hunt with a twist. Reader, if cash thou art in want of any, dig four feet deep, and thou wilt find a penny.

SPEAKER_02

A whole penny.

SPEAKER_00

That's a lot of digging for a penny. Someone in Ribsford, England clearly had strong feelings about his marriage. The epitaph on Old Clerk Wallace's grave is direct. The children of Israel wanted bread, and the Lord sent them manna. Old Clerk Wallace wanted a wife, and the devil sent him Anna. And finally, a grave that doubles as a product review. Ellen Shannon of Gerard, Pennsylvania was fatally burned March twenty first, eighteen seventy by the explosion of a lamp filled with wait for it? Ari Danforth's non-explosive burning fluid.

SPEAKER_02

Dang.

SPEAKER_00

The irony is eternal. Alright, all of these epitaphs have one thing in common. They refuse to go quietly. Whether it's a comedian telling one last joke, a widow settling a score, or someone that just wanted to be remembered with a smile, these inscriptions remind us that we still have some say in how we're remembered. Death may be inevitable, but it seems the punchline is too. Alright.

SPEAKER_02

What would you uh what would what would you put?

SPEAKER_00

Well I would be cremated so I don't need to have a headstone.

SPEAKER_02

But you could still do like a uh what do they call those where it's like above ground and they just it's like a little memorial plaque or something, like it's a big thing. And like they'll they'll I think they even put the ashes like the urn. They put the urn in there.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, that's how my step grandpa, step step step grandpa's is.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. So what would you put on there?

SPEAKER_00

Just my name. What would you put?

SPEAKER_02

Your name, apostrophe s husband.

SPEAKER_00

You would do something funny. What would it be?

SPEAKER_02

That would be funny. Ash husband.

SPEAKER_00

All right. June 22nd is National Onion Ring Day. So enjoy some onion rings.

SPEAKER_02

22nd?

SPEAKER_00

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_02

Do places like actually honor this? And they have like reduced price onion rings or something?

SPEAKER_00

There's like something every day.

SPEAKER_02

So I would assume people are bored.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I could tell you something for every single day next week. But I just chose onion rings because that was my favorite one.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, well, I like onion rings. I I hope someone is someone who makes onion rings, some restaurant. Hopefully they're playing along and so they do something.

SPEAKER_00

Maybe I'll make onion rings that day. No, okay. That'll work. Alright. Here we go. Would you rather, Kevin?

SPEAKER_02

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_00

Would you rather sweat?

SPEAKER_02

I used to love these. Didn't you have like a whole book or like uh there's a game. Is it a game? Yeah. I remember you like something you were always asking me. We driving places doing things, and you have like it's like whole like deck or whatever, right? You're like pulling around. It's like, yeah, we only have two more hours. Okay.

SPEAKER_00

Would you rather sweat ranch dressing on a hot summer day or fart confetti every time you laugh? Uh I'd rather fart confetti.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, I think I would choose the same thing.

SPEAKER_00

Ranch dressing's gonna get real stinky.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. Plus, I don't think I would want to eat ranch that I sweated. What's gross? It's funny though. Fart confetti.

SPEAKER_00

Do you have anything else?

SPEAKER_02

Like I'm a unicorn or something. Uh no, no, I don't. I'm good.

SPEAKER_00

Remember, even a small act of kindness can be someone's beacon in their darkest moment. Choose kindness every day. Reach out to someone today. You have the power to change a life. Be the signal of hope this world needs.