A lot of people don’t know this, but you can actually visit Beethoven’s home and they have him in a glass coffin, just like they did with Lenin’s tomb. After you take the tour of the rest of the house, you have to pass through the dimly lit mausoleum to get to the gift shop and exit.
Needless to say, the line through the tomb moves slowly. I remember wondering why people would spend so long looking at a dead guy in a glass case. Finally, when I rounded the corner and got right up in front of the coffin, I understood.
There, in this large glass sarcophagus was a withered figure, with that crazy hair you see in all the picture, dressed in fine fabrics. The really amazing thing is the figure is sitting up. In one hand he holds a yellowing sheet of music. In the other is an eraser. I saw him lift the paper and stare at it intently from eyeless sockets. He then brought the eraser into contact with the page and rubbed and rubbed, removing any trace of the note. Then he did the same with next and so on. I was flabbergasted! Finally, when I had collected my wits, I turned to the nearby security guard and asked “What is he doing?”
“He is slowly decomposing,” was the reply.
Why is Beethovan wearing a CVS receipt?
Thanks to SingaporeBill for providing a much better version of he “decomposing” joke than I could have written. What I find incredible is that Wayno needed clever help to come up with his “composing” joke.
P.S. I agree with Arthur, even though I know that Leigh writes all his own material.
Rubes: Panda – eats shoots and leaves
The panda cartoon might have had a punchier punchline with a news reporter (complete with Trilby, shorthand notebook and pen) hearing the judge’s sentence followed by a second panel with a news headline: SING SING FOR LING LING NABBED IN MING BLING STING
How does social isolation work in a prison context, btw? Maybe it doesn’t – Iran for one has already released lots of low-risk prisoners.
Agreed, thanks to SingaporeBill for relieving us of the need to come up with a good “decomposing” joke.
Catlover – Do you recall the book with that title?
@ ignatzz – Thanks for the Kliban link, I‘m not sure whether I‘ve ever seen that one before. However, Wayno definitely did not think of this one himself, he gives credit to “Klūg”.
I like that Beethoven threw his sheet music during his meltdown. That’s a nice touch.
Whenever I read of the composing/decomposing pun, i immediately think of this ditty from a Monty Python album:
Comics I Don't Understand 
Rubes sounds like it was ghostwritten by Pastis.
A lot of people don’t know this, but you can actually visit Beethoven’s home and they have him in a glass coffin, just like they did with Lenin’s tomb. After you take the tour of the rest of the house, you have to pass through the dimly lit mausoleum to get to the gift shop and exit.
Needless to say, the line through the tomb moves slowly. I remember wondering why people would spend so long looking at a dead guy in a glass case. Finally, when I rounded the corner and got right up in front of the coffin, I understood.
There, in this large glass sarcophagus was a withered figure, with that crazy hair you see in all the picture, dressed in fine fabrics. The really amazing thing is the figure is sitting up. In one hand he holds a yellowing sheet of music. In the other is an eraser. I saw him lift the paper and stare at it intently from eyeless sockets. He then brought the eraser into contact with the page and rubbed and rubbed, removing any trace of the note. Then he did the same with next and so on. I was flabbergasted! Finally, when I had collected my wits, I turned to the nearby security guard and asked “What is he doing?”
“He is slowly decomposing,” was the reply.
Why is Beethovan wearing a CVS receipt?
Thanks to SingaporeBill for providing a much better version of he “decomposing” joke than I could have written. What I find incredible is that Wayno needed clever help to come up with his “composing” joke.
P.S. I agree with Arthur, even though I know that Leigh writes all his own material.
Rubes: Panda – eats shoots and leaves
The panda cartoon might have had a punchier punchline with a news reporter (complete with Trilby, shorthand notebook and pen) hearing the judge’s sentence followed by a second panel with a news headline: SING SING FOR LING LING NABBED IN MING BLING STING
How does social isolation work in a prison context, btw? Maybe it doesn’t – Iran for one has already released lots of low-risk prisoners.
“Beethoven Composing Himself” is an old Kliban cartoon (here: https://i.pinimg.com/originals/7c/ba/f6/7cbaf6703842454c2a3a8e19e6877f83.gif). It’s a fairly obvious pun, so I assume Wayno though of it independently.
Agreed, thanks to SingaporeBill for relieving us of the need to come up with a good “decomposing” joke.
Catlover – Do you recall the book with that title?
@ ignatzz – Thanks for the Kliban link, I‘m not sure whether I‘ve ever seen that one before. However, Wayno definitely did not think of this one himself, he gives credit to “Klūg”.
I like that Beethoven threw his sheet music during his meltdown. That’s a nice touch.
Whenever I read of the composing/decomposing pun, i immediately think of this ditty from a Monty Python album: