In a rubbish sack?

Perhaps it’s a personal sensitivity about death and dying these days but I get a bit cross about the frequent TV commercials promoting funeral insurance. I am a little surprised that the Funeral Director’s Association seems to have been quiet about some misrepresentation of their profession but I respect the dignity of their silence.

However, I really wonder how some children feel about the idea of a pleasant grandfatherly figure objecting to being “put out on the road in a rubbish sack” as though this were conceivably possible.

I am all for a realistic, frank and open view of death and dying. (Bev says I am much too frank; she says that when people say, “G’day,. Dave, how are you?” and I give them a brief medical report, complete with my PSA trends, that’s not what they actually want...).

And I have no problem with humour in the context of death. People who enjoy my Murder Mystery Dinners will suggest that my sense of humour is pretty macabre. But we don’t encourage young children to buy tickets to our shows. That’s not a matter of any possible breach of any standard. It’s just recognising that there’s an appropriate time, place and audience for some kinds of humour.

I think that sensitivity is missing in the timing of the “rubbish sack”.