Leslie Nielsen’s final joke is etched on his gravestone
“It’s the same old story,” Leslie Nielsen’s iconic Fred Drebin explains, “Boy finds girl, boy loses girl, girl finds boy, boy forgets girl, boy remembers girl, girls dies in a tragic blimp accident over the Orange Bowl on New Year’s Day.” And Jane earnestly asks, “Goodyear?” Drebin replies, “No, the worst.” And just like that, a world of comedy fans have never been able to look at a blimp or the Goodyear brand ever again.
Nielsen was deadly serious, he mastered the art of not being funny, and it was absolutely hilarious. From “Don’t call me Shirley,” to “Like a midget at a urinal, I was going to have to stay on my toes,” his legendary mix of dry punchlines and absurdity damped the slacks of many a giggling fan in classics like Airplane!, The Naked Gun series and the lesser-known fan favourite Wrongfully Accused.
He might have played it like he never got the joke, but that was seemingly an act setting it up for one final punchline. When the Canadian star passed away in 2010 at the age of 84, fellow comedians like David Wain paid tribute in a fittingly daft fashion, commenting: “Can’t count how many times I rewound the VHS to hear Leslie Nielsen say, ‘Nice Beaver!’ I will miss him.” While Patton Oswald asserted that the jokey tone of the eulogies is what he would’ve wanted.
After all, this is a man who carried a personal fart machine. As director David Zucker explains: “He had the little fart machine of his, so that every time he was interviewed on a show […] he would be talking with a straight face, and then he would appear to be farting. That’s just what he liked to do.” That’s a gag that lasted most of his life.
As Nielsen confirms with a fart, “I’ll do anything for a laugh.” And he was determined to have the last one. What better way to seal that than one last fart joke? As his epitaph reads: “Let ‘er rip.” And if that’s not enough, he also had a memorial bench placed in the Fort Lauderdale cemetery which comically comes with the plaque: “Sit down whenever you can.”
From rather serious beginnings, Nielsen found his groove with perfect timing. As the late, great comedic star said when reflecting on his career: “Today, in my career, I’m doing what I love to do. And that is, do things for the fun – do comedy. It’s a pleasure to go for the laughter.”
