Today in parallel thinking: 7 sketch comedy videos honoring a dying man’s last request

A new season of SNL also brings other comedians out of the woodwork to say, “Hey, I did that comedy sketch first!”

When it’s an absurd topic, you might have a case to make. When it’s the idea that a dying soldier would have terrible choices for his last request to a comrade, well, before you can say Lycos, I went ahead and Googled it. And what do you know? Several comedians and sketch groups already done gone and went there and did that, so Saturday Night Live probably didn’t steal your idea so much as not care that your idea also uploaded itself to the Internet.

First, here is SNL’s “Dying Wish” sketch featuring Alec Baldwin, Taran Killam, Bobby Moynihan and Fred Armisen.

https://www.hulu.com/watch/282326/saturday-night-live-dying-wish

Now for the others.

The Ruckus made the charge that their sketch, “Forget Me Not,” has played out live at Improv Boston seven times since May 2011. And yes, at least one or two of the requests are the same. Roll it!

But still. This lengthier “Last Request” sketch has been floating around for several years, and features a younger Nick Turner. Same four soldier, one premise sketch. Do the thing with your clicky fingers.

What if we animated it, and then followed the surviving soldier back to America to fulfill the ridiculous requests. Here is that thing on video by Jeff Short!

Well, if you’re going to be like that, let’s stay animated with this clip from the Comedy Central series, Drawn Together. I almost forgot that was a thing for more than a minute. Here, it’s the dying request of a villain to his superhero nemesis in a hospital room. And it’s gross. This is why I blocked this series from my memory.

Comedian Pete Holmes has a lot of requests for his buddy Jay Larson after receiving a seemingly fatal stabbing wound outside his front door in this Atom.com sketch that appeared in May 2011. May 2011. It’s a pattern, I tells ya! Roll it.

Certainly the UCB has something to say on this matter, right? Yep. Lookie here. The Los Angeles theatre’s Sketch Cram crew spun it as a way to put off a mob hit. Starring Scott Rodgers and Jack Allison.

Which brings us back to SNL. Specifically Season 7, Episode 17. Hosted by Johnny Cash, who appears in the sketch “Frankie’s Last Wish,” as inmate Frankie (Eddie Murphy) tries to postpone his death penalty by giving his guard (Joe Piscopo) a series of outrageous demands. Video not yet available?

Also see (or don’t), the 2006 film, The Last Request, starring T.R. Knight as a would-be preacher who leaves the seminary to fulfill his dad’s death-bed wish.

I’m sure there are more (just typed “last request” into the search button on Funny or Die), but I think we’re done here.

Sean L. McCarthy

Editor and publisher since 2007, when he was named New York's Funniest Reporter. Former newspaper reporter at the New York Daily News, Boston Herald and smaller dailies and community papers across America. Loves comedy so much he founded this site.

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2 thoughts on “Today in parallel thinking: 7 sketch comedy videos honoring a dying man’s last request

  1. The sketch with Nick Turner was from January 2003 Chicago Sketch Fest the sketch group had been doing the sketch since 2002 or so. Madness!

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