A guy was offered a cemetery plot for $10,000. He said, “Are you kidding? That’s the last thing I need!”
What’s so funny about this? Yeah, this joke is slightly morbid since it’s about death. But actually death is one of the most joked about subjects, probably because laughing is a lot better than screaming in horror. What you’re looking at in the cartoon is a common practice among certain groups and parts of the population done by undertakers, funeral parlors and some specialized companies. You can even buy them on-line from companies with names like “grave solutions.” This happens to be a great pun. “Grave” can be an adjective meaning serious and it can be a noun that means the hole in the ground where you are buried. But my favorite on-line offering is on craigslist where someone was selling a “slightly used” grave site – eewww! In our cartoon the guy in the black suit, presumably an undertaker, is offering to sell the guy with the big nose a plot in the cemetery for $10,000. Sounds kind of steep to me. Maybe it has a great view or something. Anyway, big nose doesn’t think the guy could be serious and tells him it’s the last thing he needs. This is an expression, which in this context, has two meanings. First of all it’s a way of saying that the plot is completely useless to him. In other words, he needs many, many other things more than he needs a designated grave for after he’s dead. BUT if you take the words literally, a grave will absolutely be the last thing he needs. After he’s dead, he’ll need nothing more. And THAT’s what’s so ironic and funny.