Shawn’s new goal in life is, that when he dies, to have more wardrobe changes than Aretha Franklin had at her funeral. Christopher is not sure how he wants to go, but — to quote The Dead Milkmen — he knows he doesn’t want to die, “stoned and fat and wealthy and sitting on the bowl…”

Really, either of the Gorillamen would be fine living a life like Abe Vigoda: successful enough to do his own thing — and becoming an icon, in part, for being alive when most people believed him long gone…

* * *

We begin with the first dead celebrities we ever heard about, and whether people being upset about celebrity death seemed weird to us as kids.

After that, we talk about why celebrity deaths affect people, and which celebrity deaths (major and minor) affected us. Sticking to those thoughts, we even chat about the celebrity death that will probably hit us most in the future.

Technology has blurred the lines of celebrity — now, someone with a camera and a YouTube connection can have a larger following than some major celebrities. But…some people still think it’s weird when an atypical celebrity dies and people mourn. We discuss that, and then move on to the different ways we mourn based on the kind of celebrity who died. (And Shawn and Christopher briefly argue about which Philip Roth book is the best!)

Some celebrities live lives of ridiculous excess…so much so that some people almost seem like they got what they “deserved.” We discuss why people can be like that, and then devote some time to celebrity death pools.

Sometimes in death, things are revealed about celebrities that changes some people’s views about them. We talk about a few celebrities we’ve seen that happen with…and then we wrap it all up with perhaps the most ridiculous (and oddly specific) future scenario Gorilla Christopher has devised for the show:

“And now we step into the future. Something about episode number 538 catapults us to super stardom. We can’t go outside without being mobbed. We decide to have a recording retreat to a cabin in the woods…where a faulty space heater takes us out with carbon monoxide poisoning. How would YOU like to be remembered by our masses of adoring fans?”

Live long and prosper, y’all!

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