Tommy Tiernan was crying with laughter on his RTÉ One show on Saturday night as Mike Murphy brought one of his classic candid camera pranks back from the dead.
As the comedian saluted the legendary broadcaster's sheer nerve in going undercover in the name of a laugh, Murphy said that there was one unforgettable moment that was never broadcast on his show The Live Mike.
"We got a coffin and a hearse and we went down to... they show some of it but they can't show the one that we had to wrap it up," he explained.
"I was in the coffin. Dermot Morgan and Fran Dempsey, I think, were dressed as two undertakers with the long, black things and I was in the coffin and we had a hearse.
"They were half holding the coffin in and out of the hearse and then a passerby [would come along] and they'd say, 'Do you mind awfully - would you hold on to that while we go in the house to get the flowers?'
"So [with] a couple of them, it worked - they show it and it worked.
"But there was one man that we couldn't show. He got the coffin, right? Now, it's half in and half out of the hearse and he's holding it... He was very nice - 'That's alright, yes. No, no, no - I'll do that for you'. - and they went off into the house, you see.
"I'm in the coffin and then I kind of went, 'Aaawww...' and your man's looking around to see! And I went again, 'Aaawww...' and he's looking to the coffin! And then [he says], 'Hello! Hello! Hello! Could you come out?! Could you come out?!'
"And then I went, 'Aaaaaaawwwwwww...' [And he says] 'He's not dead! He's not dead! Yiz better come out! Yiz better come out!'
"They didn't come out. So then I started lifting the lid! It was terribly funny because he got the coffin and shagged it back into the hearse! And then he leaned on it and said, 'He's trying to get out! He's trying to get out!'
"So the next minute, he turned around and ran! He ran down the road and I didn't see it because I was still in the coffin at the time! But when we looked at it, he stopped against the railings further down, clutching his heart. [Sharp intake of breath] 'I've a terrible pain in me chest. Oh God, me chest! I've a terrible pain in me chest! I got such a [fright]!'
"We said, 'We better wrap this up. We're going to kill someone before it finishes!'"
"But, I mean, it was quite amusing in the telling, do you know what I mean?" offered Murphy by way of an understatement. "It was quite amusing."
"That's brilliant," said the host.
And here is the skit, as seen on The Live Mike in March 1982:
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For more Mike Murphy fun, visit the RTÉ Archives.
