Arsenic and Old Lace (1944)

Directed by Frank Capra

When Debra gives visitors the tour of our old Victorian house, they’ll sometimes notice the window seat in the front hall, and they’ll ask, “What do you do with this?” And she answers right back, “Oh, that’s where we keep the dead bodies!”

Why is that funny? Dick Van Dyke once did a routine on his show, talking about why audiences these days are too so…