Characters
We’re sorry to bother you at such a time like this, Mrs. Twice. We would have come earlier, but your husband wasn’t dead then.
— Det. Frank Drebin · Police Squad!
Behind the line May contain spoilers.
Our reading
An editorial interpretation.
The speaker offers a formal apology for intruding on Mrs. Twice at a bad moment, then explains the delay with absurd logic: they would have come sooner, but her husband was not yet dead. The deadpan condolence turns tactless, darkly comic bureaucracy.
Context reviewed