Painterly drooping white lily resting on a stone windowsill in grey light.

Original artwork, not a still

Det. Frank Drebin

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.

— Police Squad! · 1982

Behind the line

What it means

Our 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

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