Adam Conover Pissed Off The Embalming Community | CONAN on TBS 

Yo Mamma There'd be a revolution tomorrow if people actually understood the horrifying inner workings of our economic system

TheSaxAppeal, There'd be a wave of mass suicides if people understood a tenth of the horrors that hide under the fabric of our society, at any time in history.

I see, the avocado is to be served as side dish for the fauna that will get to eat you. I would suggest you get buried with a pot of gravy and some mashed potatoes too.

I wish to be catapulted into the sea. But now that side dishes were mentioned, perhaps I should ask to be covered in shrimp paste first.

We can call that a shrimpura.

You want a circus clown to do your funeral?

Any seeds buried that deep will have a hard time sprouting.

STDrepository many people believe that if they don't embalm the dead, they'll start to decompose quickly. In western culture, you don't instantly buried someone after they died, you tried to collect all the families and loved ones to have a final goodbye to the dead. So many people believed that if they don't do embalming, the body will visually rot immediately.

Originally embalming was done for the pharaohs of Egypt because they believed their bodies had to be intact after death for them to enjoy their possessions in the afterlife. or something like that

+STDrepository That's a great idea, let's make funerals an annual thing. We need to keep the party going.

+Michael Panggabean think you mean "eastern culture". To me your last name kinda explained your point. Horas.

Corn Cob no it's western. If you see it from my name, then yes people from my culture don't bury their dead instantly, but that's because it's influenced by Christian culture. Majority of Indonesians are Muslims, and in Islam you should bury the dead immediately. In East Asian culture, cremation has been the norm for a while, so embalming is not necessary.

dahalofreeek that's a great point that's why it should probably only be an option if the funeral will not be held three to four days after death.

I think refrigeration works just as well if you need to keep the body preserved for a week or two

dahalofreeek Yeah honesty embalming still usually isnt worth it. they don't look themselves especially if a considerable amount of time has past but hey everybody has their own reasons

Yes in circumstances like that, embalming is perfectly understandable. HOWEVER, the funeral industry uses it to make money in a shady way. It is very common to lie to families and tell them the dead HAVE to be embalmed (even though it's illegal to do that).

It is a known carcinogen now. I was a bit surprised, as it is also used pretty indiscriminately in keeping biological samples for science, but it actually does increase cancer risk somewhat and you should not breathe it in, especially long term.

I don't think anyone does this is Sweden where I live. Sounds absurd.

Then why do you work in a funeral home?...

If it’s burning your eyes you need to get a better ventilation system... and you’re suppose to be able to measure out the fluids properly..

Sydney Baumeister exactly

ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-MzrTl3kYHBE.html

ppleeatpple yes! This and her other videos that got me to think about the this in depth and talk about it with my family!

Nicole Sharp They made a joke in the episode on the whole aspect of how much you spend on a coffin for a dead relative proves how much you love them.

Steinerman yup, seen it

Nicole Sharp nintendo cardboard coffin

Amarianee was she really?!?!?!?!!

Tamara Castanon Yup! It's s01e12, "Adam Ruins Death."

Really? Sweet!

It's a shame she was cut out in the RU-vid clip on embalming

God i love those books. Smoke gets in your eyes is so funny.

JustWasted3HoursHere so if you donate your brain, youre okay with it being brought back to life in a lab and being zapped and sliced and poked? Organ donation isnt like it was 50 yrs ago, you may end up blind in a jar with some college kid zapping your memories out of the darkness of your death.

Brought back to life in a jar? Sounds cool!

JustWasted3HoursHere uh huh

It will still cost a few thousand for a green burial depending on where you live.

JustWasted3HoursHere bring back my memories how embarrassing, oh wait I’m dead...

SmashLiXs its a joke~

Rowan Moony That's not just a joke, people actually say that. Throwing out buzzwords like biased or the different fallacies when they don't apply has caught on with those segments of our society with no care for the actual meaning of those words or for honesty. It's up to us to know what they really mean and be critical of their use by emotional agitators.

Now that I think about it again, I think it is actually safe to say that. Being biased means being prejudiced. You are prejudiced because you do not have all information available, and fill out the blanks with your own imagination, this is being prejudiced. As an embalmer he certainly knows more about this topic of embalming, so there are less (up to no) blank spaces in his knowledge which he would feel with his own imagination, and thus he would be much farer away from being prejudiced, or biased. While it sounds wrong at first, it is actually a correct statement.

Chraan It could depend if he's just throwing it out there just to "prove a point". Maybe he does have information, but one cannot prove it right now.

@@Chraan Bias and prejudice are more like opposites, or at least far from the same thing. Prejudice comes from ignorance, bias comes from having a vested interest, maybe knowing what you're doing is wrong or unnecessary, but ignoring it because it gives you financial or other gain. Yes, a person working in embalming is very much biased towards keeping embalming as a popular practice, because that is their livelihood.

Good thing you watched this videos then buddy!! :P

Daniel Polido conan woukd be further if leno didnt try an sabotage him him years ago.... I love that TBS gives conan creative freedom

He's my third favourite, after Eric Andre and Craig Ferguson. Although I guess since Craig stopped he is 2nd

Graham shit's on every single US talk show host, it's not even close. Even Colbert, Connan, and Ferguson pale, and I think they're amazing (especially Ferguson).

Thank you for being honest.

BOG BURIAL!

I used to think about that very thing when I was a kid and in my dinosaur fossil phase

Kelly Vaccine I didn't even know natural burials were available in this country until Adam mentioned them.

I want a water cremation now.

The best resource I know for death-related stuff 😊 she's awesome. I mean she's biased in her own view against embalming, but it's a well supported viewpoint and she makes a lot of sense. I do kind of wish Adam had asked her to be on the show (edit: apparently she WAS on it lol egg on my face)

She was on the death episode.

Yes !!

Classic embalmer.

aclaybass yeah i finished my apprenticeship for my embalmers license and I have my Crematory Manager's license. This guy is wrong on a few things lol

Hey me too.

Josh Burgess instead of just saying he is wrong you could tell us what he is wrong about.

UnseenNature he is right that some mortuaries try to "up-sell" you on caskets but you know a salesman when you see one.. truth is, mortuaries now days have to be very upfront about prices and can not pressure you into doing anything. If they do, they can get in trouble with the Cemetery and Funeral Bureau (at least in California).. embalming is not required by law unless there is a public visitation (wake, viewing, etc.) or if the body is transported out of state (unless religion forbids it like Judaism or Islam, but there are alternatives to preserving the body such as special containers and dry ice only for those purposes)..

Netherwolf6100 so your going to disappear just as your former apprentice is about to strike you down and you will become something more powerful then he could ever imagine

Where_have_I_been A guy who deliver cookies and gives free hugs?

When I'm dead just throw me in the trash

be aquemated! it’s better for the environment, ultimately making it more jedi-like

trublgrl i’m sorry you feel you’ve been wronged, but funeral directors use softer terms to put grieving families at ease during their time of mourning. It’s not much of a cushion, but it’s a little bit less of an emotional impact. If families started showing signs that they’re not negatively affected by more accurate terms, then we’d quickly change our vocabulary to be more scientific and precise. Some caskets and vaults are more expensive than others mostly based on design and materials, but sometimes function. I personally never thought it’d be all that important what a casket looks like. Kinda seems like a status thing to me, especially when i look at caskets like Aretha Franklin’s. I suppose it really just comes down to what family thinks is appropriate most of the time. Mr. Conover even says in the episode “most families have no idea how they’d like their loved one’s funeral to be handled.” If you feel strongly against having your body embalmed after death, i urge you to take some time to write an official will, no matter how old you are. But something to think about is that funerals aren’t really for the dead - they’re for the living. They’re to help people cope and transition through that stage of their life. Personally, i think you’re right. I don’t care how my body is handled after death. It should be decided by my family and what their needs are in order to properly move on and accept my death. It’s hurtful to think that you hate funeral directors simply because we’re educated and cultivated to be professional and overly caring. If you feel you’ve been wronged by a funeral director you know, you can report them to your national funeral organization and they’ll look into the mortuary personally to make sure no malpractice has taken place. First and foremost, we’re here to help families through this difficult process so that they can dedicate their time to proper emotional management. This profession is a lot of work and it’s rigorously maintained and managed. We’re here to help in whatever way that you need and we’re not legally allowed to stray from that premise. It’s absolutely your choice what you want to do with your body after death and that choice should always be respected.

@@evanweaver1060 thank you for the informative reply. I'm working on becoming educated on home funerals, green burials, and the like. Would love to learn more about the funeral director side of things. I don't think alternative death care and funeral homes have to be on either side of this debate, there just needs to be more open communication about the topic so less misinformation is being spread.

Mariah Thomas we recently watched a documentary about home funerals in my arrangements class. I think that they’re fantastic as alternatives. The only thing that irked me about them (and this was entirely the fault of the ladies who were running this business - not the fault of alternative funerals) is that they preached 2 main things as setting them apart from funeral homes: 1) they’re more affordable, and 2) they’re more easily customizable and hand-tailored to the individual family’s needs. Now, these should, in theory, be true, but these ladies really messed it all up by 1) charging the same overhead fees as funeral directors (so it became the same price as a traditional funeral) and 2) following a pretty straight formula with their services (decorate a basic cremation container with some photos, flowers, and drawings). Promise me that if you’re going into the fantastical world of alternative funerals, that you A) follow the law (really that’s just a general guideline but always super crucial), and B) don’t be like those ladies. Embody what alternative funerals are supposed to be. Don’t get lazy and greedy like those ladies. Otherwise, people will start to resent the freedom of choice.

@@evanweaver1060 pinky promise! My goal is to work with families and the dying to come up with the best and most affordable way to honor a loved one. The 3 home funerals I have been involved (mind you, two were my own family members) with have each been unique and lovely - from flower crowns and cedar boughs to graveside songs to home funeral viewings complete with personalized altars. From what I've learned, they can be as individual as the person who died, and should be, in my opinion. And really, the main goal is to let families know that they can take charge of a lot of the process. Even transporting a body to a crematory if the crematorium will make an appointment with them. Thank you for sharing your opinion! I appreciate your point of view.

one of the latest episodes of his show is a corrections episode where the went back over previous episodes and pointed out what they got wrong.

While I give him props for his corrections episode, I do condemn him for totally glossing over the episode with the most factual errors, the Immigration episode. He averaged one wrong fact (or at least one totally misleading fact) every three minutes. Never made one correction for it. I wonder if it was politically motivated.

Curious, where did you get this information that he was giving out wrong facts every three minutes? Since all his claims are fact checked and sourced on their blog.

I fact checked his citations. For example, his claim that immigration courts are unfair because unlike "normal" courts defendants don't get a lawyer. Immigration Courts fall under civil law, and NO ONE get a lawyer in civil court. He also listed the number of cases an immigration judge does in a year as "over three times a normal judge". Once again, he's comparing criminal court with civil court. Then there were a string of wrong info relating to the Mexican American War. By my count, 8 mistakes (or totally misleading information) in about 24 minutes of programing.

TheDrexxus Those are some strong statements, me being 20 years old and fresh out of mortuary school, I take it as a personal insult, clearly it is personal, such a broad statement. So I'm curious, why do you feel this way?

Most funeral directors are not like that at all... they do what they can to help families get through a fought time. They cannot force you to purchase anything except the non declinable fee, which is often just added to the price of a casket.

nyfarou and i’m some lady

Jón Frímann Jónsson I really didn't know that until I started looking at these comments. In some places in the US, you will find it legally difficult to do a natural burial.

Bethany Lade yeah natural burials require a specifically designed cemetery that’s still only just gaining popularity in the US. Most cemeteries in the US require a casket with a vault or liner to keep the ground from caving in. However, we’re seeing a lot more green cemeteries popping up around the country, so hooray for progress. One of the states on the west coast also just legalized human composting not all that long ago, so that’s something cool and exciting.

michaelovitch wouldn’t it prevent the zombie apocalypse?

keeponrockin i don’t think Caitlin Doughty thinks it’s shady. She’s just against it for ecological reasons.

+Gewgulkan Suhckitt You need to be clearer about what option number 1 means. Even if you don't preserve the body through embalming or freezing, you still have enough time for a decently long funeral. Embalming only becomes necessary if you need to keep the body presentable for weeks for some reason(relatives in other countries, wish of the deceased, etc.)

I want option 4.. Be fed to a bear.

I want a US Naval warship to do a sea burial with my ashes. Just as I've interred several sailors before me.

According to google's definitions: Coffin - a long, narrow box, typically of wood, in which a dead body is buried or cremated. Casket - (North American) *a coffin*

Unfortunately many funeral homes are less than forthcoming with that information. Watch AskaMortician who has years of experience in the business. Caitlin Doughty also has some Tedtalks on youtube

BlueMysteryWolf The SCI is the Service Corporation International that deals with corporate funeral homes; particularly on its business models and terms. Corporate funeral homes under SCI all follow the standard static practices in which they do not even embalm the bodies and do not prep the funerals in customizable ways that fits the family's wishes ; such as packs which are overpriced garbage services. Many funeral homes under SCI have "local business" names but they are the complete opposite. I am specialising in embalming and other natural burial types so I am not going to work at a business in which I can not even use my skill by just sending the bodies to be embalmed for me in order to "save time and produce the most capital". So to answer your question, not all funeral homes are under the SCI jurisdiction -- but funeral homes that are under SCI do use mom-papa names. You just need to do research on a funeral home to make sure it isn't corporate. The one I work for is not corporate thankfully -- as we provide embalming/cremation and natural burials with custom services for those who want to have a "metal theme service" if they please. :) Some funeral students choose to work at corporates because it's easier to get in -- I got lucky with my actual local and private funeral home because I am friends with my supervisor's daughter

BlueMysteryWolf ALL funeral homes are owned to an extent but not by SCI. The NFDA is the association that does so and was established in order to prevent malpractice-- thus why when a funeral home is caught conducting harmful business practices such as overpricing and forced embalming, they are immediately shut down for good. A funeral home has to have some government interference because it is a job that deals with health protocols and a LOT of sensitive information.

ReptileMan 0912 what school are you attending? I graduated with my AAS in Embalming in '98.

sandrea sanders I am attending St. Petersburg College in Central Florida taught under the program director, Kevin Davis :) I am finishing my AS degree this summer

Sophia Bogard In some states that's true.

No, it's not. Of the states that have these so called "embalming laws" all of them say you either need to embalm or refrigerate the body. But refrigeration is much cheaper so many people leave that detail out. Those people lied to you to get more money.

There’s not much of a difference though like isn’t a casket just a fancier coffin . A coffin is more human shaped and a casket is rectangular. Like besides the price difference how much of a difference is there?

So don't have a viewing.

Embalming is a law in some states because the funeral business lobbied for it in the past.

That is a stupid law. Where I live embalming is illegal, yet we still have open casket funerals up to a week after death. If the body is properly kept refridgerated, it really is uncessesary to embalm a body.

Actually you're wrong the law says the body must be embalmed or refrigerated. It's important to actually read the laws yourself instead of believing people who have a monetary interest in the decision. Google RCW 18.39.215 to actually read the Washington law.

Nope, just Adam in a very horrible jacket.

Dalion Heart Is tweed outta style?

In developed nations these circumstances are very very rare, and in the event that a body is hazardous the CDC strongly recommends against embalming anyway.