When I die, I want to go peacefully like my grandfather did–in his sleep. Not yelling and screaming like the passengers in his car.

This line is a classic example of a “bait-and-switch” one-liner from mid-to-late 20th-century British stand-up and after-dinner comedy, a style in which Bob Monkhouse excelled. It is typically delivered as a self-contained joke in live performance rather than tied to a single identifiable speech or publication. The setup evokes a sentimental, familiar wish for a peaceful death, then abruptly undercuts it with a darkly comic twist implying the grandfather died while driving, with terrified passengers. The humor relies on timing and misdirection, and it circulated widely in comedy clubs and joke anthologies, often being repeated by other performers.

The humor depends on misdirection: the opening expresses a conventional hope for a calm, dignified death, inviting sentimental agreement. The punchline abruptly reframes the grandfather’s “peaceful” death as occurring while driving, implying a fatal crash and shifting the emotional register from tender to macabre. The joke plays on the gap between private experience (dying in one’s sleep) and public consequence (others’ terror), using shock to expose how language can sanitize grim realities. As a one-liner, it also showcases economy: a familiar premise, a swift twist, and a final image that lands through incongruity and dark irony.

1) “I want to die peacefully in my sleep, like my grandfather… not screaming and yelling like the passengers in his car.”
2) “When I die, I want to go like my granddad—peacefully in his sleep. Not like the people in the back seat.”
3) “I hope I die in my sleep like my grandfather; not like his passengers, who were awake and terrified.”