"Requiem for a Wino" is one of the fifth season's most celebrated episodes, with mainstays Looting Lenny (Dap Sugar Willie, fourth of seven) and Weeping Wanda (Helen Martin, fifth of seven) joined by Robert Guillaume, then riding high in his breakout role as Benson the butler on SOAP, in his sole appearance as resident wino Fishbone (Ned the Wino long gone). Just yesterday he was fired from his job delivering free samples of mouthwash, containing 2% alcohol: "I never felt so bad and smelled so good in all my life!" Still disappointed at not receiving his own card for his birthday, Fishbone feels down and out and friendless, his wallet later stolen by a vagrant who gets killed by a car: "you see this wallet here, well he's flatter than this!" The victim's name of Theodopius P. Johnson aka Fishbone inspires the Evans family to throw him a wake like no corpse ever woke up to: "here's to me, may I rest in peace!" It's only the first stop for Wanda, the funeral professional, the immaculate Lenny displaying his wares to her weeping discomfort: "my name is Lenny and if I ain't got it there ain't any, though we came here to weep I got something you can keep, now it ain't a horse and it ain't a rhino, it's just a memento for Fishbone the Wino!" Topping it off is the presence of the widow Fishbone, all covered in black to enjoy the festivities: "a man gets a funeral like this only once in a lifetime!"
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