- You know what also eats batteries like a bitch
is the (beep) Bluetooth keyboards.
- Yeah, you know what else does?
- What?
- My big, big vibrator I stick up my (beep).
Actually, that's not even enough power,
now I plug it into the wall.
I hook it up to a car battery.
(beep) it, all the electricity
is like Poltergeist on this block,
every house is just flashing.
(both laughing)
Hi, it's me, Trixie Mattel.
- And I'm Katya.
- And we are two queens who like to watch.
- And today, we are watching a new reality series
called "Buried by the Bernards",
which follows a mortuary business in Memphis, Tennessee.
- Drag queen funeral home, that's a business.
- Absolutely.
- We don't just do up the body for the funeral,
she is show ready. - She does a number, yeah.
- She does a number, marionette, wood cracks,
I am the master, you are the slave.
- Smoke comes out of the casket.
- It's "Thriller" every night,
the song "Thriller".
(Katya laughs)
(intense music)
Now caution, spoilers ahead, dead people ahead.
- I had the time of my life in Memphis,
let me tell you. - Really?
- Absolutely.
I went to this place called Earnestine & Hazel,
it was an old brothel back in the day.
It was incredible.
- They said, you're old
and you look like you belong in a brothel,
come on in, sis.
- And I stayed there for three days,
I left with an accent.
- I love when people go somewhere for five seconds
and come home with an accent.
- I could see myself getting annoying
and I couldn't stop.
- There's this girl I went to high school with,
we went to France,
she started to talk like the English
that French people.
- Oh my god.
- She's like, how do you say?
I'm like, we're from Wisconsin, you know the word.
- You know English. - You know the word.
It was, how you say, great.
I'm like, yeah, that is how you say it.
All right, so we're gonna meet the Bernards here,
and their whole business,
and we have a drive through
- Viewing of dead people.
- A drive through viewing of dead people,
very COVID friendly.
- Take a quick look into our funeral chapel right here.
- Wait a minute, Mr. Deadman.
- Why, why, are you so, so dead, man.
- The biggest thing we're known for
is the drive through viewing.
We were one of the first pioneers in this area
with this service. - What?
That is a repurposed bank.
This looks like a bank.
- My aunt and my uncle, the always had this idea
of opening a funeral home.
I really didn't like the idea at all.
(Trixie and Katya laughing)
- I love that.
- This is my office. - Oh, nice office.
Oh, work.
- This was a gift. - Self tapestry.
- From one of my daughters. - He's cute.
- I want a tapestry of me in a room
that's of me in that room.
- And then it goes on and on.
Like that girl who comes to the meet and greets
with the shirts.
- Yeah, meet and greet inception.
- She comes to the meet and greet
with a picture of you on the shirt.
- From the previous meet and greet
and so on and so forth. - And then keeps going.
That is crazy.
- Seven times I got a T-shirt.
- Do you collect them?
- Are you kidding me?
Absolutely.
I have a tapestry at home.
(both giggling)
- As a single dad of two women,
I have to be strong for them
and do what I have to do.
A good soldier. - Beautiful.
Okay, I've never had a dad,
but if I did, I would want a dad like that.
- Yeah. - He seems fun.
- Good morning.
- This is my daughter, Deja and Reagan.
- My daughter's office,
and look, the cameras come in
and she's on her phone, doesn't even look up.
- Yeah.
- Instant reality star. - Unfazed.
- Looking out for her, and she's looking out for me.
Boom, Beyonce and Solange, 2.0.
(Trixie and Katya laughing)
- Okay, so this show is very exciting
because it's demystifying death a little bit,
but it's also Black owned business, Black family,
Black joy, 2021, let's get into it, sis.
- Let's get into it.
- I know y'all back there, man.
I'm talking to myself, man. (laughs)
- Kevin!
Kevin!
First of all, this outfit is fire.
- It's so good.
- Strictly pimping.
- [Both] Strictly pimping.
- We have my mother, hello, Debbie.
- Wait a minute,
are them cameras really working for real?
- Yes, yes, yes.
- [Trixie] It's not a prop camera.
- Oh, (beep), you might be telling the truth now.
Okay, hold up.
- Love her.
- The boss, I'm the boss.
Tell me, I tell you what to do.
Come on, camera crew, y'all gotta go.
- Us, 10 minutes into this.
- Yeah, get out of here.
- But quickly turned into a dictatorship.
(Debbie chuckles)
- Amazing.
Fabulous.
- Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
- Kevin!
That should be on the other episode she did.
- I'm like, hi, I'm Trixie Mattel,
and we're queens who like to watch,
and you sit up in a casket like the Crypt Keeper and laugh.
No, you wake up smiling.
- Like, laughing. (chuckles)
- There's something very funny about coffins.
- Yeah, death is hysterical.
- A bed that locks that will-
- They're just laying there, dead.
- And let me just say,
that coffins appear to be more comfortable
than a lot of the beds I've had in my life.
- That's a really good point.
- All that padding for a dead person?
- I know, and it's like a cocoon.
- Throw my body in a fire and cook food over it.
I don't care.
- Literally, just put it outside on Wednesday morning
for the trash.
- Anybody who ever wanted to (beep) me,
tell them, that's their moment,
whether I wanted it or not.
Like, give me a show.
You know what I mean?
Let people connect with me.
Just donate me to the necrophiliacs.
- Oh my god, the local necrophiliac chapter.
- I wanna be the next Leggy.
(Katya laughs)
So Reagan wants more responsibility at the company,
so Uncle Kevin's taking her
to pick up her first dead body.
- You always remember your first.
- I gotta teach you how to drive the hearse.
- Kevin! - Yeah.
- [Reagan] Are there bodies in there?
- No bodies, no bodies.
- I have never driven a hearse ever in my life.
- You got this, girl. - You go, girl.
You drive that death wagon.
- We teach you how to pick the body up.
- Pick up a body?
- She's in her school uniform.
- It's gonna be in the back of here?
Kevin, my Gucci purse is back there.
- The dead man's not gonna steal the purse. (laughs)
Just eating an orange.
- He's eating an orange.
- [Kevin] You want some?
- No, I don't want an orange,
where'd you even get the orange from?
- The duke.
(Trixie and Katya laughing)
- What would your casket look like?
- Acrylic, clear, I want every body
to see every inch of me. - Like Snow White?
- Yeah, bottom and top, and I'm nude, naked and nude.
- I want Pam in "True Blood".
That pink satin tufted. - Oh yeah.
The pink ruched satin.
- Yes.
My wish for my funeral is that I have an aluminum coffin
but everybody at the funeral says aluminum.
(Katya chuckles)
You know how people say aluminum?
- Aluminum?
How is, this coffin? - Aluminum.
- I think this baby's fixing to come.
- All right, it's time for Deja's baby.
Like a sequel to Rosemary's baby.
- Yeah, we got multiple themes here.
- Mama?
- I'm fixing to go get the bag.
- Oh no, I thought she was gonna be like,
we're in a meeting.
- Yeah, that baby can wait.
- Look at her run. - Go get the damn bag.
- I love that they've prepared this
and it's still like a panic.
- Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute,
that was the worst test run in America.
- Oh my god!
- We gotta pick up the pace.
- My heart skipped a whole beat.
- I done told the whole set.
- Incredible.
- Kevin's not having it.
I'm gonna use that when I wanna get out of a meeting.
I'm gonna be in a Zoom,
and I'm gonna come back, - Three times a year.
- With a basketball under my T-shirt. (exclaims)
- [Debbie] It's getting late, it's getting real late.
- So the family's about to throw Deja
a surprise baby shower, but she's running late.
- Deja gonna be late.
She gonna be late to work,
late for the baby shower.
It's just something about time and Deja don't go together.
- Every work place needs a Debbie though.
Otherwise, everyone falls apart.
- Yeah, absolutely.
- You ever wanna come work for Trixie Cosmetics,
we need a bitch to toe the line.
- I never thought that I was gonna have a boy.
I always wanted a girl.
So I said, I'm gonna name my baby Tatum O'Neal,
'cause I was sure it was a girl.
- [Trixie And Katya] Tatum-
(Trixie laughs)
- So if you don't have a name,
you're gonna put, no name, boy.
- They was gonna call me No Name Boy.
- [Debbie] That's what they was gonna call you.
- Okay, you had a son, what's the name?
- Christian.
- Christian?
You escaped from Catholicism to name a child Christian?
- I love Christian, I love that name.
- The one name I wouldn't name anyone
'cause it's been ruined for me, Katya.
(Katya chuckles)
- [Debbie] Hold on, Deja, wait a minute,
say that again.
- Is she in the hospital?
- [Deja] I said I just went into labor.
- [Debbie] Who that with you?
- She's real elaborate in these drills.
- I know, she rented out the whole wing.
- [Debbie] We on the way.
- I like that these people are used to
working with dead bodies,
so maybe urgency's not really their thing.
- Yeah, they're on a different timeline.
- [Deja] It was not planned.
- Oh my god, I just don't know how people do it.
- It's not worth it.
- No, I think it is worth it,
but the fear and the pain and the athleticism.
- The not knowing.
- It could be two hours or 20 hours.
- Yes, I don't know how women do it.
She looks great though.
- [Deja] I did not get an epidural,
like a crazy person.
It hurt so bad, I was screaming.
- If you were giving birth, would you wear makeup?
- I would be in full drag.
(Trixie chuckles)
Full drag, they'd have to cut the catsuit off of me.
- [Deja] We had a beautiful baby girl,
her name is Alonni. - Look at that,
this is them experiencing life instead of death.
- Look at her like two minutes post delivery.
- Flawless, it's crazy.
Her baby is cute and her boyfriend or husband is very cute.
- Babies don't know (beep).
You ever thought about that?
- Babies are stupid.
- Babies don't know (beep).
- They don't know nothing. - That can't do nothing.
- Normalize walking up to a kid
and saying, who the (beep) are you?
(Katya laughs)
And who the (beep) are you?
But then again, not every kid's as cute as that kid, so.
So up next, they're having a little chat
about burial wishes, et cetera.
- Yeah, you got a living will?
- Do you have any in place?
- I do, I have a piece of paper written down.
- Do you really?
- I do.
No, I just made that up.
I want to.
I'll do it today.
- I'll use this as my living will right now.
If I died-
- I get the body.
- You can have the body.
- I want the body.
- I want that helicopter,
in the hood, they call it the whirly bird.
- Oh yeah. - It gonna land me
right on top of that mausoleum.
- Oh yeah.
You going out like that?
- I'm going out like that.
- I love a helicopter landing.
- I think an important part of this family's job
is having some kind of sense of humor
about all of this.
- Obviously.
- 'Cause don't you think every time you unload a body
you think of your own death a little bit?
- Yeah.
- I do wanna thank you for doing this.
- Tavion's filling in for Deja
while she's on maternity leave,
and he's wanted to be a mortician his whole life.
- I was four years old, yeah.
- Seriously?
- What? - Why?
- My thing, I just wanted to work with the bodies
and things like that. - Really?
- Are we being unfair?
I mean, look at what we're doing.
Everybody dies, not everybody cross dresses.
So I guess some people do it as more of a respect for...
They're not like, can I be alone with it?
You know, it's not like a weird thing.
- I didn't take it to the sexual place.
- Well, I take everything to a sexual place.
I don't wanna be buried in a place.
- I don't wanna be buried, period.
You're not gonna be spending no money
on putting me in a box to just rot in the earth.
I'm gonna get donated to science.
People need to know about this.
(Trixie laughs)
- It's not gonna be, how did she die,
it's gonna be,
how did she live? - What was it?
Yes, exactly.
- How did she sustain?
- How did she do it?
- Now, I need all the medical students in here,
this is what happens to a human body
that has never consumed one drop of water.
- Yeah, or any nutrition. - And had any sleep.
- Yeah.
- [Reagan] No one's doing the 1960's makeup anymore.
- It is. - No.
- Kevin's got some complaints on his technique.
- They're rating him on his YouTube tutorials.
- If only we had a qualified makeup industry professional
here to weigh in.
- It's gonna be hard for me to work on these people here
and try to get with this,
'cause I work on dead bodies.
- Dead bodies? - Dead bodies, ma'am.
- I don't think you heard me, dead bodies.
- [Kevin] I work on dead bodies.
- [Woman] So I use this one right here.
- [Trixie] Straight lines on the face?
- Oh wow!
- [Woman] That's a little much.
- Kevin, she looks a fish.
- Beauty school we learned that you can't use
normal makeup on dead bodies,
you have to use non-thermogenetic makeup,
because all makeup is formulated to work with body heat.
- Oh, like spray paint.
- Number nine acrylic, yes.
- Hello.
- Okay, so nobody should be made to feel bad
about learning new things
and if classes aren't your thing,
be like Kevin, learn from YouTube.
I swear to God, if we cut to him watching
one of my YouTube tutorials,
I'm jumping right off this patio.
- I will (beep) on the floor.
- Kevin, this is my brush.
- This ain't your brush.
- I just bought it the other day for $38, Kevin.
- [Trixie] Kevin!
- Long story short, Kevin,
you owe me $38 or a makeup brush.
(Trixie laughs)
- You know what I already like about this show?
All these family members could not be more different.
- Yeah.
- But in some way, it's like any family
where they all go together, yes.
Have you seen a dead body?
- Yes, I saw a man die.
- Who was it?
- My grandfather.
- Well, yeah, you stabbed him.
- I was choking the life out of him.
- You need a man to rub your feet at night.
- Oh, Debbie's talking about work and men.
- Get you back on the love train.
- Y'all need to get back on work train.
(Trixie and Katya laughing)
No, I just don't need a man.
When I get home, he gonna say, what we gonna eat?
What you gonna cook?
Where the breakfast at, where the lunch at?
Where my clothes?
- She's a gay guy.
- I don't want one man.
- I so relate - Yeah, entirely.
It's like my boyfriend, I love David,
I'm like, I love you so much, you're the love of my life.
Which day this week would you like to come over?
- Yeah.
- So I got a profile here,
so I'm gonna go ahead and go ahead and meet him.
- So Reagan and Deja created a dating profile for Debbie
which is not exactly true.
She fixes it, goes out on a date on somebody.
36 year old diva looking for a good (beep).
- Hello.
Oh, I hate that.
- I'm gonna cry.
Oh no.
- She's all dressed up
and the cameras are there, how humiliating.
- I got stood up, I got flat stood up.
- And gets ghosted.
- Which is ironic for somebody
who works with the dead.
- Good morning, how y'all doing this morning?
- So Debbie is gonna hold her head up high
and give her granddaughters something to chat about.
- Go on, Debbie.
- [Deja And Reagan] Is that the same outfit?
- She comes in, like hobbling.
- Yeah, how heavy is she gonna lay it on?
I think I left my bra at the restaurant.
- Let's just say I'm pregnant.
- Get a coffin 'cause my (beep) is dead.
(Katya laughs)
- Have you ever been ghosted or stood up?
- Oh yeah, are you kidding?
One time I flew to San Francisco
to go to a concert with a guy I was talking to
on Twitter for three months,
and I got ghosted and found out it was a fan
and it was a catfish account.
Have you been ghosted?
You seem more like the ghoster, both professionally and-
- I was gonna say, I've probably ghosted.
- Don't get Caspered, be the Casper you wish to see
in the world.
- I have ghosted.
Not something like that.
- Yeah. - Not something like that.
But I've drifted. - Flaked?
- Yeah, I flaked and drifted away.
- Come on, it's that time.
We gotta push this meeting for this commercial.
- So the Bernards have already had one viral commercial,
but they're looking for their next breakthrough,
so the family's gonna sit down
and have like a pitch meeting.
- All the zombies get out the cemetery, right?
And they wanna go to R Bernard
to make their own arrangements.
- Oh my god!
- They're trying to do "Thriller"?
- That is so funny, that is so funny.
- The zombies are going back to bite the people
who were charging too much money?
- No, the zombies are going to the funeral home,
because this casket costs too much.
- That is actually great.
- It's really good.
- 1,895?
My family spent $5,000!
I mean, let's go!
- Oh, there's my casket.
- [Katya] Oh my god, with a photo of you.
- Oh, that's a photo of the person?
- And a pillow, and a photo on the pillow,
that's incredible.
- I want y'all to look at it carefully
and just give me y'all honest opinion.
- Okay, so they shoot the commercial
and now it's time for the big unveiling.
I can't wait to see it.
- Is this the commercial? - Uh huh.
- 1,895?
Take me over to R Bernard.
Get me up out of here, I'm going to R Bernard.
- Did you direct this?
- The dead body gets up and runs.
- 595, direct cremation.
- 595 direct cremation, that seems like a deal.
- That does seem like a deal.
You can't get Botox for that.
- It cost more to stay alive.
- It does.
I like that commercial.
- I do too.
Would you get buried there?
- Yes, absolutely.
It's a dead body, what they gonna do?
- Honestly, do a bit with me, I don't care.
- I would love that.
- Do a bit. - Yeah.
- Or you honestly just embalm me
and use me for the carpool lane, I don't even care.
Put little Xs over my eyes
and throw me to the necrophiliacs.
- I think this is really cute.
- I like it too.
It has everything.
- Yeah, dead folk.
- Animal print.
There's some wigs.
- Yeah, wiggery.
- Makeup.
- Makeup on living and dead.
- Living and dead makeup.
Hearses, budget commercials.
- Hashtag, viral commercials.
- Drive through funerals.
- Yeah.
- Generations coming together.
Newborns.
- Black joy.
- It's got heart.
I really like it.
You watch "Buried by the Bernards" on Netflix.
You got watch, go now.
(classical music)