“Ah c’mon, Murder by Death is way better than Clue,” Gene argued.

“Says you,” Roger said.

“Sez me.”

“Pshaw.” Roger looked in the direction the two friends were walking. He pointed. “Well, there’s a mansion up there. Let’s see what they think. Maybe they have some enlightened views on the subject.”

Gene scoffed. “Sure. Just because they live in a mansion.”

Roger nodded.

It did not take long to get to the mansion. When they did, Roger gasped. “Whoa. There’s a lot of cars here.”

“Some of them are police cars.”

Roger nodded. “Some of them are vans, too. And look. There’re cameras all around.” Roger’s eyes lit up and his smile broadened. “Maybe this is a murder mystery movie.”

Gene rolled his eyes. “As if. What are the chances of that?”

The two approached the first cameraman they saw. Roger asked, “What’s going on? Are you filming a murder mystery?”

The cameraman answered, “Well, we were, but then somebody really died.” Gene’s and Robert’s eyes got wide. The cameraman continued, “Yeah. The star of the show was running around the house in these secret passageways. Then all of a sudden, he ends up dead.”

Roger looked at Gene. “Secret passages. Just like Clue.”

Gene rolled his eyes again. “Just like every movie ever set in any mansion.”

The cameraman laughed. “So you two are debating which murder mystery movie is better or more classic?”

Roger smiled from ear to ear. “Yep.”

“And one of you thinks it’s Clue.” The cameraman nodded toward Roger. “And the other thinks it’s…” He put his hand to his chin. “Hmm. And the other one thinks it’s Murder on the Orient Express.”

Gene smiled. “That would be my choice if we included all murder mysteries, but we were just thinking about shows set in mansions.”

It was the cameraman’s turn to smile. “Well then… Your choice would be Murder by Death. Both comic classics about murders and the people who solve them.”

Gene and Roger both smiled and responded together. “Exactly.”

“Well, my vote is a bit newer, and not a parody, but it does have comic elements. My vote would be Knives Out. Or Glass Onion, it’s sequel. The first is on an estate, which could be called a mansion and the second is on an island with a huge house, which could be argued to be a mansion. But they are probably excluded if you’re sticking to parodies.”

Roger smiled. Gene put his hand on his chin and frowned. Roger looked at Gene. “Well?”

Gene finally smiled. “I think you might be right. You could throw them in the discussion too. Not parodies, but we never said they had to be. And they fit nearly in the same genre because of their comic elements.”

Another cameraman had been listening and chimed in, “I’m all for Murder by Death. I like Peter Falk.”

The conversation continued and more and more of the crew joined in as the day wore on. They went back and forth and forth and back debating the merits of the films and even throwing others into the mix.

Then a police detective came out. “Alright, what’s going on here? We’ve got a dead person inside, you know. Maybe a murder. Are you all corroborating your stories?”

Roger answered, “No sir. We were just discussing the merits of movies like Murder by Death, Clue, and a bunch of others. You see, my friend and I wandered up to this mansion talking about which of those first two I mentioned was better. And…”

“Murder by Death, for my money. I like…”

The discussion went on through the night. Indeed, the discussion might still be going on and on and on.