A frequent Chevy Chase line from Weekend Update, in the year following the death of the notorious geriatric fascist will-not-die ruler of Spain. In the opening segment - the week's headlines - the first headline would be "Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead!" It became such a signature line that the cover of SNL's first book tie-in (a paperback scrapbook of scripts and odds'n'ends) was a regal portrait of Franco. Handsome, for an old guy.

Although I have no way of knowing for sure, this joke probably came out of a story about the circumstances surrounding Franco's death -- It was said that Franco had created such a regime of terror in Spain, and his advisors were so terrified of being the one to announce that the Generalissimo had died, that they left his corpse in his deathbed to rot for days before going in to check it.

I can imagine Chevy Chase telling the joke now: Is he still dead?

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