Death doesn't come in threes in America

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Death supposedly comes in threes. In this, it isn’t special.

Folk tales want everything in triplicate. Historian Axel Olrik included the repetition in his Epic Laws of Folk Narrative, where stories prime the audience before hitting them with a lesson or explanation. Comedy famously works in threes as a way of setting up then disrupting the story: premise, pattern, punchline. Slogans play on a lifetime of training to expect triples. Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité. Peace, land and bread. Snap, crackle, pop.

At their roots, these wildly different forms are all stories. They inject something novel into our conception of the world and resolving in a way that satisfies. Rob Reiner knew audience expectations better than most.

A fixture in Hollywood for over half a century, Reiner took on mockumentaries, courtroom thrillers and rom-coms from his director’s chair. Ss bold as his project selection was, he rarely messed with the basic structure. His endings were clean and neat. He showed no interest in sequels until his final film, a return to his first feature that gives his career a gratifying bit of symmetry.

Even if Reiner’s work wasn’t extremely tidy, people would search for a story in his senseless death over the weekend. We’re pattern seekers by nature and celebrity deaths frequently leave fans worrying for old or ill celebs, awaiting the anticipated second and third deaths that will close off a season of loss. In public memory, the deaths of David Bowie, Prince and George Michael made 2016 a notably bad year for high-profile musician deaths. July of this year seemed grim for celebrities. Malcolm-Jamal Warner, Ozzy Osbourne and Hulk Hogan all passed within days of each other.

The rule of threes doesn’t hold in the real world, though. Celebrity deaths are not supernaturally connected, especially not in a country as accepting of violent death as the United States.

The story of every single day in America is hundreds of small explosions of chaos. People die in dribs and drabs at the hands of unstable people with access to weapons of war. Away from the national headlines and shooed from the front page of every small market newspaper, arguments escalate into tragedies. Every local news broadcast begins with an unnamed person or three falling victim to an angry named suspect. The stories are so common that they rarely even get their own unique graphics, with the news team settling for a generic image of police lights or crime scene tape.

Reiner of all people would understand the scramble for a structure that follows a celebrity death. He dedicated his whole life to crafting narratives. But you won’t find a satisfying story by keeping your eyes on the obituaries in Hollywood trade magazines. The only real thread worth following is this: America was, is and will remain a remarkably violent place.

What do you think? Is there any comfort in the idea that death comes in threes? Does it hold in a country this violent? Sound off in the comments.

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