Ushabti Coffin Dolls

On his deathbed, an Egyptian pharaoh thanks his loyal slaves for a lifetime of service, then announces that they will be sacrificed and sealed in the tomb with him so they can keep looking after his things in the next world. As a horrified slave protests that there must be another way, Shouty Man bursts in with a hard-sell advert for ushabti figurines: little coffin dolls that supposedly spring to life in the afterlife as butlers, builders, tailors and even a servant dedicated to the royal backside. The delighted pharaoh tries out the range, while the advert's small print admits the dolls may not work at all, though a dead customer is in no position to ask for a refund.

Ushabti were real ancient Egyptian funerary figurines, placed in tombs to carry out work on the dead person's behalf in the afterlife.