By longstanding comedy tradition, the secret of comedy is timing. Thus, with a jolt of ill-fated timing, begins Michael Kimball's The Secret of Comedy which finds comedy writer Emily Petrocelli diagnosed with a terminal illness on the same day that husband Dave, an airline pilot, wins the MegaMillions lottery. Their 30-year old daughter Carey, herself an irreverent comic, moves back home to help her parents through the ordeal.
These are intelligent people, but each has mastered the art of avoiding emotion, Emily and Carey through their opposing senses of humor, and Dave from his years of flight training which sets him duty-bound on a course to find a cure where none exists. Carey, complying with her mother's ban on crying, tries to enclist Emily's help in writing a comedy routine about death. Emily has her own mission: To lead her family through the five stages of drief, from denial to acceptance, before she dies.