So these three nuns are driving to some nun thing when the car explodes and they’re all blown to smithereens.
They appear at the Pearly Gates, and, of course, being pious women, expect to be let in. But when Saint Peter tells God who’s at the door, God panics.
“You can’t let them in! The place is full! Jesus Christ!.. no, son, not… never mind… I haven’t expanded this place in years! We’ll let them in later, just send 'em back!”
St. Peter is aghast. “We don’t send people back! Anyway, their bodies are all over I-95.”
God says, “Let 'em be someone else! Anyone they want! Get rid of them!”
So St. Peter goes back to the nuns. “Ladies, I’m sorry, but we’re full.” They’re crestfallen. “But don’t worry! We’re going to let you have another shot at life, and then you get to come in! In fact, you can be anyone in history you want to be!” He turns to the first nun and says “Who do you think you’d like to be, Sister?”
The elderly old nun thinks for a moment and say “I would like to be Marilyn Monroe.”
St. Peter is very surprised. He expected the answer to be Mother Teresa, or Mary or something. “Really? Marilyn Monroe? I don’t even think she was Catholic. But… why?”
“Well,” says the nun, “She was so beautiful, and rich, and famous, and glamorous, and…” here the nun gets a glint in her eye, “She had so many MEN.”
St. Peter is not delighted with this answer, but whaddya gonna do? He promised, and he had God’s authority. He snaps his fingerts and poof, the nun vanishes to be Marilyn Monroe. St. Peter turns to the second nun and says “What about you, Mother?”
The nun wastes no time. “Madonna.”
“Of course!” St. Peter says, “The mother of Christ herself, a sinless person born of the Immaculate Conception! I’ll just…”
“No,” corrects the nun. “Not that Madonna. The singer Madonna. You know, who did Borderline, Holiday, Ray of…”
“Yeah, yeah,” says St. Peter, who’s even more disappointed. “Why HER?”
“Well, she was beautiful, and rich, and famous, and glamorous… and she had so many MEN.”
St. Peter sighs. A deal’s a deal. He snaps his fingers, and the nun vanishes and rematerializes at some weird Eyes Wide Shut party in 1992.
The third nun - the oldest, quietest, mousiest one of the lot… is ready to go. St. Peter has much higher hopes for this one. “Who’ll it be, Sister?”
Without a moment’s hesitation, 'cause she’s had time to think on it, the nun says, “Sarah Pippalini.”
St. Peter says, “Who did you say?”
“Sarah Pippalini.”
St. Peter is bewildered. “I have absolutely no idea who that is.”
“Well, that’s who I want to be.”
St. Peter goes to his computer and types the name into the Heaven database. Snake eyes. “Sister, there’s no Sarah Pippalini in our records. And if we didn’t have her, she didn’t exist.”
“Well, I have a newspaper clipping about her right here,” the nun says, and from the inside of her habit she pulls out a crumpled old newspaper clipping that looks older than Moses, and hands it over.
St. Peter takes it, carefully smooths it out over his desk, and the headline reads SAHARA PIPELINE LAID BY TEN THOUSAND MEN