In the Hades episode Bloom, who is at the Glasnevin cemetery to mourn the death of Paddy Dignam, is thinking about what the dead might like, "The dead themselves the men anyhow would like to hear an odd joke or the women to know what's in fashion. A juicy pear or ladies' punch, hot, strong and sweet. Keep out the damp. You must laugh sometimes so better do it that way. The he thinks of the: Gravediggers in HAMLET" (Act 5, Scene 1).

The two gravediggers in Hamlet dig a grave for Ophelia in the churchyard. They argue whether Ophelia should be buried in the churchyard, since her death is apparently a suicide. Under religious doctrine, a person who commits suicide may not receive Christian burial. The first gravedigger, who speaks cleverly and mischievously, asks the second gravedigger a riddle: “What is he that builds stronger than either the mason, the shipwright, or the carpenter?” The second gravedigger answers, "The gallows-maker for that outlives a thousand tenants." The first gravedigger corrects him, saying "when you are ask'd this question next, say "a grave-maker": the houses he makes lasts till doomsday." The gravediggers in this scene are called clowns, but they play the role of the clever fool. The gravediggers assume a rather morbid tone, since their jests and quips are all made in a cemetery, among bones of the dead.

The gravediggers in Hamlet are engaging in gallows humor. This kind of humor is on Bloom's mind when he thinks, "The Irishman's house is his coffin," which is play on the proverb "An Englishman's house is his castle."