For anybody with a twisted sense of humor

The "dead zone" is one of those things, like April Fool's Day stories, that British newspapers generally do better than American ones, at least when it comes to the rich and famous dead.

The Brits, in both cases, have a sense of snark that is considered "not proper" for about any American seven-day or six-day daily, basically.

That said, American papers have done quite well with the "storytelling" format of "everyman" obits.

Marilyn Johnson covers both types, and more details about modern obit writing, quite well in this book.