Attending Your Own Funeral: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

 

Compare [[Who Dunnit to Me?]]. May cross over with [[Not Now, We're Too Busy Crying Over You!]].

 

{{deathtrope}}

{{examples}}

== Advertising ==

* A recent commercial for whiskey tells the story of a man, John Jameson, who dived into the ocean to rescue one of his kegs and presumably died. The next scene shows his funeral with the narrator telling us "All of [[Oireland|Ireland]] was in attendance, including... John Jameson." Jameson is then seen walking up the beach front holding the keg.

* ''[[Speed Racer]]'': Rex Racer fakes his own death to become Racer X. One scene at the end of the movie shows him attending his own funeral.

** Speed Racer himself actually does this in one episode of the original series.

* Although it wasn't really real, Erza in ''[[Fairy Tail]]'' has a dream were she had really died when she merged with the Tower of Paradise in an effort to stop it from blowing up. She watches her friends in Fairy Tail mourn at her grave, and is visited by a bunch of officials, and Natsu as he attempts to crash the funeral proceedings, denying that Erza didn't die. Either way, really dramatic. Luckily, it [[All Just a Dream|was only a dream]], and Natsu [[How Dare You Die on Me!|saved Erza before she could really die]].

* Pell of ''[[One Piece]]'', after his supposed [[Heroic Sacrifice]], turns up alive looking in shock at his own gravestone.

* In ''The Death of Groo,'' [[Groo the Wanderer]] goes to his own funeral, expecting there to be much sadness at his demise. There isn't. Everybody at that funeral had had endless trouble from him, and they were all delighted at his "death."

* [[Deadpool]] did this in spirit form. He found that he was able to possess people and had no end of fun causing trouble, culminating in a giant brawl between Juggernaut, Wolverine, T-Ray, and pretty much every other minor character to appear in Deadpool's book up to that point.

 

 

== Film ==

* The essay, "Dead at 17" (frequently known as "Please God, I'm Only 17"), was written by New Hampshire resident John J. Berrio, after the teen-aged son of a close friend died in a 1967 car accident. The story – a cautionary tale imploring that teenagers adopt safe-driving habits – is told from the point-of-view of a teen-ager who drove recklessly, was involved in a major car accident and suffered fatal injuries. The story begins with hindsight ("I was too cool for the bus" and "All the kids drive"), then progresses as the protagonist's car is involved in the deadly collision, then is examined by on-scene medics and police officers, brought to the morgue to be identified by his shocked parents and then to the visitation (where his grieving friends and family pass by his open casket). The final scene sees the teen-ager protesting in vain being placed in the ground, pleading for a second chance and promising to be a safer driver.

** On an almost annual basis, readers of Dear Abby and Annie's Mailbox (previously Ann Landers) will request that Berrio's essay be republished, hoping teen-agers who are newly licensed will read it and decide to adopt safe driving habits.

* [[Raffles]] did this, as part of a gambit to throw a too-persistent ex-girlfriend off his trail; it was the second time he'd been thought to be dead, but the first funeral. The other time, he'd jumped from a ship in the Mediterranean, and been mistakenly reported to have washed up dead on shore.

* ''[[Rumpole of the Bailey]]'' lets it be thought that he is dead, partly to lure a solicitor that owes him a great deal of money out of hiding and let She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed pwn him good and gets to hear Judge Bullingham giving an eulogy for him, which he greatly enjoys hearing.

* Prince Josua at the end of ''[[Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn]]''.

* Mr. Sellars at the end of ''[[Otherland]]'', also by [[Tad Williams]].

* In Charles Dickens' ''[[A Christmas Carol|Christmas Carol]]'', Scrooge doesn't attend his own funeral per se but the ghost of Christmas future does show him his own grave.

* In ''[[Private|Privilege]]'', the [[Spin-Off]] of the ''Private'' series, Ariana attends her own funeral. The body they cremated is actually that of Briana Leigh Covington, who she killed in order to access her money and assume her life.

 

 

** "Ding Dong, the Boss is Dead": Boss fakes his own death to escape suffering a crueler fate from a mob boss who went to prison on his testimony ... only the catch is the mobster is coming to Boss' visitation in Hazzard to make sure Hogg is indeed dead.

** "Too Many Roscoes": As was the case with Bo and Luke in the earlier episode, a wake for Rosco takes place after it is merely assumed he had drowned when his patrol car is run off the road and into a lake by a gang of bank robbers (including one that is an exact double of Rosco), and a hasty search of the lake by Bo and Luke finds no body. The wake ends when the phony Rosco is seen walking to Boss' house (where the wake takes place).

* In ''[[Bones]]'', Booth takes advantage of an injury to fake his own death, attends his funeral as a member of the three-volley salute, and outs himself by apprehending a suspect. Said suspect told the FBI the next time they'd see him would be at Booth's funeral.

* George goes to her own funeral in the first episode of ''[[Dead Like Me]]''.

* There was a Japanese police drama in which a funeral is staged as a sting to draw out a scam artist who shows up at funerals, claims to have known the deceased and asks the family for payment of debts the deceased supposedly owes him. The "deceased", of course, attends the funeral.

* In the ''[[Leverage]]'' episode "The Two Live Crew Job" Sophie (going by the name Katherine) poses in a coffin after someone sends her a bomb in a flower vase. She listens to the other members of the team eulogize her (including Parker, who almost blows the con). Nate closes the casket and taps on it, which is Sophie's cue to drop out through the false bottom. She even makes an appearance a minute later, wearing a veiled hat.

* In a long string of pranks, a bar owner rival of ''[[Cheers]]'' fakes his own death, funeral, and is even buried inside a coffin to prank Sam Malone. After Sam breaks down and accepts the death is not a hoax, the "dead" man pops out of the office and reveals it was just an elaborate prank.

* Happens to Hobbes in ''[[The Invisible Man (TV series)|The Invisible Man]]'' when the Chinese are after him. He is spying from afar on the funeral, but is kidnapped by the Chinese anyway, as they don't buy the hoax. Also, the only one of the Agency who wasn't told was Claire, as they needed real tears.

* Deb in ''[[Drop Dead Diva]]'' does this after being resurrected in the body of Jane.

* Variation on ''[[30 Rock|Thirty Rock]]''. After Jenna was misreported as dead, Jack saw it as a gimmick to sell her latest movie and set up a memorial for her on the [[Show Within a Show]]. Jenna watched this for awhile, but eventually came on stage to wreck it after realizing her real age would be mentioned.

* The [[Charmed]] Ones went to their own funeral and even had to keep Phoebe from hitting on a guy who was ''mourning'' her death. And when Paige saw how few people were mourning her, what does she do? [[Funny Moments (Sugar Wiki)|Impersonate Janice Dickinson and mourn herself]].

* In 2009, a hoax arose on the Internet (and even spread as far as an Australian TV news show) which claimed Jeff Goldblum had died in an accident. Goldblum's response was to take this trope [[Up to Eleven]] by going on ''[[The Colbert Report]]'' and ''delivering his own eulogy''.

* ''[[Jam]]'' featured a sketch where a middle-aged man decides to be buried alive while he is in his prime - he believes that he already has everything he wants in life and doesn't like the idea of dying in his old age. He is seen sitting up in the coffin at his funeral, listening to his eulogy and joining in with the music, before being buried alive in front of the mourners.

* On an episode of ''[[Murphy Brown]]'', Murphy and Frank are on a plane that is having mechanical troubles and the passengers are told to brace for impact. A moment later they cut to their own funeral, but no one there can hear or see them. Much panic and angst ensues, until the end of the episode when it's revealed to be [[All Just a Dream]] and the plane lands safely.

* In an episode of ''[[Boston Legal]]'' a terminally ill cancer patient stages his own wake, while he is still strong enough to enjoy it. He has trouble understanding why his girlfriend isn't in a party mood while he personally has a great time.

* Jimmy Mc Nulty in ''[[The Wire]]'' is given a wake at an irish pub like other fallen cops, he lies in a pool table as his career as a detective is dead. He otherwise is alive, talkative and can't stay still and the other cops complain about this.

* John Cleese opened the ''[[International Comedy Festival]]'' in 2006 by announcing that he would be having himself killed at the end of the show due to the state of stand up comedy, before which he would deliver his own eulogy.

 

 

* The beginning of "Neptune City" by Nicole Atkins begins with a ghost tagging after his funeral procession.

* At [[Five Iron Frenzy]]'s final live show, the frontman Reese Roper referenced this trope to explain how he felt.

 

 

* There's a hideous glurge that periodically makes the rounds in email: it's a chronicle of child abuse and murder, told from the victim's point of view, and ends with the lines "My name is Sarah/And I am but three/And tonight my daddy/Murdered me." Multiple people have written to [http://www.snopes.com snopes] ''asking whether this is a true story''. (Their [http://www.snopes.com/glurge/blueribbon.asp response]: "As unlikely as it might be that a three-year-old could possess the language skills necessary to compose such a piece, it's even more unlikely that anyone could describe her own murder in the first person.")

** Note that the question is not quite so daft as it might seem; though a true murder victim could not write of it, there are many cases of people describing highly traumatic events in such terms.

 

== Radio ==

* A variant from BBC comedy ''[[The Burkiss Way]]'': The reading of Lord Hackingbottmo's will is disrupted when someone points out that he's the one reading it. (Note that this only happens after the reading has already a) included a long list of people who haven't been left anything and b) turned into a spontaneous performance of ''Chattanooga Choo-choo''.)

'''Guest''': That's not enough! }}

 

 

* One of the ''[[GURPS]]'' books has a short story told from the POV of a newly minted ghost. After attending his own funeral (and weeping over it) he decides to do some world travel. Tries to go to the moon, but doesn't quite get that far.

 

== Video Games ==

* In ''[[Superman: The Animated Series|Superman the Animated Series]]'', in the episode "The Late Mr. Kent," Superman shows up at Clark Kent's funeral.

* In the ''[[Futurama]]'' episode "A Pharaoh To Remember," the Planet Express crew stages a fake funeral for Bender to convince him that he will be remembered after he's gone.

** There's also the end of ''Bender's Big Score'' where Fry, courtesy of time travel shenanigans, attends his own, non-faked, funeral. Well, technically the funeral of a time-travel duplicate, but still.

** Heavily parodied in the [[Show Within a Show]] ''All My Circuits'' by Calculon

== Web Original ==

* Though neither faking it nor technically needing to be resurrected, ''[[Red vs. Blue]]'' has this happen to Sarge, complete with Grif performing a roast for him, and Simmons campaigning for the leadership position, instead of giving him a Eulogy.

** This likely happened offscreen for Church as well; he is shown loudly demanding that he be given one. 'My body fought long and hard for this war!' Later, his grave is shown.

** It happens again in season 9, to Simmons this time. At first he's excited at the prospect, but he becomes rather less so when the best things his teammates can come up with are "He talked a lot," and "He liked gum."

* The Leet World has one of sorts, where Player, having survived a grenade injury, makes the rest of the team hold a funeral for him, so he can see what it's like.

* In [[A Very Potter Musical]], Ginny says that this is what she would do if she had an invisibility cloak.

 

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{{reflist}}

[[Category:Death Tropes]]

[[Category:Funeral Tropes]]

[[Category:Attending Your Own Funeral]]