Attending Your Own Funeral: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
[[File:
{{quote|'''Priestbot''': "We are gathered here to mourn the death of Calculon; industrialist, private eye... friend."
|''[[Futurama]]''}}
A character shows up alive to his or her own funeral, whether through [[Faking the Dead|faking it]], [[Back
▲{{quote|'''Priestbot''': "We are gathered here to mourn the death of Calculon; industrialist, private eye... friend."<br />
▲'''Calculon''': "Mind if ''I'' give the eulogy?"<br />
▲'''Monique''': "Calculon, you're alive!"|''[[Futurama (Animation)|Futurama]]''}}
Compare [[Who Dunnit to Me?]]. May cross over with [[Not Now,
▲A character shows up alive to his or her own funeral, whether through [[Faking the Dead|faking it]], [[Back From the Dead|resurrection]], or [[Time Travel]]. The [[Not Quite Dead]] character may either reveal him/herself to be alive or attend the funeral in disguise and leave with no one the wiser. Or sometimes the character won't even know they've been presumed dead until they walk through the door...
▲Compare [[Who Dunnit to Me]]. May cross over with [[Not Now Were Too Busy Crying Over You]].
{{examples|Examples:}}▼
{{deathtrope}}
== 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.
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== Anime and Manga ==
* Yuusuke at the beginning of ''[[
* ''[[
** Speed Racer himself actually does this in one episode of the original series.
* At the end of part 2 in ''[[
* Although it wasn't really real, Erza in ''[[
* Pell of ''[[
* Tsuna from ''[[
* In ''[[
* Sharon Vineyard aka Vermouth in ''[[
== Comic Books ==
* In ''[[
* In ''[[
* In ''[[Batman|Whatever Happened to The Caped Crusader]]'', Batman attends a funeral for multiple versions of himself, with eulogies telling how he was killed in each one.
* 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.
* When [[Norman Osborn]] showed up alive during ''[[The Clone Saga]]'', he claimed to have done this, watching from a distance simply out of a sick sense of amusement. To make this even worse, the body being laid to rest was that of [[Disposable Vagrant| a vagrant he had murdered]] in order to fake his death.
== Fan Works ==
* ''[[Astral Journey: It's Complicated]]'' has Melanie being heavily sedated as she put through a mock funeral in an effort for her to face up her eating disorder, as it could've killed her.
** In an earlier part, Emma, Melanie, and Nick all find themselves attending a funeral for two. One of them is Emma's funeral, which she figures and doesn't freak out.
* ''[[Just Taken]]'': [[Ace of Base| Linn]] attended the funeral of her original body. Her parents were completely unaware of what happened to her remains until Joans had mentioned it. [[Spice Girls| Mel and her mates]] were there at the funeral and explained the matter after Linn's mum saw her in her new body.
== Film ==
* Happens in the movie ''[[Waking Ned Devine]]''.
* Jacques Bouvar does this in ''[[
* 'Painless' the dentist from the film ''[[
* ''Revenge of the [[Pink Panther]]'': Inspector Clouseau shows up at his own funeral, disguised as a priest. (Someone else died, but everyone thought it was Clouseau.) He only reveals himself to his former chief Dreyfus, and he faints right into the grave upon seeing him, believing it to be a ghost or hallucination.
* ''Varyemez'', a Turkish tragicomedy film has this when a rich industrialist (the protagonist) is believed to have been killed after being kidnapped and a barely-identifiable body is found. His family and business partners had deliberately not paid the ransom upon realising that they were better off without him. Unfortunately for them, he is very much alive and angry at his family's duplicity. As he plans his [[Humiliation Conga|revenge]] on them, he attends his own memorial event, watching his wife and son shed crocodile tears and his business partner discussing how to divide up his business.
* In ''Year of the Devil'' [Rok ďábla], a mockumentary by Petr Zelenka, one of the characters, Karel Plíhal, stages a "dress rehearsal" of his own funeral, with a coffin, a priest, and a funeral folk-band, and watches it out of hiding.
* The title character of Terry Gilliam's ''[[
* Anakin Skywalker in ''[[Return of the Jedi]]''. [[Pass the Popcorn|And he brought company.]]
* The ending of ''[[Capricorn One]]''.
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* 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.
* Likely [[Trope Maker]] and [[Older Than Radio]] example: [[Mark Twain]]'s novel ''[[The Adventures of Tom Sawyer]]''. The main character and his two friends -- erroneously believed drowned in the river -- watch their own funeral and then enter dramatically through the door.
* [[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.
* In the fourth book of ''[[Percy Jackson
* Prince Josua at the end of ''[[Memory,
* Mr. Sellars at the end of ''[[Otherland]]'', also by [[Tad Williams]].
* Aethelstane in ''[[Ivanhoe]]'' does this at his own funeral. Specifically, he throws open the door and appears wearing funeral garments and looking as if he had just been raised from the dead.
* In ''Lady Slings the Booze'', one of [[Spider Robinson]]'s ''[[
* The novel ''[[Interview
* In [[Isaac Asimov]]'s short story ''Obituary'', a scientist who's embittered by lack of success and recognition finds a way to bring a duplicate of an object from about three days in the future; unfortunately, if the object is a living creature, the process kills the duplicate. He uses this to fake his own death and thereby get to read his obituaries. Needless to say, his greater plan to achieve lasting fame by this is one last failure.
** I've read an Italian version of that, where the teen is a girl...
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* ''[[The Westing Game]]'': Sam Westing, aka Sandy McSouthers, along with Attending Your Own Will Reading and Wake, complete with a fake body in the open casket to pull off the deception.
* Aversion: In the novel ''Skinny Dip'' by [[Carl Hiaasen]], Joey wants to attend her own funeral (in disguise) in order to interrogate her husband about why he tried to kill her. Her partner-in-crime convinces her to wait in the car.
* In ''[[
* [[Tom Holt]]'s Paul Carpenter pulls this in book three...after faking a ''relapse'' of death. Considering that he died something like three times per book and usually recovered by the next chapter, this is hardly surprising.
* [[
* The final chapter of the fifth ''[[Clue (
* In ''[[Anne of Green Gables
* 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
* Its not his funeral but Mackenzie Calhoun of ''[[Star Trek
* Happens in the story of
== Live Action TV ==
* The essay, "Dead at 17" (frequently known as "Please God, I'm Only 17"), written by John J. Berrio to condemn reckless driving by teen-agers, was adapted into a [[Afterschool Special|CBS Schoolbreak Special]] in 1991.
* In the opening of ''[[The Incredible Hulk (TV series)|The Incredible Hulk]]'', David Banner is seen at his own grave.
* ''[[
* ''[[Little House
* ''[[The Dukes of Hazzard]]'': [[Played for Laughs]] in several episodes, including:
** "The Ghost of the General Lee": A wake for Bo and Luke is held after it is merely assumed they had drowned when the General Lee is found submerged in a lake and they are nowhere to be found. (What had happened was that a pair of crooks stole the General Lee while Bo and Luke were skinny dipping, and Rosco gives chase, assuming he's chasing his longtime adversaries ... until the General Lee is driven into a lake. The bad guys flee, and Rosco comes to his erroneous conclusion when he is unable to find any bodies.)
** "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).
* Geordi and Ensign Ro did this in the ''[[Star Trek:
* In an episode of ''[[The Golden Girls]]'', Sophia decides to host her own funeral while she's still
* 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]]''.
** It should be noted, however, that George was able to do this because she was going to be joining the ranks of the reapers. In another episode, Mason had to attempt to convince one recently deceased man that he ''couldn't'' attend his own funeral and that it was important to move on to the other side as soon as possible.
* George Sr. is able to hear his own wake in ''[[Arrested Development (TV series)|Arrested Development]]''.
* In ''[[Mad About You]]'', Paul gets an incorrect notice that he's dead, goes to the funeral of the other Paul Buchman, and suddenly finds himself a ghost, talking to his widow Jamie about their life together.
* Reginald Perrin, after he fakes his death in ''[[The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin]]''.
* On ''[[Friends]]'', Chandler and Ross once got into a prank war concerning their college alumni page. Eventually Chandler posts that Ross has died. Ross decides to hold it anyway, just to see who shows up. Only two "mourners" arrive: a guy who's only there to hit on the recently "outted" Chandler, and a girl who had a crush on Ross. Ross jumps out and disgusts her for not being dead.
* [[Played for Laughs]] when Dan Fielding attended his own funeral on ''[[Night Court]]''. They had trouble coming up with nice things to say.
* Rimmer attends his own funeral (twice! [[It Makes Sense in Context|He was already dead the second time he died]]) in ''[[
* Max in ''[[
* In ''[[Dollhouse]]'' Echo is imprinted with the memories of a recently dead client who wanted to attend her own funeral... and find out [[Who Dunnit to Me?|who killed her. The paranoia pays out, anyway.]]
* In ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'', Volume 4 ends with all the Heroes gathering together for the first time in the show, to witness the destruction of series [[Big Bad]] Sylar's body, whom they've finally managed to kill after 3 whole seasons. However, most of them are unaware that "Nathan" is really a shapeshifted Sylar brainwashed into believing that he's Nathan by Ma Petrelli and Matt Parkman, and the body being burned is merely a shapeshifter who died while assuming Sylar's appearance.
* ''[[Alias (TV series)|Alias]]'': After the Covenant kidnaps Sydney and fakes her death, they force her to watch her own funeral while [[Bound and Gagged]] in a nearby van so that she knows no rescue attempts are coming.
* A two-part ''[[Happy Days]]'' episode concludes with Fonzie doing this (disguised as an old lady) after [[Faking the Dead]] to throw some gangsters off his trail.
* In one episode of ''[[
* 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.
** And ''again'' in "The San Lorenzo Job". Nate even [[
* 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.
* ''[[Ghost Whisperer]]'': Jim attends his own
* Deb in ''[[Drop Dead Diva]]'' does this after being resurrected in the body of Jane.
* Variation on ''[[
* Played straight in the pilot of ''[[The Cape (2010 TV series)|The Cape]]'' when Vince peeps in on his own funeral after being presumed dead.
* The [[
* A suspect on ''[[Castle]]'' once got caught this
* 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''.
{{quote|
* ''[[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.
* In an episode of ''[[Being Human (
* 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.
{{quote|
== Music ==
* John J. Berrio's essay, "Dead at 17" was turned into a recitation and has been recorded by several acts, most notably country music singer Red Sovine (in 1977, included on one of his last albums). His version is titled, "I'm Only Seventeen."
* The narrator of "The Gunner's Dream", from the [[
* The beginning of "Neptune City" by Nicole Atkins begins with a ghost tagging after his funeral procession.
* At [[
{{quote|
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* 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.
* In ''[[Conquering the Horizon]]'' the protagonist, Evelyn, is a [[Hive Mind]]. Whenever one of her bodies die, she holds a funeral for it (if circumstances permit). As of this writing, unless you count her non-sapient companion, ''Evelyn is [[Lonely Funeral|the only person]]'' (or people depending on you look at it, her individual bodies do have semi-individual lines of thought) to attend one of her 'funerals' (may be worth noting she has only had one funeral as of this writing).
== 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''.)
{{quote|
'''Guest''': But you're ''not dead''!
'''Lord Hackingbottmo''': ...I've got a gum boil.
'''Guest''': That's not enough! }}
* ''[[Ed
==
* 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 ==
* More like "Attending Your Own Wake": In ''[[
* ''[[Fire Emblem Elibe]]'': Prince Zephiel had barely escaped from being poisoned to death [[Offing the Offspring|by his own father King Desmond]], and decides to pretend he's dead in order to have revenge. He then lies down in his own casket, a knife hidden among his funerary garments, [[Self
* Inverted in ''[[Hitman]]: Blood Money'', wherein the end of the game is at the titular protagonist's funeral and he is actually the one on the altar; only he gets up and proceeds to kill all of the attendees.
== Western Animation ==
* Subverted in ''[[The Simpsons (
* In ''[[Superman:
* In the ''[[
{{quote|
** 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
* ''[[Stroker and Hoop]]'': Stroker faked his own death, as well as his son's and C.A.R.R.'s, in order to avoid a gang of ninjas, an then secretly attended his own funeral. Though Stroker later admits that bringing his son to his own funeral was a crappy idea.
* In ''Huck And Tom's Mississippi Adventure'', Huck pretended to drown, then watched his funeral by looking through the church window after climbing a tree.
* In "Dead Duck", [[Darkwing Duck (
== 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.
{{quote|
** 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."
{{quote|
* There's a rather peculiar instance in an ''[[Everyday Weirdness]]'' story called "[https://web.archive.org/web/20140720044828/http://everydayweirdness.com/e/20090204/ Procession]."
* 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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----
{{quote|
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Death Tropes]]
[[Category:Funeral Tropes]]
[[Category:Attending Your Own Funeral]]
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