Attending Your Own Funeral: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

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...

=== '''As a [[Death Trope]], all Spoilers will be unmarked ahead. Beware.''' ===

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

* At the end of part 2 in ''[[Jo Jo's Bizarre Adventure (Manga)|Jo Jos Bizarre Adventure]]'', Joseph shows up alive (and married) at his own funeral, without even ''knowing'' about said funeral.

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

* Tsuna from ''[[Katekyo Hitman Reborn (Manga)|Katekyo Hitman Reborn]]'' is transported into the future in time for his older self's secret funeral. Not surprisingly, he was pretty freaked out.

* 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.

* The novel ''[[Interview With the Vampire]]'' had Louis going to his funeral after his plantation burned down. His aged younger sister attended.

* 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.

* 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)|The Incredible Hulk]]'', David Banner is seen at his own grave.

* ''[[Little House On the Prairie (TV)|Little House On the Prairie]]'': In the first-season episode "If I Should Wake Before I Die," Charles helps a lonely, widowed mother stage her own funeral to draw her negligent, estranged (and now adult) children to her home for a long-coveted visit. In this case, it works and the children realize what they had been missing.

* ''[[The Dukes of Hazzard]]'': [[Played for Laughs]] in several episodes, including:

== Video Games ==

* More like "Attending Your Own Wake": In ''[[Tales of Monkey Island (Video Game)|Tales of Monkey Island]] Chapter 5: Rise of the Pirate God'', when Guybrush (as a ghost) goes through a rip in the Crossroads to Club 41 ''before'' going to the Manatee Mating Grounds in order to find the Voodoo Lady's locket (via another rip), Bugeye tells him to be quiet when he and W.P. Grindstump are "in the middle of a pirate wake", and Guybrush is surprised to find his own body [[Funny Moments (Sugar Wiki)|holding a dartboard and wearing a party hat]]. He can look around the club and talk to Grindstump to find out what happened after Guybrush died at the hands of LeChuck. Afterwards, he can exit his own wake and continue on in his quest to get back in his own body, as before.

* 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.

[[Category:Funeral Tropes]]

[[Category:Attending Your Own Funeral]]