Attending Your Own Funeral: Difference between revisions

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.''' ===

 

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

* In ''[[Anne of Green Gables (Literature)|Anne of Ingleside]]'', one of the [[Gossipy Hens]] at the quilting bee mentions a story about a man who went out West and reportedly died. The body was sent home, but the funeral director advised them not to open the casket, so they didn't find out it was someone else's body until the supposedly dead man came home just in time to walk in on the funeral.

* 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.

* Its not his funeral but Mackenzie Calhoun of ''[[Star Trek New Frontier (Literature)|Star Trek New Frontier]]'' shows up to the dedication of the new ''USS Excalibur'' which has a touching eulogy/speech about since he was presumed dead during the destruction of the last ship of the same name. Its both hilarious and touching.

* Happens in the story of Amleth -- the legend that was basis for ''[[Hamlet (Theatre)|Hamlet]]'' -- as told in the 13th century ''Danish History'' by Saxo Grammaticus. Amleth has been sent to England by his uncle Feng to be killed with a [[Please Shoot the Messenger]] plot, and everyone think's he's dead; but (like in [[Shakespeare]]'s play) he has escaped and returns to the royal palace just the day they are holding his memorial feast.-- Shakespeare, however, alters the plot so that Hamlet arrives just in time to witness Ophelia's funeral.

* Rimmer attends his own funeral (twice! [[It Makes Sense in Context|He was already dead the second time he died]]) in ''[[Red Dwarf (TV)|Red Dwarf]]''. The first time, he produced a VHS tape of himself memorialising himself. Lister fast-forwarded to the good bits. The second time, a blow-up sex doll was introduced as his widow.

* Max in ''[[Get Smart (TV)|Get Smart]]'', faking his death for a mission, shows up to check out his funeral and complains to the Chief about the lack of mourners and the cheap flowers and headstone.

* In ''[[Heroes (TV)|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)|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.

* ''[[Ghost Whisperer]]'': Jim attends his own funeral--but he's really dead and attends it as a ghost.

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

* Played straight in the pilot of ''[[The Cape (TV)|The Cape]]'' when Vince peeps in on his own funeral after being presumed dead.

* The [[Charmed (TV)|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]].

== Western Animation ==

* Subverted in ''[[The Simpsons (Animation)|The Simpsons]]'' episode where Bart and Nelson play the roles of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn. After a scene implies they've been hanged, they're shown hiding while their funeral is going on, grinning widely... only for it to be revealed that it's merely their corpses about to be lowered in the coffins (apparently there was a very good embalmer on hand or something, but probably [[Rule of Funny]] is a more apt explanation).

* In the ''[[Futurama (Animation)|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.

{{quote| '''Bender''': Louder and sadder!}}