Mummies At the Dinner Table: Difference between revisions

{{quote|''"I'm sorry now I killed you<br />

''For our love was something fine<br />

''Until they come to get me<br />

''I shall hold your hand in mine"''|'''[[Tom Lehrer]], "I Hold Your Hand In Mine"'''}}

The lover or "protector" of the corpse will frequently speak to them and imagine them speaking back, although this is not to be confused with a [[Dead Person Conversation]], which is a conversation that ''may actually be taking place'' between a character and a spirit from the next world. Or even [[Talking to Thethe Dead]], where a character expects no answer but has to vent. No. In order for a situation to qualify as [['''Mummies At the Dinner Table]]''', one of the participants must be [[Death Tropes|stone cold dead]] and the other must be [[Madness Tropes|stone cold crazy]]. Needless to say, the living one will often come across as a bit creepy to other people, even those who know nothing about their cosy little private life. Sometimes, however, the obsessed mourner will appear to be absolutely normal and personable -- uppersonable—up until the [[Peek -a -Boo Corpse]] moment when the heroine accidentally walks into the room where their "beloved" is sitting. Then the mourner will go [[Ax Crazy]], and a classic horror chase will follow which may or may not end in the death of the hapless discoverer.

There is also an evil variant, with a mortal foe instead of a friend or lover. Note that these cases only fit the trope if the keeper treats the corpse as if it were a live captive; more commonly, the villain knows perfectly well that the victim is deceased and is [[Dead Guy Onon Display|keeping the body around]] as a memento, a trophy, and/or a warning to others.

If the target is not dead but merely [[Monty Python's Flying Circus|pining for the fjords]], it's [[Dude, She's Like, in Aa Coma]].

* ''[[Hell Girl (Anime)|Hell Girl]]'' has an episode where a woman in a fishing village, fearing her sister will move away and leave her, kills her and keeps her corpse tied up in a shed. The woman then forms an equally creepy obsession with the murdered woman's daughter, who barely manages to avoid being killed and preserved in the same way.

* Ragdoll, member of the [[Anti -Hero]] group the [[Secret Six]], keeps the corpse of his ex-teammate Parademon stuffed and mounted in his room and has extended conversations with it. The fact that Parademon died in an explosion and that a number of pieces could apparently not be recovered for the taxidermist in no way improves the situation.

* In ''[[Fifty Two52]]'': {{spoiler|Elongated Man's brief infatuation with Straw Sue Dibny}}.

* A rather [[Squick]]-filled scene in ''[[Batman (Comic Book)|Batman]]: War Games Act II''. {{spoiler|Acquista, holding and caressing his daughter's naked corpse, telling her how she won't be cut up or fed to worms.}}

* Subverted in the earlier versions of "[[Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs (Literaturenovel)|Snow White]]". The prince fell in love with Snow White even though he thought she was dead and then carried a coffin around until a bump dislodged the apple from Snow White and she woke up.

* The [[Terry Gilliam (Creator)|Terry Gilliam]] film, ''[[Tideland]]'', features Dell, a crazy woman who helps an orphaned girl perform taxidermy on her dead father, so they can dress it up and have it sit at the dinner table with them.

{{quote| '''Man''': Now she has stopped speaking to me altogether...the worst part is she remains totally compliant physically, which I find all the more sickening...I am growing tired of her games.}}

* In ''[[Perfume (Literature)|Perfume]]'', olfactory genius Grenouille accidentally kills the Plum Girl while trying to enjoy her scent. He strips her corpse naked and frantically smells her until her scent fades. He then becomes obsessed with trying to preserve scents forever, a process that ultimately requires murder.

* In ''[[Mars Attacks!]]'', the senile old Granny never seemed to realize that her cat Muffy was no longer alive.

* Ms. Spink and Ms. Forcible from ''[[Coraline (Filmanimation)|Coraline]]'' taxidermize their dogs when they die. And put them in angel outfits. Creepy.

* In ''Paranoiac'', {{spoiler|madman Simon Ashby ([[Oliver Reed]]) thinks this is more a case of [[Madwoman in Thethe Attic]], because he forgot to feed his captive brother Tony, and hasn't realized that Tony is very dead.}}

* A example of this trope comes from ''[[Repo! theThe Genetic Opera]]'': Nathan Wallace keeps the body of his wife, Marni, in an airtight chamber with a window designed to look like a picture frame. Compared with the other examples, this one seems relatively tame - the corpse only serves as a source of guilt over him accidentally killing her and his work as a Repo Man.

* A particularly heartbreaking example in the short film ''Going Home'', part of the Korean anthology ''[[Three (Film)|Three]]''; the husband believes that his wife isn't dead and that she'll wake up after he takes care of her.

* In ''[http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Revengers_Tragedy:The Revengers Tragedy|The Revenger's Tradegy]]'', written in 1609, Vindice carries the skull of his murdered wife, conversing with her regularly. He has been doing this for ''nine years'', so long that when his morther and sister appear they treat his behavior and the presence of the skull as completely unremarkable.

* Used in the first ''[[Artemis Fowl (Literature)|Artemis Fowl]]'' book, where the mother refuses to leave her bedroom, and clumsily dresses a mannequin in her 'lost-at-sea' husband's groom outfit. She didn't have his body, though; eventually, {{spoiler|he's discovered to be alive}}.

* In ''[[Wuthering Heights (Literaturenovel)|Wuthering Heights]]'' Heathcliff digs up and 'holds' Catherine after she has been buried for over twenty years. The part where she hasn't decayed at all is similarly disturbing.

{{quote| ''And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side''<br />

''Of my darling, my darling, my life and my bride,''<br />

''In the sepulcher there by the sea,''<br />

* In [[Robert A. Heinlein]]'s ''[[Glory Road (Literaturenovel)|Glory Road]]'', Star mentions that it is normal on her planet to use [[Magitek]] to preserve the dead and then later send them off to another dimension. She found the idea of burying someone as rather strange. She did complain about an Aunt who kept all of her dead husbands in her drawing room, saying it was rather too much for guests and they needed dusting.

* ''[[Tales Fromfrom the Crypt]]'' often featured stories with people loving and being obsessed with corpses (and sometimes, ''[[A Love to Dismember|parts]]'' of corpses).

* When the crew of the ''[[Red Dwarf (TV)|Red Dwarf]]'' first meet the android Kryten, he's still caring for and conversing with his own ship's long-dead crew. Played for comedy, helped along by the fact that they're all rotted away to skeletons instead of still corpsified and gross. (Did I mention skeletons with ''wigs on''?)... It's a whole hell of a lot more disturbing in the book version, where the android is directly responsible for the crew's death through obsessive cleanliness (he gave a thorough washing to all the computer systems), and they're cold-mummified corpses, not skeletons... plus, the android doesn't seem to be entirely aware they're dead.

{{quote| '''Rimmer''': Terrific! Our first contact with intelligent life, and it's the android equivalent of [[Psycho|Norman Bates]]!}}

* In the ''[[Homicide: Life Onon the Street]]'' episode "The Documentary", a mortuary worker 'borrows' corpses, dresses them up and has dinner parties with them because he's so lonely. It's not made clear whether he has sex with them, however.

* J.D., from ''[[Scrubs]]'', does-slash-subverts this with his dead, stuffed dog, Rowdy. The other characters just think J.D. has a hard time letting go of a beloved childhood pet -- untilpet—until Turk reveals that they got him from a garage sale when they were roommates in college. After that, pretty much every character spends some time playing with Rowdy, with Carla both thanking him for "finding" Turk's bandana and informing him he'll leave after she and Turk move in, at different occasions.

* At the end of a ''[[Jonathan Creek (TV)|Jonathan Creek]]'' episode, {{spoiler|"The Seer of the Sands"}}, it's discovered that the dead body which had disappeared had been stolen and taken home by a girl who was secretly in love with him.

* Subverted on ''[[Thirty30 Rock (TV)|Thirty Rock]]'' as a parody of ''[[Psycho]]'', where Kenneth appears to be talking to his mother's corpse, but it is revealed that he is actually talking to his mother on speakerphone and has the Halloween decorations out.

* On ''[[Star Trek Deep Space Nine|Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]]'', {{spoiler|Gul Dukat}} goes just a little bit off the deep end after his daughter is killed in the episode "Sacrifice of Angels", and is seen cradling her dead body and talking to it.

* In ''[[Priest (Manhwamanhwa)|Priest]]'', Ivan's girlfriend is killed in a [[Religious Horror|bizarre ritual]] [[Gone Horribly Right]]. He is so traumatized by the event that he brings her corpse back to his old house and dresses it up nicely, acting as though she was still alive for a brief period. [[Hilarity Ensues|Then zombies attack and she reanimates and he has to kill her again.]]

{{quote| Have you met my groom?<br />

Long, fair and kind of pale<br />

I got him stacked in my room<br />

Come by and say "hi" some day<br />

{{quote| Have you seen my son?<br />

He's quiet and calm<br />

I found him the other day<br />

Why don't you come over and play?<br />

* A classic example in the [[Alice Cooper (Music)|Alice Cooper]] song "Cold Ethyl", where the titular Ethyl is a corpse kept in a large refrigerator, and involves [[I Love the Dead|"Making love by the refrigerator light"]].

* "Heirate mich" and "Klavier" by [[Rammstein (Music)|Rammstein]].

* [[Avenged Sevenfold (Music)|Avenged Sevenfold]]'s "A Little Piece of Heaven" is a very disturbing example of this, in which a man kills his girlfriend for refusing his proposal, then has 'fun' with her corpse, before she becomes a zombie and kills him in return. They make up in hell, however, and come back to get married and engage in mass murder.

* The music video to [[Disturbed (Music)|Disturbed]]'s "''Inside The Fire''" involves the character (lead singer David Draiman) doing this with his then-recently [[Driven to Suicide]] girlfriend. It was disturbing.

{{quote| ''Give me a reason to believe that you're gone.''<br />

''I see your shadow so I know they're all wrong.''<br />

''Moonlight on the soft brown earth,''<br />

''It leads me to where you lay.''<br />

{{quote| ''Digging in the dirt,''<br />

''I can feel you getting closer,''<br />

''Steadying my hands through the blistering pain.''<br />

''Anxiously awaiting for the earth to reveal you,''<br />

* "Her Clockwork Heart" by [[Vernian Process]] is about an inventor who creates a [[Exactly What It Says Onon the Tin|clockwork heart]] for his dying lover. She lives on...sort of.

{{quote| ''HE GOT A BOOK ON EMBALMING. AND HE FOUND IT SIMPLY QUITE CHARMING. SHE IS THERE SHE IS THERE IN THE LARDER. PRESERVED FOR ALL TIME FOR HIS ARDOUR. SHE IS THERE SHE IS THERE IN THE LARDER. SHE IS THERE SHE IS THERE IN THE LARDER. SHE IS THERE SHE IS THERE IN THE LARDER. SHE IS THERE SHE IS THERE IN THE LARDER. SHE IS THERE SHE IS THERE IN THE LARDER. SHE IS THERE SHE IS THERE IN THE LARDER. SHE IS THERE SHE IS THERE IN THE LARDER. SHE IS THERE SHE IS THERE IN THE LARDER.''}}

{{quote| ''Her Skin Is Dry And Body Full Of Dust<br />

One Day I'm Afraid She Just Might Combust<br />

I Could Never Think Of Leaving Her Side<br />

* Melodic Death Metal band The Black Dahlia Murder has at least two songs of this, both prone to be [[Tear Jerker|Tear Jerkers]]s, ''A Vulgar Picture'' and ''Deathmask Divine''.

{{quote| Well I ain't afraid of dying, it's the thought of being dead.<br />

I want to go on being me once my eulogy's been read.<br />

Don't spread my ashes out to sea, don't lay me down to rest.<br />

{{quote| He took the skeleton to the valley<br />

whispered sweet nothings to her under the stars<br />

and then fell asleep forever<br />

{{quote| I dug you up this morning and took you home,<br />

To have you here beside me cold but close.<br />

I made my mind up last night<br />

* The less [[Squick|squickysquick]]y form, since it's the willful retaining of a dead body, not the delusion that they're still alive and kicking: In ''[[The Iliad (Literature)|The Iliad]]'' after Patroclus dies, Achilles spends an awful lot of mourning time with his arms wrapped around his [[Heterosexual Life Partners|best friend's]] corpse. To lessen the squick a bit, Thetis later embalms the corpse so it won't spoil before Achilles gets a chance to avenge his death.

* [[Older Than Dirt]]: In ''[[The Epic of Gilgamesh (Literature)|The Epic of Gilgamesh]]'', the titular hero refuses to allow his beloved friend Enkidu to be buried, embracing his corpse, weeping over him, having one sided conversations with him, [[Please Wake Up|pleading with him to wake up]], "veiling his face like a bride's." He finally allows Enkidu to be buried after seven days, when a maggot falls out of Enkidu's nose. Eww... But at least he acknowledges the decomposition.

* Brilliantly done in a short story accompanying the fat pack for [[Magic: theThe Gathering]]'s ''Coldsnap'' expansion. The story is presented as the set's villain speaking to his beloved {{spoiler|[[Tomato Surprise|who he has just frozen to death and shattered]] because she didn't agree with his latest deluded scheme.}}

* ''[[Fire Emblem]]: [[Fire Emblem: theThe Sacred Stones (Video Game)|The Sacred Stones]]'' has {{spoiler|Orson, who [[Love Makes You Evil|betrays his kingdom so he can be (alive) with his wife, Monica]]. Since she was a recently deceased [[Ill Girl]], the [[Big Bad]] promises to resurrect her, but can only bring people back as mindless zombies. Orson is so crazy at this rate that he doesn't notice this. We only ever see her map sprite (a standard female civilian), but from Erika, Ephraim and Seth's horrified reactions, that's probably for the best. Ephraim himself puts her out of her "misery".}}

* After his real family died, the mad priest Bassilus in the game ''[[BaldursBaldur's Gate]]'' managed to form a fair-sized surrogate family... by killing people and [[Necromantic|raising them as zombies and skeletons]]. Then he spots you and decides you would make a good parent...

* She wasn't driven nuts by the death, but by another factor, but Presea of ''[[Tales of Symphonia (Video Game)|Tales of Symphonia]]'' continues almost-robotically caring for her father long after his death. After the heroes help cancel out the factor warping her mind, reality sets in, and she doesn't take it well at first.

** Something like this happens in ''[[Dragon Quest]] VII'' in one of the areas. An inventor in the past reprograms one of the [[Mecha -Mooks]] threatening the kingdom, and in the present day you find it in his home trying to take care of him (apparently unable to realize he's long-dead). It's played mostly for pity, though.

* In ''[[Iji (Video Game)|Iji]]'', {{spoiler|if you don't manage to keep Dan from getting electrocuted, Iji will talk to him and say that she was afraid he was killed, then leave him behind to recover.}} The horror sets in when you realize that you never heard him reply . . .

* Part of the "Dark Brotherhood" arc of ''[[Elder Scrolls]] IV: [[The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion|Oblivion]]'' features you tracking down a traitor in the Brotherhood's ranks. When you happen to stumble upon said traitor's hideout, you discover (via a diary) that his mother was originally a victim of the brotherhood. He has kept her decaying head (and talked to it) ever since.

* ''[[Grand Theft Auto Vice City]]'' has a commercial on the [[GTA Radio|radio]] for "Pet Stuffers," which [[Exactly What It Says Onon the Tin|taxedermies dead pets]] for owners who "just can't let go". Funny until you realize this is [[Truth in Television]] (see further down on the page). More disturbing, however, is the first clip of the "owner": "Rex, you didn't eat your food again. That's the second week in a row!" Depending on how you interpret it, either the poor dog is dying of something that has given him a complete loss of appetite, or he's ''already been dead for two weeks'' and the owner is in severe denial.

** Well it's one part this and one part [[Talking to Thethe Dead]] {{spoiler|I got the feeling that he knew that she was dead but needed to say what he was saying before his [[Heroic Sacrifice]].}}

{{quote| '''Demon Hunter:''' Sometimes love means you have to let go.}}

* In ''[[Stickin' Around]]'' the character Polly, despite being spectacularly well informed and articulate for her young age, cannot accept that her pet dog Pepperoni is dead.

* Played with in Season 4 of ''[[The Venture Brothers (Animation)|The Venture Brothers]]'', when {{spoiler|Number 21 is shown to have one-sided conversations with the skull of the deceased Number 24. We later see it from Number 21's perspective, and he is apparently talking to a ghost only he can see. In a subversion, 21 [[Took a Level Inin Badass]], and we're shown that 24's ghost has been feeding 21 information (i.e. warning him if people nearby are carrying concealed weapons) to improve his reputation. This leads to a bit of a [[Mind Screw]] when 24's ghost suggests he himself may be an imaginary [[Magic Feather]], and that 21 really is awesome but hallucinates 24 due to an inferiority complex.}}

* ''[[Homestuck (Webcomic)|Homestuck]]'': {{spoiler|Jade's Grandpa. He was much easier to deal with when he was alive.}}

** It's worth mentioning that while she was alive he was trying to ''convince'' her to commit suicide, [[I Love the Dead|just so he could do this afterwards]]. His incredibly [[Squick|Squicky]]y descriptions of what he planned to do were enough to convince her not to kill herself on several occasions.

* Over on her in-character facebook, [[The Nostalgia Chick (Web Video)|The Nostalgia Chick]] wondered if [[Todd in Thethe Shadows]] was dying and said she would accept having sex with his dead body if there was no hope when he was alive.

* The Peavey family of New Hampshire had a [https://web.archive.org/web/20091105230108/http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,297495,00.html mummified stillborn infant] as a sort of heirloom for 90 years, until a child let the secret slip and the state ordered that the body be buried. Though the family engaged in some playful acts with the body, like giving it cards on holidays and a dried fish for a pet, they never fully enacted this trope. (Someone in the past might have, however, considering the body was left unburied so long).

** Someone dug out [https://web.archive.org/web/20100510003646/http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gnsBYieDL6mf_U5L8W7RFhNoo6BwD9FG8QL80 the grave] of that unfortunate corpse

* Then there was [http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/Joanna_of_Castile:Joanna of Castile|Queen Juana of Castile]], queen regnant in the early 16th century, who was said to have kept her husband's body around for years after his death, and definitely did so for several months until the church stopped her. Otherwise known as Joanna the Mad.

* Similar to Queen Juana, it is reported that [http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Raleigh:Elizabeth Raleigh|Elizabeth, Lady Raleigh]] carried her husband Sir Walter's embalmed head around with her until her death.

* Animals occasionally do this with their dead infants. It's slightly less [[Squick|squickysquick]]y than when humans do it, for some reason.

** Maybe because the other animals' reaction is much more [[Squick|squickysquick]]y as they eat the corpses of their infants.

[[Category:Mummies At The Dinner Table{{PAGENAME}}]]