The Fun in Funeral/Quotes

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


"It's the best kind of party! It's a funeral! WOO HOO!"
"I don't care what anyone says I want strippers at my funeral."
"If you mix up the letters in "funeral" you get "real fun"..."
Billy, Six Feet Under

Faye: Ah, yes, that would be Fred's grandfather's obituary. He was a shockingly hard man to get along with. Racist, insulting and hateful to his wife and kids. But, in the end, I learned something very important from his death.
Monette: And that would be what?

Faye: There are definitely times when party hats and noisemakers are acceptable at a funeral.
There was a street clown called King of the Mice: he trained rodents, he did horoscopes, he could impersonate Napoleon, he could make dogs fart on command. One night he jumped out his window with all his pets in a box. Written on the box was this: "Life is serious, but art is fun!" I hear his funeral was a party. A street artist had killed himself. Nobody had supported him but now everybody missed him. Now who would make the dogs make music and the mice pant? The bear knows this, too: it is hard work and great art to make life not so serious.
—John Irving, The Hotel New Hampshire
"I didn't attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it."