History Main / BuryingASubstitute

* ''ComicBook/{{Alix}}'' had a case of this in Alix Senator, where Alix puts up a cenotaph in Enak's memory (he died during Egypt's final battle with Rome), since they NeverFoundTheBody. [[spoiler:It later turns out that Enak was alive the whole time, unable to reveal himself due to getting caught in an anti-Roman conspiracy.]]

As a DeathTrope '''there will be spoilers'''.

* Subverted in the ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'' episode "Death Of A Propane Salesman". After Buckley's death from the Mega Lo Mart explosion, [[ConspiracyTheorist Dale]] thinks [[FakingTheDead Buckley faked his death]] and that his coffin is empty. So, at his funeral, Dale takes a peek inside, [[TakeOurWordForIt and is so sicked by what he sees]] that [[VomitDiscretionShot he throws up into the coffin]].

* In the movie ''Film/{{Seconds}}'', a wealthy middle-aged man who regrets his life choices is given a chance by a secret company to have his youth returned to him and given a second chance to live the life he always wanted to live. All he has to do is leave the fee for this service in his will, then his death will be faked, he will be given youth treatments, and he will be given a new identity and the tools to build a new life. He accepts the offer only to find that he is not happy with his new life. He eventually returns to the company, where he is put on a waiting list to get another new life. He has to sit and wait for this in a room with a whole bunch of other men who are also unsatisfied with their new lives. He finds out too late that when his number comes up [[spoiler: he will be killed so that his body can be used to fill the coffin of a new customer that is having his death faked.]]

* In ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfAmber'', Corwin underwent a sudden and longtime disappearance, (even for what is essentially an immortal demigod, it was a long time) and eventually his family created an cenotaph for him. When he finally returns from exile, he's quite amused by it, and somewhat surprisingly he finds he rather likes hanging out there, as it's a quiet, out of the way spot that is good for getting away from family intrigue and politics for a bit. He also admits that he's more fond of pissing on his own "grave" than he really should be.

* In one of the ''Literature/HammersSlammers'' stories it's mentioned that the next-of-kin of many Slammers receive a sealed coffin filled with 70 kilos of sand.

* Once in ''Series/FraggleRock'', Gobo was thought to have been eaten by Sprocket and all his friends found was his hat. Boober suggests burying the hat as a way of remembering him just before Gobo reappears and reveals he's not dead.

[[folder: Comic Books ]]

[[folder: Fan Works ]]

* In ''FanFic/HowTheLightGetsIn'', after [[spoiler:Edie]] is revealed to be the BigBad, Sara and Laurel dig up her grave to get confirmation. The casket contains a (creepily realistic) dummy. Laurel notes this required help from family members and the funeral was closed casket, so why just bury an empty casket? She concludes the DramaQueen tendencies are genetic.

[[folder: Film ]]

* The novelization of ''Film/BatmanBegins'' has Bruce Wayne burying the clothing he wore while training with the League of Shadows because it has some of Ducard[=/=]Ra's al Ghul's blood on it, and that bloodstain is the only thing he has to mark the EvilMentor that was almost a second father to him.

[[folder: Literature ]]

* In the Creator/DeanKoontz book ''Whispers'', exhuming Bruno Frye's coffin reveals bags of cement instead of a body. [[spoiler:The other Bruno Frye had recovered his twin's body to take home. At this point in the story, only Bruno knows there are two.]]

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

* In ''Series/CriminalMinds'' Emily Prentiss is apparently killed off and buried [[RealLifeWritesThePlot due to real-life budget cuts]]. However, at the next season's opening episode she turns up very much alive, with an explanation that she'd really been shot, but the hospital saved her and the BAU leaders arranged for her funeral to be faked as part of a covert op. (Her coffin was full of sandbags.)
* Once on ''Series/FraggleRock'', Gobo was thought to have been eaten by Sprocket and all his friends found was his hat. Boober suggests burying the hat as a way of remembering him just before Gobo reappears and reveals he's not dead.
* On ''{{Series/Arrow}}'', both Oliver and his father have gravestones, but no graves, because they were LostAtSea. Oliver has both removed, even though his father really is dead. (Ostensibly to further his bad-boy cover persona, but possibly also because he knows his father has a real grave on Lian Yu). Laurel also tells Oliver they buried an empty coffin at her sister Sara's grave---which then ends up being used when Sara dies for real several seasons later. In the GrandFinale, [[spoiler:Oliver's coffin is once again empty, but only because he died (a second time) in the antimatter universe and his body was never recovered. Anatoly asks if the coffin is empty, and the others confirm that it's full of mementos]].

[[folder: Video Games ]]

* Part of the BackStory of Michael in ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV'' is that he decided to [[RetiredOutlaw retire from crime]], became [[TheStoolPigeon an informant for the FIB]], and sold out the gang of bank robbers he was working with. The FIB faked his death in the wake of the shootout they had with his crew, buried another member of the bank robbers in his place, and put him into WitnessProtection.

[[folder: Web Comics ]]

* Part of the backstory of Durkon from ''WebComic/TheOrderOfTheStick'' is that his father died before he was born, pulling a HeroicSacrifice to kill a monster ravaging the area. Since the sacrifice took the form of collapsing a cave on both himself and the rampaging troll, the only part of old dad buried under his funeral marker is a lock of his beard that Durkon's mom had in her keeping.

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

* In [[Recap/BatmanTheAnimatedSeriesE51TheManWhoKilledBatman an episode]] of ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'', Batman is believed to have been killed by a petty crook. After the Joker becomes convinced that Batman really is dead, [[AntagonistInMourning he gives Batman's cowl something]] of a VikingFuneral.
* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanUnderTheRedHood'' plays with this. Jason Todd is buried after the Joker brutally kills him. However, it turns out that while the body was being prepared for burial, ComicBook/RasAlGhul and the League of Assassins took his body and then replaced it with a wax dummy so that they could bring Jason BackFromTheDead with the Lazarus Pit.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' episode [[Recap/JusticeLeagueS2E19And20Hereafter "Hereafter"]], Superman disappears after being hit with what's supposedly a DisintegratorRay. Everyone but Batman believes him dead, so they hold a funeral for him with the rest of the Justice League (minus Batman) carrying a coffin with the left-behind scraps of his uniform inside.

* In ''WesternAnimation/SupermanTheAnimatedSeries'', episode "[[Recap/SupermanTheAnimatedSeriesS2E25E26ApokolipsNow Apokolips Now]]" when Darkseid was forced to back off from conquering Earth, he got in a parting shot by instantly vaporizing Dan Turpin, who has been acting as TheCommissionerGordon for Superman and leading the human attempts to resist Darkseid. Despite there being nothing of him to bury, he still gets a funeral and a gravestone.

[[folder: Real Life ]]

* ''LightNovel/AscendanceOfABookworm'': [[spoiler:The protagonist herself]] has to fake her death, complete with a fake funeral. Possessions are buried instead of a body for obvious reasons, though the possessions buried are appropriate in regards to the fact that they all items she no longer has any use for and can't get back without the risk of unnecessarily tipping the wrong people off as to what really happened.

* In ''Film/BatmanVSupermanDawnOfJustice'', at the end, Superman dies, and his funeral is held in two places: one in Metropolis where it's more grandiose (with military-style burying) but the casket is actually empty, while the real body is buried at the funeral in Smallville.

->'''Stan:''' Chuck, Kelly had to let you go. You know? She thought you were dead. We buried you. We had a funeral, a coffin, a gravestone, the whole thing.\\

* This was used in ''Starfighter'', about a widow who was suing a government contractor after her husband, an Air Force test pilot, was killed flying a Lockheed F-104 Starfighter. A lawyer tries to accuse her husband of taking drugs. She says there was no trace of drugs in his system. He points out that it was impossible to determine given the 'limited material' available for testing. She demands to know what he means, and is later shown saying in fury to a friend, "I buried his hands!"

* A variation shows up in Creator/JohnGrisham's ''The Partner'', where the main character buries 4 cinder blocks because he needs the corpse of the guy who died in order to fake his own death.

* ''Literature/ExperimentalFilm'': After young Hyatt Whitcomb went missing, an empty coffin bearing his name was buried in the family crypt.