History Main / TheFunInFuneral

* When medieval German {{trickster}} / fool-using-ObfuscatingStupidity Literature/TillEulenspiegel died, the guys who carried his coffin goofed up, and the coffin fell into the grave, standing upright instead of lying down. The priest decided this was OK: "He lived in a weird way, so he shall be buried in a weird way."

* The ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' episode "The Man Who Killed Batman" featured [[AntagonistInMourning the Joker truly mourning Batman]], placing a cape and cowl in a coffin, and then adding a "Kick Me" sign, causing Harley Quinn to observe "You know what's great about you, Puddin'? You really put the 'fun' in funeral." After an emotional eulogy, he [[spoiler:sticks the no-name guy held responsible for Batsy's death in the coffin and rolls it into a pit of acid.]] while Harley plays "Amazing Grace" on a kazoo (one of the funniest moments of the entire series; reportedly, the kazoo solo was done all in one take, as everyone was cracking up, making it impossible to do it again). And then he wipes away and a tear and asks perkily, "Who's up for Chinese?"

* In ''Series/TheNeighbors'', everyone in the neighborhood attended their gardeners funeral, and most of the aliens haven't attended a funeral or know about death so they made several weird acts like a stand up comedy, or lighting fire works.

* ''MamasFamily'' had several examples. At Aunt Fran's funeral at the beginning of Season 3, Vint slams the hearse door, causing the casket to slide out and roll down the interstate on-ramp, while Bubba eats all the food at the wake, thinking it was a coming-home party for him. In another episode, the family goes to Uncle Oscar's funeral and scatters his ashes on a lake, only to have a water-skier slalom through them. In yet another, Mama has a dream about her own funeral, where everyone gets bored and decides to leave to go bowling instead.

** And ''Booth'' singing! * It's epic and really weird. But... Mostly Epic.)

* Ponce's funeral in his premiere episode of ''CloneHigh'' is played entirely for laughs, with his best friend JFK picking him up out of the coffin and punching him because he insists he's not really dead, and then jumping into the coffin next to him and closing the lid (only to pop out seconds later and state "I was in a coffin with a dead guy!" and run off screaming).

* One episode of ''RockosModernLife'' features Ed Bighead having a mid-life crisis. Rocko eventually snaps him out of it by holding a fake funeral for him, complete with trash-can as a coffin and almost getting him buried in the Bigheads' back yard with cement.

** Something similar happened on an episode of ''MarriedWithChildren'', with the ashes of Marcy's aunt being used in Al's grill.

* On ''Series/{{Monk}}'''s {{pilot}} episode, Monk drops his keys into the casket from a balcony seat, and proceeds to attempt to fetch them by lowering a paper-clip on a string into the casket. TheFunInFuneral comes when he accidentally hooks the corpse's sleeve, causing it to "wave" to the mourners.

** And by 'disrupt', you mean 'talk loud how they're going to rob the valuables off the corpse and sell his penis to med school as soon as the burial is over'.

* This trope is also seen in the movie ''AmazonWomenOnTheMoon'', in which a grieving widow watches her dead husband's funeral turn into a "celebrity roast", and she is ultimately compelled to give a classic roast-style speech (the deceased's "rebuttal") as her eulogy.
** This [[TheFunInFuneral funeral is so much fun]] that [[spoiler:the last scene of the sketch shows the funeral home's sign, telling passers-by that the funeral has been held over several weeks]].
* ''{{Clerks}}'' had a similar sketch, though in the original movie it was [[SecondHandStorytelling unseen]]. It was later animated in the ''ClerksTheAnimatedSeries'' style, and rather hilarious.

** And there's always Homer's mom, who asked that her ashes be thrown away at a certain point at a certain time. Of course, this is so her ashes disrupt some evil machine or something.

* An episode of ''SisterSister'' has Lisa going to a funeral for a woman she didn't like. Just before she goes, she chips a tooth, goes to a slightly inattentive dentist, and enters the service doped up on laughing gas. HilarityEnsues and the service ends with Lisa leading the guests in a round of an upbeat hymn while Ray cowers with embarrassment. (Note that this is technically not possible, as laughing gas's effect ends within minutes of ceasing intake.)
* ''TheFreshPrinceOfBelAir'' did something right with this one; Will's yelling at his uncle's Jerkass [[TheRival political rival]] leads him to have a heart attack. When his funeral comes around, [[AndThereWasMuchRejoicing all the mourners turn out to hate him]] (for very good reasons, mind you: for example, one of them was a Mexican gardener whom the rival hired to tend his garden and when it was time to pay, ''called Immigration'') and most of them have showed up to make sure he is actually dead. Will -- wracked by guilt -- yells at them all for it saying they should respect the dead but when they ask who he is, he answers "I'm the dude that killed him" to [[BrokenAesop rapturous applause]].

* ''TheITCrowd'' has an episode of the main trio mucking up the funeral of [[spoiler: their boss, Mr. Reynholm]], including Moss relating the death to losing a pen, Roy feeling like a he suffered a heart attack and cursing loudly only to realize it was just his souped-up cell phone, and the deceased's long lost son barging in, knocking over the coffin and having a sissy slap fight with the priest.

* In the ''LALaw'' episode "Izzy Ackerman or Is He Not," a pallbearer at the titular character's funeral can't handle the casket, and it falls. The body tumbles out, and the videotape of the proceedings reveals that the body isn't Izzy's -- turns out the funeral home accidentally switched bodies, and sent Izzy off to be dissected. Leland manages to get the pieces of Izzy's body back from the various medical schools and research labs to which they were sent. It culminates in the series' CrowningMomentOfFunny, in which Izzy's head is shipped from a Florida med school and delivered to McKenzie-Brackman's offices. Two of Izzy's friends peer into the foam cooler to verify that the head is indeed Izzy's, resulting in this exchange:

* In the ''LALaw'' episode "Izzy Ackerman or Is He Not," a pallbearer at the titular character's funeral can't handle the casket, and it falls. The body tumbles out, and the videotape of the proceedings reveals that the body isn't Izzy's -- turns out the funeral home accidentally switched bodies, and sent Izzy off to be dissected. Leland manages to get the pieces of Izzy's body back from the various medical schools and research labs to which they were sent.

* In the ''LALaw'' episode "Izzy Ackerman or Is He Not," a pallbearer at the titular character's funeral can't handle the casket, and it falls. The body falls out, and the videotape of the proceedings reveals that the body isn't Izzy's -- turns out the funeral home accidentally switched bodies, and sent Izzy off to be dissected. Leland manages to get the pieces of Izzy's body back from the various medical schools and research labs to which they were sent.

* In ''ManOnTheMoon'', after AndyKaufman (played by JimCarrey) found a bit of GallowsHumor in a fake treatment for his cancer, it cuts to his funeral... [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roKZ1cN_N50 where he'd, apparently, requested a sing-a-long be performed]] by those in attendance. A very weird mix of TearJerker and TheFunInFuneral ensue.

* JimHenson stipulated in his will no one wear black at his funeral.

* [[CloudCuckoolander Murdock]] orchestrates Hannibal's fake funeral in ''Series/TheATeam'' episode, "The Big Squeeze". He stops Face and B.A. at the door and demands to know if they are "friends of the bride, or the groom?" Then he gives a eulogy about how Hannibal (rather, the restaurant owner he was masquerading as) "graced our lives like an avocado salad." He ''then'' takes things UpToEleven by playing a ''very'' melancholy version of ''Take Me Out to the Ballgame'' on the organ!

* In ''{{Coupling}}'', the gang spend most of Jane's aunt's funeral reception desperately trying to stay clear of the [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-iKjkPgVQcE Giggle Loop]]. This is [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} Jeff's]] name for the situation in which someone trying not to laugh at an inappropriate moment finds the situation of trying not to laugh ''funny'', so setting off said feedback loop. The concept is illustrated throughout by an increasingly precarious stack of pint glasses.

* In the ''Studio C'' sketch, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3WSFVxQW1A "Dead Wedding,"]] this trope is at play when a guy who wants to plan for his wedding accidentally meets a funeral planner expecting to help someone plan his grandmother's funeral.