History Main / AttendingYourOwnFuneral

* When you wait forever for the cable guy, you get bored. When you get bored, you start staring out windows. When you start staring out windows, [[HeKnowsTooMuch you see things you shouldn't see]]. When you see things you shouldn't see, you need to vanish. When you need to vanish, you [[FakingTheDead fake your own death]]. When you fake your own death, you dye your eyebrows. And when you dye your eyebrows, you attend your own funeral as a guy named Phil Schiffly. Don't attend your own funeral as a guy named Phil Schiffly. Advertising/{{Get rid of cable}} [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Op5uAxIkIko and upgrade to DirecTV.]] Call 1-800-DIRECTV.

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

* In the AudioPlay/BigFinishDoctorWho story "Fond Farewell", the titular funderal parlor creates a short-lived replica of the deceased to attend the wake and give the mourners a chance to say goodbye.

* In ''The Death of Groo,'' ComicBook/GrooTheWanderer goes to his own funeral, expecting there to be much sadness at his demise. There isn't. Everybody at that funeral had had endless trouble from him, and they were all delighted at his "death."
* ComicBook/{{Deadpool}} did this in spirit form. He found that he was able to possess people and had no end of fun causing trouble, culminating in a giant brawl between Juggernaut, Wolverine, T-Ray, and pretty much every other minor character to appear in Deadpool's book up to that point.
* [[ComicBook/FantasticFour The Invisible Woman]] got buried once... And she attended, seeing as it was herself from the future. She even, like the ''Runaways'' example, gave her own eulogy.
* When ComicBook/NormanOsborn showed up alive during ''ComicBook/TheCloneSaga'', he claimed to have done this, watching from a distance simply out of a sick sense of amusement. (The body was [[DisposableVagrant a vagrant]] he had murdered in order to fake his death.)
* In an ''The Inspector'' feature from Gold Key's ''WesternAnimation/ThePinkPanther'' comic book, The Inspector appears disguised as a cake topper resembling himself when criminals toast his "demise" at a celebration party.

* In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/5366432/1/What-was-wrong What Was Wrong]]'' shortly after [[FakingTheDead transfiguring a dying sheep into a copy of himself]] Harry attends his own funeral underneath his invisibility cloak.
* Played with in the ''Series/DoctorWho'' fanfic "Cold ... Tired ...", which is set in the immediate aftermath of "Earthshock". Adric, having returned to the TARDIS in spirit, listens outside the door as the Doctor, Tegan and Nyssa hold a memorial ceremony for him.
* ''Fanfic/BeingDeadAintEasy'' has Joey fall from the gateway to the afterlife to the tail end of his own funeral.
* In the ''Fanfic/EmpathTheLuckiestSmurf'' story "The Innocence Of A Smurf", Empath dies while swimming across the Pool of Souls to prove his innocence in the matter of bloodshed. The Smurfs were mourning over his death when Empath returns to them back from the dead, because the spirits of the Pool of Souls had deemed him worthy of a second chance.

* An important plot point of the 1937 French film ''The Man from Nowhere'' (French: L'Homme de nulle part), where the ruined protagonist, Mathias, is given an opportunity to fake his own death to start afresh.
* Invoked in the movie ''Film/WakingNedDevine''. For plot reasons too complex to go into here, the people of an Irish village have to pretend that the person they are burying is someone different. That different person, still very much alive, gets to attend "his" funeral and hear his neighbors offer heartfelt tributes to him.
* Jacques Bouvar does this at the beginning of ''Film/{{Thunderball}}'' while masquerading as a woman. Film/JamesBond shows up to make sure Bouvar will be attending his own real funeral.
* 'Painless' the dentist from the film ''Film/{{MASH}}'' gets to do this. He's there because he's committing suicide, and waves goodbye from his casket. He is unaware that the cyanide capsules he's been given are fake, and he's about to get laid.
* ''Film/RevengeOfThePinkPanther'': Inspector Clouseau shows up at his own funeral, disguised as a priest. (Someone else died, but everyone thought it was Clouseau.) He only reveals himself to his former chief Dreyfus, who faints right into the grave upon seeing him, believing it to be a ghost or hallucination.
* In ''Film/TheBadSleepWell'', Wada is taken to his funeral by Nishi after he is presumed to have thrown himself into a volcano.
* ''Varyemez'', a Turkish tragicomedy film has this when a rich industrialist (the protagonist) is believed to have been killed after being kidnapped and a barely-identifiable body is found. His family and business partners had deliberately not paid the ransom upon realising that they were better off without him. Unfortunately for them, he is very much alive and angry at his family's duplicity. As he plans his [[HumiliationConga revenge]] on them, he attends his own memorial event, watching his wife and son shed crocodile tears and his business partner discussing how to divide up his business.
* In ''Year of the Devil'' [Rok ďábla], a mockumentary by Petr Zelenka, one of the characters, Karel Plíhal, stages a "dress rehearsal" of his own funeral, with a coffin, a priest, and a funeral folk-band, and watches it out of hiding.

* In the Czech film ''Trhák'' ({{mockumentary}} about filming of a musical) a character died, but his actor was filmed attending the funeral -- forcing the scriptwriter to explain it away as the deceased man's brother ("[[LampshadeHanging look, he's even limping on the same leg]]").
* In ''Film/TheWeatherman'', the main character arranges a "living funeral" for his father, who is dying of cancer. He gets through one line of his eulogy before the power cuts out.
* ''Film/{{RIPD}}'': Subverted in the sense of being undead. While he's disguised as his James Hong character, Nick does attend his own funeral from a distance. He first discovers that he no longer looks like himself when he sprints in and tries to greet his widow.

* Played for laughs in ''Film/Anchorman2TheLegendContinues'' with Brick, who's [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} not all there.]] After being declared dead due to having disappeared, he shows up at the funeral and gives a eulogy and declares he will get vengeance on his killer. He is eventually persuaded that he is actually still alive.

* Audrey and Laurel are identical twins in ''Film/ThePrettyOne''. A car accident happens and one twin dies while the other is suffering from retrograde amnesia, and is identified as Audrey. She realizes, on the day of Laurel's funeral, that she is Laurel.
* Occurs in the Jackie Gleason film ''Film/{{Gigot}}''. The title character is a CuteMute who enjoyed going to funerals, so when he is presumed dead, the townsfolk throw a lavish funeral procession for him although no body was found. When he turns up and sees the procession, he naturally follows along.
* In ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheWinterSoldier'', it's Cap attending his Smithsonian exhibit instead of his funeral, but the scene hits all the beats of this trope (he's in disguise, the exhibit is a memorial of his life up through his DisneyDeath at the end of ''[[Film/CaptainAmericaTheFirstAvenger First Avenger]]'', old movie clips and quotes from friends and loved ones in place of a eulogy, etc). It does have a different impact than most versions, since ''he's'' still alive and healthy, but he's lost or is losing ''everyone else'' there.

* A variation happens in ''Film/AvengersEndgame''. Scott has just escaped the Quantum Realm [[spoiler: after five years ([[YearInsideHourOutside explaining later on that it only felt like five hours while still inside]]).]] After learning of The Snap, he frantically searches the memorials of The Vanished, hoping that his daughter's name isn't on there... only to find his own name (but luckily not hers).
* In ''Film/MissFisherAndTheCryptOfTears'', Phyrne gatecrashes her own funeral by landing a plane on the lawn of Lofthouse Manor where her memorial is being held. She hadn't even known she had been declared dead.
* ''Film/{{Cruella}}'': [[spoiler:Estella willed all her assets to her good friend, Cruella, then got the Baroness to "kill" her in front of several witnesses. Cruella holds a funeral for Estella where only she, the boys and John the Valet attend.]]

* The essay, "Dead at 17" (frequently known as "Please God, I'm Only 17"), was written by New Hampshire resident John J. Berrio, after the teenaged son of a close friend died in a 1967 car accident. The story – a cautionary tale imploring that teenagers adopt safe-driving habits – is told from the point-of-view of a teenager who drove recklessly, was involved in a major car accident and suffered fatal injuries. The story begins with hindsight ("I was too cool for the bus" and "All the kids drive"), then progresses as the protagonist's car is involved in the deadly collision, then is examined by on-scene medics and police officers, brought to the morgue to be identified by his shocked parents and then to the visitation (where his grieving friends and family pass by his open casket). The final scene sees the teenager protesting in vain being placed in the ground, pleading for a second chance and promising to be a safer driver.
** On an almost annual basis, readers of Dear Abby and Annie's Mailbox (previously Ann Landers) will request that Berrio's essay be republished, hoping teenagers who are newly licensed will read it and decide to adopt safe driving habits. Dr. Robert Wallace, who publishes a column aimed at teenagers named Tween 12 and 20, has also been known to publish the column.
** The use of first-person POV has led some people to believe the young driver wrote this himself.

* In ''Literature/TheSagaOfDarrenShan'', the title character must fake his death and leave home after he is forced to become a vampire in the first book. He is only 10 or 12 years old. He takes a Juliet potion, but after a couple of days, he is conscious. He hears his family all crying around the coffin and through the funeral, and as he is buried. And this is only book 1 of 12...
* This is done symbolically in ''Literature/LordOfTheNightSky'' to help Ted get over the fact [[YouCantGoHomeAgain that his old life is over]]. Once the day is saved, the team throws him a funeral party.
* In the ''Literature/{{Raffles}}'' series, A. J. Raffles did this, as part of a gambit to throw a too-persistent ex-girlfriend off his trail; it was the second time he'd been thought to be dead, but the first funeral. The other time, he'd jumped from a ship in the Mediterranean, and been mistakenly reported to have washed up dead on shore.
* ''Literature/RowleyJeffersonsAwesomeFriendlySpookyStories'': In story 2, ''The Prankster'', Jasper wakes up one day and tries to pull a prank in the bakery, but his hand goes through it. He looks at a mirror, [[MissingReflection no reflection]]. After walking around, he sees people going to a funeral: ''his'' funeral. He attends it, and when everyone's done saying their words about Jasper, Jasper goes to see his body, only for the body to be a pumpkin with a crudely-drawn face on it. It turns out, it was a prank held by the entire town.
* ''Series/RumpoleOfTheBailey'': In "Rumpole and the Last Resort", Rumpole lets it be thought that he is dead, partly to lure a solicitor that owes him a great deal of money out of hiding and let She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed pwn him good; as a bonus, he gets to hear Judge Bullingham giving a eulogy for him, which he greatly enjoys.
* In the fourth book of ''Literature/PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians'', Percy shows up after spending two weeks on Calypso's island to find that everyone thought he was dead and were holding his funeral.
** Subverted by Magnus in [[Literature/MagnusChaseAndTheGodsOfAsgard The Sword of Summer]], who [[spoiler:did in fact die, and did in fact visit his own body, but didn't attend the funeral.]]
* Prince Josua at the end of ''Literature/MemorySorrowAndThorn''.
* Mr. Sellars at the end of ''Literature/{{Otherland}}'', also by Creator/TadWilliams.
* Aethelstane in ''Literature/{{Ivanhoe}}'' does this at his own funeral. Specifically, he throws open the door and appears wearing funeral garments and looking as if he had just been raised from the dead.

* In ''Literature/TheHobbit'', Bilbo returns from adventuring just in time to attend his own estate sale.

* Aversion: In the novel ''Literature/SkinnyDip'' by Creator/CarlHiaasen, Joey wants to attend her own funeral (in disguise) in order to interrogate her husband about why he tried to kill her. Her partner-in-crime convinces her to wait in the car.
* In ''Literature/AmericanGods'', Mad Sweeney the leprechaun attends his own wake, where he [[DeadPersonConversation debates]] the interpretation of his life story provided by one of the other characters and tosses back a few glasses of whiskey. By the next morning, he seems to have shifted from OnlyMostlyDead to KilledOffForReal.
* Creator/TomHolt's Paul Carpenter pulls this in book three of the ''Literature/JWWellsAndCo'' series... after faking a ''relapse'' of death. Considering that he died something like three times per book and usually recovered by the next chapter, this is hardly surprising.
* Creator/GKChesterton's Literature/FatherBrown does it in "The Resurrection of Father Brown". He was [[spoiler: drugged by {{Hollywood Atheist}}s who wanted to make it look like he was trying to fake a miracle by coming back to life. They were foiled when the modest and sensible Father Brown declared that it ''hadn't'' been a miracle.]]
* ''Literature/{{Clue}}'': Book 5, chapter 10 ("Mr. Boddy's Funeral") has the guests all assembled after having been invited to their host's funeral, and Mrs. Peacock is wondering why the reverend is late when Boddy himself walks in, leading to confusion until it is revealed one of the guests arranged for the funeral with the intention of murdering Mr. Boddy in front of everyone. Fortunately, he survives.
* In ''[[Literature/AnneOfGreenGables Anne of Ingleside]]'', one of the GossipyHens 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.

[[folder:Film]]

[[folder:Audio Plays]]
* In the AudioPlay/BigFinishDoctorWho story "Fond Farewell", the titular funderal parlor creates a short-lived replica of the deceased to attend the wake and give the mourners a chance to say goodbye.
[[/folder]]

[[quoteright:300:[[Webcomic/{{Spamusement}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Attending_Your_Own_Funeral_9959.jpg]] ]]
[[caption-width-right:300:[[Series/SesameStreet HELLO ME NOT DEAD]]]]

* In 2009, a hoax arose on the Internet (and even spread as far as an Australian TV news show) which claimed Jeff Goldblum had died in an accident. Goldblum's response was to take this trope UpToEleven by going on ''Series/TheColbertReport'' and ''[[http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/220019/june-29-2009/jeff-goldblum-will-be-missed delivering his own eulogy]]''.

* This was a distant possibility during UsefulNotes/TheSpaceRace, most acutely in the course of NASA's Apollo lunar landing attempts. In the lead-up to Apollo 11, which would be the first, William Safire, a speechwriter for President UsefulNotes/RichardNixon, prepared a speech, "[[BurialInSpace In Event of Moon Disaster]]", which he would read if something resulted in the deaths of all--or some--of the crew. Some of those situations would involve the crew still being alive--such as the lunar module, ''Eagle'', not being able to launch off the surface of the Moon; or the command module, ''Columbia'', being unable to return to Earth from lunar orbit--in which case astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins (in varying combinations) would've been among those hearing their own eulogy. While Apollo 11 fortunately went well, the closest we've come to that being necessary was Apollo 13, though that crew was able to return alive.

** On the earlier episode "The Schizoid Man", Dr. Ira Graves, the mentor to Dr. Noonien Soong, Data's creator, [[GrandTheftMe uploads himself into Data's positronic brain just before he dies]]. While in Data's body, he doesn't just attend his own funeral -- he delivers his own [[ButHeSoundsHandsome flattering]] ''eulogy''.

* Sharon Vineyard aka Vermouth in ''Manga/DetectiveConan''. She even made herself pass as her own daughter and gave the eulogy!

* A suspect on ''Series/{{Castle}}'' once got caught this way — he faked his death but couldn't resist coming to the funeral.

* In ''Series/{{Continuum}}'', New Timeline Alec arranges a funeral for New Timeline Kiera, who was killed shortly after Original Timeline Kiera arrived in the new timeline. Since almost no-one knows she's dead, the only atendees are himself, Carlos, and Original Timeline Kiera.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSmurfs'' episode "Clumsy Luck", Clumsy goes out into the forest to exile himself from the rest of the Smurfs because of his "seven years of bad luck" curse he had brought upon himself for accidentally breaking Vanity's mirror. He then returns to the village to see that most of his fellow Smurfs are now mourning for him because a meteor had destroyed his house and everybody thought he was in it at the time of impact. Clumsy then reveals to the Smurfs that he is still alive, and they cheerfully receive him back safe and sound and among the living.

* [[ComicBook/FantasticFour The Invisible Woman]] recently got buried... And she attended, seeing as it was herself from the future. She even, like the ''Runaways'' example, gave her own eulogy.

* In YUP's ToppatakkejaJaToledonTerasta main character Henri Blavatsky's spirit buries his own corpse in main antagonist's flowerbed. And pukes over it.

[[folder: Professional Wrestling]]

---> '''Sarge''': "This is the worst funeral I've ever had."

--> ''"John LOVES a good funeral; especially his own. Nothing tickles his fancy like hearing guys who hated his guts go on about what a great person he was. John says that nothing hits people right where they live, gets them up on their hind legs, like someone important to them dying."''

--> '''Plankton:''' This is the worst funeral of mine I've ever been to.

--> '''Randy:''' "Calculon's back!"

* ''Film/{{Cruella}}'': [[spoiler:Estella willed all her assets to her good friend, Cruella, then got the Baroness to "kill" her in front of several witnesses. Cruella holds a funeral for Estella where only she, the boys and John the Valet attend.]]

* ''Film/Cruella'': [[spoiler:Estella willed all her assets to her good friend, Cruella, then got the Baroness to "kill" her in front of several witnesses. Cruella holds a funeral for Estella where only she, the boys and John the Valet attend.]]

* In ''Literature/ASeriesOfUnfortunateEvents'', Lemony Snicket does this after he's [[ReportsOfMyDeathWereGreatlyExaggerated believed to be dead.]].

[[folder:Newspaper Comics]]
* One ''ComicStrip/TheFarSide'' has a bear sitting up in a casket, incredulous that he has to tell his mourners that he was ''hibernating''.
[[/folder]]

* The beginning of "Neptune City" by Nicole Atkins begins with a ghost tagging after his funeral procession.

* [[LovableCoward Italy]] does this in ''VideoGame/HetaOni''; after a hiccup in the mansion's GroundhogDayLoop, he winds up caught in the only time loop where he didn't survive, and goes to visit his own dead body before finding the way back to his own reality. It's almost forgettable compared to the [[KillEmAll things]] [[SadistShow before]] [[TearJerker and]] [[BreakTheCutie after]] it, though.

* In the third season finale of ''Series/EastboundAndDown'', Kenny Powers (who takes SmallNameBigEgo to insane heights) fakes his death on the belief that "the press will never leave me alone." The season four premiere reveals that Kenny was unable to resist bursting into the middle of his own funeral and announce he was "reborn". He is honestly surprised that the reactions included his brother punching him in the face and then ending up [[RealityEnsues arrested and spending time in jail for insurance fraud.]]