Bart: I can't believe Krusty's really gone.
Homer: Don't worry, son. I'm sure he's up in heaven right now, laughing it up with all the other celebrities: John Dillinger, Ty Cobb, Josef Stalin. I wish I were dead.
When people think about going to Heaven, they often imagine reconnecting with family and close friends — the loved ones they actually spent their lives with. But when deceased celebrities are depicted in heaven, they are usually hanging out with other famous people. This especially applies if the celebrities are in similar fields: artists, musicians, inventors, political leaders. They may want to trade stories and learn from each other. Also, given the time gap between the celebrities, some of them may be Fanboying.
If the deceased celebrities are Real Life Relatives, then this is a Justified Trope, and expect their reconnection in heaven to be mentioned a lot in real-life obituaries.
This tends to overlap with Fluffy Cloud Heaven, as in the stock portrayal of the departed celebrities meeting up by the Pearly Gates.
If this is portrayed in a poem or song, it is likely a Celebrity Elegy. Compare with Jury of the Damned, in which infamous celebrities were in hell together (and then asked to serve on a jury).
Examples
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Fan Works
- Final Stand of Death
has this. Considering it’s a Celebrity Deathmatch Fic, this is well justified.
Film
- Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey shows a group of famous inventors — including Benjamin Franklin, Albert Einstein, and George Washington Carver — along with Confucius playing charades with Martian scientists in heaven. Someone can be heard asking "Marilyn" how she got into show business.
- This Is the End is a justified example, as the main protagonists are celebrities, who are friends in real lifenote , playing themselves as as they try to survive through the apocalypse. Those who make it into heaven naturally hang out with each other and enjoy a Dance Party Ending with the The Backstreet Boys performing "Backstreet's Back (Alright)".
Music
- "Abraham, Martin and John" by Dion imagines the titled trio — Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr., and John F. Kennedy — (all assassinated) walking together over a hill with the recently killed Bobby Kennedy.
- "Rock and Roll Heaven" by the Righteous Brothers imagines several deceased musicians — Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Otis Redding, Jim Morrison, Jim Croce, and Bobby Darin — in heaven together forming a hell of band, band, band!
Professional Wrestling
- Hulk Hogan, in his eulogy to "Mean" Gene Okerlund on Monday Night Raw, describes how Mean Gene is putting together a tag team match between The Macho Man and the Ultimate Warrior against Roddy Piper and Mr. Perfect, with André the Giant as the special guest referee and Bobby Heenan and Gorilla Monsoon calling the match and fighting as usual.
Web Original
- Todd Fisher tweeted out a picture of Debbie Reynolds and Carrie Fisher — his mother and sister who died within a day of each other — heading towards heaven together. They are portrayed as their most famous characters from Singin' in the Rain and Star Wars.
- This article deconstructs this trope by questioning whether some celebrities would even know who other celebrities were, whether heaven would have a VIP section, and suggesting that some celebrities would more likely end up in hell.
Web Video
- This YouTube video portrays former spouses Gilda Radner and Gene Wilder reuniting in heaven. But when Wilder sees Radner, she is on a date with Garry Shandling. Radner also reveals that in the twenty-five years between Radner's death and Wilder's, she also dated Jimmy Stewart, Cary Grant, John Lennon, Tupac Shakur, Jack Lemmon, Marlene Dietrich (for a phase), and David Bowie.
- This YouTube video is of a welcoming party in heaven hosted by Michael Jackson for Whitney Houston. The guests are all famous singers: Jimi Hendrix, Kurt Cobain, Elvis Presley, John Lennon, Jim Morrison, Freddie Mercury, and Amy Winehouse.
Western Animation
- The Simpsons loves this trope:
- Homer's dream of heaven in "Homer the Heretic" includes Jimi Hendrix and Isaac Newton playing air hockey.
- In "Bart the Fink", Homer describes how Krusty is enjoying heaven with all the other celebrities, like John Dillinger, Ty Cobb, and Josef Stalin.
- In the Treehouse of Horror XIX segment, "How to Get Ahead in Dead-vertising", Homer kills Krusty and is then hired to kill a bunch of other celebrities — George Clooney, Prince, Neil Armstrong — who all end up going to "Celebrity Heaven". They and other celebrities — including John Wayne, George Washington, and John Lennon — return to Earth to kill Homer.
- A more downplayed example, in which celebrities are buried together rather being in heaven together: When Bart and Lisa visit a graveyard in "Sideshow Bob Roberts", they see gravestones of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and The Big Bopper, who all died in the same plane crash together.
- In Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story, Brian dies and he ends up in heaven, drinking at a table with Vincent van Gogh, Ernest Hemingway, and Kurt Cobain, who all explain how the weight of celebrity led them to commit suicide. Brian then nervously admits he died from eating chocolate out of the garbage.
