In many people's minds, a funeral is a place of tranquility and composure. At least when they think about a traditional funeral. But more and more people are choosing to have non-traditional funerals.
Bath University sociologists found that people who've chosen to cremate their family members and have a celebration-of-life service instead of a traditional funeral feel more in control of their grieving process.
Traditional or not, people should still grieve appropriately and treat the whole ordeal with respect. Sadly, that's not the case for every funeral. Many people shared their stories of end-of-life service mishaps when one netizen asked: "What's the craziest or strangest thing you've ever experienced or witnessed at a funeral?"
Check out the most inappropriate and hilarious stories below!
Bored Panda got in touch with the Redditor who started this thread, u/AffectionateHand2206. They were kind enough to share their own strange funeral story and tell us which entries from the thread surprised them the most. Read our conversation down below!
#1
Image credits: Shackdogg
"A while back, I went to the funeral of a friend," the thread's author tells Bored Panda. "He had died surprisingly, leaving [two] young kids and an absolutely shocked wife behind." The Redditor says that this was the story that prompted them to ask others about their weird and inappropriate funeral experiences.
"The moment the service was over and during the entire funeral procession, two women who would barely even have qualified as acquaintances were heard wailing and yelling about how they'd lost their brother and close friend above the 200+ mourners."
#2
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#3
The lady who convinced my mother to ditch chemo and use essential oils, handed out biz cards at her funeral.
Image credits: Thernuk
"It was so bad that my friend's siblings asked them multiple times to tone it down," u/AffectionateHand2206 goes on. "His children looked even more disturbed by what was happening than they had before.
"Then when the coffin was lowered into the ground, the two women pushed his kids and widow aside and pretended that they were going to throw themselves in. His siblings and a few guests intervened. The women tried to free themselves and go at it again. One even claimed that no one could understand the extent of her grief."
"It was bizarre and heartbreaking at the same time," the Redditor adds.
#4
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#5
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#6
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We asked u/AffectionateHand2206 what stories from the thread stood out to them. "There were a number of bizarre and disturbing stories, but because of my own experience, the response of u/Mental-Pitch5995 stood out to me. Especially this bit:
'When my bf died. He was young, extremely well known and popular with the ladies. An unknown woman was crying hysterically and tried climbing into the casket with him. His brothers pulled her out and me with others escorted her outside to calm her down.' It made me wonder if this kind of thing happens a lot more than I ever cared to know."
#7
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#8
My grandmother's funeral was out in the country. Rolling fields, a few trees here and there. As the service goes on, I see a dog, trotting through the field next to the cemetery. It's a long distance, and the dog just lopes along, while a rather boring preacher droned on and on. I'd glance to the coffin, then back at the dog, it barely seemed to get closer. I notice everyone facing that direction is now watching the dog. It just keeps trotting closer. It slips under the cemetery fence, and now crosses grave after grave until he is only a few feet away. everyone is watching it intently as it walks up to the casket, sniffs, and lifts it leg to pee on my grandmother. Suddenly every single person, in unison, leaned forward, some shaking hands and arms and made a squeal or a shout or yelled at the dog. it looked surprised and ran away.
We all started laughing.
Image credits: TeachOfTheYear
#9
Image credits: MysticMitts
Another response that stood out to the Redditor was by u/Thernuk: "The lady who convinced my mother to ditch chemo and use essential oils handed out biz cards at her funeral."
"I felt rage on Thernuk's behalf," u/AffectionateHand2206 tells Bored Panda.
#10
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#12
u/AffectionateHand2206 posts various questions on the AskReddit subreddit from time to time. "I'd say I am a generally curious person and I love finding things that connect people."
"And sometimes it's the shared unusual experiences that remind us that no matter how out there our experiences are or seem, there will (almost) always be someone somewhere who can relate to them. I find that thought comforting," the Redditor shares.
#13
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#14
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#16
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#17
You wont believe me but someone's phone went off with the ringtone "Staying Alive".
innosins:
At my Grandma's funeral, someone had Linkin Park's 'In The End' as their ringtone.
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#20
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#21
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#24
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#25
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#26
My brother committed [self-harm]. At his funeral we had a receiving line so people can say their condolences to his widow and family. Some old guy who may have been an acquaintance of my dad, walked up to my brother's wife and just said, "So how did he do it?".
Image credits: UberSox
#27
Strangest and most infuriating was listening to the preacher giving the eulogy and talk about how my friend was in Hell because she committed [self-harm], and how we're "not supposed to worry about that now".
Image credits: Heisenblah
#28
Not super peculiar or strange but my stomach growled so loud during my grandpas funeral, DURING THE FINAL PRAYER, that the Karen next to me gave me a disgusted look. Super embarrassing but makes me laugh now. Pretty sure grandpa would’ve laughed too lol.
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#29
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#30
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My cousin passed away some years back. He was blind and had a ton of friends, many also blind. When we sung the hymns the guide dogs present howled / bayed along, it was so beautiful.
At the wake I also saw a guide dog veeeery carefully eat a sausage roll off the table right in front of his blind owner. I laughed and the dog whipped his head around to look at me, like ‘oh s**t you can see me?’.Several giggling ladies singing, "Spam, spam, spam" from Monty Python just under their breath when the pastor got boring. Several pews were laughing.
It was a song the deceased would sometimes sing. It was funny.Not really at the funeral, but my neighbor put her husbands dogs ashes in his coffin, labeled Colonel’s medals. The dog got buried with full military honors at Arlington Cemetery.My sister looked a lot like my grandmother.
My grandmother had a style, heels, a cigarette holder, wig, dress, pearls.
My father (not always appropriate) whispers in sister’s ear, “Why don’t you go in her closet and come out dressed like your grandmother?”
10 minutes later, we hear the click of the heels, the smell of a cigarette in a long holder, and a spot on n imitation of her voice.
My aunt, uncle, cousins all thought she was a ghost.Not super inappropriate, but my grandfather was always a trickster. He had a great sense of humor. He had this little song he would sing to me, my siblings, and my little cousins where he would just repeat the words “poo poopy doo” over and over. At his funeral, my aunt was telling stories about him and in the middle of her telling a story, my 6 year old cousin screamed “POO POOPY DOO” in front of 50 people. Needless to say it lightened the mood a little bit and made everyone a little happier remembering him in a good way.The corpse farted. The family of the deceased were religious and were against embalming. Decomposing bodies produce gas, and it has to go somewhere. Your gut bacteria don't die when you do. They begin digesting YOU since your body stops producing the mucous and stuff that protects your stomach and intestinal lining. Well, all of that culminated in the loudest, most foul smelling bodily emission ever witnessed by man. Several people were puking, many on the verge of puking. People were running for the exit. This was at a tiny church that was basically a house with extra seating in the living room. Think the worst fart you've ever smelled intermingled with the smell of decaying flesh. It was so bad. I think it's the only time I have ever been envious of a corpse. Lucky bastard couldn't smell a thing.Probably me and my brothers not realizing we were supposed to open my moms ashes box and release them, so instead we awkwardly dropped her entire box in the river like a bath bomb.They used youtube to play one of the woman's favorite songs with lyrics on a projector. Just after starting the song, YouTube started an ad that showed a woman straining on the toilet and it was not skippable. Everyone busted up laughing. The woman's husband said she would have found it funny, too.At my aunts funeral they played thunderstruck by AC/DC and had a table of white rum shots. let’s just say it was exactly as she would’ve wanted. love you aunt kathy.I *Caused* one. I was a photographer, a model I knew got this really long white dress with this shoulder attached train/cape thingy. She wanted to get pictures of it, and there was a large hill nearby, so I would be lower down shooting upward she would be in sparkly white flowing dress on the crest of the hill catching the wind and light. She is posing, things are going well. She looks down the other side of the hill (the hill was a drumlin, so kind of knife like at the peak). She suddenly comes running down the hill "We need to go, NOW".
So, on the other side of the hill was a cemetery, and there was a service going on. They looked up and saw this ghostly woman on the hilltop. Started gasping and pointing. Yeah. That was one of four times I caused issues with the public doing photography shenanigans,.At my Grandpa's funeral, my grandparents' friend tried to sign me up to sell Mary Kay under her while I was crying beside his grave.
At the same funeral, the preacher giving the eulogy talked about whether or not my Grandpa spanked his kids enough. He said "Daddy was a hard man, but was he hard enough? Did he spare the rod too many times?" And then mentioned my dad and his sisters by name and said they should ask themselves that question when they think of their Dad. We were all like, WTF.At my mom’s funeral which my dad only agreed to because her sisters were being a******s about my agnostic mother not having a proper funeral one of them walked up to me and said “Aren’t you so sad you never had kids and gave your mom a grandbaby.” Had to bite my tongue to keep from saying yeah so sad my stillborn daughter and eight miscarriages didnt give mom a grandchild.My mother switched her wedding ring with my dad’s ring while he was in the casket.My cousin died of a heart attack aged late 20’s/early 30’s.
Her father walked up to the casket at the funeral and as he was just about to reach it, he jolted backwards and fell over. Heart attack. His pacemaker worked and he was up and about again in about 2 minutes.
For about 60 seconds, all hell broke loose. Women crying, screaming, chaos. There were about 100-150 people just finding their seats when it happened.
He was actually joking about 3 minutes after, saying his rhythm was ‘off’, and felt s****y for the few days prior, the pacemaker set his rhythm properly again and except for the punch in the chest from the pacemaker, actually felt much better than he did previously!
It was seriously a ‘movie’ moment - one of the most surreal experiences I’ve ever had.My best friend’s grandfather died and they had a military funeral for him, which I attended. It was a small funeral, so I sat with the family. I had noticed a butterfly flying around where we were sitting, and as the man leaned over to hand the flag to her grandmother, it landed on his shoulder. It stayed there until he stood, saluted, and turned to leave. I don’t know if anyone else noticed it, but I thought it was a particularly beautiful moment.At my husband's funeral, they were folding the flag over his casket, and one of the guys were bragging about how good he was, never dropped a flag, and always perfect creases on and on. As the corners came together, he caught it on the casket, ripped the flag, it hit the ground.
Someone behind me said, "That was xxx (husband's name) telling you to humble yourself because we are all tired of hearing how perfect you are." Everyone looked at me, and I just smiled because that was my husband to a T!My friends dad died, and we were in the back of the altar. i looked up and saw his literal father standing next to me. i did not know until later that his father had a twin.My brother in laws girlfriend locked her self in a car, cried and screamed threatening to kill herself.. AT my father in laws funeral. She was fine five minutes later and explained to my in law she did it because she’s not used to not having all the attention (she thought her being pregnant would make people forget that the father died?).My Uncle, a really great guy, passed away one summer. Huge family turnout for the Catholic funeral mass. My father was executor, and handled all the details of the burial & mass. My Uncle requested in his paperwork that his remains be cremated, no viewing, just a mass and last rites at the grave. At that time, you weren't allowed to be cremated and have a mass of Christian burial...
My father followed his wishes, but failed to inform (or purposely didn't tell) the Church - or our relatives - of the arrangement. This included my *mother*, who was my Uncle's youngest sister. Never got to ask him why he didn't say anything. But he and my Uncle were practical jokers, and tight as ticks; so I think he was going to make it happen regardless of the consequences.
Day of the mass at the Church, my mother told me and my brother to go to the hearse and be pall-bearers with some other cousins. The driver and assistant said they didn't need any of us, and to wait at the Church entrance. Brother and I stared at each other - what were these guys gonna do; lift the casket themselves? Then they opened the rear door of the hearse, and... there he was. No casket, no box, no urn; just a compressed brick of ash and (I assume) some binding cement. Like a solid, rectangular cinder block.
Too much went on after that for me to detail here. Suffice it to say there was loud discussions that day, Traditional Catholic relatives made a scene in the parking lot; other not so traditional ones laughed uncontrollably, and my mother was staring holes through my father (she was pissed at him for at least two months.) The priest was actually the coolest head there that day; he allowed the ceremony to go on; and even brought the remains into the Church as if it were in a traditional casket.
Everybody - angry or not - still went to the restaurant for the reception; my family *never* passes up a free meal. More loud discussions and accusations. Lots of stories about my Uncle and his brothers and sisters. Many children driving their drunk parents home. But nobody was crying. From the moment his remains were taken out of the back of the hearse to the end of the reception; no one cried. And a lot of people were laughing.
Craziest funeral I've ever attended.My family owns a funeral home. Years ago, you had to use records to play music at funerals. of course, when there were no funerals, and people were just cleaning up, etc., they would play other records.
My grandfather had a funeral going on, and told his father to just play the record that was on the turntable, because he had set it up the day before.
Unfortunately, someone had changed it. It was the song “Give me five minutes more.”
Hysterical now, evidently not so hysterical at the time.Went to my granduncle's funeral in Ireland as a ten year old boy. turned out he was a hero in the IRA back in the day, and six masked IRA guys emerged and fired shots with automatic rifles over the grave. best funeral ever.Someone trying to "quietly" open a can while they were doing the closing prayer.My niece walking up to fathers coffin and tweaking his nose.The female relative who came to the visitation straight off of a day on the lake - wearing her bikini top, jean shorts, and flip flops.
