Can death be funny ?

[loc978]

errr... yes. I've been present for plenty of deaths. I've laughed at one or two (one on my side, even). I guess I might be a horrible bastard for it, but goddamn was it funny at the time.

Still, survivor's guilt is a thing.

 

[RustlessPotato]

Sure. For example, last year my grandmother from my mother's side died and was cremated. On the way there we made loads of jokes. Like "I wonder what music they'll play at the funeral", to which we all gave answers like "knocking on heavens door" or "stairway to heaven" or "highway to hell" etc... At the ceremony itself we didn't laugh, but right after we did again. It's how my family does things.

 

[SuperBelkar]

Death is HIGH-larious. Death itself maybe not, but the whole idea that life is sacred right up to the point we die is dramatically ironic in a tragically flawed kind of way. The fact that life is sacred is merely self interest. We're alive so it must be the bee's knees! Let me tell you, you won't see me cry when I step on a bug, so it would only seem right if we never felt bad when the poor stiff in the casket is being put in the ground. Death is just another part of life, as the saying goes, so there really is no reason to feel BAD about it.

 

[Kargathia]

Sure, death can be funny. Generally, however, you'll find that its potential for being amusing is directly inverse to how much you cared about the one providing the entertainment.

 

[Loonerinoes]

The answer to this question was given 2 decades ago already...

 

[Reginald]

If I died doing something stupid or unusual, I'd probably laugh. And I'd be upset if people didn't laugh about it. If I wasn't dead, I mean. The thing with death is that if you can't at least joke about it, then it's purely negative. Humour can at least undermine part of the tragedy.

 

[Pinkamena]

Well, when I die, I want people to have a laugh at it, not mourn me. I don't want to inflict pain and sorrow onto my family from beyond the grave. I can do plenty of that while I'm alive.

 

[BiscuitTrouser]

Well, when I die, I want people to have a laugh at it, not mourn me. I don't want to inflict pain and sorrow onto my family from beyond the grave. I can do plenty of that while I'm alive.

Me too! I want a bouncy castle. And cupcakes. And i want to be buried in a regular shroud under a sapling so it can leech my life out of me to grow in a kinda vampiric rebith thing. After i donate my organs of course. All life comes to an end. And crying about it seems silly since i would never want to make someone sad! I want people to remember me as a bringer of fun. Kids dont like funerals, i wont ask anyone to come to mine who doesnt want to, and if they do want to i want them to have damn good time. I want fireworks and a fire juggler. And an open bar. Sombre funerals just depress everyone.

 

[the abyss gazes also]

I'm on my mobile so I'm sorry I can't make the image post like the cool kids.

http://www.balloon-juice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Clown_Funeral.jpg

Tragically hilarious

 

[GamerAddict7796]

THe funniest death is an Americcan biker who was pationing an act trying to force people to wear helmets on motorbikes (why that itsn't law there I don't know) so he rode his bike in protest.

He got in a crash and died. Afterwards, doctors said that had he had a helmet he would have survived.

You have too laugh.

 

[Ordo Rolanberry]

Cork Man Drowns!

 

[Luna]

The Darwin Awards.

If you don't know someone, and your only indicator of their personality is of the stupid manner in which they died, then IMO it can be funny.

 

[gibboss28]

The answer to this question was given 2 decades ago already...

Man I love that video. Such a legend.

But yeah, of course death can be funny, its as natural as farting. Frankly if I get to the point I don't laugh at a tension breaking fart, I'd want to be dead anyway.

 

[5-0]

If you die in a stupid way, then I'm allowed to laugh. The Darwin awards serve this purpose very well.

 

[George_Harvey_Bone]

Absolutely everything in life can be funny, including its end. One of my best friends' last words (after falling two stories onto his head, but before collapsing into a coma) were "Crikey, that smarted a bit".

A classic Onion article:

Loved Ones Recall Local Man's Cowardly Battle With Cancer [http://www.theonion.com/articles/loved-ones-recall-local-mans-cowardly-battle-with,772/]

 

[Shoggoth2588]

This is just a random thought i had while reading on suicide. I was also wondering if people who attempted suicide, and then saw the foolishness of their ways, laugh about it every once in a while thinking back on how they did something pretty stupid.

A friend of mine tried taking her life multiple times as a teenager and each failed attempt...well, it played out like something you'd see in a cartoon. Tried to hang herself in a closet only to have the bar snap and crap fall on top of her. Tried to cut herself only to sneeze and cut herself, etc.

As for other deaths...I guess it all depends on how you look at it. I haven't got any good examples really.

 

[George_Harvey_Bone]

This is just a random thought i had while reading on suicide. I was also wondering if people who attempted suicide, and then saw the foolishness of their ways, laugh about it every once in a while thinking back on how they did something pretty stupid.

A friend of mine tried taking her life multiple times as a teenager and each failed attempt...well, it played out like something you'd see in a cartoon. Tried to hang herself in a closet only to have the bar snap and crap fall on top of her. Tried to cut herself only to sneeze and cut herself, etc.

As for other deaths...I guess it all depends on how you look at it. I haven't got any good examples really.

People should never underestimate slapstick - it's an extremely powerful force. Not only can it utterly defeat attempts to look cool and urbane, but as your friend proves, it can be more powerful than death.

The only thing you can do when things turn slapstick is laugh and let it happen - trying to fight it just makes more things fall out of your cupboards/extends the length of your pratfall/launches more pornographic video files in front of your new girlfriend...