Alright, buckle up! Funerals are supposed to be all solemn and respectful, right? Well, turns out some folks took that as a challenge to be downright wild or awkward. From snoozing in the pews to stealing at the crematorium, here are the craziest, funniest, and downright jaw-dropping funeral moments people have shared. Enjoy the ride (and maybe don’t try any of these at your next service!).
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My uncle died and at his funeral my cousin (his son) was crying. Some old timer uncle came up to him and said “stop crying you’re a man you’re embarrassing us”. I never wanted to slap someone at a funeral more than at that moment.
Priest called the deceased 'full of sin' and refused one of his final requests that his dog's ashes be buried with him.
His son didn't care and snuck in his dog's ashes with him anyways.
Not a funeral but when my grandad passed and we went to view his body at the crematorium my aunt started stealing from the facility the second the employees back was turned. Just shoving anything that wasn't nailed down into her purse and pockets. Unbelievable. And yes we called her out and made her put it all back.
This is really hard for me to write in words the pain I witnessed, gone through.
In Highschool we were always the same 4 guys together. Jonas, Blake, Matthew and I. 4 nerds spending the days together, every, single, day. We had a very nice bond together and we went along very well. We jokingly said " We'll stay together, in touch, forever and beyond until death splits us".
2 of the 4 died, in 2010, in a car crash. (Blake and Jonas). They were on their way to Matthew's, for his birthday. Jonas had previously told Matthew he wouldn't miss his birthday and 100% would attend. Circumstances being he died and the party never occured.
Matt and I were just demolished to the fact the quatuor was now a duo. We missed our friends terribly, and I still do.
This is where it gets really hard.
During the funerals, Matt came to me and said "Do you remember what we werr saying in Highschool? That we'd always be together, around each other no matter what?" I replied "Of course I do."
He walked towards the two coffins laying next to eachother and drank a liquid that made him collapse. He was called dead when the paramedics arrived. (I'm sorry, I don't feel like writing any more details to this. It's already very painful to write).
The quatuor is now a solo.
I will probably seem like a bad person, but when we did that promise in Highschool, I thought it was real, but I wouldn't have done what Matthew did. He took it very seriously and respected the promise. I wouldn't have added more pain to the broken hearts/families by ending myself to respect a promise.
They are now buried in the same cemetery, few stones from eachother. I visited them 5 times a year minimum (during each individual birthday + the crash day + Funerals day).
Sorry for my bad english.
My Mom passed 2 days before my first child was born. I didn’t get pregnant again till 11 years later so I was 5 months pregnant with my second child when my Father passed. Someone came up to me at the funeral and said to me, “ You should stop having kids, it’s bad luck for your family”.
A few years back, when the uncle of my mother died my young cousin (8) cried a lot at the funeral.
It took some time but eventually he calmed down and his parents went for a little walk with him for some distraction.
But then he noticed that his first name was written on one of the tombstones. He mentions it loudly and one of the bystanders said:
''Yeah its already reserved for you''.
He immediately started crying again...
He handed out his business cards at his stepdaughter’s funeral. There was very nearly a fistfight!
Uncle was a defense attorney in south Texas. His funeral was a small service with mostly family and a few friends. However, as everyone was leaving a large groups of bikers were waiting in the parking lot. Turns out he had been a part of the group for some time in his younger years and they had come to pay respect. They shook his wife's hand, gave their condolences, and drove off as a group. He was a pretty laid back/goofy guy, great with kids, so it was mostly crazy to just find out about that part of his life. I also was always impressed that they came to show support, but without interrupting a very personal ceremony. Showed a lot of character.
Everyone was late for my gran's funeral. There was a meet up at a pub beforehand and because nobody had seen each other in years we all lost track of time. When I tell this story people are always shocked but it is what she would have wanted. She lived to make people happy. She was buried with a bag of weed and everyone had to agree they wouldn't dig her up to get to the weed if they were desperate. Again, in my family circle this is very normal and funny but to others, maybe not.
Afterwards everyone came back to my mum's house. One of my gran's lifelong friends (and village nutcase) got too drunk and started threatening people who didn't cry at the funeral with a smashed bottle. My mum told him to leave, then he just gave everyone at the house a hug, arranged to have drinks with people, said God bless and left. I was 8 years old and this was the norm. I love my family.
I went to the funeral of a coworkers fincee, the girls ex showed up and as people were lined up to say goodbye we all witnessed him lean into the coffin and kiss her on the lips.
I will repeat myself, the ex boyfriend of the deceased woman kissed her dead body at her funeral... In front of her fiancee. Her brothers quite literally threw him out.
At the end of my grandmothers funeral, the priest pulled my grandfather aside and asked for more donations. My grandfather has donated thousands over the years to the church, the fact that the priest asked at my grandfathers wife’s funeral is disgusting. I didn’t know however till we left, otherwise I would have prob punched him.
One of my students' mother died. I went to the funeral with the principal and the student's integration aide. After the funeral her father walked up to her and her grandmother and said "I want her out of the house by tomorrow morning". She was 11 years old.
Watched my cousin’s horrible ex husband demand that his son not cry or show emotion at his grandmother’s (my aunt) funeral or else he would call him weak. Luckily, my dad was there and told him otherwise. The guy only showed up to the funeral anyway because he was constantly hounding my cousin about how much money my aunt had left her.
Grandpa of my SO. Had over 10 kids, they're all present. He had gotten cremated, but the kids had decided that they wanted to inter the urn some place meaningful (I forget where). So, they all drive there, and then the men proceed to argue as to how to dig a hole (where it should go, how deep, who gets first dibs at digging etc). They finally get it done. they all took turns digging. By the time that they are done, under the harsh midday sun, they are all drenched in sweat in their formal wear. Then one brother decides that it is his job to lower the urn as far down the hole as possible, as just dropping it in seemed too undignified. However, he lowered it too far, because he fell head first in the hole. Only his legs and lower body are sticking up and he can't get out. The other brothers grab his legs to hoist him up. Meanwhile, the sisters are laughing their heads off.
No where near as bad as most comments but the family didn't allow for his twin to speak.
Straight up skipped over the allocated time for the living twin to get up and speak about his brother. Who was his last remaining immediate family.
I don't think I can ever forgive the late wife for putting him through that. She treated him so horribly all throughout the sickness, and then to not allow him to be a part of the funeral was the final nail in the coffin.
Edit: I didn't think this would resonate with people and I'm truly shocked. Please consider making a donation to your local cancer research foundation, or donating stem cells. Cancer sucks.
I had a fit of hysterical laugh at my father's funeral just about the time people started to gather at the mortuary.
In my defense, my mother had a nervous breakdown (my father died 4 days after we found out he had lung cancer), there was a lot of horrible stuff surrounding the funeral organization, my mom just flipped, my siblings were 15 and lost so I was at 23 left to handle it all.
I kinda lost it.
I took my ex to my grandma's funeral, even though he met her once, for moral support as it was a very unexpected death and I was super close to my grandma. Now, my ex likes to cosplay/dress up as rock stars. That being said, I told him to please tone it down. It's not the time or the place to show up dressed as Alice Cooper or Nikki Sixx.
So, while he does tone it down SLIGHTLY, he still shows up dressed in a big theatrical black trench coat (despite it being the literal middle of summer) with a red button down that was left half unbuttoned and a bunch of giant cross necklaces. Not to mention a little Nikki Sixx makeup to top it all off. I remember asking him if he'd please reconsider changing into something that wasn't as intense. He got mad and accused me of being like his controlling mother. Now, I supoose his outfit doesn't sound bad but in context, it was embarrassing as duck. My grandma was a little old, God fearing lady, and she of course had a group of friends she went to church with. Not to mention all the people she went to school with, most of which probably thought the Beatles were dressed too strange to be big hits. So, he was being whispered about and glared at the entire time. Which he loved because any attention was good attention in his eyes.
He also signed her funeral book as 'Alice Cooper'.
This is a story my father told me from when he was a child in the 1940's
There was an AME church beside the farm where he grew up in rural SC. The church had no electricity. There was a funeral there one evening and the church was lit throughout with candles. The church building had existed since just after emancipation and was in really bad shape. The flooring had been severely damaged by termites. During the funeral, the floor gave way making the casket tumble and the body fall out. Everyone ran out of the church in terror. Making matters worse, the candles that were on the casket fell to the floor and set the church on fire. The whole community watched outside as it burned to the ground.
After the eulogist had talked for 45 minutes, the pastor went over to the lectern and politely asked him to conclude his eulogy.
The guy boldly told the pastor, "I'll stop when I'm darn good and ready!" (and proceeded talking for about 20 more minutes.)
The total funeral church service lasted for 2 3/4 hours - it seemed endless.
My nan told my dad at his own father's funeral that her pain was much greater because she had lost a husband, while he had only lost his dad. As if grief is a competition.
She is a bad person anyway, and not even blood related to us so we just kinda don't associate anymore
Edit:
She called my dad last night, claiming that she and my grandad had a baby in 1999 and the baby died when it was five. But she's full of nonsense, just making up lies in hopes we'll associate with her again.
I grew up in an apartment above a family owned funeral home. When I was 5 I walked into the middle of a funeral service accidentally in just my whitey-tighties and a cowboy hat. They laughed, I laughed, my dad gave me the belt haha good times.
My Uncle died. He was gay. My Grandmother couldn't handle that.
My Uncle left a letter to be read at his funeral. I don't know if my grandmother planned it all alone or what, but gets to the part that says, "And to my Nieces and Nephews, I want you to know..."
And instead of reading what was there (I know cause me and my dad helped my uncle write it), she went on this huge, insane tangent with tons of swearing about how "none of us should be like him, commit his sins, etc. that he died of aids as a punishment." that was the most homophobic and hateful few minutes I can ever remember hearing.
It was so disrespectful to everyone, and so terrible. She was an ugly person.
A good friend of mine works in a hospital ward and has a guy who fell into his sister's grave and became paralysed! He was down there for hours before they managed to get him out!
I get this isn't an intentional bad thing but I bet it sucked and I feel sorry for everyone involved especially that dude.
The officiant, moved the partner of the deceased back a couple of rows, because they weren’t family. At least that was their initial reasoning... I’m sure it had nothing to do with the partner being same sex.
I was furious.
And then it got worse.
The officiant decided to make the entire funeral about mental health, and how everyone should get help.
Nothing about the life of the loved one. No celebration of their accomplishments, of the beauty they brought to the world. Nothing.
Keep in mind that 80% of the congregation still believed the death was because of physical health reasons. We would’ve coped with the knowledge, but telling us it was taking of one's life only as a platform for the rest of us to ‘seek help’ was heartbreaking.
Only funeral I’ve ever rung and complained about.
The father of a relative that married into my family passed. My father attended the funeral out of respect for our relative, because the man was an absolute awful person. He was jerk to his wife, controlling of his children. He crippled the people in his family - seriously stunted their development. And he was a business owner known to be shady, difficult to deal with, and he'd burned bridges in city after city for years. He managed to bully his way into some power position at the church, which he managed to have divided and shuttered. He died estranged from family.
At the funeral, many more people were there than my dad would have expected. The eulogy was very brief, factual. Then the pastor got up to speak, and he spoke about how the end of things sometimes could be healing. He told a story about how he'd had an unpleasant business deal with the man, how the church had been hurt, and how it had left him bitter for a long time, and that he'd had to pray for forgiveness when he felt relieved when the man had died. As much love as they'd shown for the man, he knew there was pain there, too. He told them all it was ok to feel their feelings, to release their hurt. My dad said that finally people began to cry, and they were getting up and hugging each other while music played.
There was no viewing line, even though there was an open casket. People just sort of left, looking relieved. My dad thought it was a fitting send-off.
My Mother in Law took a photo of a wine glass during the lunch we had after, and she posted it on Facebook. Guess what her caption was?
“Life is Grand.”
It was my mother’s funeral.
A local boy died after being hit by a car while riding his bike. I think he was like 11/12 at the time. His sister, known to all to be very attention seeking, immediately was doing news interviews which just seemed odd, considering he had died earlier that day, but whatever, people grieve differently I suppose. But then at his wake, she took a few photos of him in the casket and posted it to her public Instagram story. It was super bizarre and just bad taste.
My minister once told a story. He was waiting in a room off the sanctuary before the funeral when he heard scuffling noises. When he went to investigate, the brother and sister of the deceased had pulled the body out of the casket and propped it between them. They explained that they didn’t have a recent photo of the three of them and were delighted he showed up to take the picture.
Attendee but not so crazy as amusing. We're in the church for my great grandmothers funeral. Pastor comes in and starts going off about Madeleine this and Madeleine that. After several minutes, I had to shift and take a peek at the coffin to make sure we were at the right funeral. Great grandma hated her birth name and always went by her middle name.
The rabbi giving the eulogy claimed he knew my grandfather really well and often had conversations with him on his deathbed.
1. He mispronounced his first and last name every time he said it.
2. My grandfather spoke almost no English, the rabbi's only language besides prayer-Hebrew.
I guess compared to a child falling out of a casket during a fight, this isn't crazy, but I found it dishonest and disrespectful as hell.
My brother is a Protestant non-denominational minister who is the on call minister for our local funeral home when a family doesn't have a preferred one of their own.
He's told me some crazy stories, but the one that comes to mind is when he was called at literally the last minute for a Catholic funeral. Being Protestant he knew absolutely nothing about conducting a Catholic service and was pretty nervous. This was compounded by the fact that the funeral home didn't have time to give him any info on the deceased other than he was male and relatively young, 20-30ish.
When my brother arrived for the funeral he met the mother of the deceased and tried to make small talk to maybe get a few more details that might be useful in his message.
During his conversation he asked the mother if the deceased had been ill very long, presuming if their had been some accident the funeral director would at least have tipped him off to that.
The mother proceeded to tell my brother that her son had actually been in perfect health, but had died from a self inflicted gunshot during a game of Russian roulette.
Sharing this information with my brother seemed to reopen the wounds and the mother left sobbing in hysterics.
He went on to bluff his way through the Catholic funeral the best he could, but he said he was never more glad for a funeral to be over with.
Her ex told us about all the great things she did in bed and what a loss for mankind that is.
In present of her boyfriend.
Not at a funeral but at my auntie's wake, a dude approached my little sister and hit on her. She was 12 years old.
My great aunt keeled over at my grandfather's funeral.
She died of a heart attack in front of his casket.
At my grandfather's funeral one of the choir members essentially threw a tantrum and ended up interrupting one of my uncles who was giving a speech just because she wasn't given any food. The thing is there wasn't any food at the funeral to begin with.
2 different situations
1. When I was 10 at my grandpa’s funeral, a relative told me I was “lucky” for being so young because now I’ll never remember/miss my grandpa
2. At my Grandma’s funeral, her neighbor asked us if he could stop by the house that day and “take some stuff off of our hands”
No offer of money. Just wanted free stuff.
I had a friend that was notorious for one-night Craigslist hookups with soldiers from the local army base. When he died, a handful of men in the military, that none of us knew, came to the service. His parents have no idea he was even gay.
Not AT a funeral, but I used to work at a store that sold funeral things, like headstones, flowers, caskets, etc. A couple came into the showroom and wanted to look around. Everything was going fine, until they found a casket they liked. They wanted to know if it could be wired for a tv and radio. They wanted to know if we could repaint parts of it. They also wanted to know if we could make it bigger, as *they didn't think they both could fit in the standard size*. I (of course) had no idea, but offered to go find out. They said never mind, and that this one would probably fit the both of them. Then they asked if they could get inside to try it out. I politely told them no and excused myself to get a manager, who promptly removed them from the store.
My uncle relentlessly flirt with a funeral home employee.
While at his dad's funeral.
She was obviously deeply uncomfortable and he was so narcissistic he thought she was interested.
My neighbor worked at a funeral home. Part of her job was selling the coffins.
One of her customers had inquired about the cushioning inside, and she informed her of the material. The customer was concerned about this and when my neighbor asked why, she said that she was allergic to it.
The gentleman had a large family and all of his siblings got up and made it all about themselves, dredged up old family drama, made it clear that they resented his wife, etc. It was so painfully awkward.
My uncle was pissed about something in my grandmother's Will. So during the funeral, he went out to the parking lot and keyed everyone's car. It should be noted, he has severe brain injury from a motorcycle accident that causes him to be constantly angry and paranoid. Still...
Was working a funeral/ burial service in Vermont and the next of kin decided to have doves released at the burial site (yes that's a thing). When they were released, a hawk flew out of nowhere and DESTROYED one of the doves. My co-worker and I had to usher ourselves to the hearse because we were laughing so hard.

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