Here's how funerals are getting funnier in Ireland and around the world

While we may joke about death, funerals are generally a times of great sorrow. This is changing however, not just in Ireland but around the world, writes Margaret Carragher

Wed, 11 Nov, 2015 - 00:00

Mourners at the funeral of an elderly man in China recently got more than they bargained for when a troupe of pole-dancing strippers rolled up on the back of a neon-lit truck and proceeded to strut their stuff.

A tad unseemly in the circumstances one might think; certainly the authorities thought so, imposing a heavy fine and a 15-day jail sentence on the event organiser.

Strippers liven things up at Chinese funeral.

But despite such deterrents, funeral antics – in China and elsewhere – are on the up; it seems even in death we still want a bit of fun.

Fun was certainly high on the final agenda of comedienne Joan Rivers. In her 2012 memoir I Hate Everyone... Starting With Me, the Hollywood legend requested that her funeral be “a huge showbiz affair with lights, camera, action...

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“I want Craft services,” she wrote. “I want paparazzi and I want publicists making a scene! I want it to be Hollywood all the way. I don’t want some rabbi rambling on. I want Meryl Streep crying, in five different accents. I don’t want a eulogy: I want Bobby Vinton to pick up my head and sing Mr Lonely.

With tongue firmly in cheek the diva continued, “I want to look gorgeous, better dead than I do alive. I want to be buried in a Valentino gown and I want Harry Winston to make me a toe tag. And I want a wind machine so that even in the casket my hair is blowing like Beyonce’s.”

In death as in life the hell-raising gonzo journalist Hunter S Thompson blazed a trail when his ashes were blasted from a cannon to the tune of Mr Tambourine Man. Star Trek’s Scotty, actor James Doohan had a similarly spectacular exit when his cremated remains were launched into space – truly the final frontier. And following his death in a drive-by shooting in September 1996 controversial rap artist Tupac Shakur’s ashes, mixed with marijuana, ended up in the hash pipes of his pals – forever friends indeed.

Closer to home, while final exit strategies might not be so extreme they can be none the less noteworthy. Earlier this year Dublin Funeral Directors Massey Brothers added a new hearse to their fleet, a purpose-built Harley Davison motorbike with a glass-fronted sidecar for bringing the deceased on their final journey.

Commenting on their latest acquisition, Peter Maguire of Massey Brothers told the Irish Examiner, “The new offering will typically appeal to those who have a biking background and interest, but equally explore a different type of send-off for those that want a more non-traditional funeral.”

And it would seem such funerals are on the increase as punters seek a greater input into their own obsequies and those of their loved ones.

“Recently, a lady organising her husband’s funeral requested that our team wear bright clothes to reflect her husband’s colourful personality,” said Mr Maguire. “And we’ve had several individuals wanting to organise a tape recording of themselves delivering their own eulogy, or a reading for their funeral service.”

But perhaps more than anything it is the music that most personalises a funeral service. According to Frank Murphy, manager of The Island Crematorium in Ringaskiddy, “The choice of music can really set the tone. Frank Sinatra’s My Way is by far the most requested song. And Always Look on the Bright Side of Life is another favourite that always lifts the mood.”

In Mr Murphy’s experience, despite the solemnity of the occasion, mourners get great comfort from moments of levity in a funeral service. And it would seem the blacker the humour the better the “After an initial silence, Ring of Fire by Johnny Cash usually brings the place down. As does Rod Stewart’s Wake up Maggie. And as for Blaze Away – well!”

Mobile phone pranks have also featured in The Island Crematorium.

“On a few occasions we’ve had family members placing the deceased’s mobile phone behind the coffin and ringing it just before the committal. It always eased the tension and got a great laugh.”

But with or without music, our end of life rituals define us; perhaps none more than the traditional Irish wake.

Such is the comedic potential of Irish wakes and funerals that national funnyman Pat Shortt is making a living out of them. The award-winning entertainer is touring nationwide with his new show, Selfie, which features his latest creation: singing undertaker Mossey Burke. Shortt says that the show was inspired by actual events.

“You couldn’t make it up,” he chuckles. “Where else could you march into a house at any hour of the day or night, kiss a corpse in a coffin, get tea and sandwiches handed to you and have the craic with people you mightn’t have seen since the last wake?”

Shortt maintains that there is a nervousness around death that can only be diffused by humour; hence the sometimes almost hysterical laughter you’ll hear in a wake house. “Then of course there are the unintentionally funny incidents” he says, recounting one such incident at the wake of his great-aunt.

“She was very well known and popular so naturally there was a big turnout at her wake. One particular woman elbowed her way to the top of the coffin, planted a big kiss on Auntie’s face and then sat down beside my father. Of course he hadn’t a clue who she was but that didn’t stop them from chatting. After a while the woman stood up, gazed teary-eyed into the coffin and said, “God bless him but didn’t he get very grey in the end? I’d hardly recognise the poor man.” Turns out she was at the wrong wake!”

“Then there’s the business of country funerals,” Shortt continues.

“Not just going to them, but being seen to be going to them.”

“There was a shopkeeper from back home in Thurles who kept his funeral coat ever ready on the back of the shop door. He’d keep an eye on the church and any time a hearse pulled up he’d grab the coat and nip across the road, hand outstretched, to offer his condolences. You’d often see the coffin tilt and sway as the men carrying it reached out to shake hands. Now that’s how you get to be seen at a funeral!”

So what music would a singing undertaker choose for his own “That’s easy,” comes the reply. “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go!”