Man goes viral after faking death and showing up to funeral to shock family

A man has gone viral on TikTok after faking his own death and then turning up to his own funeral, all to ‘prove’ which family members really care about him. 

TikTokers have constantly been going viral on the short-form video platform for some incredibly wild and wacky stunts. Some of these spawned trends too, but it’s unlikely that people want the newest stunt – which is something right out of an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm – to become widespread.

It comes from Belgian TikToker David Baerten who, with the help of his wife and children, decided to play a deadly – almost literally – trick on his wider family. 

The 45-year-old decided to fake his death and had his close family plan a funeral in Liege, Belgium. Naturally, many of his other family members turned up to mourn him, but they got a shock. 

Just as the ceremony got underway, Baerten turned up in a helicopter to prove that he wasn’t actually deceased and they weren’t mourning. In fact, he even tried to joke about things and ‘welcomed’ people to his funeral. 

The clips have picked up around 2 million views so far, with the 45-year-old explaining that he was doing it to make a point about his extended family not inviting him to events and seeing who really cares.

 “I never get invited to anything. Nobody sees me. We all grew apart. I felt unappreciated. That’s why I wanted to give them a life lesson, and show them that you shouldn’t wait until someone is dead to meet up with them,” he said, as per The Times.

Plenty of viewers saw the funny side of things, with a few even saying they may try something similar. Though, Baerten did cop a fair few complaints for what he’d done. 

“Pure narcissism,” said one. “The ego on this guy must be tremendous,” added another. “Unacceptable!” another simply said. 

The 45-year-old will release a full video of the funeral, seeing as he did have a video crew filming things. Though, he said he’s already ‘won’ because he knows who really cares.