A TikToker from Belgium faked his death in a bizarre video to see who cared about him, then later showed up to his own fake funeral. In a new viral video-chasing low, David Baerten conspired with his wife and children to fake his death to teach those who didn’t show up a lesson.
A Cruel Prank
In a cruel prank, Baerten’s kids posted tribute messages on social media.
“Rest in peace, Daddy. I will never stop thinking about you,” wrote one of his children to lure people into the lie. “Why is life so unfair? Why you?” they continued. “You were going to be a grandfather, and you still had your whole life ahead of you. I love you! We love you! We will never forget you.”
A Life Lesson
The Belgian prankster, known on TikTok as Ragnar Le Fou, has 165,000 TikTok followers and said he felt his wider family needed a “life lesson.”
In an interview this week, Baerten claimed, “You shouldn’t wait until someone is dead to meet up with them.”
“I Felt Unappreciated”
He aimed to flush out family members who didn’t care about him. “I never get invited to anything. Nobody sees me. We all grew apart. I felt unappreciated,” argued the influencer. “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.”
Only Half The Family Showed
He revealed that only half his wider family showed up to the funeral. Although the streamer received a social media backlash, he feels vindicated. “Those who didn’t come did contact me to meet up,” concluded the Belgian. “So, in a way, I did win.”
Half Will Seem Like Many One Day
A recent online post discusses the matter; here are some takeaways.
“Many fewer people will come to the next one,” agrees a non-fan. If Ragnar thinks half an attendant family is poor, just wait until the real thing. Then again, he won’t know who shows up to that one.
“And now he’s alienated all those people, and he’ll be lucky if a squirrel shows up for the real one,” confirms a kindred observer.
Just a Prank, Bro
Can you imagine your best friend or uncle doing this to you? Maybe it was only a prank but talk about tone-deaf — not to mention narcissistic. A poster agrees that “many people have their limits, and this person just tested many people’s limits.”
Channel Your Inner Dwight
“Do a Schrute burial,” suggests an Office fan. “Got to make sure they stay dead — no zombies here.” Good old Schrute Farm burials; maybe this commenter is onto something.
Macabre Musing
“This was once a legitimate fear, and so sometimes people would have bells installed in their coffins that would run a line out and through a tube in the ground,” recalls a history expert. I think we should bring these back — or just get cremated. Then there is no arguing.
No Signal Down Here
A thread poster argues that nowadays, people are buried with their cell phones. “Someone was almost buried alive and was able to switch the phone on to call the emergency number,” reports a commenter, “but couldn’t get a signal through the lead lining of the coffin.” Yeah, give me that bell any day.
Now, That Would Be Weird
You could just imagine the headlines with this next scenario. “Imagine if he then died in a helicopter crash while coming to surprise them, and they had to relive his death all over again.” Yes, just imagine. I can imagine that many people he pranked dreamed about this hypothetical.
(Source: Reddit).