5 Weird Things People Have Requested For Their Funerals

Most people want the same things when they die: a quiet service, some flowers, maybe a nice eulogy, and a decent buffet afterwards. But then there are the people who decided that their final exit should be unforgettable. They wrote it into their wills. They made their families promise. They turned funerals into spectacles. From ashes blasted out of a cannon to a man who wanted his corpse propped up in a bar, here are five of the weirdest funeral requests ever made.

Hunter S. Thompson – Shot Out Of A Cannon

The legendary journalist and author of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas was obsessed with fireworks. When he died by suicide in 2005 at age 67, he left clear instructions: he wanted his ashes to be fired out of a cannon. Not scattered. Not buried. Fired. His friend Johnny Depp spent millions building a 153-foot tower shaped like a double-thumbed fist holding a peyote button, and on August 20, 2005, Thompson’s ashes were blasted into the sky in a massive fireworks display. The event was attended by Depp, Bill Murray, Sean Penn, and John Cusack. It was the most Hunter S. Thompson funeral imaginable.

The New Orleans Jazz Funeral – With A Twist

In New Orleans, jazz funerals are a beloved tradition: a brass band leads the procession, playing mournful hymns on the way to the grave, then breaking into joyful celebration on the way back. One man, a lifelong New Orleans resident, took it a step further. He requested that his funeral include a full second-line parade, complete with a marching band, dancers with umbrellas, and a police escort—and that the procession stop at every bar he’d ever frequented so his friends could toast him at each one. He also requested that anyone who wasn’t drunk by the end of the night be asked to leave. The party reportedly lasted three days.