A Belgian TikToker faked his own death so he could drag everyone at his funeral for not appreciating him while they thought he was alive. Damn, some people are really letting those messy 3am thoughts win, huh?
David Baerten (@ragnar_le_fou) hatched the ridiculous plan with his wife and kids, who helped him pull it off so he could have the ultimate “gotcha” moment with his family. A pettiness I find more terrifying than endearing.
The 45-year-old had his daughter post a Facebook status that read: “Rest in peace Daddy. I will never stop thinking about you.”
“Why is life so unfair? Why you? You were going to be a grandfather, and you still had your whole life ahead of you,” the post continued.
“I love you! We love you! We will never forget you.”
Okay, a little overkill but whatever.
The family then staged an actual funeral, where mourners gathered to send off Baerten. One of his TikTok mates was actually at the funeral, and captured the moment Baerten dramatically arrived — in a helicopter, with a film crew.
Some people have too much money.
“Seriously the guy thinks he’s in a movie,” one person wrote in French.
“TikTok got to his head.”
Baerten, for his part, defended the prank and maintained that it was worth it to cull the family members that don’t really care for him.
“What I see in my family often hurts me,” he said, per The Times.
“I never get invited to anything. Nobody sees me. We all grew apart. I felt unappreciated.”
He said it was this frustration that led him to “give them a life lesson” and “show them that you shouldn’t wait until someone is dead to meet up with them.”
He also said that only half of his family came to the funeral, but others have since reached out.
“That proves who really cares about me,” he insisted.
“Those who didn’t come did contact me to meet up. So in a way I did win.”
Uh huh, you keep telling yourself that buddy.
