# "Gotcha Ya" comes to pass as dead man stands at own wake **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 20, 2008, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gotcha-ya-comes-to-pass-as-dead-man-stands-at-own-wake/460681 "2008-08-20T16:28:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![lavenderviolet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/cdc98d/32.png) [@lavenderviolet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lavenderviolet)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2008, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gotcha-ya-comes-to-pass-as-dead-man-stands-at-own-wake/460681/21 "2008-08-21T03:07:53Z")
I have seen enough dead bodies as part of my medical training that the pics don’t really creep me out, but that pic of his brother kissing his corpse’s cheek made me sad. It also seems weird to me anytime I find out about someone younger than me dying…although I don’t know what was going on that he had been talking about his plans for his wake at such a young age (somehow I get the impression maybe he was in a gang or something, if he was expecting to die young and wound up being killed by someone else…?) ---
**Author:** ![Uncle\_Brother\_Walker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f08c70/32.png) [@Uncle\_Brother\_Walker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncle_Brother_Walker)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2008, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gotcha-ya-comes-to-pass-as-dead-man-stands-at-own-wake/460681/22 "2008-08-21T03:38:55Z")
[QUOTE=lieu] And what, may I ask, was wrong with the regular embalming treatment and a stick? What’s brown and sticky? You don’t want to know. [/QUOTE] In my youth (don’t ask), I used to work at a funeral home. I cannot express how FREAKING WRONG WHAT PEOPLE WILL PAY YOU LOOK AWAY WHILE THEY DO SOMETHING TO A CORPSE IS!!! ICK ICK ICK ICK ICK\* and it is not biologically healthy. So you have been warned. \*Money’s money. It is all green. We’ll LET you do whatever you want to a corpse, but you have to sign a form that says you won’t put it on YouTube! ::gonna go cut out my eyeballs now:: ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2008, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gotcha-ya-comes-to-pass-as-dead-man-stands-at-own-wake/460681/23 "2008-08-21T03:46:40Z")
[QUOTE=Asimovian] There’s something very wrong about the whole idea. [/QUOTE] That’s the beauty of it! ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2008, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gotcha-ya-comes-to-pass-as-dead-man-stands-at-own-wake/460681/24 "2008-08-21T05:27:41Z")
[QUOTE=robardin] Well that’s one creed to live life by: Live fast, die young, and tell your family ahead of time that you want to leave a good looking, pimped out and erect corpse. :dubious: ☹ [/QUOTE] I couldn’t tell if he was erect - there was a table of flowers in the way. Oh, that’s bad. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2008, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gotcha-ya-comes-to-pass-as-dead-man-stands-at-own-wake/460681/25 "2008-08-21T05:29:07Z")
[QUOTE=Cisco] Worse than the one awhile back where the guy was sitting in his recliner, watching the game? This one is at least funny in some inexplicable way; that recliner guy just made me sad. [/QUOTE] Worse for me - I didn’t see the one in the recliner (and I agree; that sounds totally pathetic. And now I’m thinking that my death pose would be at my computer, with the Dope timed out on my screen.) ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2008, 9:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gotcha-ya-comes-to-pass-as-dead-man-stands-at-own-wake/460681/26 "2008-08-21T09:40:04Z")
[QUOTE=scout1222] **Morbo** , you rule. [/QUOTE] Tell my cats and wife that. In that order. ---
**Author:** ![Sanity\_Challenged](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de053/32.png) [@Sanity\_Challenged](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sanity_Challenged)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2008, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gotcha-ya-comes-to-pass-as-dead-man-stands-at-own-wake/460681/27 "2008-08-21T15:45:52Z")
Sweet! What does he say when you reach behind his back and pull the string? ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2008, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gotcha-ya-comes-to-pass-as-dead-man-stands-at-own-wake/460681/28 "2008-08-21T17:28:52Z")
He’s grabbing his junk, isn’t he? The horror. ---
**Author:** ![lorene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/65b543/32.png) [@lorene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lorene)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2008, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gotcha-ya-comes-to-pass-as-dead-man-stands-at-own-wake/460681/29 "2008-08-21T17:41:33Z")
[QUOTE=Happy Lendervedder] If, at 24, my child comes to me and tells me what he’d like to look like at his _wake_, I think I’m going to re-examine my parenting skills and find out where I went wrong. [/QUOTE] Well, not for nothing, but the article says he was found dead under a bridge. I’m going to have to assume that there were signs pointing to an iffy lifestyle before the “prop me up when I’m dead” request. And, yes, that is shallow and judgmental of me. I don’t have high tolerance for the gangsta lifestyle. That’s where my bias shows. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2008, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gotcha-ya-comes-to-pass-as-dead-man-stands-at-own-wake/460681/30 "2008-08-21T17:47:07Z")
[QUOTE=featherlou] And now I’m thinking that my death pose would be at my computer, with the Dope timed out on my screen.) [/QUOTE] 😃 It might be funnier if you just posed a skeleton there. Wearing your clothes, maybe. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2008, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gotcha-ya-comes-to-pass-as-dead-man-stands-at-own-wake/460681/31 "2008-08-21T20:19:22Z")
This from another message board: > [@](#): > > The wake was held about 1/2 mile from my home. > > Local news report the deceased as son and grandson of former drug lords. He was found naked under a bridge dead from eleven gunshot wounds, and five days prior to his murder, he personally walked into a nearby funeral home and expressed his final wishes to the manager. It is reported that this unusual event was a mean for his family to deliver a message to his killers. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2008, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gotcha-ya-comes-to-pass-as-dead-man-stands-at-own-wake/460681/32 "2008-08-21T20:54:06Z")
[QUOTE=rayh] What’s brown and sticky? [/QUOTE] What’s a foot long and slippery? A slipper. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2008, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gotcha-ya-comes-to-pass-as-dead-man-stands-at-own-wake/460681/33 "2008-08-21T21:39:05Z")
Wasn’t there some eccentric English lord who had himslf buried in a tomb, sitting upright in a chair? He didn’t want to face he lord lying down. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Woo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7c8e57/32.png) [@Dr.Woo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Woo)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2008, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gotcha-ya-comes-to-pass-as-dead-man-stands-at-own-wake/460681/34 "2008-08-21T21:56:54Z")
[QUOTE=eleanorigby] Someone should cut out a bubble from cardboard, and stick above his head, with “must eat brains…” written on it. **Or LOLCatz the pic.** I am definitely going to hell. Am I the only one who thinks he looks well, just stupid? Certainly a family can grieve any way it wants to and if it makes them feel better to be following his wishes, so be it, but I’ve seen too much\* Six Feet Under\* to be squicked out by embalmo corpse guy lurking in the corner… [/QUOTE] (bolding mine) Like maybe “Death: Ur doin it rong” Or “I’m in ur corner, freakin’ ur Granny out” Edited to add that I’m going to hell too. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2008, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gotcha-ya-comes-to-pass-as-dead-man-stands-at-own-wake/460681/35 "2008-08-22T00:22:13Z")
Oh man, I gotta send this to my dad (he’s a mortician). ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2008, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gotcha-ya-comes-to-pass-as-dead-man-stands-at-own-wake/460681/36 "2008-08-22T02:21:14Z")
[QUOTE=Uncle Brother Walker] In my youth (don’t ask), I used to work at a funeral home. [/QUOTE] Time to prop this one up again… I used to work with a woman whose husband was a funeral director. She came in all happy one morning and said, ‘Guess what, everbody! Chuck got a promotion!’ I said, ‘How many people does he have under him?’ It’s not often you can use that joke in real life! (Incidentally, on his forms he would put his title as ‘FUN. DIRECTOR’.) ---
**Author:** ![Hokkaido\_Brit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/d26b3c/32.png) [@Hokkaido\_Brit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hokkaido_Brit)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2008, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gotcha-ya-comes-to-pass-as-dead-man-stands-at-own-wake/460681/37 "2008-08-22T02:40:49Z")
[QUOTE=ralph124c] Wasn’t there some eccentric English lord who had himslf buried in a tomb, sitting upright in a chair? He didn’t want to face he lord lying down. [/QUOTE] I think there have been a number of these. Where I lived as a kid, there was a very old grave in the local graveyard where a man had been buried standing upright, so when the last trumpet sounded he’d have a head start on all the rest, who’d have to get up first. Unfortunately when they came to bury him, they found that the bedrock was too near the surface, and his head and shoulders were left sticking out of the ground. So his grave marker is actually a box of slate, held together with very ancient bands of metal. Ick. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2008, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gotcha-ya-comes-to-pass-as-dead-man-stands-at-own-wake/460681/38 "2008-08-22T22:19:55Z")
[QUOTE=Marley23] [The origin of “Gotcha Ya.”](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=80870) [/QUOTE] I just read this again for about the 100th time and laughed my ass off for the 100th time. I can’t recommend it highly enough to anyone who hasn’t read it. Truly a classic of the SDMB. ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2008, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gotcha-ya-comes-to-pass-as-dead-man-stands-at-own-wake/460681/39 "2008-08-22T22:44:29Z")
You know what’s really sad? All that trouble and they didn’t even have him doing the fingerbang-make-a-gun-with-your-hand thing. What a tragic waste. ---
**Author:** ![lorene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/65b543/32.png) [@lorene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lorene)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2008, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gotcha-ya-comes-to-pass-as-dead-man-stands-at-own-wake/460681/40 "2008-08-23T06:42:50Z")
[QUOTE=Cisco] I just read this again for about the 100th time and laughed my ass off for the 100th time. I can’t recommend it highly enough to anyone who hasn’t read it. Truly a classic of the SDMB. [/QUOTE] I have read that thread many times, but it wasn’t until now that the true brilliance of **RickJay** ’s post (first page ) shone through for me. On a different message board, someone commented that it would be funny if the guy was truly a Red Sox fan but his mom was fucking with him even in death, what with the Yankees outfit and all. ETA: Also, this has been bugging me—did they lay the corpse down at night? I mean, everyone deserves a rest, right? Also, I can’t imagine getting up to go the bathroom in the night and passing by the living room…WHOAH!!! Oh, no, it’s OK. It’s just Angel. \ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gotcha-ya-comes-to-pass-as-dead-man-stands-at-own-wake/460681.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gotcha-ya-comes-to-pass-as-dead-man-stands-at-own-wake/460681.md?page=3)