He who laughs last laughs best — even if it’s from beyond the grave.
An Irish man who died managed to play one final prank on friends and family at his funeral using a prerecorded message that played shortly after his coffin was lowered into the ground.
Mourners attending the funeral of a man were left stunned when they heard his voice from beyond the grave. It turned out that Shay Bradley had decided to inject a little humor into his own funeral by pranking his friends and family.
Bradley died on October 8 after a three-year battle with cancer, reports Irish Mirror. His last wish was to spook his friends and family – which he did so by getting his eldest son to play a pre-recorded message at his funeral. The grandfather of eight managed to get the last laugh at his own funeral with the clever prank.
“Hello? Hello. Hello? Let me out!” shocked attendees heard during the funeral as his coffin was being lowered into the ground in Kilmanagh, Kilkenny, on October 12.
“Let me out,” Mr Bradley’s voice in the pre-recorded message continued. “Is that a priest I can hear? This is Shay, I’m in the box.”
It had been at least a year in the making, his daughter Andrea Bradley revealed. Knowing he was terminally ill, Bradley made the recording a year before his death and told just Andrea, her brother Jonathan and her nephew, Ben, that his dying wish was that it be played as he was being put into the ground.
Two days before the funeral, Jonathan told their mother and their other siblings.
On Sunday, Andrea posted a video of the joke, and an anonymous Twitter user got wind of it. It has since been viewed 1.68 million times, retweeted 6,175 times, and garnered more than 25,000 likes.
Andrea Bradley, who had originally shared the video on Facebook, then tweeted her own picture of her late dad.
“Here is a picture of the legend himself. My dad, Shay Bradley,” she wrote. “It was his dying wish that we played this at his funeral. What a man…. To make us all laugh when we were incredibly sad…..”
According to AWM, thousands of people left comments on the video uploaded to YouTube by Liverpool ECHO. The following were a few thoughts from viewers like you.
“Imagine passing by and seeing a bunch of people laughing at the funeral.”
“He was dying to pull that prank.”
“He just buried all of the sadness… So anyone can still be happy.”
“Humor makes dark times better. This is touching, beautiful, and sad.”
“He left them one last laugh to remember him by. That’s really awesome.”
“We’re all going to die. Why not have fun with it? It’s a great idea.”
Watch the video below for more details:
Sources: AWM, Irish Mirror