Another one bites the dust: flashmobs, funerals and facing our mortality
By Wendy Appenteng Daniels, Theos.
Flash mobs are the embodiment of surprise, a form of modern exuberance that revive otherwise mundane spaces, interrupting ordinariness, welcoming the unusual. They seem to be an “only in movies” type of scenario. One of the most unlikely places a flash mob could take place in? At a funeral.
Earlier this year, a 65–year–old woman secretly organised a posthumous flash mob for her funeral at the Bristol crematorium. The hired dancers for the occasion joined in the funeral service disguised as mourners, then unexpectedly began their choreography on the notes of “Another one bites the dust” by Queen. It is curious that most media outlets reported the unusual funeral mainly as a headline followed by a few lines. The death itself was mentioned only in passing, a kind of pretext for the fun video.
The so–called “death taboo thesis” favours the idea that there is reluctance to talk about death as we’ve lost first–hand experience of dealing with the dead. As a result, we face life with the prudish superstition that death is too disturbing and threatening to even be mentioned. When spoken about in public, death is a series of statistical breakdowns, such as the daily death toll updates during the pandemic. Death then is condensed into an episode that is attention–grabbing enough to report, but too fear–provoking to merit more lines.
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