Let’s be real here – none of us like to be left on read.
But very, very few of us will go to the extremes Belgian TikTok creator David Baerten did while trying to encourage his friends and family to stay in touch.
The TikTok star, who has 165,000 followers and is known on the app as Ragnar le Fou, faked his own funeral and got his wife and children in on the prank, too – with his daughter even posting about her dad’s supposed death on social media.
“Why is life so unfair? Why you? You were going to be a grandfather, and you still had your whole life ahead of you. I love you! We love you! We will never forget you,” the post reportedly read.
Then, on the day of his funeral, Baerten arrived via helicopter with a film crew in tow – much to everyone’s surprise.
Below is a video, posted by his friend, of loved ones seeing Baerten alive and kicking after his supposed death.
So, what’s that about, then?
Baerten wanted to teach his family and friends a “life lesson” about staying in contact with one another. “You shouldn’t wait until someone is dead to meet up with them,” he said, according to The Times.
He also said it was a way to work out who really cared about him.
“I never get invited to anything. Nobody sees me. We all grew apart. I felt unappreciated. That’s why I wanted to give them a life lesson, and show them that you shouldn’t wait until someone is dead to meet up with them,” he added.
In the end, he said about half of his family turned up.
There’s been some backlash
Some of the comments on Baurten friend’s video are, let’s say, unappreciative of the stunt. But Baurten seems to stand by his bold move.
“Those who didn’t come, did contact me to meet up. So in a way I did win,” he said.