Fact Check

Was an Exhausted Funeral Home Employee Cremated by Mistake?

A routine review of content labeled satire.

Published April 14, 2020

 (Canva, stock image)
Image Via Canva, stock image
Claim:
An exhausted funeral home worker was cremated by mistake after taking a nap.

On April 11, 2020, the Weekly Inquirer published an article positing that an exhausted funeral home worker had been cremated by mistake after they took a nap:

NEW YORK, NY: EXHAUSTED FUNERAL HOME EMPLOYEE CREMATED BY MISTAKE WHILE TAKING A NAP

An employee of a New York, Funeral & Cremation Service died yesterday, after being accidentally cremated by one of his coworkers.

According to the Police, 48-year old Michael Jones decided to take a nap one a stretcher after working for sixteen hours straight to the recent influx of dead bodies.

This item was not a factual recounting of real-life events. The article originated with a website that describes its output as being humorous or satirical in nature, as follows:

Disclaimer: This is satire.

The Weekly Inquirer's three-word disclaimer was buried at the bottom of the web page and may have been missed by many readers.

If the above-displayed story sounds a bit familiar, it's because "satire" sites have been publishing stories about cremated funeral workers for years. In 2017, for instance, a similar jape was published on the World News Daily Report.

For background, here is why we sometimes write about satire/humor.

Sources

Ellsworth, Janice   "New York, NY: Exhausted Funeral Home Employee Cremated By Mistake While Taking a Nap."    The Weekly Inquirer.   11 April 2020.