Our modern culture has made the physical process of burial little more than an afterthought, leaving us to numbly choose from a small assortment of wooden boxes in a showroom or catalog in the aftermath of a loved one’s death. But some casket designers literally think outside the box with colorful, celebratory or just plain bizarre creations ranging from coffins shaped like beer bottles and cars to those equipped with warning signals in case you’re buried alive.

6 Amazingly Weird Coffins by Kane Kwei Carpentry in Ghana

In Ghana, the Ga tradition of carpentry includes a fun and colorful array of fantasy coffins unlike anything you’ll see anywhere else in the world. Drawing from local culture and the personalities of those for whom the individual coffins are commissioned, the designs flout worldwide customs of somber funerals. The first one, a pink fish, was made for a fisherman from Accra in the 1950s, and from there the trend took off. Some might represent careers, others vices – you could be buried in a bottle of beer, for example.

Star-Trek Themed Casket

If you’re enough of a Star Trek fan to learn how to speak Klingon, perhaps you’re enough of a fan to be buried in this Star Trek-themed casket inspired by the ‘Photon Torpedo’ design seen in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Or, if you’re partial to cremation, there’s always the Star Trek urn.

Coffins with Bells and Whistles – For Indicating That You’re Not Dead

In the centuries before modern medicine made a pronunciation of death much more reliable, people had justifiable fears of being buried alive (which got even worse after Edgar Allan Poe’s ‘The Premature Burial.’) Hence the many designs for ‘safety coffins,’ which literally included bells and whistles so if you happened to wake up in the midst of your own burial, you had a chance of getting out alive. Some have handles or strings that can be pulled to activate a signal, while others were mouth-operated. One terrifying spring-loaded ejector coffin will launch you out of the ground (to the heart-stopping terror of anyone who happens to be nearby.) Some cemeteries, like the Williamsport Wildwood, even have escape hatches on the vaults.

Cruisin’ Caskets

Take a stylish ride to your eternal resting place in a ‘Cruisin Casket,’ a car-shaped coffin with functioning wheels that can actually roll down the street. This company will make a custom casket shaped like any model car. It seems like a shame to bury something like this, but if you want to enjoy it for a while before you croak, you can get a cooler insert and use it to keep your drinks on ice.

Next Page - Click Below to Read More:
Bizarre Burial 20 Of The Worlds Weirdest Coffins

Artistic inspiration can strike anywhere. For Swedish photographer Magnus Muhr, inspiration came from dead insects. As bizarre as it sounds, the photographer poses tiny dead flies onto paper, draws arms, legs and backgrounds behind them, and then photographs them in their new environments. The result is a hilarious series of photographs.

The pictures are simple and fun; the backgrounds are kept clean and minimalistic so they don’t interfere with the overall picture. The little arms and legs actually look like they belong to the critters. There’s no word on whether the insects died of natural causes or were killed by the artist.

The insects look at home in pretty much whatever configuration Muhr puts them in. They manage to be adorable, even though playing with dead bugs is a bit gross. Looking at them up close may inspire shudders, but they’re actually very innocent-looking compared to other insect photography subjects. In the pictures above, the text roughly translates to “It was good?” “You’ve done great with the British cuisine…it tastes like shit!” and “Guys…I have to sneeze…”

Above, the captions read “It’s the latest craze” and “Are you bi, or…?” (in Swedish, the words for “bee” and “bisexual” are similar). The configurations that Muhr puts his insects into can be alternately weird, cute, and puzzling. But they’re always interesting little worlds. Who knows where Muhr’s imagination will take the little bugs next? Muhr also creates more serious photography, which can be found in his online portfolio.