Strangest Ways People Have Died

**Sanitized Transcript:**

Death: We’re fascinated by it; you’re fascinated by it. Why kid ourselves here? We gave you a whole bunch of strange deaths, and you clearly wanted more – So here you are. Even stranger and freakier deaths that you’re guaranteed to never forget. As much as it might seem morbid to admit it, sometimes, death can be pretty funny. Just make sure it isn’t too funny – Or you might join the deceased by laughing yourself to death! Yes, that’s right, laughing yourself to death is a thing that can happen in some rare circumstances. A few of the circumstances we were able to track down had some incredibly strange things in common.

Take, for example, the alleged death of Chrysippus of Soli, an Ancient Greek Stoic philosopher who died in 206 BC. According to one account of the famed thinker’s demise, he met his end by laughing himself to death after seeing a donkey eating figs. He remarked to a nearby slave that someone should fetch the donkey wine to wash the figs down, and was apparently so amused by his own joke that he literally died as a result. Who would have thought a donkey eating figs was so funny?

Apparently, the Spanish King Martin the Humane also succumbed to this comical fate in 1410. While he may have been called Martin the Humane, he could have also been called Martin The Hungry, because his death story starts with him eating an entire cooked goose and getting severe indigestion. Given that modern antacid hadn’t been invented yet, the royal court decided that laughter was the best medicine, and so rather than a medic, they sent the King’s favorite jester to cheer him up. This would be the worst mistake of King Martin’s life. He asked the jester where he’d been, expecting one of the jester’s classic witty retorts, and the jester allegedly replied, “Out of the next vineyard, where I saw a young deer hanging by his tail from a tree, as if someone had so punished him for stealing figs.” And so the magic combination was unleashed – Beasts and figs. The King laughed so hard he died right there, in his bedroom. Martin the Humane’s goose was well and truly cooked.

In defense of the world’s fig-hungry mammals, there have been plenty of other reasons people have died from laughter throughout history. Another example from the Ancient World is the Greek painter Zeuxis, famous for his brilliant still-life works and also for his weird death. He was commissioned to paint a portrait of Aphrodite by an old woman who insisted on modeling for the painting. This caused Zeuxis to laugh himself to death, presumably also affecting the poor old woman’s self-esteem.

There are two stories about the 1556 death of Pietro Aretino, and both involve him dying from laughter. This Italian author was told a joke at a party, and depending on who’s telling the story, either laughed so hard he died or fell off his chair from laughing so hard and fractured his skull. The Scottish aristocrat Thomas Urquhart was also believed to have died laughing in 1660 when he heard Charles II had taken the throne, and over 300 years later, a British man named Alex Mitchell would suffer the same fate after laughing for 25 continuous minutes at a sitcom episode, leading to him experiencing heart failure.

The moral of all this? Enjoy every laugh, because it may be the one that kills you! Moving swiftly on, let’s look at some cutting-edge weird deaths of the 2020s. We may be in a new decade, but bizarre deaths never change! This next one involved a huge statue of a stegosaurus. An unknown Catalonian man was found dead in the leg of a huge papier-mâché Stegosaurus in 2021 after having been trapped in there for several days. Nobody knows for sure exactly how he got in there, with the leading theory being that he somehow lost his cell phone in the dinosaur and climbed in to retrieve it. This unfortunate man was eventually discovered when someone caught the smell of rot while walking past the Stegosaurus.

Next comes a story that’s as bizarre as it is cringeworthy: The death of Salman Mirza, an Indian man who made a poor choice involving epoxy resin. After first getting high off the fumes of the resin, he decided to use it inappropriately, leading to multiple organ failure the next morning.

Sometimes, a tragic death can happen during a completely mundane situation. Such was the case with 42-year-old Tony Eyles of Vancouver, who was going through a drive-thru when he accidentally dropped his credit card out of the window of his car. He opened the door and leaned out to retrieve the card, but his car moved forward, wedging him between his car door and the building. Sadly, he was crushed, and all attempts to revive him failed.

In 2016, beloved actor Anton Yelchin’s SUV malfunctioned when he got out of the car to check his mail. It rolled forward, crushing Yelchin against his stone gate and fatally injuring him.

Sometimes, fate seems to work against you. This was the case for an unknown Brazilian man in October 2021, when he and his two friends were out fishing. They were suddenly attacked by an angry swarm of bees, causing them to jump into the water to escape. The unknown man’s two friends survived the incident, but he drowned and was then eaten by piranhas.

You’ll often find that the craziest deaths happen to unknown people. After all, if a death is sufficiently weird, the deceased’s family may not want to release the details. This was the case for a 28-year-old fitness enthusiast from San Diego, California. He was so eager to keep getting those gains that while driving, he felt the need to stir a protein mix with a knife. This poor decision led to him losing control of his vehicle, resulting in a five-car pileup. The only one who was killed was the 28-year-old man, whose airbag deployed and stuck the blade of his mixing knife into his neck.

To continue our trend of unknowns dying in incredibly bizarre fashions, we have the 2022 death of an unknown 65-year-old man at the Highland Games in the Netherlands. One of the competitors let go of the hammer at the wrong time, causing it to fly off course and strike the head of our unfortunate protagonist, killing him instantly.

In 2023, an 83-year-old woman had a tragic death when she was discharged from the hospital on a stretcher. The techs handling her caused her to tumble out of the stretcher and land face-first in the hospital loading dock, where the stretcher also fell, resulting in her death.

In 1888, an unknown Iraqi man was killed during a meteor shower, which is the only widely accepted case of human death by a meteorite. Less than two decades later, in 1903, a Hawaiian man died during a botched exorcism. When his family believed that he was possessed, they called over a local spiritual figure, who unfortunately caused his death.

The late 2000s were a particularly gruesome time for unknown people dying in bizarre ways. For example, in 2008, a 43-year-old Irish woman died from an allergic reaction after being involved in a bizarre incident. The owner of the animal involved was prosecuted.

Then, in 2009, a 14-year-old boy in China was killed in a freak accident when the pneumatic gas cylinder within a swiveling office chair exploded. This is still significantly less insane than a death that occurred in Canada, where an unknown man was killed by a bear being rocketed through the windshield of his car, killing both him and the bear.

But an animal doesn’t need to be a large predator to cause harm, as one unknown 60-year-old Belarusian fisherman discovered. While out fishing, he saw a beaver and tried to grab it for a photo. The beaver bit him, causing him to bleed to death.

Sometimes, a tragic death can happen even in a controlled environment. This happened in a Moroccan zoo in 2016, when an elephant threw a stone at the head of a seven-year-old girl, killing her instantly.

Occasionally, it’s the things we love most that can lead to tragedy. An unknown 54-year-old man from Massachusetts loved black licorice so much that he ate a bag and a half every single day for several weeks. The glycyrrhizinic acid in the licorice caused his body to lower its potassium levels to such an extent that his heart stopped.

Let’s return to the strange deaths that have names attached to them, which can still be just as weird. For example, 13-year-old William Snyder from San Francisco, California, died in a tragic incident at a circus in 1854. A clown grabbed Snyder and swung him around by his ankles until he died.

Death can strike at any time, even when you’re happy and comfortable. Just ask Klil Kimhi, who died in Israel in 2022 during a pool party when a sinkhole opened up underneath the pool.

Norbert Tóth, a 53-year-old Hungarian soccer manager, experienced a heart attack after scoring a goal in 2023. At least you can say he died doing what he loved.

In early 2023, an elderly couple was tragically crushed by a falling sign while exiting a restaurant. Their adult daughter survived the incident, likely with some lifelong trauma.

Some deaths involving firearms can be peculiar. Take the case of Joseph Austin Smith, a 30-year-old hunter from Kansas, who died in 2023 due to improper rifle etiquette when his dog accidentally fired a loaded rifle.

Brazilian lawyer Leandro Mathias de Novaes also suffered a strange death in 2023 when he went to a hospital to support his mother. He was storing a handgun in his waistband, and when the MRI machine was turned on, the powerful magnet caused the gun to discharge into his stomach, leading to his injury.

In September 2023, an unnamed worker at a winery fell to his death in a massive wine processing tank after being intoxicated by carbon dioxide.

To round us off, we’ve got a uniquely modern death from a modern phenomenon: The Gender Reveal Party. In one case in 2019, a family wanted to reveal the gender of their upcoming baby using gunpowder, which unfortunately turned into a tragic accident, resulting in a fatal injury to an innocent bystander.

What a terrible waste. Now watch “Dumbest Ways to Die – Florida Edition.” Or check out this video instead!