Are we really supposed to believe these are real deaths?

The majority of the deaths are most likely accurate though what lead up to them is up for debate so the writers make that up. In all reality there is no way we could know what actually happened to many of these people such as those that were alone in the woods or their homes and had no witnesses to report the events leading up to their death. A body was discovered and cause of death was determined and from that a vauge series of events leading up to that death can be determined. The writers probably take that and then make up a character to fit those events, the deaths themselves are probably real but the stories on many are probably at least partially ficticious. However, for the deaths were there are witnesses they are probably more accurate, the writers just have to fill in a few blanks with their characters.

I expect nothing less than gratuitous violence from the lot of ya.

Some are, and some are just exaggerated for comedic reasons. But overall, you can indeed die from each situation presented.

I've heard about a good chunk of these deaths from the news and websites way before the show started. Some details are changed, but it's nothing too dramatic.

"I'll go,because I am Cinema!" - Ben (Man Bites Dog)

I think if someone were at a pool party and gets struck by a meteor we would've heard about it in the news. Or maybe I'm the only person who missed that particular gem.

My question is how do they come up with these scenarios when there were no witnesses? Like the woman who tied herself up for the benefit of her husband on webcam, then choked on her own vomit when a thief broke in. According to the narrator, it was the thief's breath that caused her to vomit. Ok... since the only real witness (the woman) is dead, how do we know that that's what caused her to vomit? That's just one example... there are several where the only clues are the charred/destroyed remains of the victim.

"I hope you don't mind but I took the liberty of fertilizing your caviar!" Dr Zoidberg, Futurama

I can't believe how many people don't know what "based on" means. These are "BASED ON" real deaths. It doesn't mean it the characters are the same, doesn't mean it happened EXACTLY how it was played out on the show.. just means that someone died in that way.

I remember hearing about the disembowlment (from bottom of a pool) happened to a little girl about 15 years ago.

Poor kid.

They don't really TRY to make everyone look like a bad guy, some of them are just stupid idiots who made a bad call, others are just extremely unlikely circumstances all lining up to make a bad situation. Look at the girl who took off her shoes, stepped in a puddle that happened to have some power cords in it and then happened to complete the circuit by touching a pole, or the violinist chick who took meticulous care of her hands, even took out an insurance policy on them and died by falling down the stairs and cranking her head on the wall because she instinctively didn't want to use her hands to break the fall, or the two guys who suffocate during a cocoa powder fight in a kitchen. Those people weren't "bad", they just had crappy luck or made an idiotic call that cost them their lives.

Besides, having grown up with an ex-orderly/cop for a father and a Registered Nurse for a mother gave me enough info to realize, there's very little "beyond believable", all of us can die at any second for completely unimaginable reasons or bad choices....this show just kind of presents them and makes light of something that every single one of us will go through eventually. It's one of the few things that's universal, we are ALL gonna be good worm food one day, if you can't suck it up and laugh at the fact a little then you're going to wind up spending your life trying to dodge something that no one will ever dodge. It's just like the Darwin Awards, the whole schadenfreud idea, we are curious to hear about other people's misfortune...particularly if it's something unique we would never expect to happen. as the late great George Carlin once said, "Why do you think people watch auto racing? To watch a bunch of redneck jackoff's drive five-hundred miles in a circle? Children can do that, I wanna see some accidents man...I want to see some poor schmuck running around with his head on fire punching himself in the head to try to put it out."...the Roman's watched gladiatorial battle's, we can't do that any longer...this is the modern day equivalent of that kind of spectacle. It has nothing to do with how "good" or "bad" the people were, just that they got offed, and in completely fascinating ways.

Hell, if I die for some weird reason like someone dropping a penny off a building onto my head or an airplanes toilet falls on top of me, I'd want my death to be on this show too...after all, I'm dead...whatever happens to my body or what people say about me ain't going to matter much at that point...toss my carcass in the river for the fish or a ditch for the jackals and move on...just don't go saving my dead body in some plot of land set aside where we store all the towns dead people, THAT is messed up...burn me, melt me with acid and dump the resulting mush down the toilet, or hell, donate my body to science so college kids can get kicks playing around in my viscera or use my body for a good practical joke on their prof., all good to me 'cause I'll be dead and dead people don't give a rats ass about...well...anything...they're just meat.

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*+_Charos_+*

"I have often laughed at weaklings
who thought themselves good because
they had no claws."