I cannot even imagine the level of ego on this guy.

A TikTok "star" from Belgium with 166,000 followers reportedly faked his own death in order to prank his friends and family and then crashed his own funeral by landing in a helicopter and jumping out to surprise the people who showed up.

Reportedly, he did this to teach his family a lesson about staying in touch.

If this is how he wanted to teach his family a lesson then it's no wonder they're not interested in staying in touch.

The 45-year-old wannabe social media star forced his wife and kids to pretend he was dead and plan the funeral, getting his parents and other relatives to believe he was dead, just so he could post it on TikTok.

As relatives and friends gathered for the funeral of the "Tiktokeur", who has almost 162,000 followers on the app, Baerten turned up in a helicopter with a video crew. "Cheers to you all, welcome to my funeral," he said on a video, before going on to be hugged by weeping relatives while other mourners complained that it was all a "joke".

If you want to reconnect with family that has grown distant I think there are better methods than elaborate pranks that shame your family online for your own self-gratification.

Here's how one commenter aptly put it:

He is yet to release the full funeral video and said that while "only half of my family came to the funeral" other relatives have now been in touch. "That proves who really cares about me," he said "Those who didn't come, did contact me to meet up. So in a way I did win."

No, sorry. You didn't win.

You're a MAJOR loser.