When Beethoven passed away, he was buried in a churchyard. A couple days later, the town drunk was walking through the cemetery and heard some strange noise coming from the area where Beethoven was buried.
Terrified, the drunk ran and got the priest to come and listen to it. The priest bent close to the grave and heard some faint, unrecognizable music coming from the grave.
Frightened, the priest ran and got the town magistrate.
When the magistrate arrived, he bent his ear to the grave, listened for a moment, and said, “Ah, yes, that’s Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, being played backwards.”
He listened a while longer, and said, “There’s the Eighth Symphony, and it’s backwards, too. Most puzzling.” So the magistrate kept listening, “There’s the Seventh… the Sixth… the Fifth…”
Suddenly the realization of what was happening dawned on the magistrate. He stood up and announced to the crowd that had gathered in the cemetery, “My fellow citizens, there’s nothing to worry about. It’s just Beethoven decomposing.”
Taken from Extatika on Livejournal
From marriedtothesea.com, which is very great in general.
Hi! My name is Geerte, I'm a researcher of Nineteenth century history from the Netherlands. This blog is where I write about my favourite subject. Feel free to browse around! 
That’s hilarious! I don’t think you could have posted something better… this one includes my all-time favorite person and one of my favorite comics from Married to the Sea, which I’ve been following since Shakespeare wrote Hamlet in a fortnight.
Quite witty Indeed. I laughed out loud at that Beethoven joke.
I also enjoyed the picture quite a bit, it’s funny but it shows you what kind of mind frame the Victorians had.
Thank you, I’m glad you enjoyed it :)
That is so incredibly funny!! I’m sitting here trying to figure a way to link it with a story about Chicago history! Funny, funny stuff!