A supermarket worker hanged himself with a pair of tracksuit bottoms when a practical joke went wrong.
Danny Munro lost his fight for life, three days after his girlfriend Amy Leaman cut him down with a saw when he accidentally strangled himself.
The 26-year-old was renowned for "winding up" family and friends, on one occasion faking anaphylactic shock after eating nuts while driving, and squiring himself with ketchup before pretending he'd stabbed himself.
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Ms Leaman told an inquest that she even reprimanded him for "crying wolf" in the weeks before his death, Stoke Sentinel reports.
She recalled rolling her eyes and thinking it was another prank when she saw him messing around on August 1 last year at their home in Bignall End, Staffordshire.
But she soon realised something was seriously wrong as he turned blue, and ran to the kitchen to grab a saw to cut him down.
Amy called 999 but Port Vale fan Mr Munro lost his fight for life at the Royal Stoke University Hospital on August 4.
Amy told the inquest: "A few weeks before he put tomato sauce on himself and told me that he'd stabbed himself, but I could smell tomato sauce and realised it was a prank.
"Then we had a conversation about the boy who cries wolf.
"On August 1 we'd just got in from shopping and we were actually on a health kick but we decided we were going to have a cheat night and had bought hot dogs.
"He had been watching boxing interviews in the front room and then I just started watching my programme and he said he was going upstairs to watch one of his programmes.
"We didn't have an argument it was a playful thing and he was smiling. Then I started making a roll up and as I looked up he's picked up his tracksuit bottoms and stood in front of the stairs.
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"I thought he was joking, that's how he got attention and the laughs. He did it for the shock factor. That's what he did to make people laugh.
"As soon as he did it I got up and shouted him and said come on now and he didn't say anything or do anything.
"So I punched him and smacked him. I was screaming at him and I said 'it's not funny now' then I stood back and his face was blue.
"I ran into the kitchen and got a saw and ran back in and I cut it two times and then he fell and he gasped then."
The inquest heard Amy had worked with Mr Munro at Morrisons and insisted he 'loved life'.
Amy said: "He never talked to me about intentionally hurting himself, he loved life. Especially on that day he was just really happy when I asked if he wanted to have a cheat day."
A post-mortem examination gave a cause of death due to massive brain swelling from compression to the neck.
Speaking at the inquest, Danny's mum Alison Rigby described him as someone who 'would light up a room'.
Alison said: "Danny was always a joker. He had an amazing sense of humour he just had that much of a big personality.
"It wouldn't make sense for anybody else but if you know Danny it's him down to a tee. If there was an opportunity to have a giggle then he would make you giggle.
"He never complained about anything, he took things as they came, he wouldn't sit and worry about stuff."
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Senior coroner Andrew Barkley recorded a conclusion of death by misadventure.
Mr Barkley said: "He had no significant medical history and no evidence of depression. He has been described to me as a practical joker who liked to shock.
"Nothing caused his partner cause for concern and there was nothing unusual about the way he was behaving.
"The circumstances are very unusual and this appears to be a prank which has gone wrong and led to the death of Mr Munro.
"I don't find this is a case of suicide . He died as a result of misadventure."
