It's his friend's laugh that makes it.

December 16, 2011 8:17 AM

As he starts to ride towards the camera, you just know it's going to be an awesome maneou-
S (stupid) LYT
posted by Hartham's Hugging Robots (34 comments total)

There but for the grace of God...
posted by spikeleemajortomdickandharryconnickjrmints at 8:25 AM on December 16, 2011

His mate's laughter is making my Friday.
posted by Hartham's Hugging Robots at 8:27 AM on December 16, 2011 [1 favorite]

someone get that man a Mountain Dew
posted by nathancaswell at 8:27 AM on December 16, 2011 [3 favorites]

that's the quintessential pleasantly German laugh.
posted by Jon_Evil at 8:29 AM on December 16, 2011

If he was riding with passing acquaintances or people he had just met, they would have been in there helping him right away.

Only really good friends could stand there laughing uproariously at him for 5 minutes while he worked like hell and made a fool of himself.
posted by CaseyB at 8:30 AM on December 16, 2011 [33 favorites]

That's not german... something scandinavian. Finnish, maybe?
posted by Hartham's Hugging Robots at 8:32 AM on December 16, 2011

You're right. Maybe Swedish? Finnish sounds more like Russian.
posted by Jon_Evil at 8:33 AM on December 16, 2011

Swedes.
posted by pyrex at 8:33 AM on December 16, 2011

That's not german... something scandinavian. Finnish, maybe?

Falling into a giant puddle of mud, then falling in two minutes later is something that can be understood by anyone in any language. Laughter transcends all language barriers.
posted by Fizz at 8:33 AM on December 16, 2011 [1 favorite]

I hesitated over posting it as it's just an ole' SLYT, but there's just something magic about those few seconds as he's approaching that puddle, and the few seconds after... language transcending indeed. And all taken with such good grace by all concerned...
posted by Hartham's Hugging Robots at 8:37 AM on December 16, 2011

I love how it isn't even a like exciting falling-into-mud-puddle. It's like his dirtbike just sort of shrugs him off and he goes in head-first because he can't think of anything better to do.
posted by shakespeherian at 8:37 AM on December 16, 2011 [10 favorites]

Man Fall Down is funny in any language, for sure.
posted by gwint at 8:39 AM on December 16, 2011

That is some of the best self induced slap stick I have seen. I love that his friends just laugh and film rather than helping.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 8:46 AM on December 16, 2011

I'm crying here. This is perfect.
posted by jquinby at 8:50 AM on December 16, 2011

The moment when he starts walking back to his bike, falls into the hip-deep puddle, and looks around it in a clear WHAT BLACK MAGIC IS THIS?!?! is what sells it.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 8:53 AM on December 16, 2011 [3 favorites]

Only really good friends could stand there laughing uproariously at him for 5 minutes while he worked like hell and made a fool of himself.

A site I frequent once had a thread where a member posted about being trapped in a terrorist attack. His good friends mercilessly teased him about being a drama queen and suggested he was too fat to hide from the gunmen. Whilst the attacks were taking place!
posted by fullerine at 8:59 AM on December 16, 2011 [3 favorites]

The new Halo doesn't look so good.
posted by ShutterBun at 9:03 AM on December 16, 2011 [7 favorites]

obligatory NES reference
posted by obscurator at 9:04 AM on December 16, 2011 [1 favorite]

That's not german... something scandinavian. Finnish, maybe?

Big Finnish!
posted by hal9k at 9:25 AM on December 16, 2011

Dammit! I can't find a sound clip of Spike Milligan saying "He's fallen in the water!" on youtube! You'll have to just imagine it yourself.
posted by KathrynT at 9:36 AM on December 16, 2011 [3 favorites]

This also looks exactly like me playing Pitfall.
posted by shakespeherian at 9:42 AM on December 16, 2011 [1 favorite]

Big Finnish!

Are you here all week?
posted by Hartham's Hugging Robots at 9:45 AM on December 16, 2011

Funny at first, but after about 30 seconds of everyone just standing around watching I was all "wtf you assholes, go help your friend out of the muck". Especially when he was trying to pull his bike out and fell in AGAIN.

Maybe it's just because I'm a lady. I dunno. When the dude filming moved in closer and did nothing I really started to hope he'd fall in too or something.
posted by egypturnash at 9:56 AM on December 16, 2011

det finns inget roligare än en kille att falla i leran många gånger
posted by growabrain at 10:27 AM on December 16, 2011

Jag håller med dig! (thanks, Google translate)
posted by Hartham's Hugging Robots at 10:35 AM on December 16, 2011

Saw that on advrider.com a while back, and I did really have to laugh. It's also a reminder why my motorcycle isn't allowed off the road, despite having a serious off-road pedigree—nobody throws Baby in a muddy hole. That's for those naughty bikes with mean owners.
posted by sonascope at 10:36 AM on December 16, 2011

Only really good friends could stand there laughing uproariously at him for 5 minutes while he worked like hell and made a fool of himself.

Me and my friends were shooting a video for a high school assignment. We had to reinterpret a scene from Macbeth, and my friend's group got assigned Banquo's murder. Another friend and I were in a different group, but decided to show up and help since they were going to do it with video, which required more people.

One of my friends was playing Banquo because he could do a pretty cool kung fu movie-esque "launch into the air, twirl, and fall" type thing. Another was going to be one of the assassins ambushing him with a baseball bat (he also had double-duty as Fleance, but he had a bandana on and such as an assassin, so whatever).

So we got the shoot set up, it was already dark in the playground near my apartment where we decided to do the shoot. The ground was covered in fallen leaves and there was a crisp autumn chill. The mood was set perfectly for the scene.

I'm next to my one friend, who was playing Macbeth and the cameraman for this scene, and two other friends who were assassins #2 and #3, are off to the side, off-camera, to swoop in for the next scene we had to shoot. With a cry of "Action!" Banquo comes on camera, "crunch crunch crunch"-ing through the leaves, his breath fogging in the cold air when the assassin jumps on screen and yells "BREAK YO'SELF FOO'!!!" and swings his aluminum bat at Banquo.

It's timed perfectly, my friend leaps into the air to do his spin. All of us watching are holding our breaths since this is being shot on an old school video camera we borrowed from somebody's dad and we don't have fancy digital video editing equipment. We need to get this right in one shot. We think we got it, but a slow dread creeps over us when on the half turn of the second spin we see Banquo's foot lightly tap the aluminum bat.

Next thing you know, it's like the butterfly effect and it's all happening both in slow motion and fast-forward in that singularly awful way timelines seem to split before an injury is about to happen. You feel omniscient all of the sudden and see what's to come and what's happening and what had happened to lead to this situation all at the same time in the matter of seconds it takes to unfold in real time.

The bat goes ricocheting and the next second we hear a sickening "clank" of bat hitting front teeth.

Banquo finishes his routine and falls to the ground oblivious. The assasin grabs his mouth and falls to his knees. The rest of us after a half-stop of silence fall over laughing and screeching. We can barely even ask "Are you OK?" from being out of breath, but somehow convey the sentiment through body language and faces crumpled from frowning and laughing at the same time.

Everyone's prone on the ground for a while because nobody can stop laughing long enough to actually get up, and the friend who got clocked in the mouth with the very bat that was in his own hands had crumpled to the ground first in shock, but feeling no real damage, was too busy laughing, "a hoff hofffff hoooofff" through this hands to get back up. Banquo didn't see any of the action first-hand due to being occupied by acrobatics at the key moment, but had heard the clank and guessed what had happened from our reactions. He didn't even bother to get up off the ground and just propped himself up on his elbows and chuckled watching the rest of us screeching with laughter rolling in the leaves.

When we finally were back on our feet we made Banquo open his mouth and saw no bleeding or teeth missing. We quickly rewound to watch the scene, and good news was because none of us reacted immediately, the footage was usable, moment of injury and all. It was a split second and just a light tap on the teeth that only seemed really bad because of how it sounded. Thanks to the hazy orange sodium-lit evening on a playground, it wasn't too obvious at first glance unless you knew what to look for. So we continued shooting.

Later on, when we convened at my house to watch the finished product, the moment where bat met teeth was rewound and watched more times than could be counted. We rewound, and paused and analyzed the shit out of that moment like it was the Zapruder film and we were the Warren Comission, laughing harder with each rewatch until we couldn't do it anymore because our stomachs hurt so bad.
posted by kkokkodalk at 10:38 AM on December 16, 2011 [6 favorites]

I did that once during spring skiing. . .was misaligned with the lift, and got pushed, face first, into an icy mud puddle. My brother and sister had a similar reaction.
posted by Danf at 10:40 AM on December 16, 2011

One night when I was about 20, two of my best friends and I were walking home through a playground when I decided to try walking up a geodesic dome jungle gym with no hands (yes, alcohol was involved.)

I got near the top when I slipped and gashed my left shin on one of the flat plates, hanging upside down from my injury for several seconds before I tore free, landing on my head and sprawling out on my back.

After a few seconds of stunned silence, we all laughed uproariously. One of my friends finally came over and cut open my blood-soaked pant leg to see how badly hurt I was. Pulling it open, we could all see that a three inch square of bone was clearly visible. I touched the bone with my finger and started laughing even harder until I passed out.

I guess they stopped laughing at that point. One ran (pre-cell-phone era) to call 911 while the other applied direct pressure. By the time the ambulance got there, I had lost 3/4 of my blood.

So the pattern is:

Friend does something dumb: funny
Friend gets hurt doing something dumb: hysterical
Friend dies doing something dumb: not funny
posted by double block and bleed at 11:21 AM on December 16, 2011

I don't recognize the guy, but I'm pretty sure he's with my riding buddies.
posted by calamari kid at 11:42 AM on December 16, 2011 [2 favorites]

I don't recognize the guy, but I'm pretty sure he's with my riding buddies.

So, what you're saying is that's you?
posted by The World Famous at 12:03 PM on December 16, 2011

So, what you're saying is that's you?

Oh no, not saying that. Just that I regularly experience about the same level of support and understanding on the trail.
posted by calamari kid at 12:33 PM on December 16, 2011

Träskmongo = Swamptard.

Gotta get me a "cross" for next summer :)
posted by Iteki at 2:09 PM on December 16, 2011

> He's fallen in the water!

He's fallen in the water!
posted by The corpse in the library at 3:41 PM on December 17, 2011