OUCH

October 20, 2003 11:12 AM

The times had a little blurb about live tv pitfalls that have a life of their own on the internet...actually i just found this hilarious and wanted to share it. Is it just me or does anyone else love bloopers like this ?
posted by Cool Alex (34 comments total)

(Just FYI for Mac OSX people, the link on "this" crashed Safari.)
posted by digaman at 11:24 AM on October 20, 2003

Did anyone else find it funny that the lady blamed the fall on the studio's "slippery floors"? I was expecting the ladder to slip, but it didn't--they guy's footing gave way, and he fell off the ladder, which didn't budge.
posted by bdk3clash at 11:32 AM on October 20, 2003

And yes, I also love bloopers like this.
posted by bdk3clash at 11:33 AM on October 20, 2003

I like the part where he stops moving.
posted by donth at 11:33 AM on October 20, 2003

I found all the garbage ASCII characters cluttering the third link totally hilarious.

Could just be my browser, Win2K, Firebird.
posted by rocketman at 11:34 AM on October 20, 2003

why was someone recording QVC?
posted by AaRdVarK at 11:35 AM on October 20, 2003

Cue Ed McMahon and Dick Clark.
posted by Pollomacho at 11:36 AM on October 20, 2003

I found all the garbage ASCII characters cluttering the third link totally hilarious.

Could just be my browser, Win2K, Firebird.

Just right click, pick 'save link as', save it to your desktop, and if you wm installed you can double click it. It's just set as a text file type instead of a wm file type.
posted by lumpenprole at 11:40 AM on October 20, 2003

I'd find this funnier if the sound wasn't due to the guy's head hitting the hardwood floor.

Looks like an odd fall actually, as if he goes down a step then misses the next step entirely, and falls straight back.
posted by mathowie at 11:48 AM on October 20, 2003

I have a theory that people falling down (along with its cousin... "getting hit in the head") is the distilled, elemental form of humor.

I'm all about speculative, uninformed anthropology... and it occurs to me that the first thing any human laughed at had to be one of these two things.
posted by cadastral at 11:54 AM on October 20, 2003

MPlayer is an open source movie player for OS X, a nice alternative for playing almost all video files.
posted by letitrain at 12:01 PM on October 20, 2003

I miss a lot of old live television. Seeing Conway crack Korman up in nearly every Carol Burnett show was a highlight of my week as a little boy.

Also, I remember Brinkley just ... locking up one night while reading the news on NBC. He choked on a word and then just ... stopped. I thought he was having a stroke or something.
posted by WolfDaddy at 12:04 PM on October 20, 2003

I'm all about speculative, uninformed anthropology... and it occurs to me that the first thing any human laughed at had to be one of these two things.

Closely followed by some poor schmuck being whacked in the crotch.
posted by SealWyf at 12:04 PM on October 20, 2003

These pitfalls seem more like pratfalls.
posted by pooligan at 12:05 PM on October 20, 2003

I'm particularly fond of the video file name: qvclatter.asx
posted by JVey at 12:07 PM on October 20, 2003

More hilarious videos from eBaum's World. My favorite is "Bull Strip."
posted by homunculus at 12:10 PM on October 20, 2003

"Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you fall down an open manhole cover and die."

- Mel Brooks
posted by mr_crash_davis at 12:13 PM on October 20, 2003

Re: laughing at people falling down.

Walter Kerr had a great theory of comedy that he often illustrated with the ol' slip-on-a-banna-peel gag. He said people have two faces: the "human" and the "sublime". We like to imagine that were really noble individuals -- the apex of evolution -- unfortunately, our human side constantly conspires to remind us that we're just dopey people. Our "noble" face wants to write poetry and build cathedrals. Our "human" face wants to get laid or have a ham sandwich. When these confict with each other -- hilarity ensues. To Kerr, we don't so much laugh at the guy slipping, we laugh at his reaction -- his "noble" face as he jumps back up and frantically tries to cover up for his "human face" by trying to pretends that it didn't happen or that he really meant to do that.

Kinda dry when explained so clinically, but if you look closely at the best comedy, it exploits the gulf between how we are really perceived and how we WANT to be perceived.
posted by RavinDave at 12:19 PM on October 20, 2003

under os x, just 'download link to disk' and then change the extension to .wmv. it'll launch and play in microsoft's media player, assuming you've got it on your system.
posted by donkeyschlong at 12:20 PM on October 20, 2003

mr_crash_davis ...

I recall Mel Brooks quoting Groucho Marx on comedy once. Groucho said: "An amateur thinks it's funny to dress a guy up as an old lady, put him in a wheelchair and send him down a hill. A pro uses a real old lady."
posted by RavinDave at 12:22 PM on October 20, 2003 [1 favorite]

RavinDave, that explanation fits perfectly with the comedic routine I see nearly every day: Guy walking down street trips slightly, breaks into short run to pretend he did it on purpose, while simultaneously looking down and back to see what he tripped on. Kills me every time.
posted by MrMoonPie at 12:37 PM on October 20, 2003

RavinDave: The Kerr theory you explain so well owes a lot to Henri Bergson (Laughter, which is a gem). Oh, and Freud too.
posted by macrone at 12:49 PM on October 20, 2003

There's a sniglet for that, it's called a strumble.
posted by WolfDaddy at 12:50 PM on October 20, 2003

This one from the same site has had me alternatively in tears of laughter and sympathy since I saw it first...
posted by aaronscool at 12:55 PM on October 20, 2003

i couldn't find the quote, but didn't Confucius say something like "The funniest thing in the world is seeing a friend fall off a roof"?
posted by mrgrimm at 1:02 PM on October 20, 2003

I'm all about speculative, uninformed anthropology... and it occurs to me that the first thing any human laughed at had to be one of these two things.

Closely followed by some poor schmuck being whacked in the crotch.

No doubt, up there was the first fart joke and the first laughing at someone stepping in something nasty.

To sum up:

Bends=funny
Breaks=not funny
posted by Pollomacho at 1:22 PM on October 20, 2003

This would be infinitely more funny if it had sound effects.

*BONK*
posted by Dr_Octavius at 1:37 PM on October 20, 2003

O my god get it off my screen GET IT OFF. (nsf ANYONE)
posted by gottabefunky at 1:45 PM on October 20, 2003

aaronscool: If you're talking about the guy dropping an incredibly rare 78 rpm record (it's not working for me), sorry, that one is a hoax. I mean, it really did happen, but it was a setup.
posted by pmurray63 at 4:05 PM on October 20, 2003

My favorite part of the tech TV one is how the guy censors his first reaction: "Oh Fuhhhh... shit!"
posted by smackfu at 4:09 PM on October 20, 2003

I know it's out there somewhere but I'm not linking to it because somehow it's funnier if you hunt it down yourself... "Pinky the Cat" is the funniest of these things I've ever seen, by several yards. Rotten video quality, which hurts these days, but a genuine moment of sheer agony, and joyous living proof that if you lie to a video camera, sooner or later Fate will bite your balls for it.
posted by Hogshead at 5:48 PM on October 20, 2003

It's funny 'cause I don't know him.
posted by Banky_Edwards at 6:04 PM on October 20, 2003

Hogshead: A friend of mine has a video of Pinky the Cat that she shows everyone the first time they come to her apartment. I think she gauges potential friends based on their reaction to it. (Proper reaction=falling on the floor giggling.)
posted by lisa g at 9:53 PM on October 20, 2003

Any chance of an introduction to your friend?
posted by Hogshead at 3:12 AM on October 21, 2003