If there were any moments of levity came out of the last year, it most surely was mic fails during Zoom calls.
With the rise of teleconferencing for business meetings or interacting with friends and family during a time many of us were forced to be in self-isolation, there was quite a learning curve to get used to.
One of the typical foibles of Zooming is forgetting to mute the mic when it matters most.
Curious to hear embarrassing anecdotes from strangers online, Redditor ElectroIsland asked:
"[Serious] What was your worst 'Oh sh*t I forgot to mute my mic' moment on any zoom meeting?"
We Don't Object
These are things one would never hear in a courtroom.
Oh, Expletive
"Attorney here - when I literally said 'sh*t' while getting off a court call."
"ETA: to be clear, this was audible to the judge and all other virtual hearing participants."
Judged
"I'm a public defender and for the past year I've been doing court over zoom from the jail. It's pretty chaotic because we have my guys, the people who are out of custody at court, people appearing by zoom from home, private attorneys, you name it. Makes for a long day."
"I was in front of a judge who is very slow and deliberate and it became apparent that several of my cases wouldn't be called until after lunch. I turned from the screen and HOLLERED across the module, 'sorry guys, you'll have to come back after lunch. This guy is slower than death!'"
"I was not muted."
"After lunch, I made a sincere and abject apology on the record - 'your Honor, prior to the break I made a comment that was inappropriate and I'd like to apologize to the Court...' The judge was lovely and assured me he hadn't heard a thing. Everyone heard it. Mortifying."
Game On
Gamers don't hold back in the heat of the moment. And we're here for it.
It's Your Move
"Was playing online Chess, since my teacher was idle. The opposite side in the Chess game was taking too long to move so I yelled 'Make a move you f*king bastard.' My mic wasn't muted."
One Bad Shot
"Was playing 8 Ball Pool and was in final round of a tournament during Calc, screamed 'holy f*k I blow' after missing a shot. Got about eight texts from classmates and a nice laugh from the teacher."
Class Dismissed
"While in the call, i was playing league with half my class. I flamed one of them for stealing my well deserved kill all while being unmuted... everyone heard me and laughed, then the teacher simply says 'since some of you seem to be playing popular games anyways, let's end the meeting here' and he laughed."
"Good man, miss him as a teacher."
– EchoRaze
When You Gotta Go
Urine trouble if you don't mute the mic on the way to the bathroom.
The Soothing Sounds Of Trickling
"I went to the washroom with my phone. I turned off the volume in my phone so i wouldnt listen to the class and mistakenly ended up unmuting as well. My entire class heard me peeing. 😥"
When You Gotta Go
"Not so much forgot to mute as I just didn't think they'd hear it....."
"While playing ESO we were all just talking and one dude says, 'I'm sorry, is somebody peeing?'"
Academics
People seem to learn a lot more about their teacher or fellow classmates during remote learning.
Being Cute
"My wife and I have been taking a technical writing course at our university together. One day she was making comments on the Zoom call before class started and one guy started making comments along the line of 'Dannnggg that girl is cute! Man, [first name] [last name] I'll have to remember her. Oh, wait a second, was she married? I can't remember.'"
"Our instructor cut him off by saying 'Hey um, [name] we can hear you. Yes she's very nice. Yes she is married, but don't worry, [my name] is a kind person.' He was horrified when he realized his mic was on."
"To make matters worse, I was having problems getting my Bluetooth headphones to connect. They failed a bunch of times so I couldn't hear a thing but I was ticked at them. My video was on and I was staring at my computer with an angry expression trying to mess with the settings."
– A_Hale
The Entertainer
"I was in the beginning of a zoom exam, and i didnt realize the mic turns of on immediately... So i was for about 5-8 mins singing sea shanties while i prepared all my setup, with about 350 people listening to me."
Belch It
"Teaching a class and I felt a burp coming on. Thought I could swallow it away or take a quick break and mute myself. Nope. Had to joke about it after while being embarrassed."
– djac13
Trigger Word
"For some reason my lecturer said the word 'boobies' and I laughed super loud (I'm 29 years old) only to realise my mic wasn't muted. He then proceeds to call out my name asking if I had a question 🤦♂️"
No matter how hard people try, even the most efficient of us will inevitably slip and invite us into their uncensored thoughts.
But mic fails have long been around even before Zoom.
I won't name the show or the performer, but a fellow actor talked about how badly they wanted to take a p*ss after exiting a scene....on Broadway. Hey, it wasn't his fault he didn't know the sound guy forgot to turn off his mic.
I remember hearing the audience howling after the semi-serious scene. And it was awesome.
@mikejstarks/Bluesky
@kidringo/Bluesky
@westieworld/Bluesky
@mztee8107/YouTube
@KarenPost-n7/YouTube
@h17636/YouTube
@drandrealove/Bluesky
@thebulwark/Bluesky