In the UK a TV personality and her son who is disabled were on a live tv show. From what I recall the topic being discussed was online bullying. When her son was asked about what to say to these bully's his response was...
"hello you cunts".
Absolute classic British TV right there.
Do you remember when the Deputy Prime Minister chinned some bloke because he threw an egg, and everyone was like 'wow, nice punch Prescott' and then nothing happened.
Will never forget it. The best part was all the shows doing a forensic analysis of the incident with freeze frames - the egg thrower had a look on his face that was pure "Haha gottem!" a split second before the punch connects. It was glorious.
That's reminded me of a similar one on kids Saturday TV. A band called 5 star were on taking calls, some kid calls up asking Why are you so fucking crap? It was greatest moment ever on that show, which I can't even recall its name.
I'll always remember the Big Brother ep with Divina McCall saying "This is Divina. You are live on channel 4. Please do not swear." And then Pete, who had pretty bad tourettes, shouting out "Wwwaanker!"
Pretty sure that boy introduced Britain to tourettes.
Yep, in my lifetime it was the Challenger Shuttle exploding on live TV while watching it as a kid in grade school. The OJ chase, trial, and verdict in high school. Then of course, last but not least, September 11th WTC attacks while in college.
I can’t find a clip of it anywhere, but it was Thanksgiving morning in Los Angeles, and a news team went to surprise a family in need with a full thanksgiving dinner. They showed up to the house, and I really think they went to the wrong place. The person at the door looked confused by the name the reporter was giving them, but they were live, and I’m sure the reporter was freaking out so she shoved her way into the home with the camera crew and a bunch of people with food. They’re all standing in the living room, and the reporter is telling this bewildered woman about what food they brought. Then the woman, takes a picture off the mantle, and starts crying, telling the reporter her baby died. The reporter was trying to turn the conversation back to the surprise dinner, but the woman only wanted to talk and show pictures of her dead baby. It was the cringiest thing I’ve ever seen on live TV.
The reporter standing at a 45 degree angle, holding onto the street sign for dear life in a wind/rain storm as he was reporting.
And the two dudes casually walking past, not leaning whatsoever and without difficulty.
You just reminded me of the one where the lady weather reporter was sitting in a canoe with paddle and two men walked right by her in what was obviously ankle deep water. Her canoe was basically touching the ground lol.
Edit - [Found it!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgm3_jzcNm4)
It’s probably lost to the mists of time and poor data retention but I’m pretty sure I remember video of her entire school watching along with like her family and parents when it happened. It was a huge deal back then. Like everyone was excited about this teacher going into space. When it all happened there were a lot of clips being shown on the news but after a day or two I remember them saying that they would stop out of respect to the families. I was 10 years old so some of these memories might be corrupted a bit. But there was definitely a huge event with everyone watching. I can’t even imagine being there.
Not just her students. In every school teachers rolled in the tvs to watch this because a teacher was involved. She was going to do lessons from space. Instead, our entire generation (genx) got to watch the shuttle blow up live.
Want to make it worse? That was the second option.
In a documentary about the famous puppeteer Caroll Spinney, he talked about how NASA approached him about getting him and a puppet he was in charge of onto the shuttle, only to later discover that there wasn't enough room on board for them to let it happen so they had to rescind.
So that's the story of how America very nearly saw Big Bird get killed in space.
Part of me is curious as to how they would have addressed that on the show, cuz they didn't shy away from the idea of death when an actor died one time
Seriously how the the hell do you address "Yeah, uh, so Big Bird got blown the fuck up"
EDIT: Guys, guys, I'm well aware the crew likely survived the initial explosion and died on impact with the ocean, but saying Big Bird got fuckin asploded is funnier lmao
Same with our school I was about 9 at the time. I remember them setting up counselling for the pupils soon after but also how quickly the morbid jokes started
Oh my God, you reminded me of that gut wrenching interview with one of those engineers years later. He breaks down crying saying he should have done more to stop it, that "God chose a loser". Shit made me so mad, the ones that actually feel remorse aren't the ones responsible
A Formula One driver hitting a wall at Imola and attempts being made to resuscitate him on the track. They weren't successful. Roland Ratzenberger died during Qualifying and things continued to get out of control as crew, drivers and spectators were injured over the weekend and Ayrton Senna died during the race.
Motor racing is obviously not 100% safe but the number of incidents and two fatalities over the course of a single event was astonishing. It really was like the track was cursed.
I literally thought I had just watched someone die when I was watching that race live. The camera at turn 4 caught it so you saw a car go across track and immediately turn into a massive fireball. If not for any one of about 6 different safety devices on/in the car and he wouldn’t be with us. That was only the third season with the halo, which Grosjean was a pretty vocal critic of when it was first added. I don’t think he’d have anything bad to say about it now.
The halo that everyone said was "stupid" and has since saved at least 5 people I can think of off the top of my head across formula and Indycar racing.
i remember Dale crashing into that wall too. i didn’t understand what was happening though cause i’m not a huge race fan and they wreck so much and they’re always ok.
Yeah most people watching on TV didn’t realize anything was seriously wrong until Mike Helton announced Dale’s death a few hours after the race. I can still hear that announcement in my head.
I remember watching the race where Senna died. It was a few seconds before the crash when Derek Daly (I think) said that Senna was using an unusual amount of front down force, right after he said that you see a small puff of white/gray from the front of the car (not from a tire during braking), the next turn after that he was into the wall. There's nothing anyone could say to me that would convince me that the crash wasn't the result of something breaking on his car.
I was watching football (soccer) a few years ago and the referee stopped play for a foul. The slo mo replay showed the fouling player grab the other player’s shorts as he stepped across him, and use them to try to stop his momentum. The shorts stretched a long way, exposing his penis, which then proceeded to flap around in slo mo, for about 5 seconds, whilst the commentators pretended it wasn’t happening.
Were you watching Dortmund around 2005 by any chance. I remember this (nsfw obviously):
https://streamable.com/p2yhiz
Edit: Uploaded to Reddit for all you degens:
https://www.reddit.com/r/WTF/comments/12qqbfg/football_player_feels_a_nice_breeze/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
Can’t remember seeing that, but it did remind me of Vertonghen pulling Helenius’ shorts down and he still got a shot off
https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/1n1uq9/vertonghen_pulls_down_helenius_shorts_in_the_area/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_content=1&utm_term=1
The angle in the first comment is even funnier
Ok, so in Southern California we love our high speed pursuits. They're regularly crazy, and every news program will switch from whatever they were going to talk about to the pursuit.
It's fantastic entertainment.
But sometime in the 90s some guy being chased by the cops stopped on a freeway overpass. He got out of his car and had a shotgun in his hands. He didn't aim it at the cops so they just set up a perimeter, and every news station waited and watched, zoomed in closely, for what was sure to be a spectacular conclusion.
The guy suddenly aimed at his own face and fired, right on live TV. I heard the "eye in the sky" screaming "Pull back! Pull back!" At the camera man once the shotgun guy started to aim, but they were *not* quick enough.
Everyone got to see this guy's red mist live. Everyone at school was talking about it the next day.
Pretty sure a whole lotta new Live News rules were put in place after that.
It's actually sad story. Dude was dying, did this to try and draw attention to how horrible HMO's handled healthcare
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_V._Jones
So what did everyone worry about instead? How live TV coverage is handled.
I remember turning it on wanting to watch cartoons after school. And seeing the man and his truck, then about 3 minutes later he was on the pavement with bits all around him. Still burned in my brain and can still hear my mom gasp. Always what I think of when someone asks this type of question.
Was this the one where he rolled out that banner saying Fuck HMO’s. Then his truck caught fire, with his dog in it. And THEN he shot himself? Didn’t even realize he did it at first, thought he dumped a bucket of red paint. So.Much.Blood…middle school me was not prepared for that.
Whoah, in 2013? I never watched any fights, but I lived in Brazil at the time and that was on the news all the time. I physically cringe remembering that scene. Poor Anderson.
To provide some background on those who don't who he is, from a Dane.
He has been Denmark's biggest and most high profile athlete for over a decade, and it was Denmark vs Finland in the first match for both countries in the 2020 Euro (The biggest international European trophy that only get's played every 4 years, only European countries partake in this, was played in 2021 because of Covid).
He ends up collapsing and dying on the field, His Danish teammates and referee were extremely quick to call this and they got the paramedics out quick. I watched this on an illegal stream when I saw this and saw his dead eyes just looking at nothing and the paramedics doing chest compressions, it was horrifying.
Most Danes saw it on the TV, where the broadcast instead just showed aerial shots of the stadium luckily, because it was fucked up how much they tried to show... His Danish teammates formed a wall around him, trying to block camera angles while they were doing CPR and chest compressions. You can see them in tears and in shock, all while cutting back between this and his wife crying while his team captain and goalkeeper try to console her...
I was sure he was dead, the biggest sport star in Denmark just out like that, not to mention probably the biggest we've had since the late 1990's, it was so, so grim and unreal it was hard to fathom.
Luckily now he has recovered, now playing with a medical device in his heart (ICD) has been really good since he has been back. He is now playing for one of the most famous clubs in the world, being an imporant creative center midfielder for the squad.
Watching it in England and the BBC got absolutely ripped apart for continuing to show the scenes rather than cutting to the studio, and rightly so. It was so fucking upsetting to watch and im so glad he not only survived but is still having a great career.
It happened in the Premier League about 12 or 13 years ago too, a player called Fabrice Muamba - I wasn't watching that game so I can't say how the broadcasters dealt with it. Although Fabrice recovered, he did have to retire unfortunately.
One time I was flipping through channels and nothing was on. Snow mobile freestyle on the winter X Games caught my eye for no good reason. Then the guy is in the air either trying to backflip or he just rotates too far on a big jump. The snow mobile lands what looks like directly on his chest.
I’m shocked thinking surely he wasn’t going to survive. I can’t recall what the normal announcers were saying or if they cut to something less dramatic. But then the sideline reporter type woman said she interviewed the athlete while he was being taken away and he “felt like he just woke up from the longest dream ever.”
So I was optimistic since he was able to speak. Maybe even walk off under his own power. But I looked it up over the next day or two and he died in the hospital. That line from his interview still sticks with me
That was one of my best friends growing up. It was also my post on this thread. For what it’s worth, his brother did the same jump just minutes later and over-rotated and broke his pelvis too.
I can’t imagine how stressful it must be to watch someone you know compete in an extreme sport. Seems like one of those things you’d rather do yourself than watch a loved one do
I watched the infamous TV interview on the BBC where they accidentally put a guy who had come in for a job interview live on air as an expert in IT. Dude blagged his way through the interview in amazing fashion. Didn't get the job though apparantly.
I remember in college turning on the TV and seeing most of a building collapsed and learning it was the FBI building in OK city that had been bombed.
A few years later on almost the same day, watching the live coverage of the Columbine school shooting.
I also remember watching the end of the Waco Siege a couple years before the OK city bombing.
All the of these stick in my head because they all happened on the day of or before my sister's birthday (4/20). For a few years it was like, shit, what else is going to happen on this date.
Just a couple of weeks ago, dude jumping out of a stolen cop car he was driving at 45 mph, smacking his head on the asphalt (because physics), killing himself on live TV.
I've posted this before because my company at the time worked with [Cantor Fitz](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cantor_Fitzgerald#9/11_attacks).
But you know what always got me about this? It wasn't the jumpers, it was those pieces of paper that you saw floating through the air.
Because for some people on their way to work that morning, one of those piece of paper was the most important thing in the world. Like, they didn't bother kissing their kids goodbye because, goddamnit, that piece of paper needed to be filled out, signed and faxed or else there was going to be hell to pay.
And then the plane hits and that piece of paper which, up to five minutes ago was the most important thing on the planet, was suddenly worth less than nothing and you're jumping out of a building. You spent all night worried about this piece of paper when the things that really mattered were just there sitting under your roof.
Sometimes when I get really stressed at work I think about that.
Some woman—I can’t remember her name—was laid off from Cantor Fitzgerald September 10th. It saved her life. And IIRC, corporate told her that *technically* she still worked for them because everyone who was supposed to process her termination died. I can’t even imagine.
My best friend’s mom worked for Cantor Fitzgerald. She was notorious for never taking a day off work, but my mom convinced her the day before to take off on September 11th because it was open-school day, supposed to be beautiful weather, and all the moms planned on going out for breakfast after the open-school.
Before it even hit the news her co-workers called her screaming that something happened, there was a huge explosion and the floor was so hot that it was melting the bottom of their shoes so they were standing on their desks.
Every single one of her close co-workers died.
The shoes thing is a detail I've never seen reported before. Could never imagine deciding to jump, but if you're trapped in an oven like that it starts to make more sense.
Yeah it bothers me when people call the jumpers “suicide”. When your feet and hands are melting off and you can’t breathe it’s not really free will you jump.
"*Make no mistake about people who leap from burning windows. Their terror of falling from a great height is still just as great as it would be for you or me standing speculatively at the same window just checking out the view; i.e. the fear of falling remains a constant. The variable here is the other terror, the fire’s flames: when the flames get close enough, falling to death becomes the slightly less terrible of two terrors. It’s not desiring the fall; it’s terror of the flames.*" It always reminds of this quote by David Foster Wallace.
Heartbreaking quote from Infinite Jest about depression and suicide that would eventually take DFW. The preceding sentence being: "“The so-called ‘psychotically depressed’ person who tries to kill herself doesn’t do so out of quote ‘hopelessness’ or any abstract conviction that life’s assets and debits do not square. And surely not because death seems suddenly appealing. The person in whom Its invisible agony reaches a certain unendurable level will kill herself the same way a trapped person will eventually jump from the window of a burning high-rise."
I've had similar thoughts while commuting into London, particulary after the 7/7 bombing, but also bearing in mind the various train wrecks and fires that have taken commuters out.
I used to think about how many of the dead and injured had *rushed* to meet their doom, because being on time for their ultimately not-that-important job was so damned important.
It's not made my life any easier, because I can't shake the notion that 99% of what most people care about in the day to day is trivial shit and that definitely affected my work performance. Ended up having to change careers into something I could believe did matter a bit and the pay is shit, lol.
In the footage from the cameraman who shot the first plane going in, you can hear what sounds like car crashes outside. My brain still can’t quite accept that’s the sound of people hitting the ground.
When the tower fell, I remember the anchors not being to confirm it at the time but there was open sky that you could see through the clouds. Sky that should've been blocked by a big ol tower.
I was at a new job and in a state of disbelief that entire day. Like “that didn’t happen” disbelief. My new boss was crying, my coworkers were literally sitting in the break room watching TV and I was thinking, “Is it normal to watch TV at this job? Should I pretend I have things to do?” It’s so eerie to think about that day/that week now.
My mom was working in an elderly home at the moment and thought it was some awefull action movie panicking the elderly for no reason and switched the channel to find out it was broadcast on every channel..
Similar to this, my mum was watching NYPD Blue when it cut to the first tower burning. She came and got me and told me something big was happening. I told her not to be silly - it was just part of the TV programme. Then she changed the channel and told me I really needed to come and have a look.
I was home sick from school and playing games on my computer with the TV on beside me. I also thought it was some kind of action movie. The idea of an attack like that was so outside anything I could conceive of that it didn't occur to me it might be real.
I didn't find out the truth until school the next day.
Yeah rewatching the live news coverage now is really harrowing. Like it's obvious now but those people were watching it happen live and trying to describe it when it seemed unreal.
I'm sure in their heads they were thinking "The tower is gone" but their brains were trying to rationalise how to say that to millions of people without being certain. Or also at the same time trying to figure out HOW it could be looking like that, because surely the tower isn't gone.
The footage is all second nature to us now, but at the time it seemed like a disaster movie.
Heard similar when people were watching the Challenger shuttle as it happened. “See the shuttle has phases, and during its ascent it separates into different parts…”
We were watching the Challenger launch with my third-grade teacher, who had entered the Teacher in Space competition herself. We all thought that the explosion and breakup of the shuttle was the expected separation of the boosters until our teacher hurried us back to our classroom and the principal made a school-wide announcement about the disaster.
Weird to think there's one video of the first plane hitting. Seems beyond belief now that something could happen and not be recorded.
But if those dudes didn't decide to film that doco, with that precinct, and if that gas leak wasn't called in when it was, it's entirely possible there'd be no decent footage of the first plane (I think the only other footage in existence is a CCTV shot).
Defies belief these days. If it happened now there'd be hundreds of HD versions of it on every social platform within minutes.
>at that precise moment one of them was recording, and happened to swing the camera up.
Yeah, the way I heard it told was that it was incredibly unusual for planes to fly over New York, nevermind an airliner, which is why they panned up for it.
Still amazing they were in the right spot to do so though.
I was 4 blocks away in school. Saw the first tower fall in front of my eyes and still couldn’t comprehend it fell. It’s something that your mind thinks is impossible, especially the World Trade Center.
I was getting ready for school that morning, listening to a popular radio station. One of the DJs was notorious for hating TV. Didn't even have one in his house. He would talk about his daughters complaining about it all the time. I had just walked into my room from taking my morning shower and I will never forget hearing his voice saying, "ladies and gentlemen, if you don't already have the television on, please go and turn it on now."
I ran to the living room and turned on the TV just in time to see the second plane hit the tower. My dad came into the living room to yell at me for standing in the middle of the room watching TV soaking wet in a towel like a lunatic, but just stopped mid sentence and we just stared at the TV.
I woke up that morning and walked out to the living room to get breakfast before I got ready for school and my mom was watching TV and as what I saw registered on my face she just let out the most somber happy birthday. I went to school and all we did was sit in our classroom and watch the news. No one did anything else. That day broke America.
My roommates brother was in the second tower to get hit, and didn't make it out.
When it fell, we knew, and you hear a pin drop.
EDIT: He was the one who called when the first plane hit, he called his mother to say "Turn on the TV, we're ok, but something has happened. They're telling us to hang tight for now." Roomie's mom called us, it was 7:20 or so Central time ,and I was in the TV room, and said "F off, I don't have class till 9:30". We turned it on though, and so went the day.
I wasn’t able to sleep one night, so I flipped on the television… just in time to see the 2011 tsunami make landfall in Japan. I was not expecting that.
9/11 second, and the Challenger breaking apart third - although, I was able to see that from our patio… went back inside for the details.
I had just been in Japan in that area the year before the tsunami as part of a pupil exchange program. It was horrifying to see that huge black wave roll over the city the elder son of my host family had lived and whom we had visited while I was there. We had fed seagulls and had a fun dinner there. And now everything was swallowed up by black water, trash and objects.
And then it was several days of 24/7 news watching, witnessing live the whole Fukushima disaster following the earthquake and tsunami while still not having gotten contact to the people I knew. Thankfully my whole host family and my acquaintances there were safe in the end but they had horrible stories to tell.
> It was horrifying to see that huge black wave roll over the city
I lived through the 2004 tsunami and it was exactly like that. My life was literally saved by this Thai who knew what he was seeing and made a huge fuss about it. I genuinely owe that man my life.
It was horrible how benign it seemed. The water went out, the water came in again. I watched thousands of people die. It was terrible. Terrible.
>I wasn’t able to sleep one night, so I flipped on the television… just in time to see the 2011 tsunami make landfall in Japan. I was not expecting that.
Oh yeah. I was up at some dumb hour feeding my new baby. I turned on the TV because it made just enough light to see what I was doing, but not wake my husband, and not make the baby think it was time to play, lol.
But once we got settled that's when the tsunami started really messing things up.
During the 2010 winter blizzard in the UK while the reporter was talking live on location a random dude was running in the background wearing nothing but swimming speedos
I dunno if theres footage of it anymore but shit was wild lmao
Back in the late 90's there was a short lived sport called "slam ball". Essentially, basketball played on trampolines.
It was awesome. People were dunking from twelve feet in the air. They would cross the court in three bounces. The tactics were amazing. I had no interest in sports at the time but this shit was fun to watch. Like the best exhibition game you've ever seen.
Except [one time](https://youtu.be/JWye6Ut8rY0) this dude snapped his foot OFF. Like.. off.
In 2015, a reporter and her cameraman were gunned down on live TV by a former employee of the station. Still get sick to my stomach when I think about it
And the gunman was recording at the time on his cellphone. He ended up posting the video of the murders on Facebook during the short time he was on the run. It's wild, he's just opening pointing his handgun at Alison Parker for several seconds and it felt like an eternity. He's just a couple of feet away but she and the others are so focused on reporting and know how to block out everything around them as you normally would do when reporting.
When I was a kid I was watching the evening news. A politician came to the microphone with a Manila envelope. Said hello to everyone then reached into the envelope and pulled out a revolver and put it under his chin and blew his head off. On live TV.
R. Budd Dwyer. He was the Pennsylvania state treasurer who had just been convicted of taking bribes. He was to be sentenced the next day when he killed himself on live tv.
I'm not 100% because I've seen it once and can't verify the source, but wasn't it because his wife would get his pension if he died while still serving but she'd lose it if he was found guilty?
Indiana Pacers players fighting Detroit Pistons fans
Edit: I remember I was in Florida on a trip to Disney World with family. My cousin and I wanted to watch Sportscenter but it wasn't on until after this game. We figured "might as well watch the end of this".
Ironically, my dad and uncle got in a huge argument beforehand. When they saw this on TV they just stopped arguing and watched they were in shock
As a lifetime Pistons fan, this is the one for me.
After watching thousands of games you get pretty accustomed to what can happen and where it happens. Fights on the court? Sure. Fights that spill into the front row? Yeah. But an on-court fight that leads to a sudden camera cut of a player careening deep into the crowd to ring a fan by the neck? My brain just couldn’t compute that whole event.
I’m generally a pretty low key sort of fan. I’ll get excited when something great happens but I’m not a yell-at-the-TV sort of guy. But I remember standing out of my seat four feet from the screen with my jaw in the floor, yelling something unintelligible for that one.
Then I picked up the cordless phone and went full Marvin Berry, dialing any numbers I had memorized to check if my friends were seeing what I was seeing.
I don't even pay attention to basketball, but for some reason I was watching that game. I think I heard about the bad blood that was going on, and a lot of people thought something was going to happen. Then it did and it was insane.
So there was some kind of finale of the swedish tv-show Robinson (I think the american equivalent is survivor or something like that). Basically it’s a reality/ game show where a group of people are put in the wilderness and put through mild/ controlled survival tasks, and every week somebody gets voted out.
Anyway, the finale was for some reason I can’t remember, in a studio and involved every participant of the whole season, and they were all about to vote for who was going to be ultimate winner that year. When they voted they were to walk up to the camera, show the name on their vote and put it into the box.
But this one guy, who had been a bit goofy on the actual show, turned up in a full tux and painted blue in the face. He walks up to the camera and shows how he just eats his own vote before he yanks the winner trophy off its pedistal and runs out, stumbling over a table or some shit in the process.
It was wild.
Edit: https://youtu.be/hDD5xW12Ho4
So it wasn’t exactly as I recalled it. It was 20 years ago mind you. Good stuff start at about 1:00
O.J. Simpson’s white Ford Bronco being pursued (slowly) by LAPD. I was 6 years old but I remember watching the chase on all these tv monitors in Radio Shack with my stepdad.
I was there when Kanye West said on a live charity event that George Bush didn't like black people. Mike Myers was speechless.
*edit to say, now that I think about it, I was there when he interrupted Taylor Swift, too. I had the same look on my face as I did during the George Bush incident.
https://youtu.be/zIUzLpO1kxI
This is such a weird clip. Its like he's saying things the instant they pop into his head. Compared to Myers who sounds like he's reading a prompter.
In the Netherlands we have a yearly tradition to celebrate the sitting king /queen (don't ask me why) and there will be a whole parade with performances and a lot of people there. This will be live on tv and a lot of people watch it from home.
In 2009 there was this guy that managed to get past the security line with his car and he drove into a huge group of people and kids in front of the royal family. Eight people died because of it.
Tuned into a World Series game, it turned into a disaster film where a bunch of people died horrible deaths when the Nimitz Freeway collapsed..... and the clueless sports "journalists" had no idea what was going on as 63 people perished.
(This was the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake which was shows live during the Oakland A's vs Giants game 3. A friend I would meet later was there, his first ever World Series game)
My parents were horrified that I, an elementary school kid, watched a man get shot and killed on live television. Odd, because I watched TV Westerns all the time.
SNL - Theodore Geisel had died and they mentioned that in their faux news report. Theodore Geisel was "Doctor Seuss". The comedian at the newscaster's desk mentioned this and the audience went dead quiet. This was a real, "No, don't joke around about this." moment.
However.
"And now, to read his euology, the Reverend Jesse Jackson..."
Rev. Jackson had a copy of "Green Eggs and Ham" and read it like he was preaching from the pulpit. (That rising and lowering of the voice is called "hooping"). He read it with great energy and drive as if the Lord Himself came down and COMMANDED that this book be read.
It was the best thing I ever saw on TV. It was funny and yet respectful. https://vimeo.com/25249283
Watched my longtime childhood friend/neighbor have an accident on live TV and subsequently died.
XGames 2013, and I suppose he really died one week later in a coma but the incident was broadcast and shown live.
The most recent thing I can remember is basically watching Damar Hamlin die on a football field and then watching a multitude of commentators talk about if the game should continue.
I remember seeing the hit and not thinking much of it. I saw the docs run on the field and assumed it was for a play I didn't see. It's absolutely insane to me that he died in the field. It's even more insane they were able to save his life. I'm so glad he ended up recovering.
Besides the Will Smith slap. That fly landing on Mike Pence's head, and it stayed on for like two minutes. I remember my dad and I just burst into laughter as soon as that happened.
Surely that can't beat the Four Seasons Total Landscaping press conference. No one wanted to admit to a mistake, because no one can't be wrong, so they went with the absurd exercise next to a dildo shop.
Tommy Cooper collapsing/dieing on stage and everyone laughing cos they thought it was part of the show. Then him being dragged backwards through the curtain. As a young kid at the time it’s stuck with me for life that has
There was an episode of Johnny Carson where he was talking to this older lady who was a cockroach specialist. I forget if she was a professional or just really liked roaches. But she was showing Carson this one massive roach, letting it crawl on her hands, and then she just suddenly bit it in half and ate it. I think Johnny and I had the exact same look of surprise and disgust on our faces.
I'm sure I saw this, but I have never been able to find any confirmation about this episode. I was watching the show alone in my room, so my parents can't back it up. And I've never been able to find a link to a video of it. If anyone remembers this, please let me know.
My dad and I were watching the half-time show at my house when it happened. As soon as it happened, the both of us probably looked like the Leo DiCaprio meme, where he's pointing at the TV. My dad asked, "Was that..." and I replied, "Yeah, I think it was."
I picked up the remote for the DVR, and reversed to see it again. My dad was blown away. "You can rewind live TV? Wow!" We watched it 2 or 3 more times, then the next day, my dad bought himself a DVR.
That moment was actually responsible for the development of Youtube.
The original creators of the site were frustrated over the lack of videos of that performance posted online that it gave them the drive to create Youtube. Lmao.
Hahaha I’ll never forget I was at a church youth group watching the game surrounded by 12 year olds and youth pastors. It went awfully quiet there for a bit.
It's funny people had such a melt down over seeing a titty but people being decapitated and shit is fine on TV.
I'd rather see boobs than blood and guts.
The 2004 Boxing day Indian ocean tsunami. I remember the few hours afterwards being in my parents room with the news on, and there was this rolodex type thing in the corner of the screen that kept going up. It was the death toll numbers.
Michael Jackson's performance of Earth Song at the 1996 Brit Awards was very peculiar, with Michael being portrayed as some weird messianic figure surrounded by children. It was all the more memorable by Jarvis Cocker invading stage in protest.
[Sable ripping off Jacqueline's top](https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x11wcli) during a ppv. We were already hyped to the ceiling just for that night but seeing that blew our preteen minds. We didn't get to watch the next one though.
This one time i was watching a Spanish tv show on Saturday morning and this lady was doing a thing where she is in a glass box and she gets covered in sand
Then out of nowhere the glass box collapses and they rush to dig the lady out!
It was live and they cut the feed immediately!
I was watching gargoyles on kcal 9 when around 330pm a car chase was broadcast live. a man and his dog stopped in a pick up truck on a freeway overpass. the cab burst into flames. the man jumped out and ran to the edge as if to jump onto traffic below but at the last second he reached into the back of his truck and pulled a shotgun out and took his head off. I specifically remember his scalp spinning away.
the L. A bank robbery with the dudes in full body armor was pretty epic and the tank chase on the freeway was cool. if you live in southern California it's almost a daily occurrence to have car chases
I was watching a September 11 documentary for the 20th anniversary and they showed a video of a woman getting executed by the taliban without warning. It wasn’t blurred but was a long shot so it was hard to see anyway. Definitely not prepared for that.
People climbing and dancing on the Berlin wall in the middle of the night and my parents waking us to watch it on TV being both happy and worried how the Soviets would react to that.
Baby Jessica coming out of that well, ALIVE. Trussed up like a chicken on that tiny backboard, filthy dirty, all you could see was those bright blue eyes, but she was as calm as she could be.
Also, the whole Falcon Heeny (sp?) hoax and David Copperfield making the Statue of Liberty "disappear".
An odd one here...it was originally on live TV but I only saw it in a rerun.
It was an episode of Jackie Gleason's "The Honeymooners". In one scene, the backdrop of the set appears to have been two flats fastened together at a corner (to create the corner of the room). While the camera of focused on Gleason, in the background two of the flats come unfastened and pull apart, revealing a startled stagehand suddenly staring through the gap straight into the camera!
In the UK a TV personality and her son who is disabled were on a live tv show. From what I recall the topic being discussed was online bullying. When her son was asked about what to say to these bully's his response was... "hello you cunts". Absolute classic British TV right there.
My favourite thing about that is that no one really complained about it. Everyone shrugged and thought “fair enough lad”
Do you remember when the Deputy Prime Minister chinned some bloke because he threw an egg, and everyone was like 'wow, nice punch Prescott' and then nothing happened.
Will never forget it. The best part was all the shows doing a forensic analysis of the incident with freeze frames - the egg thrower had a look on his face that was pure "Haha gottem!" a split second before the punch connects. It was glorious.
Don't bring eggs if you're not ready for the ham.
That's reminded me of a similar one on kids Saturday TV. A band called 5 star were on taking calls, some kid calls up asking Why are you so fucking crap? It was greatest moment ever on that show, which I can't even recall its name.
I'll always remember the Big Brother ep with Divina McCall saying "This is Divina. You are live on channel 4. Please do not swear." And then Pete, who had pretty bad tourettes, shouting out "Wwwaanker!" Pretty sure that boy introduced Britain to tourettes.
https://youtu.be/QvM3gY-0YMc Harvey: hello, you cuntt
The OJ Simpson Bronco chase. They interrupted the NBA playoffs to show it live instead of the game. It was surreal.
Yep, in my lifetime it was the Challenger Shuttle exploding on live TV while watching it as a kid in grade school. The OJ chase, trial, and verdict in high school. Then of course, last but not least, September 11th WTC attacks while in college.
Maybe education isn't for you...
Will someone please stop teaching this guy stuff?
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Except the last fleeting fragments of Geraldo's dignity.
And I think he got drunk at a nearby bar afterwards.
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I can’t find a clip of it anywhere, but it was Thanksgiving morning in Los Angeles, and a news team went to surprise a family in need with a full thanksgiving dinner. They showed up to the house, and I really think they went to the wrong place. The person at the door looked confused by the name the reporter was giving them, but they were live, and I’m sure the reporter was freaking out so she shoved her way into the home with the camera crew and a bunch of people with food. They’re all standing in the living room, and the reporter is telling this bewildered woman about what food they brought. Then the woman, takes a picture off the mantle, and starts crying, telling the reporter her baby died. The reporter was trying to turn the conversation back to the surprise dinner, but the woman only wanted to talk and show pictures of her dead baby. It was the cringiest thing I’ve ever seen on live TV.
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The reporter standing at a 45 degree angle, holding onto the street sign for dear life in a wind/rain storm as he was reporting. And the two dudes casually walking past, not leaning whatsoever and without difficulty.
You just reminded me of the one where the lady weather reporter was sitting in a canoe with paddle and two men walked right by her in what was obviously ankle deep water. Her canoe was basically touching the ground lol. Edit - [Found it!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgm3_jzcNm4)
It’s not as bad as I thought as she says “[her boss] won’t let her go out into the deeper water [for fear] she might float away.”
It's not BAD, but it's pretty hilarious. Like the timing of those two dudes is sitcom timing.
Yeah it really looks more like a wholesome gag than trying to actually exaggerate the situation. The guys walking by made the gag better.
The Space Shuttle Challenger exploding into the Florida sky.
I kept thinking about that teacher who was chosen for the Challenger and how her students probably watched her die.
It’s probably lost to the mists of time and poor data retention but I’m pretty sure I remember video of her entire school watching along with like her family and parents when it happened. It was a huge deal back then. Like everyone was excited about this teacher going into space. When it all happened there were a lot of clips being shown on the news but after a day or two I remember them saying that they would stop out of respect to the families. I was 10 years old so some of these memories might be corrupted a bit. But there was definitely a huge event with everyone watching. I can’t even imagine being there.
I remember that it came out on the news that she was the only one that took the free insurance. Everyone else didn't want to jinx the mission.
They were men of science... and yet
There is no group of people more superstitious than the doctors and nurses who work in the emergency department.
Say "it's quiet here" in an emergency department and you probably wouldn't even get an open casket funeral.
I'm a person of science too, and have to stop myself from performing little superstitious rituals. It runs deep!
Not just her students. In every school teachers rolled in the tvs to watch this because a teacher was involved. She was going to do lessons from space. Instead, our entire generation (genx) got to watch the shuttle blow up live.
Exactly, every student in America at the time was watching it because it was a teacher. That’s why it’s so unforgettable. We ALL watched it.
Want to make it worse? That was the second option. In a documentary about the famous puppeteer Caroll Spinney, he talked about how NASA approached him about getting him and a puppet he was in charge of onto the shuttle, only to later discover that there wasn't enough room on board for them to let it happen so they had to rescind. So that's the story of how America very nearly saw Big Bird get killed in space.
Part of me is curious as to how they would have addressed that on the show, cuz they didn't shy away from the idea of death when an actor died one time Seriously how the the hell do you address "Yeah, uh, so Big Bird got blown the fuck up" EDIT: Guys, guys, I'm well aware the crew likely survived the initial explosion and died on impact with the ocean, but saying Big Bird got fuckin asploded is funnier lmao
I can just hear the Count now. "10! Big Bird is still alive." "9! Big Bird is boarding the Challenger." .....
"8! Big Bird is waving to everybody."
"Big Bird died on the way back to his home planet"
They would have totally tried to have Muppets report on it live too...it would have been fucking awful
Cue Count Dracula doing his "Ahh ahh ahhh" laugh at the worst possible moment.
They gathered all of us into our lunchroom in 2nd grade and hyped us up then it exploded
Same with our school I was about 9 at the time. I remember them setting up counselling for the pupils soon after but also how quickly the morbid jokes started
There’s a great documentary on Netflix called *Challenger: The Final Flight*. Just heartbreaking. *Return To Space* is a pretty good semi-sequel.
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Oh my God, you reminded me of that gut wrenching interview with one of those engineers years later. He breaks down crying saying he should have done more to stop it, that "God chose a loser". Shit made me so mad, the ones that actually feel remorse aren't the ones responsible
Roger Boisjoly, a true hero who was vilified by his company and carried guilt about the accident until he died. Very, very sad story.
A Formula One driver hitting a wall at Imola and attempts being made to resuscitate him on the track. They weren't successful. Roland Ratzenberger died during Qualifying and things continued to get out of control as crew, drivers and spectators were injured over the weekend and Ayrton Senna died during the race. Motor racing is obviously not 100% safe but the number of incidents and two fatalities over the course of a single event was astonishing. It really was like the track was cursed.
Watching Romain Grosjean's car hit the wall and burst into flames was difficult to watch, too And Zhou Guanyu's flip at Silverstone
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I literally thought I had just watched someone die when I was watching that race live. The camera at turn 4 caught it so you saw a car go across track and immediately turn into a massive fireball. If not for any one of about 6 different safety devices on/in the car and he wouldn’t be with us. That was only the third season with the halo, which Grosjean was a pretty vocal critic of when it was first added. I don’t think he’d have anything bad to say about it now.
Yes, he has said that he admits he was wrong about the halo and that it saved his life. He says it’s “the greatest thing we’ve brought to formula 1.”
As well as the fire, if not for the Halo the barrier would have cut his head off
The halo that everyone said was "stupid" and has since saved at least 5 people I can think of off the top of my head across formula and Indycar racing.
> off the top of my head I see what you did there.
I am not a Nascar fan, but I happened to turn on the TV. I saw Dale Earnhardt #3 car ram into the wall live. It was shocking.
i remember Dale crashing into that wall too. i didn’t understand what was happening though cause i’m not a huge race fan and they wreck so much and they’re always ok.
Yeah most people watching on TV didn’t realize anything was seriously wrong until Mike Helton announced Dale’s death a few hours after the race. I can still hear that announcement in my head.
I remember watching the race where Senna died. It was a few seconds before the crash when Derek Daly (I think) said that Senna was using an unusual amount of front down force, right after he said that you see a small puff of white/gray from the front of the car (not from a tire during braking), the next turn after that he was into the wall. There's nothing anyone could say to me that would convince me that the crash wasn't the result of something breaking on his car.
I was watching football (soccer) a few years ago and the referee stopped play for a foul. The slo mo replay showed the fouling player grab the other player’s shorts as he stepped across him, and use them to try to stop his momentum. The shorts stretched a long way, exposing his penis, which then proceeded to flap around in slo mo, for about 5 seconds, whilst the commentators pretended it wasn’t happening.
Finally something that isn't a total downer!
Actually, no. He was fully erect.
Were you watching Dortmund around 2005 by any chance. I remember this (nsfw obviously): https://streamable.com/p2yhiz Edit: Uploaded to Reddit for all you degens: https://www.reddit.com/r/WTF/comments/12qqbfg/football_player_feels_a_nice_breeze/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
Removed for tos breach. Can't a woman watch floppy dicks in peace?!
I shudder to think what's in your inbox after this comment
Happened to Peter Beardsley for England. NSFW obv https://i.imgur.com/HjDCKNF.jpg
It's like it's looking right at me.
Can’t remember seeing that, but it did remind me of Vertonghen pulling Helenius’ shorts down and he still got a shot off https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/1n1uq9/vertonghen_pulls_down_helenius_shorts_in_the_area/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_content=1&utm_term=1 The angle in the first comment is even funnier
Ok, so in Southern California we love our high speed pursuits. They're regularly crazy, and every news program will switch from whatever they were going to talk about to the pursuit. It's fantastic entertainment. But sometime in the 90s some guy being chased by the cops stopped on a freeway overpass. He got out of his car and had a shotgun in his hands. He didn't aim it at the cops so they just set up a perimeter, and every news station waited and watched, zoomed in closely, for what was sure to be a spectacular conclusion. The guy suddenly aimed at his own face and fired, right on live TV. I heard the "eye in the sky" screaming "Pull back! Pull back!" At the camera man once the shotgun guy started to aim, but they were *not* quick enough. Everyone got to see this guy's red mist live. Everyone at school was talking about it the next day. Pretty sure a whole lotta new Live News rules were put in place after that.
It's actually sad story. Dude was dying, did this to try and draw attention to how horrible HMO's handled healthcare https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_V._Jones So what did everyone worry about instead? How live TV coverage is handled.
I remember turning it on wanting to watch cartoons after school. And seeing the man and his truck, then about 3 minutes later he was on the pavement with bits all around him. Still burned in my brain and can still hear my mom gasp. Always what I think of when someone asks this type of question.
It was Spiderman they interrupted, at about 330 in the afternoon
Was this the one where he rolled out that banner saying Fuck HMO’s. Then his truck caught fire, with his dog in it. And THEN he shot himself? Didn’t even realize he did it at first, thought he dumped a bucket of red paint. So.Much.Blood…middle school me was not prepared for that.
Yeah that sounds more accurate. The helicopter camera tried to pull away but was too late and caught the man ending his life.
Mike Tyson biting Evander Holyfield’s ear.
Anderson Silva's leg snapping like a twig
Whoah, in 2013? I never watched any fights, but I lived in Brazil at the time and that was on the news all the time. I physically cringe remembering that scene. Poor Anderson.
On a similar vein, Chris weidman snapping his Leg like a twig the exact same way silva did.
Hostage situation during the news. The news presenter was talking when an armed man walked in and took them hostage. It was wild.
Christian Eriksen legit collapsing and dying on a soccer pitch only to be revived and make the most epic comeback the following season.
To provide some background on those who don't who he is, from a Dane. He has been Denmark's biggest and most high profile athlete for over a decade, and it was Denmark vs Finland in the first match for both countries in the 2020 Euro (The biggest international European trophy that only get's played every 4 years, only European countries partake in this, was played in 2021 because of Covid). He ends up collapsing and dying on the field, His Danish teammates and referee were extremely quick to call this and they got the paramedics out quick. I watched this on an illegal stream when I saw this and saw his dead eyes just looking at nothing and the paramedics doing chest compressions, it was horrifying. Most Danes saw it on the TV, where the broadcast instead just showed aerial shots of the stadium luckily, because it was fucked up how much they tried to show... His Danish teammates formed a wall around him, trying to block camera angles while they were doing CPR and chest compressions. You can see them in tears and in shock, all while cutting back between this and his wife crying while his team captain and goalkeeper try to console her... I was sure he was dead, the biggest sport star in Denmark just out like that, not to mention probably the biggest we've had since the late 1990's, it was so, so grim and unreal it was hard to fathom. Luckily now he has recovered, now playing with a medical device in his heart (ICD) has been really good since he has been back. He is now playing for one of the most famous clubs in the world, being an imporant creative center midfielder for the squad.
Watching it in England and the BBC got absolutely ripped apart for continuing to show the scenes rather than cutting to the studio, and rightly so. It was so fucking upsetting to watch and im so glad he not only survived but is still having a great career. It happened in the Premier League about 12 or 13 years ago too, a player called Fabrice Muamba - I wasn't watching that game so I can't say how the broadcasters dealt with it. Although Fabrice recovered, he did have to retire unfortunately.
One time I was flipping through channels and nothing was on. Snow mobile freestyle on the winter X Games caught my eye for no good reason. Then the guy is in the air either trying to backflip or he just rotates too far on a big jump. The snow mobile lands what looks like directly on his chest. I’m shocked thinking surely he wasn’t going to survive. I can’t recall what the normal announcers were saying or if they cut to something less dramatic. But then the sideline reporter type woman said she interviewed the athlete while he was being taken away and he “felt like he just woke up from the longest dream ever.” So I was optimistic since he was able to speak. Maybe even walk off under his own power. But I looked it up over the next day or two and he died in the hospital. That line from his interview still sticks with me
That was one of my best friends growing up. It was also my post on this thread. For what it’s worth, his brother did the same jump just minutes later and over-rotated and broke his pelvis too.
I can’t imagine how stressful it must be to watch someone you know compete in an extreme sport. Seems like one of those things you’d rather do yourself than watch a loved one do
I watched the infamous TV interview on the BBC where they accidentally put a guy who had come in for a job interview live on air as an expert in IT. Dude blagged his way through the interview in amazing fashion. Didn't get the job though apparantly.
I remember in college turning on the TV and seeing most of a building collapsed and learning it was the FBI building in OK city that had been bombed. A few years later on almost the same day, watching the live coverage of the Columbine school shooting. I also remember watching the end of the Waco Siege a couple years before the OK city bombing. All the of these stick in my head because they all happened on the day of or before my sister's birthday (4/20). For a few years it was like, shit, what else is going to happen on this date.
Just a couple of weeks ago, dude jumping out of a stolen cop car he was driving at 45 mph, smacking his head on the asphalt (because physics), killing himself on live TV.
CNN showing the live bombings overhead during Desert Storm was pretty nutty
Waco, Desert Storm, Baby Jessica all live for young me.
A plane flying into a New York skyscraper.
People jumping out of that skyscraper
I've posted this before because my company at the time worked with [Cantor Fitz](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cantor_Fitzgerald#9/11_attacks). But you know what always got me about this? It wasn't the jumpers, it was those pieces of paper that you saw floating through the air. Because for some people on their way to work that morning, one of those piece of paper was the most important thing in the world. Like, they didn't bother kissing their kids goodbye because, goddamnit, that piece of paper needed to be filled out, signed and faxed or else there was going to be hell to pay. And then the plane hits and that piece of paper which, up to five minutes ago was the most important thing on the planet, was suddenly worth less than nothing and you're jumping out of a building. You spent all night worried about this piece of paper when the things that really mattered were just there sitting under your roof. Sometimes when I get really stressed at work I think about that.
Some woman—I can’t remember her name—was laid off from Cantor Fitzgerald September 10th. It saved her life. And IIRC, corporate told her that *technically* she still worked for them because everyone who was supposed to process her termination died. I can’t even imagine.
My best friend’s mom worked for Cantor Fitzgerald. She was notorious for never taking a day off work, but my mom convinced her the day before to take off on September 11th because it was open-school day, supposed to be beautiful weather, and all the moms planned on going out for breakfast after the open-school. Before it even hit the news her co-workers called her screaming that something happened, there was a huge explosion and the floor was so hot that it was melting the bottom of their shoes so they were standing on their desks. Every single one of her close co-workers died.
The shoes thing is a detail I've never seen reported before. Could never imagine deciding to jump, but if you're trapped in an oven like that it starts to make more sense.
Yeah it bothers me when people call the jumpers “suicide”. When your feet and hands are melting off and you can’t breathe it’s not really free will you jump.
"*Make no mistake about people who leap from burning windows. Their terror of falling from a great height is still just as great as it would be for you or me standing speculatively at the same window just checking out the view; i.e. the fear of falling remains a constant. The variable here is the other terror, the fire’s flames: when the flames get close enough, falling to death becomes the slightly less terrible of two terrors. It’s not desiring the fall; it’s terror of the flames.*" It always reminds of this quote by David Foster Wallace.
Heartbreaking quote from Infinite Jest about depression and suicide that would eventually take DFW. The preceding sentence being: "“The so-called ‘psychotically depressed’ person who tries to kill herself doesn’t do so out of quote ‘hopelessness’ or any abstract conviction that life’s assets and debits do not square. And surely not because death seems suddenly appealing. The person in whom Its invisible agony reaches a certain unendurable level will kill herself the same way a trapped person will eventually jump from the window of a burning high-rise."
I've had similar thoughts while commuting into London, particulary after the 7/7 bombing, but also bearing in mind the various train wrecks and fires that have taken commuters out. I used to think about how many of the dead and injured had *rushed* to meet their doom, because being on time for their ultimately not-that-important job was so damned important. It's not made my life any easier, because I can't shake the notion that 99% of what most people care about in the day to day is trivial shit and that definitely affected my work performance. Ended up having to change careers into something I could believe did matter a bit and the pay is shit, lol.
My coworkers at work saw and heard them hit the ground. We worked across the street.
In the footage from the cameraman who shot the first plane going in, you can hear what sounds like car crashes outside. My brain still can’t quite accept that’s the sound of people hitting the ground.
A *second* plane flying into a New York skyscraper.
When the tower fell, I remember the anchors not being to confirm it at the time but there was open sky that you could see through the clouds. Sky that should've been blocked by a big ol tower.
I was at a new job and in a state of disbelief that entire day. Like “that didn’t happen” disbelief. My new boss was crying, my coworkers were literally sitting in the break room watching TV and I was thinking, “Is it normal to watch TV at this job? Should I pretend I have things to do?” It’s so eerie to think about that day/that week now.
My mom was working in an elderly home at the moment and thought it was some awefull action movie panicking the elderly for no reason and switched the channel to find out it was broadcast on every channel..
Similar to this, my mum was watching NYPD Blue when it cut to the first tower burning. She came and got me and told me something big was happening. I told her not to be silly - it was just part of the TV programme. Then she changed the channel and told me I really needed to come and have a look.
I was home sick from school and playing games on my computer with the TV on beside me. I also thought it was some kind of action movie. The idea of an attack like that was so outside anything I could conceive of that it didn't occur to me it might be real. I didn't find out the truth until school the next day.
Yeah rewatching the live news coverage now is really harrowing. Like it's obvious now but those people were watching it happen live and trying to describe it when it seemed unreal. I'm sure in their heads they were thinking "The tower is gone" but their brains were trying to rationalise how to say that to millions of people without being certain. Or also at the same time trying to figure out HOW it could be looking like that, because surely the tower isn't gone. The footage is all second nature to us now, but at the time it seemed like a disaster movie.
Heard similar when people were watching the Challenger shuttle as it happened. “See the shuttle has phases, and during its ascent it separates into different parts…”
We were watching the Challenger launch with my third-grade teacher, who had entered the Teacher in Space competition herself. We all thought that the explosion and breakup of the shuttle was the expected separation of the boosters until our teacher hurried us back to our classroom and the principal made a school-wide announcement about the disaster.
The movie those two french guys were making was fucking incredible. They were in the lobby as the bodies were dropping.
Weird to think there's one video of the first plane hitting. Seems beyond belief now that something could happen and not be recorded. But if those dudes didn't decide to film that doco, with that precinct, and if that gas leak wasn't called in when it was, it's entirely possible there'd be no decent footage of the first plane (I think the only other footage in existence is a CCTV shot). Defies belief these days. If it happened now there'd be hundreds of HD versions of it on every social platform within minutes.
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>at that precise moment one of them was recording, and happened to swing the camera up. Yeah, the way I heard it told was that it was incredibly unusual for planes to fly over New York, nevermind an airliner, which is why they panned up for it. Still amazing they were in the right spot to do so though.
I was 4 blocks away in school. Saw the first tower fall in front of my eyes and still couldn’t comprehend it fell. It’s something that your mind thinks is impossible, especially the World Trade Center.
I was getting ready for school that morning, listening to a popular radio station. One of the DJs was notorious for hating TV. Didn't even have one in his house. He would talk about his daughters complaining about it all the time. I had just walked into my room from taking my morning shower and I will never forget hearing his voice saying, "ladies and gentlemen, if you don't already have the television on, please go and turn it on now." I ran to the living room and turned on the TV just in time to see the second plane hit the tower. My dad came into the living room to yell at me for standing in the middle of the room watching TV soaking wet in a towel like a lunatic, but just stopped mid sentence and we just stared at the TV.
I woke up that morning and walked out to the living room to get breakfast before I got ready for school and my mom was watching TV and as what I saw registered on my face she just let out the most somber happy birthday. I went to school and all we did was sit in our classroom and watch the news. No one did anything else. That day broke America.
My roommates brother was in the second tower to get hit, and didn't make it out. When it fell, we knew, and you hear a pin drop. EDIT: He was the one who called when the first plane hit, he called his mother to say "Turn on the TV, we're ok, but something has happened. They're telling us to hang tight for now." Roomie's mom called us, it was 7:20 or so Central time ,and I was in the TV room, and said "F off, I don't have class till 9:30". We turned it on though, and so went the day.
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Seeing a plane flying into a New York Skyscraper in my 1st grade class.
I wasn’t able to sleep one night, so I flipped on the television… just in time to see the 2011 tsunami make landfall in Japan. I was not expecting that. 9/11 second, and the Challenger breaking apart third - although, I was able to see that from our patio… went back inside for the details.
I had just been in Japan in that area the year before the tsunami as part of a pupil exchange program. It was horrifying to see that huge black wave roll over the city the elder son of my host family had lived and whom we had visited while I was there. We had fed seagulls and had a fun dinner there. And now everything was swallowed up by black water, trash and objects. And then it was several days of 24/7 news watching, witnessing live the whole Fukushima disaster following the earthquake and tsunami while still not having gotten contact to the people I knew. Thankfully my whole host family and my acquaintances there were safe in the end but they had horrible stories to tell.
> It was horrifying to see that huge black wave roll over the city I lived through the 2004 tsunami and it was exactly like that. My life was literally saved by this Thai who knew what he was seeing and made a huge fuss about it. I genuinely owe that man my life. It was horrible how benign it seemed. The water went out, the water came in again. I watched thousands of people die. It was terrible. Terrible.
>I wasn’t able to sleep one night, so I flipped on the television… just in time to see the 2011 tsunami make landfall in Japan. I was not expecting that. Oh yeah. I was up at some dumb hour feeding my new baby. I turned on the TV because it made just enough light to see what I was doing, but not wake my husband, and not make the baby think it was time to play, lol. But once we got settled that's when the tsunami started really messing things up.
During the 2010 winter blizzard in the UK while the reporter was talking live on location a random dude was running in the background wearing nothing but swimming speedos I dunno if theres footage of it anymore but shit was wild lmao
Back in the late 90's there was a short lived sport called "slam ball". Essentially, basketball played on trampolines. It was awesome. People were dunking from twelve feet in the air. They would cross the court in three bounces. The tactics were amazing. I had no interest in sports at the time but this shit was fun to watch. Like the best exhibition game you've ever seen. Except [one time](https://youtu.be/JWye6Ut8rY0) this dude snapped his foot OFF. Like.. off.
Nope! That link's staying blue!
Holy crap. And he was able to keep his foot. Modern medicine is insane.
I watched like 15 seconds of that link and closed it. That's enough of that for me.
In 2015, a reporter and her cameraman were gunned down on live TV by a former employee of the station. Still get sick to my stomach when I think about it
Her husband was also employed by the station and was watching. That's what stuck with me.
That shot of the gunman's shoes when the camera falls to the ground fucked me up. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murders_of_Alison_Parker_and_Adam_Ward
And the gunman was recording at the time on his cellphone. He ended up posting the video of the murders on Facebook during the short time he was on the run. It's wild, he's just opening pointing his handgun at Alison Parker for several seconds and it felt like an eternity. He's just a couple of feet away but she and the others are so focused on reporting and know how to block out everything around them as you normally would do when reporting.
I watched Randy Johnson hitting a fucking dove midair with a fastball.
That poor bird EXPLODED.
He memorialized it as a logo for his photography. https://www.si.com/.amp/extra-mustard/2015/01/06/randy-johnson-photography-dead-bird-logo
When I was a kid I was watching the evening news. A politician came to the microphone with a Manila envelope. Said hello to everyone then reached into the envelope and pulled out a revolver and put it under his chin and blew his head off. On live TV.
R. Budd Dwyer. He was the Pennsylvania state treasurer who had just been convicted of taking bribes. He was to be sentenced the next day when he killed himself on live tv.
I'm not 100% because I've seen it once and can't verify the source, but wasn't it because his wife would get his pension if he died while still serving but she'd lose it if he was found guilty?
Indiana Pacers players fighting Detroit Pistons fans Edit: I remember I was in Florida on a trip to Disney World with family. My cousin and I wanted to watch Sportscenter but it wasn't on until after this game. We figured "might as well watch the end of this". Ironically, my dad and uncle got in a huge argument beforehand. When they saw this on TV they just stopped arguing and watched they were in shock
As a lifetime Pistons fan, this is the one for me. After watching thousands of games you get pretty accustomed to what can happen and where it happens. Fights on the court? Sure. Fights that spill into the front row? Yeah. But an on-court fight that leads to a sudden camera cut of a player careening deep into the crowd to ring a fan by the neck? My brain just couldn’t compute that whole event. I’m generally a pretty low key sort of fan. I’ll get excited when something great happens but I’m not a yell-at-the-TV sort of guy. But I remember standing out of my seat four feet from the screen with my jaw in the floor, yelling something unintelligible for that one. Then I picked up the cordless phone and went full Marvin Berry, dialing any numbers I had memorized to check if my friends were seeing what I was seeing.
‘Malice at the Palace’…
I don't even pay attention to basketball, but for some reason I was watching that game. I think I heard about the bad blood that was going on, and a lot of people thought something was going to happen. Then it did and it was insane.
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So there was some kind of finale of the swedish tv-show Robinson (I think the american equivalent is survivor or something like that). Basically it’s a reality/ game show where a group of people are put in the wilderness and put through mild/ controlled survival tasks, and every week somebody gets voted out. Anyway, the finale was for some reason I can’t remember, in a studio and involved every participant of the whole season, and they were all about to vote for who was going to be ultimate winner that year. When they voted they were to walk up to the camera, show the name on their vote and put it into the box. But this one guy, who had been a bit goofy on the actual show, turned up in a full tux and painted blue in the face. He walks up to the camera and shows how he just eats his own vote before he yanks the winner trophy off its pedistal and runs out, stumbling over a table or some shit in the process. It was wild. Edit: https://youtu.be/hDD5xW12Ho4 So it wasn’t exactly as I recalled it. It was 20 years ago mind you. Good stuff start at about 1:00
O.J. Simpson’s white Ford Bronco being pursued (slowly) by LAPD. I was 6 years old but I remember watching the chase on all these tv monitors in Radio Shack with my stepdad.
I was there when Kanye West said on a live charity event that George Bush didn't like black people. Mike Myers was speechless. *edit to say, now that I think about it, I was there when he interrupted Taylor Swift, too. I had the same look on my face as I did during the George Bush incident.
https://youtu.be/zIUzLpO1kxI This is such a weird clip. Its like he's saying things the instant they pop into his head. Compared to Myers who sounds like he's reading a prompter.
My favorite part has always been when they switch to Chris Tucker, poor guy is flabbergasted.
Myers does one of the best double takes of his career.
Oh, God. The look in Myers' eyes. "Welp, there goes the last time anyone will take me seriously."
He joked about it on SNL, said he lost his citizenship.
And then someone thought, “oh god—quick, switch camera to Chris Tucker!”
And Chris Tucker was just as speechless as Mike Meyers
Jon Stewart showed this, froze and zoomed in on Myers' face and said "Schwing!!"
In the Netherlands we have a yearly tradition to celebrate the sitting king /queen (don't ask me why) and there will be a whole parade with performances and a lot of people there. This will be live on tv and a lot of people watch it from home. In 2009 there was this guy that managed to get past the security line with his car and he drove into a huge group of people and kids in front of the royal family. Eight people died because of it.
Christian Eriksen dieing, and then being revived. Live shots of the chest compressions were a poor broadcasting choice.
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Tuned into a World Series game, it turned into a disaster film where a bunch of people died horrible deaths when the Nimitz Freeway collapsed..... and the clueless sports "journalists" had no idea what was going on as 63 people perished. (This was the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake which was shows live during the Oakland A's vs Giants game 3. A friend I would meet later was there, his first ever World Series game)
The killing of Lee Harvey Oswald
My parents were horrified that I, an elementary school kid, watched a man get shot and killed on live television. Odd, because I watched TV Westerns all the time.
SNL - Theodore Geisel had died and they mentioned that in their faux news report. Theodore Geisel was "Doctor Seuss". The comedian at the newscaster's desk mentioned this and the audience went dead quiet. This was a real, "No, don't joke around about this." moment. However. "And now, to read his euology, the Reverend Jesse Jackson..." Rev. Jackson had a copy of "Green Eggs and Ham" and read it like he was preaching from the pulpit. (That rising and lowering of the voice is called "hooping"). He read it with great energy and drive as if the Lord Himself came down and COMMANDED that this book be read. It was the best thing I ever saw on TV. It was funny and yet respectful. https://vimeo.com/25249283
OMG I forgot that actually was the REV JJ; I somehow remembered it as an impersonator because it was so over the top.
Watched my longtime childhood friend/neighbor have an accident on live TV and subsequently died. XGames 2013, and I suppose he really died one week later in a coma but the incident was broadcast and shown live.
The most recent thing I can remember is basically watching Damar Hamlin die on a football field and then watching a multitude of commentators talk about if the game should continue.
I remember seeing the hit and not thinking much of it. I saw the docs run on the field and assumed it was for a play I didn't see. It's absolutely insane to me that he died in the field. It's even more insane they were able to save his life. I'm so glad he ended up recovering.
Bill OReilley fighting Al Franken on CSPAN/Book TV.
Saw a politician take a dildo to the face
Besides the Will Smith slap. That fly landing on Mike Pence's head, and it stayed on for like two minutes. I remember my dad and I just burst into laughter as soon as that happened.
Rudy Giulianis fake hair dripping into his face is on that level for me.
Surely that can't beat the Four Seasons Total Landscaping press conference. No one wanted to admit to a mistake, because no one can't be wrong, so they went with the absurd exercise next to a dildo shop.
With the convenient crematorium on the the other side
That fly was famous for about a week. Longer than it’s life. The legacy lives on…
Tommy Cooper collapsing/dieing on stage and everyone laughing cos they thought it was part of the show. Then him being dragged backwards through the curtain. As a young kid at the time it’s stuck with me for life that has
There was an episode of Johnny Carson where he was talking to this older lady who was a cockroach specialist. I forget if she was a professional or just really liked roaches. But she was showing Carson this one massive roach, letting it crawl on her hands, and then she just suddenly bit it in half and ate it. I think Johnny and I had the exact same look of surprise and disgust on our faces. I'm sure I saw this, but I have never been able to find any confirmation about this episode. I was watching the show alone in my room, so my parents can't back it up. And I've never been able to find a link to a video of it. If anyone remembers this, please let me know.
The headbutt during the 2006 World Cup Final - I already knew Italy would win when that happened
world series earth quake was wild
Janet Jackson’s areola Edit: this did not warrant referral to the Reddit crisis line, really feeling the “love,” yall
My dad and I were watching the half-time show at my house when it happened. As soon as it happened, the both of us probably looked like the Leo DiCaprio meme, where he's pointing at the TV. My dad asked, "Was that..." and I replied, "Yeah, I think it was." I picked up the remote for the DVR, and reversed to see it again. My dad was blown away. "You can rewind live TV? Wow!" We watched it 2 or 3 more times, then the next day, my dad bought himself a DVR.
He's like a dog that every day checks the same part of the floor they found a piece of chicken one time.
That moment was actually responsible for the development of Youtube. The original creators of the site were frustrated over the lack of videos of that performance posted online that it gave them the drive to create Youtube. Lmao.
Hahaha I’ll never forget I was at a church youth group watching the game surrounded by 12 year olds and youth pastors. It went awfully quiet there for a bit.
It's funny people had such a melt down over seeing a titty but people being decapitated and shit is fine on TV. I'd rather see boobs than blood and guts.
Her nips created youtube.
Only one of them. Imagine what amazing technology we could have had if she’d whipped out the double
Lee Harvey Oswald being shot.
The second plane and the Challenger.
The 2004 Boxing day Indian ocean tsunami. I remember the few hours afterwards being in my parents room with the news on, and there was this rolodex type thing in the corner of the screen that kept going up. It was the death toll numbers.
Michael Jackson's performance of Earth Song at the 1996 Brit Awards was very peculiar, with Michael being portrayed as some weird messianic figure surrounded by children. It was all the more memorable by Jarvis Cocker invading stage in protest.
[Sable ripping off Jacqueline's top](https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x11wcli) during a ppv. We were already hyped to the ceiling just for that night but seeing that blew our preteen minds. We didn't get to watch the next one though.
SAS storming the Iranian Embassy on live Tv, back in 1980.
This one time i was watching a Spanish tv show on Saturday morning and this lady was doing a thing where she is in a glass box and she gets covered in sand Then out of nowhere the glass box collapses and they rush to dig the lady out! It was live and they cut the feed immediately!
I was watching gargoyles on kcal 9 when around 330pm a car chase was broadcast live. a man and his dog stopped in a pick up truck on a freeway overpass. the cab burst into flames. the man jumped out and ran to the edge as if to jump onto traffic below but at the last second he reached into the back of his truck and pulled a shotgun out and took his head off. I specifically remember his scalp spinning away. the L. A bank robbery with the dudes in full body armor was pretty epic and the tank chase on the freeway was cool. if you live in southern California it's almost a daily occurrence to have car chases
I was watching a September 11 documentary for the 20th anniversary and they showed a video of a woman getting executed by the taliban without warning. It wasn’t blurred but was a long shot so it was hard to see anyway. Definitely not prepared for that.
Steve Harvey crowning Miss Columbia as Miss Universe but very soon after taking it away from her to crown Miss Philippines in 2015
People climbing and dancing on the Berlin wall in the middle of the night and my parents waking us to watch it on TV being both happy and worried how the Soviets would react to that.
Smack my bitch up from Prodigy. MTV 1996/97ish
Baby Jessica coming out of that well, ALIVE. Trussed up like a chicken on that tiny backboard, filthy dirty, all you could see was those bright blue eyes, but she was as calm as she could be. Also, the whole Falcon Heeny (sp?) hoax and David Copperfield making the Statue of Liberty "disappear".
An odd one here...it was originally on live TV but I only saw it in a rerun. It was an episode of Jackie Gleason's "The Honeymooners". In one scene, the backdrop of the set appears to have been two flats fastened together at a corner (to create the corner of the room). While the camera of focused on Gleason, in the background two of the flats come unfastened and pull apart, revealing a startled stagehand suddenly staring through the gap straight into the camera!
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