This past year has thrown a lot of shit at us – but at least we have video calls going hilariously wrong to keep us entertained.
From people getting trapped as filters – cat lawyer, potato boss, and so many others – to accidental cameos from half-naked spouses, there’s been a lot to laugh at. Here are eight unfortunate events that left us in stitches.
‘Look at my penis!’
Jenna Weiss-Berman got the shock of her life when her three-year-old son gatecrashed her work call shouting “look at my penis” – before iconically hitting a button on his fart machine. Top work.
An incriminating burp
Not only did Desia spectacularly burp on a Zoom call while unmuted, but because her microphone picked it up, the conferencing software singled her out, making her appear on the main screen.
A true if-only-the-ground-would-swallow-me-whole moment.
Toilet break
Speaking of embarrassing moments... when you’ve gotta go, you’ve gotta go – just don’t do a Jennifer and go to the toilet with your camera turned on during a Zoom meeting on social work. Cue giggles, coughs, shocked faces and one blatant “oh my god, Jennifer”. Everybody saw it, there’s no going back.
Potato boss
When SnapCamera came onto the scene, lots of people (me included) ended up stuck with silly filters in work meetings because we’d used them in calls to friends and family.
Our favourite has to be the boss who became internet famous after enduring an entire meeting on Microsoft Teams as a cartoon potato with huge eyes and lips. Incredible.
No pant man
This video has made the cut for many reasons: the casual stroll as he walks into shot wearing just a football shirt and his boxers; the panic-walk as he realises he’s on camera, which ends in him crashing into the table; the embarrassed laugh from his mortified partner who carries on despite the distraction.
An Oscar-worthy clip.
‘I’m not a cat’
We have to give a special mention to the lawyer who managed to get himself trapped in an old filter of a kitten on a very important video call. Rod Ponton had to let judge Roy Ferguson know he wasn’t actually a cat after the function was activated during a virtual court case.
If you haven’t yet seen the clip, we’ll leave it here...
T-R-O-Y
“Who are you?”
“WHO are you?”
“WHO?”
“Do you have a name?”
Ahhhh, family Zoom calls.
You have no authority here, Jackie Weaver
A clip of Handforth Parish Council’s planning and environment committee meeting serves as a helpful guide on how not to go about work calls. The clip shows council members rapidly descending into chaos.
There’s swearing, tantrums, and pure carnage when one member is kicked out. And of course, it birthed the now iconic phrase, ‘you have no authority here, Jackie Weaver’.