Spanish 3 o’clock news broadcasted Anwar el Sadat’s assesination without any filters with several replays in a row. I specially remember a guy that was holding half his arm up, looking at the other half laying on the floor. You can’t find those images anymore, at least not easily (not that I wished to try).
Saw the second plane hit the Twin Towers life.
Like many Spaniards my age I believed for a long time that I had witnessed the assault on Congress by teniente coronel Tejero life, but that is not possible, we were at school. I must have seen the replay later in the evening. Still jaw-dropping, particularly when Tejero shot at the ceiling and all congressmen except three threw themselves to the floor. Believing we saw that life must be one of the most wide-spread collective illusions ever.
Somewhat less dramatic on the world stage, there have been several WTF moments watching sports and seeing injuries or deaths occur. Many, I only saw replays of, so I don’t think they count for this thread, but two that I caught live that come to mind were from hockey games.
Chara’s hit on Pacioretty made me physically ill. Nevermind the drama and debates after; the very moment of watching it, seeing him hit the stanchion and ragdoll to the ice made me come very close to throwing up. I felt an intense panic at how bad this injury could be and I’m really grateful it wasn’t worse.
The other was a freak puck hitting Daymond Langkow in the back of the neck in 2010. He was moving and responsive when it happened, but the random nature of the event, the severe potential of it, really freaked me out and for some reason stands out in my memory more than others I’ve seen.
A few other hockey and football injuries come to mind, but those two stick out by how strongly I responded to them.
That was another WTF moment for me. On 9/11 I had a day off from work and drove to the nearest bigger city to go shopping with a friend. It was a beautiful late summer day, and on our way back home, just as we were entering the Autobahn (it was about 3 PM local time IIRC), the first news about attacks on America came over the radio, still very nebulous but frightening. 40 minutes later I was at home and instantly turned on the TV, at the exact moment the first tower fell. I couldn’t believe my eyes and had to pinch myself to reassure that this was real and live. But only a moment later I already realized that this was an event that would change the world forever.
Aw, mine are so mundane compared to world events, But they still are WTF.
G Gordon Liddy debating Moon Zappa
The alien “Spewy” on Get A Life
Andy Kaufman’s first appearance on SNL
Lawrence Taylor snapping Joe Theismann’s leg on Monday Night Football.
That guy from Louisville in the NCAA tournament a few years back who went down when his leg just snapped for no apparent reason.
Was actually watching Saturday Night Live… well… live, and it was close to the end of the show when the musical guest performs song #2. Commercial ends, “ladies and gentlemen, once again, Ashley Simpson”. Music starts, performers look confused, I can hear Ashley’s voice singing the song she already performed but she’s not singing it. She looks more confused and does an odd dance and wanders off stage, screen goes to the SNL transition still then goes back to commercial.
Okay, well, that was really… weird?
Commercials end and everyone’s gathered on stage for the end of the show and she says something about how her band started playing the wrong song?? Show ends. I thought “umm, okay, that’s obviously not what happened. Wonder if people will be talking about this one tomorrow?”
And it kind of blew up from there.
I saw a live debate between G Gordon Liddy and Timothy Leary at Pitt in the 80s. It was ….interesting.
The one I remember is Rodney King, victim of police brutality, appearing before the television cameras after the 1992 LA riots had broken out.
I think I saw it live – I remember being riveted to the screen. Here was an ordinary man suddenly called upon to come up with the right words to calm an entire city. He was overwhelmed with emotion, unscripted, and unbound by media conventions.
Mine is much mundaner. I’ve recounted this before. There was a herpes outbreak, and the local news guy, in an effort not to alarm his dainty viewers, coined the phrase “inadvertent oral-genital contact”. A little too long for a band name.
That was on a Snow Day when schoolchildren across the Delaware Valley were being sent home early…to watch a bald man stick a revolver in his mouth.
I was in church when Oswald was shot.
I was at work when the Twin Towers were attacked.
But I was at home watching the idiot GOP Senators protest the electoral vote-counting on 1/6/21. I was glued to the TV for the rest of the day.
For me the WTF moment was a month later, when David Hasselhoff of all people was putting on a concert on top of the Berlin Wall. That’s when I knew that there was no going back.
I was watching a local DC channel in the 80s (WTTG), a news break came on and the anchorwoman was still applying makeup, you hear someone off camera say “you’re live!” She looks up and says “if we’re live I’ll kill you!” The screen goes back to their logo for a second and when the camera comes back on the anchor chair is empty. She had apparently stormed off.
It being the 80s, I was high and laughed my ass off.
You have to excuse us, the whole country was drunk from euphoria and not of sound mind for a few months.
Uh, well 9/11 and other big events like January 6, but I thought you meant scripted.
- Bent-Neck Lady reveal
- Locke is in a wheel chair!!!
- Legion was just a mentally disabled guy before becoming Legion.
I can think of others, but those start my fictional ones off.
Wow, I had no idea it was even on live. Yikes, what a moment.
As a pro wrestling fan…
Sid Vicious breaking his leg on live PPV…
Brian Pillman pulling out a real gun on Steve Austin on Monday Night Raw…
Scott Hall debuting on WCW Nitro… ,
Hulk Hogan turning heel at Bash at The Beach and kicking off the NWO angle…
Brock Lesnar pinning The Undertaker and beating theTaker’s Wrestlemania streak (I thought for sure WWE would never do it and the Undertaker would retire with it undefeated.)
As a fan of auto racing, I have seen too many drivers die while competing. J.D McDuffie at Watkins Glen, Tony Roper at Texas, Dale Earnhardt at Daytona, Swede Savage at Indy, Rich Vogler at Salem. The Vogler crash was the most disturbing, it was a sprint car race and the drivers are very visible. A replay right after the crash showed his head basically being ripped off after he hit the wall and his head was caught in the fencing above the concrete wall. The TV announcer apologized for the video. The sad part of this was Vogler was suppose to start his very first NASCAR Cup race the next day at Pocono Raceway.
I didn’t watch it live, but I wish I hadn’t watched it at all. Sad and… frankly… gruesome.
I took a second look, and it doesn’t say “scripted” anywhere in the OP.