# What's a really dumb thing you've done that folks would howl at were it caught on video **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 25, 2022, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-really-dumb-thing-youve-done-that-folks-would-howl-at-were-it-caught-on-video/972200 "2022-09-25T11:54:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2022, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-really-dumb-thing-youve-done-that-folks-would-howl-at-were-it-caught-on-video/972200/21 "2022-09-26T20:15:32Z")
When I was a kid, I made a set of ‘nunchucks’ from, as I recall, a pair of croquet mallet handles I’d cut down after finding them in someon’s trash. I connected them with a piece of chain and went into the front yard to start my ninja career. Of course, I instantly cracked my head so hard I fell down. [https://www.centurymartialarts.com/shop/weapons/nunchaku/hand-carved-rattan-nunchaku-12119](https://www.centurymartialarts.com/shop/weapons/nunchaku/hand-carved-rattan-nunchaku-12119) Another time, I was riding a bike to summer school and had this large wire rope and padlock on the handle bars. I was in about 7th grade and running late, riding fast. The lock swung into the spokes of the front wheel and I went over the handlebars. I was pretty cut up and sustained a blow to the groin that, luckily, could have been a lot worse. Some construction guys saw me fall and laughed thier asses off. When I got to school, the teacher took one look at me and sent me home. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2022, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-really-dumb-thing-youve-done-that-folks-would-howl-at-were-it-caught-on-video/972200/22 "2022-09-26T22:29:20Z")
> [@nightshadea](#): > > more than once ive done the tom and cherry thing of stepping on a certain style of rake and smacking myself with a handle Had a coworker named Betsy Rake, and I saw her go toe-to-toe with the owner (who was being a jerk). She got in his face, and said menacingly said through clenched teeth: _“Wherever you go, whatever you do… never step on a Rake.”_ ---
**Author:** ![TheCuse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thecuse/32/2854_2.png) [@TheCuse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheCuse)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2022, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-really-dumb-thing-youve-done-that-folks-would-howl-at-were-it-caught-on-video/972200/23 "2022-09-27T00:27:33Z")
> [@digs](#): > > n a Rake.” ^^Fantasic! ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2022, 9:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-really-dumb-thing-youve-done-that-folks-would-howl-at-were-it-caught-on-video/972200/24 "2022-09-27T09:25:17Z")
> [@digs](#): > > Had a coworker named Betsy Rake… I really need to slow down my reading. I read this as “had a crowbar named Betsy Rake.” mmm ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2022, 11:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-really-dumb-thing-youve-done-that-folks-would-howl-at-were-it-caught-on-video/972200/25 "2022-09-27T11:29:35Z")
I thought of one from wayyy back in the day-- High School. For most of my time in school I had been pretty nerdy and socially awkward. This started to change in my Junior and Senior years as I became friendly with some popular kids and started becoming more sociable. My senior year I had a car, and somehow it happened that 3 of the popular girls went on a lunch run with me. I can’t remember if I had asked them, or if they just needed a ride and I was there, but as it happens I’m driving with 3 cute, popular girls. And I was trying to be as cool and funny as possible. In a fast food drive-thru when I gave my order and the person asked “do you want fries with that?” I replied, in my snottiest voice, “did I _ **ASK** _ for fries?” Which got a laugh. We get back to the school parking lot and all get out of the car. I’m still so focused on being too cool for school that I manage to lock my keys in the car-- with it still running. When the girls realize what I did, and see me standing there flummoxed, their laughter was much louder than it was for my smart ass comment in the drive-thru, as they walked away. I had to call my mom to bring me my spare key. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2022, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-really-dumb-thing-youve-done-that-folks-would-howl-at-were-it-caught-on-video/972200/26 "2022-09-27T12:26:15Z")
I was walking around the lobby of the National Gallery in D.C. while looking at a map of the museum. That came to an abrupt end when I hit my head on Lever No. 3 by Martin Puryear: [![](https://modernartnotespodcast.files.wordpress.com/2015/02/puryear-lever-no-3.jpg) ](https://modernartnotespodcast.files.wordpress.com/2015/02/puryear-lever-no-3.jpg) It made a comical BONGGGG!! sound and a security guard nearly fell out of his chair laughing. Another time I was walking around a Japanese temple with a heavy backpack while reading a map (sense a pattern?) when I hit my head on a low gate lintel. I fell onto my back and flailed my arms and legs like a turtle while my wife pretended she didn’t know me. ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2022, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-really-dumb-thing-youve-done-that-folks-would-howl-at-were-it-caught-on-video/972200/27 "2022-09-27T12:43:07Z")
I stopped at a red light for a pedestrian/bike crossing on my bike and rested my foot on the base of the post for the light. When it turned green I pushed off with my foot, only my boot was caught underneath the weirdly sticky out bolts so my foot stayed behind while my body and bike moved forward, until I off course collapsed into a painful mess. And in the funnier (at least to me) vein. When assembling a new IKEA kitchen I put one of the handles on the inside of the door and spent a couple of seconds trying to figure out what was wrong with the picture. I once stood, warm drip coffee pot in hand, trying to make room for it in the fridge after having put the milk carton on the counter. I thought it weird that I had to move stuff around, because it had just come out of there, hadn’t it. In the same vein I walked past the trash can with a bag of trash and on to the mail box, opened the box and wondered what was going on with the opening being so much smaller than the bag. ---
**Author:** ![wguy123](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wguy123/32/3161_2.png) [@wguy123](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wguy123)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2022, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-really-dumb-thing-youve-done-that-folks-would-howl-at-were-it-caught-on-video/972200/28 "2022-09-27T14:58:47Z")
> [@naita](#): > > I stopped at a red light for a pedestrian/bike crossing on my bike and rested my foot on the base of the post for the light. When it turned green I pushed off with my foot, only my boot was caught underneath the weirdly sticky out bolts so my foot stayed behind while my body and bike moved forward, until I off course collapsed into a painful mess. Related: When I first started riding with clipless pedals, I stopped at a light and put one foot down while leaving the other clipped in (normal). It was a long light and at some point I decided to put my other foot down while forgetting it was clipped in. It’s hard to stop gravity once it takes over. I think it looked something like the video below. Apparently I’m a quick learner because I have repeated that move in 20 years. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/dSm7bjGjEwM/maxresdefault.jpg "Joe Biden falls off bike while cycling in Delaware") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSm7bjGjEwM) ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2022, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-really-dumb-thing-youve-done-that-folks-would-howl-at-were-it-caught-on-video/972200/29 "2022-09-27T16:14:12Z")
> [@wguy123](#): > > When I first started riding with clipless pedals, I stopped at a light and put one foot down while leaving the other clipped in (normal). It was a long light and at some point I decided to put my other foot down _nods_ I didn’t have the excuse of clips. I was on a bicycle just barely rolling, as I’d waited for a car to ooze past before crossing the intersection in the little village. I let go of the handlebars and overbalanced forward and could not get my center of gravity to cooperate and let me balance or re-grab, and I topped forward then flopped over sideways in exquisitely slow motion. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-really-dumb-thing-youve-done-that-folks-would-howl-at-were-it-caught-on-video/972200.md?page=1)