Some days the universe seems to have a sense of humour, and the people in these 22 photos got the punchline. A man naps on a train and misses the President of the United States standing a metre away. A birthday cake hits the floor at the exact moment of the big reveal. A mug printed with an optimistic slogan arrives in pieces. None of it is tragic, and that is exactly why it is funny.
The pictures below were shared by their owners on Reddit, Imgur, Instagram and Pikabu, and each one is credited under its caption. We have grouped them by the kind of bad luck involved: bad timing, food that let its owner down, shopping and household surprises, and a few moments where nature or chance stepped in. Along the way you will find the real story behind the most famous lottery photo on the internet, a quick note on why lint makes tumble dryers catch fire, and the science of why misfortune sticks in our memory so much better than ordinary good days.
Think of it as a reminder that everyone has these moments. The difference is that these people had a camera ready.
Perfectly bad timing
Timing is the heart of comedy, and these photos prove it works just as well in real life. A second earlier or later and nothing would have happened.
Asleep next to the President
A young commuter in a white shirt and tie dozes off on a light-rail car while Barack Obama stands beside him, smiling and holding the strap. The joke caption imagines him calling home to say he "met" the President, when he never even opened his eyes. The picture has the hallmarks of a staged press-pool photo of a presidential ride, which makes the sleeper's calm even better.
Photo shared by pandacranez / Reddit
The birthday cake that never made it
Candles lit, guests gathered, and the cake is sliding off its tray mid-flight. The woman's face says everything about the next few seconds. Photographers call this kind of shot "perfect timing"; the family probably called it something else.
Photo shared by usarmy973 / Reddit
A hockey puck heading for the lens
At a faceoff between the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Carolina Hurricanes, the puck leaves the ice and flies straight at the camera. Rink-side photographers sit behind glass for good reason: a hard shot in professional hockey can send a puck past 150 km/h. The caption jokes that teeth are a fair price for a frame this sharp.
Photo via Imgur (author unknown)
Number 139, please wait
The receipt says order 139. The screen above the counter shows 138, 140 and 141 ready to collect. The original caption read it as the restaurant gently hinting that its customer skip the burger. More likely the order was simply lost, which is no consolation when you are hungry.
Food that let its owner down
Few disappointments are as personal as food that is not what it promised. These four came with built-in surprises.
Cellophane included
Two snacks, one problem: a hot dog still sealed in its plastic wrap, and a burger served with the wax paper melted into the cheese. Both pictures were posted separately and later paired online. The first bite is where the trouble starts.
aaronkellysbones / Reddit and dimonoff / Pikabu
One very long French fry
A student dangles a single, spaghetti-length fry that his school served as lunch. Long fries happen when a whole potato is cut lengthwise and the strip survives the fryer, but rarely this long. He seems to have found the only practical way to hold it.
The bun made of air
Cut open, this loaf turns out to be a crust shell with a cave inside. Hollow bread usually comes from a gas pocket that forms when the dough is under-proofed or the crust sets before the inside has risen. The original caption joked that the bakery took the idea of an "airy" bun a little too literally.
A lemon that is almost all peel
Sliced in half, this lemon reveals a thick white wall of pith around a tiny core of fruit. Growers often link very thick rinds to young trees and heavy feeding with nitrogen. So much for making lemonade.
Pudding with other plans
The owner peeled back the lid and the whole dessert slid out in one piece, landing on a trouser leg and the sofa. The empty cup in her hand completes the story. Anyone who has opened a yoghurt too fast will recognise the feeling.
Photo via Imgur (author unknown)
Shopping and household surprises
Home should be the safe place. These photos suggest otherwise.
The mug with the wrong message
The slogan on the side reads "It could be worse". The mug arrived broken, which proved the point in the most literal way. Online shoppers love sharing this kind of irony because the product reviews itself.
Laundry that hitched a ride
A piece of black underwear clings to the back of a purple hoodie while its owner waits at a coffee counter. Static electricity from the tumble dryer is the usual culprit: fabrics rub together, pick up opposite charges and stick. The poster only found out because of the looks in the queue.
A kitchen demonstration gone wrong
Caught mid-mishap with an appliance in one hand and a mess unfolding, this woman strikes a pose that her friend compared to a TV shopping presenter. It is the kind of photo only a close friend takes, and the original post called it life being a struggle.
Melted on the dashboard
A sauce packet left on a car dashboard on a warm day split open and dripped down the console. The father's joke is that at least it was not left on the seat. Car interiors can reach well above 60 °C in summer sun, enough to soften plastic and melt most snacks.
thelazypunk / Reddit, via Bright Side
Forty pounds of coupons for two shirts
A customer ordered two shirts online and received a heavy box stuffed with promotional "Super Cash" coupons as well. The Reddit post put the haul at around 40 pounds (about 18 kg). It was most likely a warehouse packing error rather than a generous gift.
A tumble dryer on fire
The joke caption says the dryer "overdried" the clothes. This one is a real hazard: the US Fire Administration estimated about 2,900 residential clothes dryer fires a year, and its leading cause was failure to clean, mostly lint. Clean the lint filter after every load and check the vent duct now and then.
Photo via Reddit (author unknown)
Awkward encounters
A frog with no sense of personal space
A young woman in a swimming pool scoops up a small frog, and in the next frames it jumps straight at her face. The caption imagines her declaring that he may not be a prince, but he is a good kisser. Frogs and toads that fall into backyard pools often cannot climb out, so a rescue like this is a kind deed, even with an unexpected thank-you.
The toilet paper trail
A long ribbon of toilet paper runs across a tiled bathroom floor, attached to someone's shoe. The photographer admits not knowing who felt more embarrassed: the man or the person who noticed. It is one of the most universal awkward moments there is.
Thanks for the photo
A couple at Yellowstone asked a passer-by to take their picture. She did, but she turned the camera on herself. The couple appear only as a tiny reflection in her sunglasses, which makes this an accidental masterpiece.
When chance and nature step in
Scrambled eggs on the pavement
A delivery truck's load of egg trays has toppled onto the pavement, with broken shells and yolks everywhere. The caption calls it a world record attempt at scrambled eggs. For the driver, it was simply a very long morning.
So close on the lottery
The New York Take 5 draw came up 2, 9, 18, 25 and 38. The ticket held 3, 8, 17, 24 and 37: every number exactly one off. Statistically it is as much a loss as any other ticket, but it hurts much more.
A gull steals the ice cream
Someone holds up a soft-serve cone for a seaside photo, and a bird swoops in for the top. The caption blames a cormorant, but the culprit looks much more like a gull, which is famous for snatching food from tourists. A University of Exeter study found herring gulls were more likely to peck at food that a person had just handled.
Two brothers, one draw, very different results
This one is a real news story. In March 2016 James Stocklas, a senior district judge from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, claimed a $291.4 million Powerball jackpot bought on a fishing trip in Florida and shared with two friends. His brother Bob also had a ticket in the same drawing and won $7. The two posed with their giant cheques, and the photo travelled around the world.
Why bad luck feels bigger than it is
If it feels as though toast always lands butter-side down, you are in good company. "Murphy's law", the idea that anything that can go wrong will go wrong, is linked to rocket-sled tests at what is now Edwards Air Force Base in 1948 and 1949, when an engineer named Edward A. Murphy Jr. found sensors wired the wrong way. The project leader, John Stapp, later used the phrase as a reason to plan for failure, not to give up.
Psychologists point out that our memory is selective. We notice the one time the queue we chose moved slowest and forget the hundred times it did not. Statistician David Hand has noted that with enough people and enough days, unlikely events are bound to happen to someone, and those are the ones we remember and share. That is also why a gallery like this exists: millions of ordinary moments, and these 22 rose to the top.
The healthiest response is the one these photographers chose. They laughed, took a picture and let other people laugh with them. Most of these mishaps cost a cake, a lemon or a bit of pride, and they turned into stories worth telling.
Preview photo: pandacranez / Reddit. You may also enjoy 50 Photos of Instructions Taken Literally.
Sources: NBC News: Judge wins nearly $300 million in Florida lottery, while brother gets only $7; Wikipedia: Clothes dryer (US Fire Administration dryer-fire figures); Wikipedia: Murphy's law. Individual photos are credited to the Reddit, Imgur, Instagram and Pikabu users who shared them.
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