Everybody’s got their little moment of fame – or maybe infamy. These things stick with us forever, and not always in a good way.
Reddit user Internalgenius took to r/AskReddit to pose the question:
While there were hundreds of responses, some of them were less than stellar in terms of what you might want to be known for. Check out these painfully interesting “moments of fame.”
1. Being on the news is usually inherently bad.
My neighbor stabbed his mom to death and they interviewed me about it.
I had recently moved from the country to the city and I looked and sounded like a total hick.
– QualitySeycoTimepiec
2. Or at least, embarrassing.
I was on the news when I fell down a ravine and had to be rescued.
News stations, helicopters, the whole shebang.
– fantazja1
3. After their big moment, many people are all washed up.
Entire neighborhood came to the house to see why an ambulance arrived.
It was just me stuck in the washing machine during a competitive game of hide and seek.
– hangrymiller
4. You might get famous just having a stressful moment.
I was working behind the customer service counter of Target on the day after Christmas. I didn’t even know ahead of time but a local news crew showed up at the store to film a story about how busy it was. I was so caught up in my work I didn’t even really have time to pay attention to whatever they were doing.
Apparently that story was bigger than I thought, because at least once a month for the next 14 months or so random people would see me and go “Hey Target dude!” And I’d be like “huh?” “Hey yeah man I saw you on that news story a while back!”
– Koomalagala
5. Maybe you’ll look back on your moment with very mixed feelings.
I was elected communist youth leader against my will in a school of 1200 in the former USSR.
I was sent to speak to a communist youth meeting in the capital city of the Republic I lived in.
In my speech I said that we are painting a house that’s falling down. Communism is finished.
I was a hero of my school especially after two Communist Party members came to visit me at my school and asked me to rethink my statements.
I was terrified for an entire day.
The next day the Communist Youth Newspaper published the decision to rename the party something else, without the word Communist in it.
Another year after that the Soviet Union fell apart.
I was accidentally brave at the right time.
– Kobekopter
6. Ever get famous for something you’re not?
More like 30 seconds of mistaken identity. I was in Bangkok at a shopping mall. There is a lot of commotion going on and I hear that the Prince is shopping in the same mall. There is security all over the place and I decide to leave because of all the fuss. I head down towards an exit with guards placed every few metres all over the place.
I open the door and about 50 flashes are going off. I had apparently ended up where all the news crew had set up for their photo opportunity and they thought I was the Prince. I run down the steps to obscurity as fast as I can. It would have been nice if one of the guards had let me know I was going out the wrong exit but anyway, maybe they thought it was funny.
– Sydneyfigtree
7. Being an actor can lead to less than stellar legacies.
I played the role of “pervy manager” in an HR video that was used for years for a major corporation.
– Toincossross
8. Just because people are watching doesn’t mean it’s fun.
I was on 4 reality TV gameshows over the span of a year.
The most notable was my dignity-sacrificing appearance on America’s Got Talent
– zeugmatic
9. You might be known as “that guy” forever.
Dropped the f- bomb on national tv while in the front row of a college football game
– samboy123
10. Big moments can carry big disappointment.
In 7th grade my school held a raffle for a gift card. They announced that I won. I even was given the gift card. 30 minutes later, they called me to the office and told me that another kid with the same first name, with the same initials was the one who actually won.
I assume that this was the case because I had just gotten detention the day before, so i guess i was fresh on the mind.
– AJ0663
11. Sometimes it’s just a hoop dream.
When i got a basketball stuck on the hoop.
On the big rectangle, to be precise
– GMBoxer
12. A small moment can last forever.
When i cut my finger with a knife and didnt attend school for like a week and all of the 2nd graders and even the upper grades gathered around me.
I was an attention whore so you can imagine how good it felt.
still have the scar. All because my b*tch of a sister didnt agree to cutting me some apples I ended up chopping my whole *ss finger off 🤷🏼♀️✨
– ghadialshaya
13. Often the cause for fame goes unrecorded.
I somewhat often do something that “i could never do again if i tried” and i tell people but they never believe me
– EtceteraWhatnot
14. Some stories were downright life threatening.
some one stabed me(tried to aim for my left lung but its only half as big as normal one), he missed and i stabed him with same knife. (i think the guy tried to steal my staff)
– berciksen
15. Others were…a little more mundane.
When I posted a potato and got over 200 upvotes on it
– stew-pit
No matter your infamous moment, here’s hoping you can keep good humor about it, and maybe learn a little moving forward. For instance, don’t hide in washing machines.
What was your 15 minutes of fame?
Tell us in the comments.