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40 Online Class Gems People Witnessed When Someone Forgot To Turn Off Their Camera Or Mic
Before the pandemic, most of us didn’t even know what Zoom was or ever participate in meetings online. But in the last year and a half, people have been forced to transfer their work or learning to virtual spaces.
After some time, we got used to it, because it’s nice when you don’t have to get ready in the morning; you can sleep in a little and work or study from the comfort of your bed. However, there is one danger in getting very comfortable with working from your computer. It’s the mute button.
Sometimes people think they’ve muted themselves, but they didn't. Other times, people really did mute themselves, but the programs would unmute them somehow. The mute button has caused some quite embarrassing and hilarious situations to occur, as you can imagine.
So if you want to hear some of those stories, you’re in luck as there is a quite popular thread on Reddit created by AsteroidPizza39 where he asked “Students/Teachers of Reddit, what’s the best ‘forgot to turn off the mic’ story during virtual learning?” and people flooded it with very entertaining tales.
More info: Reddit
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#1
Well, it happened in one of the classes.
The teacher was going through a rough time and the class could feel it. We assured her that we had done our homework and that she could take rest for the time being. She agreed and told she would switch her mic off and sleep for a while, as we did whatever.
Her husband was right beside her and the mic wasn't turned off. She told, " I am so lucky to have these students" and started sobbing to her husband. We all heard this, but kept quiet to prevent her being embarrassed.
She slept well during that time and we sent her a thank you gift collectively.
#2
I had to defend my thesis over Zoom and many professors came into the call to watch. My thesis was about immune response in fish to parasites. One professor joined late and forgot to mute her mic and we got treated to this little gem:
"Shhhh. Mommy is learning about fish parasites, which is what you'll get if you don't stop peeing in the koi pond."
#3
Not a teacher student deal but my mother was in a work call. She does tech stuff with a hospital. Lots of people in it. My cat was up on her desk trying to get attention and meowed this deep loud meow. Right into her mic. The call proceeded with every time my cat meowed her co-workers would be like "good point" or "haven't thought of that" or like "yeah that sounds right". My mother was so embarrassed but she couldn't get her to leave her alone.
#4
When I was doing an online Algebra camp, the teacher forgot to turn off his Mic while we were supposed to be doing some problems. He said "I f*****g hate math."
#5
During one of the lectures, our cat came into the room and jumped into my lap. I proceeded to tell him how very cute he is and how much I love him, in the stupidly sweetest voice possible because he's the best boi.
Then, a full minute or two into me praising the cat, a message popped up from my classmate saying I'm unmuted. I had a mini spook and replied with "oh hahaha I was just talking to him" + a picture of the cat.
It was extra awkward because I walk around with a resting b***h face and barely talk to anyone when we're at uni, so my classmate later admitted that the only reason no one warned me sooner was because it didn't occur to them that the person with this sweet voice was me :/
#6
A boy accidentally forgot to turn his mic off and we heard how his mom literally verbally abuse him, then he looked at the camera and realized that the mic was on then he turned the camera and mic off. The next day he looked like he cried all day and his mom was behind the camera; I still feel bad for that kid
Edit: Guys guess what, my whole class were telling and spamming the principal to do something with the kid in the end the principal itself with the counselor have a huge speak with the mother and threatened that if she doesn't change they will call the police. She was scared as heck and was decided to change bc his dad did love him; the last day I saw him (the day I am editing this) was happy and like he was in the first day again, thought I couldn't speak to him is clearly that at least something was changed and his father is in him side.
#7
During my English class, this one girl forgot to mute herself. While my teacher was talking, she almost deafened all of us on the Zoom call answering her mother's questions.
Her mother (from a distance): "What class are you in?"
Her (yelling): English!
Her mother: Oh, the hot teacher?
Her: Yeah that guy
Now, even I'll admit my teacher is fairly attractive, but it does take it to another level when you get your own mother involved. Thankfully, our teacher is a chill guy and thought the whole thing was just kind of funny, and kind of just gave a general reminder to the class to keep mics muted. She didn't say anything for the rest of the class.
#8
I was visiting my best friend during a lecture and she had her mic and video turned off. She then had to join a group discussion and sometimes unmuted herself to contribute something. After that the whole class was supposed to present their results and she supposedly muted herself again. I started venting to her how wasps are considered wild bees even though they have no business beeing bees because they're a**holes and suddenly we hear laughter from her professor and her classmates. She forgot to mute herself.
#9
I'm a tutor, and my student forgot to mute themselves before leaving for a 5 mins break. She had a beautiful conversation with her brother about how much of a c**t I was, and how much I sucked and how poor I look/my house look.
Luckily, I always record my tutoring sessions, so I finish as if nothing happened, and sent the clip straight to my supervisor. She got booted off of the tutoring program, as I'm the only tutor advanced enough for her grade that is able to take her.
#10
One time in an art class (separate from my school) my dad knocked on my door. It was dead silent at that point, everyone was working on their projects. I clicked the mute button and yelled "WHAT!?" Turns out my mic was already muted and I turned it on. I startled the entire class and the teacher asked if I was okay.
#11
Ironically my IT teacher forgot to turn of his mic and camera and proceeded to get in a very heated argument on the phone with his ex-girlfriend who he has a kid with. Did I mention that she’s also a teacher at our school? Yeah most awkward 5 minutes of my life before he realised
#12
So we were making our classes as phone call on an app called teampspeak I think. Anyways, I was using my phone to talk and my computer to work and sometimes check discord, at a point, we were supposed to do some exercise on our own and I left my mic on. My friend send me a message talking about the fact that he got a girlfriend. So I send him "you did it, you crazy son of a b***h". Then I wanted to add some emoji, so I tried to edit the message and I hit the text to speech button instead. The computer literally yell " You crazy son of a b***h".
#13
My college class got to hear me tell my dog about how good he is.
#14
I just did 8 hour zoom calls for 7 weeks training for a new project. On the second week, a man unmutes his call, farts the longest fart I’ve ever heard in my life, then when he finishes, mutes the call. I can see others laughing while muted at his fatal error of thinking he wasn’t muted and so he went to “mute” his call.
I found this to be the highlight of the week, but the following week the guy does it again!!! Honestly the second time I laughed but then started to wonder if it was some kind of power move...
#15
I had a student give a smart a** response to a question I asked and before I could respond his mom starts chewing into him and hitting him with a chancla. His mic and video was on for the whole thing.
Edit: For all those asking; I did not report the single mother who took time off from her only remaining job during a pandemic so she could make sure her sons were able to access their education. Didn’t strike me as abusive. I did call her after school to talk and let her know I would keep her updated on how her son was doing in my class so that, hopefully, between the two of us, we could keep him out of trouble. Some of y’all clearly didn’t grow up around Hispanic families. La Chancla is part of the culture.
#16
I was producing a video for some university professors on a specific medical thing for a virtual learning course. I was all set up to shoot the process, and the teachers excused themselves to the next office to regroup and have a chat. I already had their wireless lav mics attached and fed to my camera, so when I sat down at the camera and put on my headphones I immediately heard their conversation - they were criticizing me, saying they couldn't believe they hired someone so young, inexperienced in that particular medical field, how I looked, how I asked questions, etc... Oops! At least I made them a fine video. These days I don't put my headphones on until we're about to shoot.
Ellis Reed 3 years ago
I would have called them out so they felt as awkward about it as I did for the rest of the filming process.
#17
English Zoom call. Teacher was holding us like 15+ minutes after the period had ended. She said something along the lines of "keep working arduously" and I responded with "if she says arduously ONE MORE TIME I'm going to FLIP A TABLE"
I was not on mute
#18
I teach for an online university that requires me to conduct a weekly live session. One morning I was lecturing and a student popped in late. I said, “Hello, (student name)! Thanks for joining us.” She said, “Don’t say my name, b***h!”, just before she realized her mic was on and turned it off. I just laughed.
#19
In a math class I was in last year, we were taking a test, which you have to turn your mic on for—their way of trying to prevent cheating. Some girl apparently forgot that hers was on and started belting out Stand By You by Rachel Platten at the top of her lungs. It went on for the entire song and she was still humming it when I finished the test and left the call.
#20
In a thermodynamics class, one of the students said "Holy s**t, this is so much" after covering a large set of equations related to fugacity. Everyone found it relatable.
#21
Wouldnt say it’s the best, but definitely mildly embarrassing for me.
Early morning lecture, much earlier than I’d been used to getting up during the lockdown experience. Ended up slouched over on the couch listening with my eyes closed.
Suddenly get a message from one of my good friends also in the class saying I might want to mute my mic as I’d sort of half-fallen asleep and my heavy breathing/light snoring was coming through the microphone a little too loud.
I was absolutely mortified, can’t imagine it was exactly pleasing to the ears for anyone in the class at the time.
#22
I'm a student, and my teacher was talking to his wife at first. Pretty normal right? Well, she leaves then he gets on the phone and says, "Yeah honey, my wife just left, wanna come over?" The entire class went bats**t bro.
#23
A student's mother had the habit of standing just off camera and very closely observing her kid. I know this because one time the student "forgot" to disable the mic. Everyone heard how the mother was coaching the student how to act. Don't look my way, smile, pay attention. It was next-level helicoptering, right on the edge of abuse in my opinion.
Our school has a good counselor and the student is getting help. All the teachers have been advised to limit contact with the mother and not make waves, lest she withdraw the student or redouble her controlling behavior. I worry about it.
Terry Tobias 3 years ago
Maybe the school could send out a group message to all of the parents about the importance of allowing the students to attend their classes alone. They could say that this will instill competence and a strong work ethic in their kids and the teachers will know if there are any issues to be addressed and inform the parents at that point. Just a thought.
#24
I had a student's boyfriend (both college) walk up behind her on Zoom; reach into her shirt; pull out her breasts; and start doing a little boob dance. She was just laughing and playfully slapping his hands away.
This was probably 30 seconds after I had just gone through my whole speech of making sure there was nothing in your browser history, Google search history, or names of folders that could be embarrassing or offensive.
#25
One of my professors classes had a student say something like "I just joined 5 minutes before class and this a**hole is already teaching."
The professor just laughed and told him his mic was on.
Bob Belcher 3 years ago
Yeah if the calss doesn't start till a certain time wait. Many people don't show up to meetings until the minute before had and the first 5 minutes or so is always used to wait for the last few and go over basics or thr agenda.
#26
I’m a college student. Last semester we had a girl place an entire dinner order over the phone with her mic on while we all tried to tell her that her mic was on. I think she had us muted. She was ordering Mediterranean food. I think she got a chicken gyro.
#27
I’m not a student, but work in the tech industry. I’ve been in meetings where people forget to mute themselves on LARGE company calls, with hundreds or thousands of attendees, and we’ll hear a fart and then a toilet flush. That’s about as interesting as these meetings get though
#28
While giving a lecture on the 'heated' arguments among different schools of psychology, our prof screamed "Fire fire, there is fire" and most of the confused students included the teacher's pets replied "I agree. those were some lit points." Things turned out funnier and scarier when the prof went on with the screaming and we could hear her calling her house help and brother alarming them of a fire sparking up her switch board. So yeah, a confused, concerned class of 50 sat through the entire episode of turning out the fire while our prof revealed every dynamic of their family through her freaked out screams. and 30 min later she comes back to her lappy to unmute herself only to find a hundred "are you okay?" texts in the chat box.
#29
Work situation. I asked a question on zoom from someone and he didn’t answer (no video on), I asked again to confirm he was there, silence. “Hello?” he then panics and says “sorry I’m peeing”
Did I need to know that? I didn’t.
Robert T 3 years ago
This is one I have to watch for. I have a cordless headset and sometimes go and make a cup of coffee mid-call (on a 2 hour meeting). Make damn sure that you are muted before you go. I have had to respond once whilst I was in the kitchen - which was weird for them as my empty chair started talking! :D
#30
A girl’s mom: “Who the f**k you on the computer fo this early in the morning?” And asking the same thing over and over
Teacher: “_ I think your mic is on”
Terry Tobias 3 years ago
I would think that parents know by now that kids are taking school classes virtually. What does this one think her kid has been doing for over a year?
#31
Dude my one teacher forgot to turn off his camera and his son was changing in the background and the son kept on looking at the camera
#32
Was in training before classes started this year. 200ish teachers. Only principal and AP were speaking. Teacher has her mic unmuted, phone rings, picks it up and says, "hey. Yeah. Just sitting here in another one of these goddam trainings."
kim morris 3 years ago
My high school history teacher husband says that every single PD day. Every single one.
#33
My son calls his tablet his “fix” because when I first got it and the battery would die, I’d tell him I was going to fix it. So imagine his pre-k teachers surprise last spring when he asked me if he could have his fix now that he was done with school. Lol I cracked up, held up the fix in question, and explained what he meant.
April Smith 3 years ago
Similar story: my son used to have this baby blanket he couldn’t go anywhere without. I’d tell him I was going to clean it when it went in the washer. When he started talking, he called his blanket his, “clean.” It was cute! “Clean, mama! My clean!”
#34
In one of my classes, this girl wrote in the Zoom chat “this is so f*****g boring” not realizing that the professor could see it
Parmeisan 3 years ago
I can do you one better. This happened in a university-level computer science class. One day, a student hit reply-all to an email about our assignment. I don't recall if the very first email was actually a question intended for the prof, or what, but students kept hitting reply-all to reply to the emails they were getting and at *some* point people started complaining about the prof and the class. Nobody seemed to realize that the prof was seeing everything they said. To be fair, he wasn't very good. But nobody deserves to receive all of the terrible things they said about him. And you'd think... these people ought to know enough about technology to navigate basic email functionality... I still cringe when I think about it.
#35
This was a conference call for work but it was a big call with like 12 people and I’m new-ish so I was really just listening as the senior analysts were discussing something. Call was going on for a while so I took my laptop Into the bathroom with me to take a s**t, flushed the toilet, and everyone just stopped talking. Turns out I didn’t mute my mic and everyone just heard a toilet flushing in the middle of a meeting. Luckily no one cared and they all laughed about it but I was mortified.
#36
Last week kid in my brothers class forgot his camera was on during the first class and was smoking a giant gas mask bong on his face during the syllabus review
#37
Not really anything super weird - was in a meeting with my class for the first day of school, and I had forgotten to mute myself. I then proceeded to start noisily baby-talking my cat, who was in my lap at the time. Embarassing.
#38
Not a mic but an elementary student left their camera for a moment and the mother walked by naked. Guessing she asked him to leave the room so she could change or something not realizing the camera was left on.
Christel Nellemann 3 years ago
I claim the right to be naked in my own home with curtains shut.
#39
it isn't too bad, but during the graduating ceremony for a class, all staff were asked to attend and turn on their mic to clap at certain points so it wouldn't be awkward. One such staff member forgot to turn their mic back off and was heard loudly jokingly insulting her husband and asking for another drink whilst complaining about how long and boring this was. This was broadcast to a whole class, their parents, and anyone else listening. We stuck together and didn't tell anyone who it was, but we all knew.
MUTE. YOUR. MICS!!!
#40
During a virtual gym class for my high school. A girl forgot to mute herself during a workout and yelled some obscene things very loudly
What do you think ?
Kari Panda 3 years ago
That’s why I always act as if my mic and camera are on, even if I know they aren‘t. Might be a bit overcautious, but all these people 'knew' they had theirs turned off, too ^^,
Person 3 years ago
During my brothers class random people like to blast the most inappropriate music and it’s strange because I don’t known how these people even got into the zoom!
juice 3 years ago
they probably got the invite link from a student who thought it would be funny
Load More Replies... Zophra 3 years ago
My school's technology went down while teaching a high school biology class virtually. I always have issues with technology. Pissed off at this ongoing problem, I said some very choice inappropriate words about computers to my blank screen. Several students contacted me by text through the school's proxy site to tell me the mic was still on. (Thankfully they thought it was funny; I was mortified.)
OJ 3 years ago
i had a teacher a couple years ago who would randomly unmute her students throughout the class. like, she didn’t want us to talk or answer a question, she just unmuted us (??). when we confronted her about it, she said she could do whatever she wants cause it’s her classroom. i had to double check my mike was muted every time i needed to say something and it was so annoying, i’m shocked nothing awkward happened but it was super invasive
MrOwlAteMyMetalWorm. 3 years ago
Which app allows you to directly do that?You can send a request to unmute mic on zoom not unmute directly!
Load More Replies...
Lovin' Life 3 years ago
And this my friends is exactly why I prefer seated classes. I am not very good with computers. I know I'd goof something up and embarrass myself. Very entertaining feed. I loved it!
cybermerlin2000 3 years ago
My fiancée works in a secondary school as the lead science technician. During the pandemic, she had to go in to perform some experiments online so that the students would be able to ask questions during the experiments. She rang me after a lesson with tears but very happy because she heard some students say "Awesome! It's Miss *****!" She also used to be a professional singer and on one occasion she was singing Summer of 69 when the students started joining in. It made her smile so much when she told me about it. Final one... Embarrassing for me. I saw she was in a meeting so I crawled pass behind her only for her to say "The camera is off and so is the mic"
Shine Caramia 3 years ago
My default is camera on, mic muted. It was lunch time and so I got a salad. I turned off my camera so I could eat discretely. Except, nope, I had unmuted my mic and was giving everyone the fully immersive salad eating experience.
Ali H M Salehuddin 3 years ago
I am familiar with GoTo meeting because my company uses it. As a presenter, I can mute a participant to avoid incidences like these. Surely other online meeting softwares have similar function too. Use it.
DuchessDegu 3 years ago
I constantly do the opposite and forget to turn the mic ON, so it's like a silent movie when I'm trying to do a presentation. Also that time I was on a call with a new client, sound was terrible so I got up to pick up my headphones so I was fully visible on video. I was wearing a very professional white shirt, and Hello Kitty pj pants.
Patti Vance 3 years ago
thankfully, i am an old fart and retired so i didn't have to deal with this. however, i do remember when our office all got upgraded to the computer world and we had access to emails for the first time. it was like the precursor to zoom calls. so many people got their a**e handed to them for sending out emails criticizing, bitching, moaning to the wrong person or to everyone. the best was when the boss' pet workers were gossiping about the boss & how they were playing her for better perks/cases, etc. and it was sent county wide.
Demi Zwaan 3 years ago
Worst I had was I scrolled passed a video on Reddit while in a presentation with about 80 people and forgot my sound was on, so it started playing quite loud before I could mute it. Since I didn't mute zoom itself, no one knew where the sound had come from.
Damon Tripodi 3 years ago
How are there so many people that don't know how to be the administrator of one of these calls?
Adrian Johnson 3 years ago
Nobody trained them, and they are learning through their mistakes. Nobody fault.
Load More Replies...
Joseph OReilly 3 years ago
One Spanish class in 8th, we were supposed to put a small project we'd done on a "board" and then discuss them. One girl who hadn't done it muted her mic and told her sister(who was sitting right there) to talk about hers so the teacher would assume she did it. Again, girl A's mic was muted, but her sisters wasn't, so the whole class and the teacher heard her say it. Good times
Kari Panda 3 years ago
That’s why I always act as if my mic and camera are on, even if I know they aren‘t. Might be a bit overcautious, but all these people 'knew' they had theirs turned off, too ^^,
Person 3 years ago
During my brothers class random people like to blast the most inappropriate music and it’s strange because I don’t known how these people even got into the zoom!
juice 3 years ago
they probably got the invite link from a student who thought it would be funny
Load More Replies... Zophra 3 years ago
My school's technology went down while teaching a high school biology class virtually. I always have issues with technology. Pissed off at this ongoing problem, I said some very choice inappropriate words about computers to my blank screen. Several students contacted me by text through the school's proxy site to tell me the mic was still on. (Thankfully they thought it was funny; I was mortified.)
OJ 3 years ago
i had a teacher a couple years ago who would randomly unmute her students throughout the class. like, she didn’t want us to talk or answer a question, she just unmuted us (??). when we confronted her about it, she said she could do whatever she wants cause it’s her classroom. i had to double check my mike was muted every time i needed to say something and it was so annoying, i’m shocked nothing awkward happened but it was super invasive
MrOwlAteMyMetalWorm. 3 years ago
Which app allows you to directly do that?You can send a request to unmute mic on zoom not unmute directly!
Load More Replies... Lovin' Life 3 years ago
And this my friends is exactly why I prefer seated classes. I am not very good with computers. I know I'd goof something up and embarrass myself. Very entertaining feed. I loved it!
cybermerlin2000 3 years ago
My fiancée works in a secondary school as the lead science technician. During the pandemic, she had to go in to perform some experiments online so that the students would be able to ask questions during the experiments. She rang me after a lesson with tears but very happy because she heard some students say "Awesome! It's Miss *****!" She also used to be a professional singer and on one occasion she was singing Summer of 69 when the students started joining in. It made her smile so much when she told me about it. Final one... Embarrassing for me. I saw she was in a meeting so I crawled pass behind her only for her to say "The camera is off and so is the mic"
Shine Caramia 3 years ago
My default is camera on, mic muted. It was lunch time and so I got a salad. I turned off my camera so I could eat discretely. Except, nope, I had unmuted my mic and was giving everyone the fully immersive salad eating experience.
Ali H M Salehuddin 3 years ago
I am familiar with GoTo meeting because my company uses it. As a presenter, I can mute a participant to avoid incidences like these. Surely other online meeting softwares have similar function too. Use it.
DuchessDegu 3 years ago
I constantly do the opposite and forget to turn the mic ON, so it's like a silent movie when I'm trying to do a presentation. Also that time I was on a call with a new client, sound was terrible so I got up to pick up my headphones so I was fully visible on video. I was wearing a very professional white shirt, and Hello Kitty pj pants.
Patti Vance 3 years ago
thankfully, i am an old fart and retired so i didn't have to deal with this. however, i do remember when our office all got upgraded to the computer world and we had access to emails for the first time. it was like the precursor to zoom calls. so many people got their a**e handed to them for sending out emails criticizing, bitching, moaning to the wrong person or to everyone. the best was when the boss' pet workers were gossiping about the boss & how they were playing her for better perks/cases, etc. and it was sent county wide.
Demi Zwaan 3 years ago
Worst I had was I scrolled passed a video on Reddit while in a presentation with about 80 people and forgot my sound was on, so it started playing quite loud before I could mute it. Since I didn't mute zoom itself, no one knew where the sound had come from.
Damon Tripodi 3 years ago
How are there so many people that don't know how to be the administrator of one of these calls?
Adrian Johnson 3 years ago
Nobody trained them, and they are learning through their mistakes. Nobody fault.
Load More Replies... Joseph OReilly 3 years ago
One Spanish class in 8th, we were supposed to put a small project we'd done on a "board" and then discuss them. One girl who hadn't done it muted her mic and told her sister(who was sitting right there) to talk about hers so the teacher would assume she did it. Again, girl A's mic was muted, but her sisters wasn't, so the whole class and the teacher heard her say it. Good times
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