We live in a Zoom-oriented world these days…which is good and bad.

Good because it makes remote learning and meetings a lot easier, bad because, well…we’re still living through a pandemic and we can’t do anything face-to-face for the time being.

But this has definitely led to some hilarious interactions where folks forget that their microphone is still on…

Folks on AskReddit talked about their funniest “hot mic” stories. Let’s take a look.

1. He’s gonna have to change his name.

“Heard the clapping sound of a kid j*rking off.

His name lit up and everything.”

2. Don’t come back.

“A student in my class forgot to turn off their mic, and we heard some background noises (doors closing… tapping…) and because of a display bug, we couldn’t see where the noise was from.

Then the student started saying cr*p about the teacher, “oh, yeah this is useless, he’s just writing on a tablet, even I could do that, etc.”

Everyone heard that, the teacher heard them just insult him. They didn’t come back to the classes after that.”

3. Ouch!

“My teacher got scolded by his wife (another teacher in school) because she needed to work and he didn’t repair her computer.

He was a computer technology teacher and he just keep saying “Sorry honey, I forgot. I won’t do it again. I promise it will take two seconds to fix it.” in loop because the wife went on a little rant of how he always forgot things.

When he saw the mic was still on he blushed and after a moment of silence just went on with the lesson.”

4. I hate these things…

“Was in training before classes started this year with 200 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 godd*mn trainings. “”

5. I’ll take one, too!

“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.”

6. Oh my…

“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 bo*b 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.”

7. One and done.

“I was a guest speaker at a music college last year.

My mic was still on when I finished, went backstage and said “well that was f*cking horrible”.

I wasn’t called back to speak again.”

8. Meeting is adjourned!

“College student here!

This was last semester so it was when we had first switched to all online. I had an 8 am class that was Renaissance through Modern art history. Anyway this kid in the class didn’t have his mic muted and he was snoring. Like snoring snoring.

My poor professor tried to wake him up, and couldn’t. She also had no idea how to mute him or kick him out so we went on with the lecture. After about 5 minutes she finally said “I can’t f*cking teach to this” and ended the zoom meeting.

The rest of the semester we used voice thread instead.”

9. Hey, take it easy!

“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.”

10. That’s sad.

“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”

11. Gotta hit mute!

“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 *ssholes and suddenly we hear laughter from her professor and her classmates.

She forgot to mute herself.”

12. Helicoptering.

“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.”

13. Close enough!

“I 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.”

How about you?

Have you had any weird encounters on Zoom during school or work?

Tell us your stories in the comments!