I’m still holding out hope that this will happen to me one day in my life. Perhaps it will be because of something heroic I do or I’ll give some great impromptu performance…or maybe it’ll never happen at all.
Have you ever seen a bunch of people break into applause because of what someone did in public?
These stories from AskReddit users will give you some hope.
1. Leg fell asleep, sorry.
“Was being inducted into the national honor society in high school, and had to sit in front of the whole school during the ceremony. I was so nervous I didn’t want to move, so kept my legs crossed.
Leg fell asleep, they called my name to come up. I nearly fell down when I tried to put weight on it (again, in front of the entire school). I manage to stumble to the front, where a senior is ready to read off my accomplishments. He puts his arm around me and literally holds me up till I get to light my candle or whatever and got to go sit down, at which point everybody clapped.
That was over 20 years ago and my buddies still won’t let me forget it, as they shouldn’t.”
2. Thundering applause.
“Did a 5k race dressed as Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz last October…everyone (race volunteers, people that have already finished, and spectators) were all mildly cheering as folks approached/crossed the finish line, but about two dozen feet from the end I started skipping like I was on the yellow brick road and off to see the Wizard!
It was like a Munchkinland farewell because the vague cheers turned into ROARS AND THUNDERING APPLAUSE. I was Dorothy Gale and I just dropped my house on a mfing witch.”
3. At the ballgame.
“Many years ago, I was at a SF Giants game at Candlestick Park. This was back when they were owned by a man named Bob Lurie, who was trying to sell the team to Florida. The game went into extra innings and ended up tying the record for the longest extra inning game ever played there.
It was so late in the evening, they were showing “Late Night with Dave Letterman” on the big screen, in between innings. Seeing Letterman reminded me of this bit he once did involving the owner of GE (his boss) and a megaphone. So with the Giants on the field, and barely 200 die hard fans left in the park, I yelled at the top on my voice, “MY NAME IS BOB LURIE, AND I’M NOT WEARING ANY PANTS!”
I swear to God, SF infielder Robbie Thompson and one of the umpires cranked their heads around and looked in my direction in the upper section. The crowd erupted in laughter, and I got a STANDING ovation.”
4. Forget it.
“Took a small role in my high school production of West Side Story to get over my fear of public speaking. Show night comes and one of the gang members (Shark or Jet – I don’t remember) gets down on one knee to deliver his line to me with his fly wide open (unbeknownst to him).
He had a dumb look on his face because he was mocking me (Officer Krupke) as part of the scene. The whole thing got the better of me and I lost it (laughing) when I tried to deliver my 2 simple lines. Could. Not. Recover. I eventually laughed out the words, “Aww forget it” and walked off stage. Received a standing O at the end (for being a trooper I guess).
Next night, same scenario, except EVERYONE has their flies down this time. Rinse and repeat. And everybody clapped. The end. Needless to say, I only further exacerbated my fear of public speaking.”
5. Proud of yourself.
“In trucking school this past month I struggled to learn manual… got frustrated as fuck and started getting depressed that I’d never get to truckin. After a few days of grinding and frustration I went to sleep… woke up next morning and got back in.
The other student learning with me was in back… i shifted, next gear.. next gear, button flip 6th gear.. downshifted revved and did a double down made a turn and went back to shifting… round and round I went… instructor and classmate clapped for me and cheered me on. I did 300 miles today in a 10 speed peterbuilt on I-4 and 75 North to Georgia with those guys while getting our mileage in. I grinded 2 or 3 gears on offramps but I did it. I am proud of myself today.”
6. Rocky Horror Picture Show.
“I was at a showing of Rocky Horror at a friend’s college; it was my third time at one, but my first time at THAT one. I quickly learned the things you yell at the screen during the film may be regional.
At the movie’s (arguable) climax, a character is turned into marble statue where one breast is noticeably larger than the other. Prepared from my past two showings and confident from my success shouting in unison with strangers, I bellowed ‘NOW THAT’S WHAT I CALL A BLT: A BIG LEFT TIT.’
It was around ‘WHAT’ I realized literally no one else was yelling. No one. I started to pull back and wanted to go quiet, but I felt my brain refuse to back down. I finished the bellow halfway down my seat in embarrassment, but then the best thing possible happened.
Everyone laughed. Then some people clapped. Then more people clapped. Most of them hadn’t heard it before, and most of them thought it was hilarious. It was genuinely one of the best moments of my life, I’m taking that shit to my grave.”
7. At the lock-in.
“I was at a “lock in” at my fencing center, and to pass the time we had a bunch of video games to play, typically we just played SSBM but Rockband had recently come out and everyone was still infatuated with it. I had been playing guitar hero for years before RB ever came out so I was relatively proficient, could play all songs comfortably on expert.
We played a bunch of different songs with varied results, no one was doing anything that impressive though. At some point we chose the song Highway Star by Deep Purple (a childhood favorite of mine), and during the main solo with all the squeadlies I absolutely fucking NAILED it! Got something like 98% for the solo sequence on expert, I had even used the silly little solo buttons they had. Like 10-15 kids were all watching it and they all hooped and hollered gave me congratulations after the song ended.
I actually have a few great stories about impressing people with my GH abilities. By no means am I near the best, but back in 2008 I definitely put a lot of time into being “party” good.”
8. Revenge is sweet.
“I was bullied fairly badly at school, one day one of the them started on me. Basically started shouting at me till he went red, threatened to beat me up so I told him to go through with it. He pushed me, so I picked him up onto my shoulder one handed. Walked out the door threw him to the floor, locked the door after and he had to walk the whole way round the school.
Pretty much everyone around me cheered, he lost his reputation overnight, and I never had issues with people starting on me after. Only regret is not responding earlier as it would have likely stopped a few years earlier.”
9. Wish it was on video.
“High school guy’s cheerleading event for homecoming, my senior year. Southern baptist school, so very conservative. Normally the guys could bring their own CDs for the cheer music, but the year before the guys had included rap in their playlist (nothing with swearing, even; they did one of those sort of lame but also wholesome rap-vs-country dance off things). The school admins freaked out and limited future events to a single CD of songs that the faculty had approved of.
My male classmates complained that our show was gonna suck. Constantly. They were so mad and fed up. Then homecoming day rolls around, and cheer guys shut off gym lights and do a fucking blacklight show to Glitch Mob’s We Can Make The World Stop. They circumvented the music restriction by playing the music themselves.
We had a literal music prodigy in our grade, and his guitar was on point. Metal garage cans with neon drumsticks for percussion, elaborate slow-mo re-enactment of an epic football game—it was jaw-dropping incredible, and all the more so because no one knew it was going to happen. The guys had been fake practicing a boring routine at school for weeks, then practiced the real thing in secret.
And then in the final, lights-on scene, a dude grabbed his junk and did a hip thrust. The school increased restrictions even further after that, but our grade got to go down in history for topping the rap-country dance battle and permanently neutering the guys cheerleading event for future generations.
Sadly, no one got it on video. The guys had been so busy emphasizing how awful their show would be, no one thought to record it.”
10. Showed him.
“Skinny kid in gym class getting picked on, same ol same ol. Somebody decided to throw a soccer ball at him like an asshole, and the skinny kid punted it, across the gym, into a fucking basketball hoop. It was silent for like 5 seconds, and then everyone went apeshit.”
11. You can leave now.
“I lived across the street from a rooftop restaurant. It’s the dead of Summer, everyone has their windows open. Some guy decides he is going to entertain the neighborhood with a djembe drum, except he was HORRIBLE. I’m a drummer, and had a djembe too.
After 5-10 minutes of audio assault, I arranged my drum and I in my third floor window, one up from the restaurant. I pounded my drum with all of my heart and soul, and I made it as impressive as possible. I did a big finale after about 60 seconds. He got up and walked away. The entire rooftop restaurant applauded me.”
12. The big speech.
“We had to do an end of the school year speech in my 12th grade English class, and I wrote a very cliched “time to grow up” -style speech and actually practiced it, so it wasn’t an ‘um’ filled presentation and then at the end people clapped, about 10% more than the obligatory applause that everyone’s speech got.
And I still talk about it, 19 years later, for internet points. Now I get paid to talk to people.”
13. Rally around.
“When I first started doing CrossFit, I was struggling during a workout and was the last one trying to finish. Everyone gathered around for my final set to support me. I did my final rep and everyone clapped. Then I laid on the floor until my heart rate went back down.”
14. Aced it!
“True story: I used to constantly cut class in high school. One day, for whatever reason, I showed up to English class. Just my luck it’s midterm time. I take the test. The next week when I showed up, late of course, I walked in and everyone started clapping.
I’m like wth. Turns out I not only got the highest score in the class but also the whole school. My teacher was so proud and really took a personal interest in me after that. He would give me books to read all the time. He was my favorite teacher till he died.”
15.
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16. An upset victory.
“In the first round of a huge, prestigious chess tournament, I got paired with the #1-rated player, a foreign grandmaster. Most of the games took place in a giant ballroom, but the top two boards were in a separate room. A big audience sat and watched those two games; the moves were displayed on giant vertical boards that the audience could see.
I was a pretty good player, but this was the first time I had ever played a grandmaster, and this guy was famous for being a world-class player, even better than most other grandmasters. The audience assumed he’d crush me; so did I.
To shorten a long story, I played the game of my life. I got a good position, sacrificed some pieces to put his king in danger, and finally finished him off by threatening an unstoppable checkmate. The audience watched all of this on the giant board.
When my opponent shook my hand, indicating that he was resigning, the whole audience started clapping. You rarely hear that at a chess tournament, and I certainly hadn’t expected it. (The applause may have bothered the guys playing on board 2, but it didn’t last long.)
There’s a well-known story about an old-time grandmaster who played a winning move that was so brilliant, the spectators showered the board with gold pieces. That didn’t happen for me … but the audience clapping for my upset victory was a perfect moment anyway.”
Well, those sure are interesting, right?
So, now it’s your turn.
Have you ever seen this happen before?
If so, tell us about it in the comments.
The post People Talk About When They Saw Crowds Spontaneously Erupt Into Applause appeared first on UberFacts.
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It is OKAY to not have the same feelings right when the other person does!”
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mark magark
(@enjixcx) 
