the time I got embarrassed

by D.O.

Having just finished up a meeting with a fellow photographer at The Pearl Cup, I decided to stick around and finish up various Internet-related projects that needed tending to. The time was approximately 10:30 am, the day: Martin Luther King.

It seemed as though the whole of Dallas decided to spend this particular part of their holiday at the home of the award-winning Pearl Latte. The line was out the door, and seating had been scarce an hour prior when I’d arrived, forcing me to sit at the bar amidst all of the action of order-placings and drink-picking-ups. So I found myself quite literally in the middle of the mid-morning madness when I received an email entitled, simply, “funny.”

The email’s content was as simple as its title. Nothing more than a link to a YouTube video. I put in my headphones, clicked the link and the five-and-a-half minute video began loading. The clip’s title and description caught my attention and caused me to deem the video worthy of a view. And with that, the video began streaming.

Within the first twenty seconds, my failed attempts at stifled laughter ensued. Within the first minute, it was clear that my so-called tickle box had been tumped over, and wouldn’t soon be restored. I tried as hard as I could to keep from bursting out in such a way that would cause the 70+ coffee lovers to stop and stare at me. (Remember, I was in the eye of the tornado that hit TPC just 10 minutes prior to clicking the link.) The result was that kind of stupid sounding (and looking) laughter that you do when you’re in the children’s choir at church and Brad Smith does something wildly inappropriate during a Christmas musical.

I could hardly breath. My smile was so big that I couldn’t open my eyes. I was sweating and crying, and doubtless my head was red as a beet. At about the three-and-a-half minute mark, I turned the video off, overwhelmed with embarrassment for how absurd I had to have looked. I kept laughing at least another minute after I’d stopped the video, at this point motivated both by funny things from the clip that still lingered in my mind and by the fact that I was caught off guard by how hard I was laughing, which apparently makes me laugh more.

It wasn’t until half an hour later when I was back home at Sandia that I finished watching the video. It was just about as funny the second time as it was the first. And with that, I give you the video. I sincerely hope that you watch this at work and laugh to the point of crying while all your coworkers stare on, bewildered.

*Disclaimer: This video is rated PG (maybe PG-13), and revolves around a drunk guy. In posting it and thinking it’s hysterical, I am in no way condoning or glorifying getting drunk. At least I’m not trying to…