Oh Crap/Real Life



"I was the first tank coming ashore and the Germans started opening up with machine guns. But when we came to a halt on the beach, it was only then that they realized we were a tank when we pulled down our canvas skirt, the floatation gear. Then they saw that we were Shermans. It was quite amazing. I still remember very vividly some of the machine gunners standing up in their posts looking at us with their mouths wide open. To see tanks coming out of the water shook them rigid."
 * A seal, about to get eaten by a shark. Turns out that the facial expression for "Oh crap, I am about to get eaten by a shark," is exactly the same between seals and humans.
 * Nicolae Ceauşescu, Communist dictator of Romania who gunned down his own people to stay in power, had one of these during the revolutions of 1989. With nearly every other Communist government in Eastern Europe swept away, he held a rally to encourage support for the government... only to see the expected cheers of the crowd he was trying to address dissolve into boos and hisses. The look of complete incomprehension on his face is still one of the most memorable images of that time.
 * Bobby Fischer once said that his favorite part of chess was the moment when his opponent realizes that he's lost.
 * This is especially pronounced if they had previously thought they were winning.
 * The Nazis underwent a pronounced series of these. The first to twig was Fritz Todt in 1941. He was asked to chair an investigation to see if Germany's industry could supply it with the arms to win a war against the British Empire and the U.S.S.R. He found not only that it couldn't even come close, but that if the USA entered the war then the Third Reich was completely screwed. No one listened to him. It just went downhill from there.
 * According to those who were present, the Soviet Foreign Commissar Vyacheslav Molotov and their Ambassador to Germany, Vladimir Dekanozov, had these when told about the the outbreak of Operation Barbarossa.
 * This hockey picture.
 * A Who Wants to Be a Millionaire contestant (at 0:27 of the vid), when she jumped on an answer without reading them all fully, and realized her error right after validating her answer.
 * It's said that when Robespierre, head of the original Reign of Terror, realized that his own insanely strict policies were being used against him, you could see LAYERS of Oh Crap expressions on his face as he realized what was going to happen.
 * Man gets hit by Port-Oh-John. "Oh, crap" indeed.
 * Kasparov makes a wrong move playing against Anand. His Oh Crap face and body language are priceless.
 * Shortly after GPS became available/known to the general public, a reporter covering the development closed out a report, reading from the teleprompter in normal TV-reporter-voice, "for instance, if I were to wear a helmet containing a GPS transmitter, my bosses at {network} would be always able to tell my location, within 3 meters, anywhere in the world." A split second later, just before the camera breaks off, you can see him realize what he just said-- the look is priceless.
 * BBC weatherman Tomasz Schafernaker gave a sarcastic newsreader the finger, realising a split-second too late that he was live on air.
 * BBC News accidentally put a prospective janitor on the air after mistaking him for a technology expert. The look on his face when he realizes he's live on air has to be seen to be believed. He then proceeds to successfully fake his way through the interview.
 * One firefighter described an occasion where he was in a hot, smoke-filled, burning building, and felt something hot against his inner thigh. Let's put that into perspective: he felt something hot against his inner thigh, through several layers of material designed to allow him to work in a burning building. A close inspection of the object revealed it to be a scalding hot pressurized oxygen tank. He described the ensuing physical response as a "Pucker Moment."
 * From Apollo XIII, the immortal line: "Houston, we've had a problem."
 * Michael J. Smith, pilot of STS-51-L (Challenger shuttle), uttered "Uh Oh..." before the data recorder cut out.
 * According to The Sun, several chavs were breaking into vans on a council estate... only one happened to be manned by 4 SAS operatives. Full story here.
 * Chatfield, there seems to be something wrong with our bloody ships today. Admiral David Beatty witnessing battlecruiser HMS Invincible exploding in the battle of Jutland 1916. It was the third Royal Navy battlecruiser blowing up that day. A poorly placed ammunition dump and an impressive amount of operational stupidity were involved... but let's face it, the real deathblow was giving the ship that name.
 * Get anywhere near a wild rabbit and it has this reaction. Justified, as there's always something looking for a tasty smeerp.
 * Whilst filming Monty Pythons Life of Brian, the extras for the 'Biggus Dickus' scene hadn't been told anything except "stand there and look serious" so their laughter was genuine. One of the extras has a clear "oh crap" face at the line "he has a wife you know..."
 * The moment the Second Tower was hit, and we all realized that no, this was not a random accident - this was a deliberate terrorist attack.
 * The moment when you, playing Preferans, claim mizer, take the prikup and it is revealed to be two aces.
 * Happens to nine out of ten pedophiles in To Catch a Predator the moment Chris Hansen walks in the door.
 * Aeroperú flight 603. "We are impacting water!!!".
 * Even more literal in Flying Tiger Line Flight 66 crash. This almost always happens in airplane crashes.
 * Many students, upon looking a test or exam over and realizing that they don't know the material quite as well as they thought they did.
 * Rick Perry during the November 9, 2011 debate during the run for the Republican nomination, forgets one of the three cabinet level departments he wants to cut.
 * Averted with Herman Cain, another Republican candidate for the 2012 presidential elections, when he says that Libya will end up in the hands of the Taliban.
 * This poor punter from the University of Michigan takes a snapped football off the top of his helmet. Watch his reaction here.
 * Four words you never want to hear, especially if you know he's in your neighbourhood: "Jim Cantore has evacuated."
 * One of the most famous video clips of George W Bush - the expression on his face when he was informed about the 9/11 attacks while visiting an elementary school classroom full of children.
 * At the end of Bill Grundy's notorious interview with the Sex Pistols, he appeared to mumble 'oh shit' under his breath. 'Oh shit' indeed - the profanity-laden interview turned his name to mud overnight.
 * The Normandy Invasion in World War II used DD Tanks, a very early amphibious model which had a skirt that extended up higher than the turret, providing buoyancy. They weren't as effective as hoped, and on Omaha beach almost all of them sank before reaching shore, but the first to actually reach Juno beach looked out and later shared their view:

"It's the whole damn Jap Navy!"
 * At Midway, the scout Catalina's co-pilot the day before the battle proper happened.


 * I thought that was what they wanted?
 * And later, as the crews of the Japanese carriers were watching the anti-aircraft and fighter cover massacre the low flying torpedo bombers, somebody finally looked up to see the American dive bombers rolling into their dives.
 * If your hard drive starts beeping, it has a bad problem such as stuck spindle or bad heads. This will probably be your reaction.
 * Or the infamous "click of death".
 * The lack of a single, short beep upon powering a computer. It means something (hopefully fixable) is wrong.