We live in a world where most of us have to use Zoom these days…which can be good and bad.

Good because it makes learning and meetings a lot easier, bad because, well…we’re still living through a pandemic and we can’t do some things 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. You got a free performance.

“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.”

2. At least you laughed.

“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*tch!”, just before she realized her mic was on and turned it off.

I just laughed.”

3. You do you.

“A third grade kid stopped in the middle of the class meeting and took his laptop to the bathroom with him.

He sat on the toilet for the rest of the meeting.”

4. Baby talk.

“I was in a meeting with my class for the first day of school and I forgot to mute myself.

I then proceeded to start noisily baby-talking my cat, who was in my lap at the time.

Embarrassing.”

5. Get it, bro!

“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.”

6. He blew it!

“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 realized”

7. Hot for teacher.

“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. Don’t disturb Mommy.

“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.””

9. Thanks, Mom.

“A girl’s mom: “Who the f*ck 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”.”

10. Oops.

“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.”

11. So do I…

“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*cking hate math.””

12. Good one!

“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…”

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

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

His name lit up and everything.”

14. 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.”

15. 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.”

16. I h**e 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. “”

17. 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.”

18. 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.”

19. 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.”

20. 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.”

21. 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.”

22. 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”

23. 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.”

24. 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.”

25. 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!