Plans That Didn’t Go As Expected - Part 4

Benjamin Franklin once said, “if you fail to plan, you are planning to fail”. But sometimes, no matter how much planning is involved, a task can still veer comically far off its intended outcome. From hilarious failed attempts at deception to jaw-dropping scuba-dive surprises, here are some plans that definitely didn’t go as expected.

The Purest Intentions

When it comes to planning sneaky ways to defy their significant-others, men can get pretty creative at times. Unfortunately, though, sometimes those plans simply aren’t well thought out enough to fool their wives for long. That was the case for one man from Taiwan in December 2020, when he purchased a PS5 despite his wife forbidding him to.

Attempting to make the most of the fact that the design of the PS5 looks undeniably like some kind of air-purifier, he told his other half the mysterious new device in their living room was exactly that. And, hilariously, it worked for a while until she figured out the truth.

While the exact details of how the deception unraveled were not revealed, perhaps the realization occurred when his wife noticed most air-purifiers aren’t controlled by a PlayStation controller. Nor can you play Call of Duty on them. However it unfolded, the unfortunate fellow was forced to watch in horror as his wife sold the console online for a painfully-low price.

Golfer VS Magpie

When one casual golfer in Kent, England attempted to tee off at the 6th hole of his local course, his sporting plans were thwarted by an unexpected adversary. As he prepared to take a swing, his golf ball was knocked off the tee by a pesky magpie. While magpies are known for being naturally curious, it seemed that one had more of a mischievous streak.

As the above captured video shows, the bird knocked the ball off again and again then retreated a little, before doing it again. Thankfully, the magpie let him tee off eventually, rather than pursuing that poor soul for the rest of his golfing career. Though he’ll probably be keeping an ear out for the flapping of wings next time he hits the greens!

Fashion In Disguise

In 2019, Reddit user MisterShine shared their story of a sneaky plan that got way out of hand. When MisterShine was working as the editor for a low-budget magazine, money was too tight to be able to afford hiring a fashion correspondent. But with fashion being an ever-popular topic, it needed coverage.

So, MisterShine came up with a plan. He would work as the correspondent, but to make it seem the magazine had really hired a fashion writer, he’d pen the articles under a female name. The plan went great for several months, and the fake female writers’ articles were well-received.

That was until “she” was invited to attend a clothing launch event. Seemingly unwilling to either pull a full Mrs. Doubtfire or come clean, MisterShine’s entire ruse came to an end, and he hung up his pen-name for good. Which is a shame because he totally could’ve just pretended his female name was given to him by his parents, with no respect for his dignity!

Rough Landings

Sometimes, a plan going wrong is simply an opportunity to learn. And when you’re very young, those kind of lessons happen all the time. One such instance was captured on camera in summer 2020, when a 5 year old in Whitley Bay, England attempted to test her scooter skills on sand.

While she might not stick the landing quite as she’d intended, she gets back up on her feet like a trooper. A mouthful of sand in exchange for a valuable life-lesson in where not to scoot is probably worth it as long she doesn’t try it again.

Two similar, consecutive incidents of, "do it once, you won’t do it again" were captured on camera in February 2020. While playing at a park in the UK, a young lad loses his footing in a spectacular manner while attempting to jump into a muddy puddle.

With his face fully-coated in mud, you’d think his young friends might’ve taken heed of how to avoid a similar mistake on their jumps. However, the girl next in line seems only to learn exactly the wrong technique for avoiding eating a mud-pie, and does this in the footage below:

Taking a crash-course lesson in both gravity and acrobatics, the girl learns that in order to successfully leap, and not belly-flop, you need to move your legs. But with their plans for fun gone terribly astray, those kids probably won’t make a flop of that kind again.

Unexpected Surprise

When you’re suffering from minor bodily pain, an aspirin can work wonders. But unfortunately, the efforts of Reddit user KatOfTheEssence to remedy a headache were foiled in the worst possible way when she fumbled around for pain-killers late at night. She grabbed a pill-bottle, popped the lid and sunk a couple “aspirins”, ready for relief.

But any relief was soon replaced by horror when she realized the error she’d made. Being exhausted from a long day, she’d failed to realize that instead of aspirin, she’d picked up something with a very similar label, and very similar-looking pills: laxatives.

She only realized her blunder when the sudden, powerful urge to empty her bowels struck her an hour later. So, instead of being able to go to bed pain-free for a much needed sleep, she was confined to the toilet. And the worst part? She still had a headache.

The 335 Year War

In the 1980s, historian Roy Duncan delved into the origins of something he and many others assumed to be a myth about the Isles of Scilly. Expecting to disprove a local legend, he never could’ve guessed the outcome of his research. The myth held that, back in 1651, a state of war was declared between the Netherlands and the Isles of Scilly, a small archipelago off the coast of Cornwall, England.

That war rumor had it, had never been officially resolved with a peace treaty, despite no combat ever occurring between the two, for over 300 years. So, when Roy Duncan set out to apply a historian’s scrutiny to the matter, he was confident it was simply a Scilly old wives’ tale.

But after some thorough research, he was shocked to find that the absurd-seeming claim was in fact absolutely true! His research proved that war had indeed been declared between the two unlikely foes during the English Civil War. That occurred after the Netherlands demanded reparation for damage caused to their naval fleet by the English Royalist forces.

At that point, the Royalists were losing the civil war against the English Parliamentarians, and they’d been forced to retreat to the Isles of Scilly. That was where the Netherlands’ navy closed in on them, and when their demands for reparations were refused, Dutch Lieutenant-Admiral Maarten Harpertszoon Tromp declared war on the Isles of Scilly.

That declaration of war, it turned out, had never been resolved. So, Roy Duncan invited a Dutch ambassador to visit the island to finally resolve the so-called “conflict”. He agreed to come, joking that it must’ve been terrifying for the Scilly residents to know the Dutch could’ve attacked at any moment!

Peace was officially declared on 17th April 1986, exactly 335 years after the declaration of one of the longest and least bloody wars in history. While intending to prove an absurd claim was little more than legend, Roy Duncan inadvertently both uncovered and helped resolve an active war!

Tumble-Bot 9000

When you think of robots, you probably imagine futuristic marvels of technology. That was the kind of optimistic thinking on the minds of St. Louis city authorities back in 2016, when they deployed a robot to deal with a potential bomb threat.

However, even with the advanced engineering responsible for the little wheeling robot’s mission, it proved some way off being a viable, permanent replacement for real man-power. Its mission started off strong, trundling along to the scene with confidence, aiming to prevent any humans needing to be put at risk.

The robot, however, soon learned the real world can be a cruel mistress, and minutes later, was pictured having fallen over on a hill. Luckily, the bomb threat proved nothing more than a package left unattended, but hopefully the next time the robot is needed, it’ll be a little better at navigating basic terrain.

Splash Landing

The trouble with extreme activities like paragliding is that, if something goes wrong, there’s a risk of at worst serious danger, or at best an unexpectedly inconvenient landing. The latter is what happened to a pair of strapped together paragliders in Pokhara, Nepal in October 2020.

During a breath taking glide, the person steering attempted to fly downward so he and his passenger could glide gracefully just above the water. Unfortunately, neither the wind, nor the steering, were in his favor, and he lost control.

Waterpark fail part2 #fails #funnyvideos by Digest Laughing

In an instant, the passenger’s expression changes from joy to shock as they crash unexpectedly into the water. While unpleasant, the landing gone awry certainly wasn’t as bad as it could’ve been on land or over a volcano. But even so, the passenger in that unusual tandem certainly didn’t seem best pleased about putting his life in the hands of someone who couldn’t avoid splash-landing.

Johnny Carson And The Great Toilet Paper Shortage Of 1973

When someone takes a joke too far, it’s usually the person telling the joke. For America’s legendary late night talk show host Johnny Carson, however, one of his jokes was taken too far by his audience, who failed to realize he was making a joke at all. On a 1973 episode of The Tonight Show, Johnny jokingly announced that America was facing an acute toilet paper shortage.

Johnny Carson Jokes About The Recent Toilet Paper Shortage - 12/19/1973 by Johnny Carson

He was, in reality, merely exaggerating for comic effect one congressman’s statement that there may potentially be a shortage of toilet paper within a few months. The congressman was only referring to commercial toilet paper, though, for soldiers and bureaucrats, not the stuff used by the public and sold in stores.

However, Johnny didn’t specify that in his joke, and as a result, huge swathes of his massive 20 million strong audience flocked to grocery stores to bulk-buy! In a toilet paper panic comparable to the great TP scare of 2020, citizens across the United States raided the shelves of wiping-paper en masse. The effect was so substantial that, in New York City, an actual shortage was triggered, and shelves didn’t return to their usual, fully-stocked levels for another 3 weeks!

Carson eventually clarified on a later episode of the Tonight Show that he’d been joking, and apologized for accidentally causing a toilet paper shortage. When compared to the toilet-paper carnage of 2020, it just goes to show: even nearly 50 years on, people don’t change all that much. Especially when wiping’s involved.

Kleptomaniac Kookaburra

According to the Australian man who features in a hilarious video from November 2020, on a warm evening, there’s nothing better than a beer and some snags. For non-Aussies in the audience, a snag means a sausage, preferably barbequed. But when that relaxed Aussie shared his evening’s relaxation on camera with the world, his snag was snagged by someone who hadn’t received an invite to the sausage party.

With perfect comedic timing, a nearby bird, a kookaburra swoops past and makes a steal, having caught sight of the tasty snack. Unsurprisingly, the snag gang are left equal parts baffled and amused by the fly-by robbery. But when it comes to a BBQ, you should always share the wealth, right?

Drive-Thru Chaos

When kids are involved, any occasion that would otherwise be simple fun can rapidly devolve into total pandemonium. One family from North Carolina realized that fact in June 2020, when they attempted to take a nice family trip to a drive-thru zoo. All was going well until a group of friendly cattle approached the car and stuck their curious heads through the open windows. While the cattle were harmless, the kids in the car didn’t see it that way, and began screaming, resulting in scenes of total, utter chaos.

The kids’ aunt can be seen crying with uncontrollable laughter in the passenger seat, while their grandma tries desperately to regain control, encouraging the kids to “shoo” the animals away. What’s more, the kid in the front quickly becomes nauseated by the pungent smell of the cattle, and throws up off-camera on his aunt’s lap, who continues crying with laughter, nonetheless.

What a good sport. Never before has a plan diverged so drastically from a nice, calm family trip to the zoo into such uninhibited chaos. Well, at least without someone being eaten by an animal. But unlike that amazing clip, that wouldn’t be quite so side-splittingly funny.

One Final Mishap

When it comes time for the final curtain call and you cease to be alive, there’s at least one positive. It tends to mean that nothing bad will ever happen to you again seeing as your life is over. But one unfortunate member of the recently deceased club had one final bad day after they kicked the bucket back in 2013.

Captured on camera in Drogheda, Ireland, a coffin can be seen in the image above dangling out of the hearse that was supposed to transfer the occupant safely to their final resting-place. As if they hadn’t already been through enough! As it turned out, the undertaker had failed to properly clamp the coffin in the hearse, causing it to shoot out the back window when he accelerated from a set of traffic-lights.

You’ll be pleased to know, the person who snapped the pic did get out of their car and help the undertaker, who must’ve been feeling quite distressed to say the least. But not before snapping up a pic that perfectly epitomizes dark humor.

Culinary Disasters

One of the most common things to go badly wrong is attempting to cook a new recipe. While the number of times one rookie chef attempted to recreate a cute, fancy-looking omelet is unknown, considering the result of their efforts, you'd doubt they’ll be trying again. Check out their culinary results below.

Truly horrifying. The same can be said for what happened when one amateur baker tried to replicate those SpongeBob cookies.

The drooping attempt at a Smurf cupcake below, meanwhile, seemed to be saying, “please kill me all I know is suffering.”

And don’t even get me started on the hell-spawn Elmo cake.

But other culinary disasters are less terrifying and more pitiful. Like one Redditor’s wife’s attempt at making croissants for breakfast.

Or an Imgur user’s attempt to recreate a Food Network recipe for Brown Sugar Pecan Bears. But the reigning champ of culinary disasters has to be the Reddit user responsible for this in the image below.

In case you can’t tell, that’s a potato. And it’s glowing like the fires of Mount Doom. The inept chef claimed to have microwaved the potato for 10 minutes, which is slightly overkill, although the results are still more extreme than you’d expect.

Some Reddit commenters theorized that total disaster may have been caused by dirt or sprouting on the potato, though the explanation remains uncertain. Whatever was the cause, it turned what was once a root vegetable into a personal volcano. Which, in some ways, is actually kind of impressive.

Branches From Above

Being so large, trees can pose a lot of danger when people attempt to cut them down even rotten, dead ones. People who fell trees for a living know that better than anyone, and usually make sure to give trees a wide berth before yanking them down to the ground.

However, sometimes, even a well-planned and well-executed tree-felling can veer into unexpectedly dangerous territory, as one group of fellers found out in 2018. While bringing down an old, dead pine tree in Camp Hill, Alabama, at what seemed a safe distance, this happened in the video below:

Considering how fast that stray branch came flying over, it’s certainly lucky they were wearing hard hats! When a heavy tree branch falls the distance to the ground, it generates a lot of force. And in that case, it looks like the stray piece was flung by another, larger chunk landing on it, flipping it and propelling it at an alarming speed. While one of the men took a relatively minor impact to the hand as the heavy branch soared past, everyone made it out miraculously unscathed.

The Price Of Beauty

One of the worst times for a plan to go badly wrong is when someone’s actively trying to do something to improve themselves. Particularly when they’re trying to make themselves a bit nicer on the eyes. A couple of instances of people trying to make themselves look better with the extreme opposite effect have occurred in recent years, all thanks to hair-dye.

Many hair-dyes, unfortunately, contain a chemical called paraphenylenediamine, which for some people, causes severe irritation and allergic reactions. Unfortunately, many people who eventually suffer allergic reactions to that chemical don’t tend to encounter it until they slather it all over the top of their head as they attempt to dye their hair. As a result, something they didn’t even know they were allergic to brings on a crazy reaction, resulting in something like this below-

The extreme swelling occurs as the body’s immune system reacts to the allergen, triggering fluids to accumulate under the skin. Because so much of the chemical is used in covering the entire scalp for hair-dying, the swelling occasionally reaches those ridiculous proportions.

Most of those unfortunate reactions result in a very embarrassed trip to the E.R. to be treated until the unlucky individual’s head returns to non-Squidward proportions. So, if a new hair color is calling out to you, test a tiny amount first before you cover your head with something that might turn you into a human balloon.

Ambitious Amphibian

Ever heard the phrase "your eyes are bigger than your belly?" Well, one green tree frog from Australia decided to take the phrase to the extreme in November 2020. The hungry little fellow attempted to make an entire human woman its dinner after she offered it a tasty fly, with hilarious results.

Clearly, the frog saw the fly as merely an appetizer, and possibly mistook the finger for a big, juicy worm. Unfortunately, though, its ambition didn’t quite pay off, and try as it might, was left feebly munching on a meal that just wouldn’t stay down.

Crushing It

For someone without the necessary special awareness or pedal control, the simple task of parking a car can quickly turn into total disaster. That’s what happened to one Californian motorist, who hit the accelerator instead of the breaks inside a multi-storey car park in 2018.

While driving straight through the guard rails 5 storeys up would usually mean certain death, they had some serious luck on their side. Suspended by the strong metal cables, the car was prevented from plummeting to the ground, and the driver was miraculously unharmed! Another case of appalling pedal control with an ironic twist occurred in 2017 in New Jersey, when a woman literally drove through the wall of a drive-thru pharmacy.

Car Crash into CVS in Union by RLS Metro Breaking News

Either she made a serious blunder in hitting the wrong pedal, or she seriously misunderstood the concept of a drive-thru! On the bright side, the parking space fit like a glove. Then there’s that guy, whose plan for a nice day of cycling after parking up went totally awry, after he forgot the bikes were secured to his roof.

On the bright side, once he got the bikes detached, at least he had an alternative vehicle to ride home on! But sometimes unexpected vehicular mishaps aren’t the fault of the driver. Just take the eyebrow-raising image below for example.

That was the outcome when flood waters short-circuited a state of the art, motorized underground mini-garage, causing it to malfunction. The contraption rose up, crushing the upper vehicle, while the one below was ruined by flood waters!

Seal Of Approval

There are a lot of things that can go wrong when scuba diving, many of which are plainly terrifying. But one scuba diver had his plans go slightly astray in a way that was more cute than frightening in May 2020. While diving off the coast of Northumberland, England, Ben Burville encountered a pair of friendly, curious seals and attempted to capture their encounter on video.

What he didn’t account for, though, was the interest one of the seals would take in his scuba hood. While the other distracted him with its cute, whiskery face, the more mischievous seal attempted to make the hood its own, much to the diver’s surprise!

Diver's Been Playing With Wild Seals For 20 Years | The Dodo Wild Hearts by The Dodo

The seal clearly liked the hood, but was disappointed to find it was securely attached. Thankfully, it lost interest after a moment, because with its sharp, jagged teeth, the aquatic mammal probably could’ve made off with it anyway if it really wanted. But the seal was either too polite, or just decided the hood wasn’t quite their color.

If you were amazed at these plans that didn't go as expected, you might want to read parts 1, 2 and 3. Thanks for reading.