Patrick Osborn, a meteorologist at WABI-TV in Bangor, Maine, recently got some national attention. However, it may not be the kind he wanted, after a laughter attack struck on the morning report on Sunday, August 23. While giving the hour-by-hour forecast, he slowly started chuckling to himself until he had a complete meltdown.
“Sorry, we’re having a little bit of a scene off-screen,” he said before the laughter gremlins took over his entire body, live on television. “We gotta finish up this weather right now,” he said before he threw his hands over his mouth and started squealing, “I’m so sorry.”
Eventually, Osborn had to walk off camera while he gave high-pitched mumbles that sound like an old-school tape deck on fast-forward. “I’ve never had this happen before. Oh! Geez,” he exclaimed off-camera. “All right, let me get it together real quick. I’m so sorry,” he said before making inaudible noises that sounded a bit like weather terminology.
Finally, Osborn made it back to the video board with a few seconds to spare, prompting anchor Josh Gabbard to ask: “Whatever happened to professionalism, Patrick?”
Maine weatherman loses it on live TV
The next day, after video of Osborn’s epic meltdown went all over the country, he returned to the news desk to share just what in the world was so funny. “A lot of times, something funny happens, and I’m able to contain myself — but this one, it was just a little too overwhelming,” Osborn said, adding that the anchor who was sitting off-camera, Gabbard, was “laughing his butt off,” which made it even harder for him to keep it together.
What made Patrick Osborn laugh so hard?
An old joke that dates back to the Peanuts cartoon TV specials from the ‘60s is what reduced Osborn to hysterics. During the commercial break, Osborn wanted to make fun of newscaster Gabbard’s “yapping,” so they played a clip of the sound adults make when they talk in the Peanuts cartoons: a nonsensical womp-womp-womp sound. However, according to Osborn, the prank “backfired.”
“So I pulled it [the Peanuts audio] up on a video in the weather center,” Osborn recalled. “I thought it was a five-second video, quick sound just to egg Josh on for a little bit. Turned out it was one of those hour-long compilations where it just periodically plays it every couple minutes.” Twenty seconds into Osborn’s forecast, he started hearing the Charlie Brown sound effect, and he couldn’t handle how funny it was.
“And I tried to get through it!” Osborn continued. “Josh had to leave the studio; I was able to contain myself, but when he came back, and we heard it one more time, we just started losing it.” And the rest is history, as they say.”
All in all, Osborn has a good sense of humor about his viral moment and seems to be taking it in stride. “At least, I’ll be known for something,” he joked, before admitting. “Maybe I’d choose other things to be known for.”
