upworthy

twitter

Danielle Marie Carolan/Wikimedia Commons

Jimmy Fallon asked his fans to share stories of being caught in the act.

There is nothing worse than being caught in the act when you're up to no good. You can't lie about it, you can't take it back, all you can do is pray for forgiveness. Some people unfortunately have to learn that lesson the hard way, which makes for some pretty epic life stories, hopefully without too much lasting damage or embarrassment along the way.

While laughing at another's misfortune isn't cool, when someone brings it upon themselves and shares their misdeeds in a spirit of solidarity, it's fair game. So when "The Tonight Show" host Jimmy Fallon asked his viewers on X if they had ever been caught red-handed, asking them to tag stories with #IGotCaught, people's responses were too embarrassing, cringeworthy, and hilarious not to share.

Here are 11 of the funniest and/or most embarrassing Tweets of people being caught red-handed:

The teacher who ditched class only to run into one of his students doing the exact same thing.

"Called in sick to work one day. Saw one of my students at the beach. We nodded as we both realized we were skipping my class."

How do you explain this one?

"I googled a guy before meeting him. Later I pulled out my phone to show him a picture of my dog and he saw the picture of him."

And sexting your husband when your mother-in-law's in the chat? Mortifying.

"Sent a sext to my husband…forgot his mom was in a group chat."

When your crush catches you looking him up…

"#IGotCaught looking up a guy's info on a college computer. Heard his voice behind me telling me how to correctly spell his last name."

Life lesson: If you're going to try calling out sick from work, don't get caught on television at a rock concert.

"I called off sick to go to a music festival. The next day my boss said, 'Next time don't stand in the front row.' I was on TV."

Ah, the innocence of youth caught being not so innocent.

"I snuck out at age 15 to go to a drinking party. The doorbell rang, I answered the door, there stood my mom."

 


If you're going to fall asleep at work, at least make it entertaining for the boss.

"#igotcaught when my boss caught me dozing off at my desk. I raised my head slowly and said, 'Amen.'"

 

Oh, this is one that will stick for a long time. Ouch.

"On a first date and sent a text to what I thought was my buddy saying 'this date is awful SOS'…sent it to her."

 

At least this one was a compliment:

"I was telling my friend about a guy that had a cute butt. The guy heard me and said Thanks."

 

When you think your parents are noobs:

"Parents found out my bro threw a house party after finding the wifi password pinned up everywhere. His excuse, 'I forgot it…a lot.'"

Or, when your dad is already one step ahead of you…

"Once I tried to sneak out my window and it was dark so I put my hand on something for balance…it was my Dad."

 

Thanks for all the vicarious, second-hand embarrassment, Jimmy Fallon. Yeesh.

This article originally appeared eight years ago.


Parenting

A dad's hilarious 'time-travel' letter to school asks them to explain field trip fiasco

Are you able to search the school buildings for a rip in the space-time continuum?

Images via Twitter

Stephen Callaghan and his letter

In 2017, Stephen Callaghan's daughter Ruby came home from school. When he asked her how her day was, her answer made him raise an eyebrow. Ruby, who was in the sixth grade at her school in Australia, told her dad that the boys would soon be taken on a field trip to Bunnings (a hardware chain in the area) to learn about construction.

The girls, on the other hand? While the boys were out learning, they would be sent to the library to have their hair and makeup done. Ruby's reply made Callaghan do a double take. What year was it, again? Callaghan decided to write a letter to the school sharing his disappointment — but his wasn't your typical "outraged parent" letter.

"Dear Principal," he began. "I must draw your attention to a serious incident which occurred yesterday at your school where my daughter is a Year 6 student."

"When Ruby left for school yesterday it was 2017," Callaghan continued. "But when she returned home in the afternoon she was from 1968."

dads, parenting, kids, Australia, sexism, gender, women Representative image of an angry dadImage via Canva

The letter goes on to suggest that perhaps the school is harboring secret time-travel technology or perhaps has fallen victim to a rift in the "space-time continuum," keeping his daughter in an era where women were relegated to domestic life by default.

"I look forward to this being rectified and my daughter and other girls at the school being returned to this millennium where school activities are not sharply divided along gender lines," he concluded.



Dear Principal
I must draw your attention to a serious incident which occurred yesterday at your school where my daughter Ruby is a Year 6 student.
When Ruby left for school yesterday it was 2017 but when she returned home in the afternoon she was from 1968.
I know this to be the case as Ruby informed me that the "girls" in Year 6 would be attending the school library to get their hair and make-up done on Monday afternoon while the "boys" are going to Bunnings.
Are you able to search the school buildings for a rip in the space-time continuum? Perhaps there is a faulty Flux Capacitor hidden away in the girls toilet block.
I look forward to this being rectified and my daughter and other girls at the school being returned to this millennium where school activities are not sharply divided along gender lines.
Yours respectfully
Stephen Callaghan



sexism, dads, daughters, parenting, school, sexism, time travelStephen Callaghan and his letterImages via Twitter

When Callaghan posted the letter to Twitter (since deleted), it quickly went viral and inspired hundreds of supportive responses.

Though most people who saw his response to the school's egregiously outdated activities applauded him, not everyone was on board.

One commenter wrote, "Sometimes it is just ok for girls to do girl things."

But Callaghan was ready for that. "Never said it wasn't," he replied. "But you've missed the point. Why 'girl things' or 'boy things'... Why not just 'things anyone can do?'"

He later commented that he didn't think the school's plan was malicious, but noted the incident was a powerful example of "everyday sexism" at work.


Callaghan says the school hasn't responded to his letter. (Yes, he really sent it.) At least, not directly to him.

Some media outlets have reported that the school claims students are free to opt in and out of the different activities. But, as Callaghan says, gendering activities like this in the first place sends the completely wrong message.

In response to the outpouring of support, Callaghan again took to Twitter.

"At 12 years of age my daughter is starting to notice there are plenty of people prepared to tell her what she can and can't do based solely on the fact she is female," he wrote.

"She would like this to change. So would I."

This article originally appeared eight years ago.

via Unsplash

What do these men love?

Writer and illustrator Aubrey Hirsch jokingly asked her followers on Twitter what’s a “universal thing that most men like?” because she was writing a comic and “just realized I don’t actually know any men in real life." The tweet inspired an avalanche of funny responses.

Hirsch is the author of “Why We Never Talk About Sugar,” a collection of short stories, and her work has appeared in The New York Times, Child, American Short Fiction and Time.

The interesting thing about the responses is that they weren’t the typical stereotypes about men. She didn’t get a ton of people talking about sex, sports or toxic masculinity. Instead, there were a lot of folks that mentioned very specific male behaviors as if they were talking about a bizarre species they discovered in the wild.

There were two things that got the most comments on her post. First, men enjoy throwing heavy objects into bodies of water. Preferably, the larger the rock, the deeper the body of water and from the highest vantage point possible.

The other is watching construction sites. Evidently, the phenomenon is so popular in Italy that there is a specific word for this type of person in Italian.

Here are 19 of the best responses to the question, “What’s a universal thing that most men like?”

1.

When asked why men enjoy watching construction sites so much, a poster on Reddit named justdaps had the perfect response. "I just find it really satisfying and interesting to see the process behind things being built," he wrote.

2.

 

3.

 

4.

I have seen dudes do this and I have done it plenty of times myself. I usually stand while watching TV when I want to really focus on what’s happening and do not want to be distracted. This usually happens while watching sporting events or the news. It's also a great way to use your body language to let other people know that there is something very important happening on the television.

5.

 

When we do this 99% of the time we’re pretending that the sign is 10 feet high and that we have the ability to dunk a basketball. There are two types of men, those that can dunk and mere mortals.

6.

 

As a man, this one is near and dear to my heart. I can’t tell you the number of hours I have spent with my friends just throwing lines from “The Big Lebowski” back and forth.

“Nice marmot.”

“The Dude abides.”

“Say what you want about the tenets of national socialism, Dude. At least it’s an ethos.”

A movie that's running up the ranks of being among the most quotable is another dude buddy pic, "Once Upon a Time ... In Hollywood."

"All right, that's too hot. Anything we can do about that heat?" ... "Rick, it's a flamethrower.”

7.

 

8.

 

9.

 

10.

 

11.

 

Evidently, after reading the responses, Hirsch knew what was going to happen next. No need to feel ashamed about going viral. It just means you created something that people love.


This story originally appeared two years ago.