People Describe The Most Insane Event They've Ever Witnessed

Chaos is, according to the lexicographers at Oxford, a "state of complete disorder and confusion."

Humans find chaos entertaining to watch—hence the popularity of so-called reality TV—but not as much fun to be in the thick of. People may love the moment a "Real Housewife" flips a table, but would be less thrilled if a family member did it during dinner.

As a species, we tend to panic in the face of the unexpected.

Except for the true adrenaline junkies among us who, no surprise, often leave utter chaos in their wake.

Humans also see chaos in the natural world when things—animal, vegetable, mineral, or atmospheric—don't behave the way we've come to expect. In nature, it may be an expected occurrence or it may be a one off fluke.

To humans, it's utter insanity.

Reddit user ShadyLtd2006 asked:

"What’s the most insane event you’ve ever witnessed in person?"

On Set Accident

"Saw Michael Jackson's hair catch on fire when he was filming a Pepsi commercial at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles in 1984."

~ OPMom21

"Do you know the fun fact that apparently it happened on the day that was the exact midpoint between his death and birth?"

~ namynuff

"From birth to this incident (August 29, 1958 to January 27, 1984) was a span of 9282 days. That's 25 years, 4 months, and 30 days."

"From this incident until his death (June 25, 2009) was 9281 days. That's 25 years, 4 months, and 29 days. I think the one day difference is due to an extra leap year in the first span."

"Either way, it's remarkably close to exactly halfway through his life."

~ KBHoleN1

Highlander?

"Saw two dudes fighting each other with real swords in an intersection in Fayetteville, Arkansas, in 2015."

"The intersection in front of the McDonald's that's across from the Taco Bell by the high school. The one by the stadiums and college kinda. Don't know if the Smoothie King is still there."

"They were shirtless and genuinely trying to hit each other until everyone started honking at them and then they ran off."

~ dumn_and_dunmer

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Road Hazard

"One time I was driving down the 99 in Central California. It is two lanes in each direction with a fairly good-sized median, but no actual barrier."

"A mini van in front of me suddenly lost control, crossed the median, slammed head on into a dump truck, flipped over, and caught fire. Six teenaged kids in the car."

"We were able to get four of the teens out of the window on the rear hatch. The other two in the front seat were knocked out and we couldn't get to them."

"They died in a fire. It was horrible."

~ Feisty-Frame-1342

Bioluminescence

"Bioluminescent algae/plankton on a random beach in my suburban town in Massachusetts. I was at a party across the street from a beach and my friend's dog was playing in the water."

"All of a sudden my friend came running up to us saying the water was glowing. She had eaten mushrooms, so we all just brushed it off like 'sure I bet...' but she swore."

"So we went and looked and turns out she was right!"

"It was absolutely alien looking, and SO cool. I'll never forget that."

~ charlesmans0n

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Right to Remain...

"In 1994, my buddy and I happened upon an accident. Dude flipped his car in the early morning hours, and all his stuff was piled into the hatchback area."

"We check on him, cops arrive, and idiot unlocks and opens the hatchback, and everything comes flowing out."

"And right in front of our eyes, and the cop's eyes, are these giant bags of cocaine."

~ FutureClubOwner

Tsunami

"Boxing Day, the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. I was 8. My uncle never made it."

"Was the scariest thing ever—felt so unreal."

"Eventually when I became an adult, I go back to Thailand every year to remember him and celebrate because the trip was something he was really excited for even though it ended in heartbreak."

~ Da_Bebe444

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Bus Ride

"Was on a quiet double-decker bus in fairly rural Suffolk and a guy got on, paid, then said quite loudly, 'I'm gonna kill someone on this bus'."

"The driver immediately got out from behind the wheel and had the guy by the ear and dragged him off the bus. The guy just kind of collapsed in the driver's arms, and the driver laid him down fairly gently on the pavement."

"Got back on the bus without looking back and said, 'Sorry about that folks' and jumped behind the wheel, closed the doors, and drove away."

"Later that night on the news, the guy had died there and then."

"Police interviewed me later, but would not say anything. I'd seen the same driver lots of times after, so guess he was cleared of whatever. We all saw he didn't hurt him aside from an ear pull, so he must have been already injured or OD'd."

~ supperfash

Pandemic

"The day the pandemic flipped the world upside down."

"I found myself at baggage claim inside one of the world's busiest and largest airports on Thursday, March 12th, 2020. Literally like a scene out of 'Titanic' or that 'World War Z' movie."

"TV's blaring about stacked corpses in China, and a 'mystery virus' circulating in Seattle and Italy. Half the airport was wearing masks, half weren't. The air was buzzing yet thick like molasses, like something heavy and ominous was just smoldering in the very air itself."

"Several weeks later, with my own eyeballs, I witnessed two women physically fight each other over a package of Charmin toilet paper—at Target, no less. Police were called, and both women were hauled off in cuffs."

~ disjointed_chameleon

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Flash Mob

"In 2016, I was in a self-checkout lane in Walmart around 10pm when a flash mob came in dressed in those big crying baby masks, horse heads, and some were Trump, Hillary, and Obama. They were blasting a song off one phone and sucked at dancing."

"They basically just jumped around or twerked."

"I and like 5 other people just stood there and stared because if you tried to leave, they’d dance towards you, and the other exit was locked. They did have to stop after a few minutes."

"As I left, a loud man on a hoverboard was rolling inside with his phone call on speaker. I like to imagine he was the dancer's manager."

~ cherryshape

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Evasive Maneuver

"Driving home from Cleveland one morning after a doctor's appointment, it was raining, tons of traffic, three lanes each side with a concrete barrier in the middle. Everyone's moving along at relatively the same speed."

"Suddenly a car from the far right lane about two-three cars ahead of me crosses both left lanes, hits the barrier, and bounces back across the lanes to side of the road."

"He managed to not hit a single other car."

~ uumbre0n

Sweetwater Rattlesnake Roundup

"Sweetwater Rattlesnake Roundup."

"If you don't like snakes, it's not for you."

"I do not like snakes. It was not for me."

~ Reddit

"There used to be one every year close to where I live. I got in free cause my dad worked security (constables office)."

"Anyways, they had a booth with this big sign that said 'pet a rattlesnake'. I remember parents walking their kids up saying 'oh go ahead little Timmy, just pet the damn rattlesnake'. There's no way I'd let my kid do that."

"The only reason I went in the first place was to see people get bit. Annnnnd, they did."

~ papawam

"F*ck Sweetwater and their snake roundup. Now the rattlers that are left are less inclined to give a warning because these stupid f*cks killed all the ones that rattle."

"Speedy evolution, driven by idiots that have no right to be interfering in nature like that."

~ MildlyAnnoyedMother

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Boston Marathon Bombings

"2013 Boston Marathon bombings. I was working as an ESL teacher at the time not far from the finish line."

"On Patriots Day/Marathon Monday, the school generally had a half day's worth of classes followed by some cultural excursions with the teachers taking their classes to explore the area around Fenway Park for the annual Red Sox game that starts in the morning."

"Normally, we would have lunch with the students after the game, followed by going to the area around the Boston Public Library where the finish line is. For some reason that year, we decided to skip lunch and just go right to the BPL."

"We were right in the area where one of the bombs would later go off for a total of about 45 minutes before calling it a day and dismissing the students. One of the other teachers and I had just started walking away, literally about 3-5 minutes, when we heard two loud explosions."

"We honestly didn't think anything of it at first, thinking they were cannons or something for the reenactments that can sometimes accompany Patriots Day events. It wasn't until after 30 seconds or so when we saw and could hear people running and screaming that we figured out something was wrong."

"So we went back to check on our students, but couldn't locate any of them."

"I barely slept that night worried that one of my students might have been a victim. Luckily, everyone ended up being fine other than one student from Chile who suffered from temporary hearing loss for a week or so."

~ quiksilver123

Full Moon

"I was part of the biggest mooning in cinema history."

"My arse is immortalised in the movie 'Braveheart'."

~ Socks-and-Jocks

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Different Kind Of Full Moon

"When I was 8, my uncle flew me in his little Cessna (I think) to a family reunion in northern Alberta on a farm."

"I remember going over a hill and as we crested it, I saw the moon rising. It was a blood red harvest moon and I swear it filled the sky."

"It’s been 40 years and I still remember how gorgeous that was. Awe inspiring!"

~ gdtestqueen

What moments of chaos have you experienced firsthand?