Laughter is wonderful and contagious. It has the power of bringing people together, making them feel good, and possibly costing the their jobs. Wait, what? People get fired for laughing? Well, one reporter in New Zealand might after she broke down uncontrollably during a segment on a “defecation emergency.”
What’s an emergency defecation situation? As Hilary Barry–that’s the reporter who agrees she might be losing her job–explains it, it’s something that occurs when a Malaysian diplomat goes to the home of a woman without pants and leaves a steaming pile of excrement on her doorstep. It’s incredibly offensive, but it’s also such a ridiculous story that even a seasoned newswoman can’t keep it together while trying to report on it for general public awareness. Let’s be honest, though: how far into the video can any of us get before we start cracking up ourselves? Give yourself thirty seconds and see what happens.
It’s unfortunate that the story that follows the Malaysian diplomat fiasco concerns an explosion on a plane, because neither Barry nor her colleagues can stop laughing even as they discuss the possibility that someone was seriously injured. But that must just be one of the hazards of working live TV. Will Barry lose her job? Probably not. Will she be making the internet laugh for at least a day? Bet on it.
