Video conference gone wrong? Zoom meeting fails? You're not alone. Not in the least!

tv color bars at an angle
Photo by Tim Mossholder

Near the beginning of COVID-19, I began co-hosting a group video call series with other job search experts for job seekers to get quick answers to their burning questions.

I call these ‘JOSH chats', short for ‘JobMob job search online hangouts', and you can find them in the JobMob Job Search Events Calendar.

Some of these group video calls have been over Zoom but I've also begun streaming directly to YouTube Live, where the recording is immediately available for you after the chat is over.

The calls had all gone well until this one:

It gives me a headache just to watch it.

Looks like I have an old 56K internet connection from the '90s! Maybe if you like Impressionism, but even then it's pretty bad.

Still, it could have been worse.

As so many people have flocked to video chats due to the pandemic, so many have had Zoom meetings gone wrong.

Here are some of the funniest and cringiest video conference fails I could find.

Enjoy, and be warned. It could happen to you too!

Video conference and Zoom call fails that will make you cringe

1) Distraction fail

It wasn’t really embarrassing (for me at least) , but just before COVID hit I had a job interview via Zoom. We have a small house, only one room that would qualify as being an office, which my lady was using to study at the time, so I placed my laptop in our games room in the basement, with our extensive board game collection (300+ titles) in the background. I didn’t even think about it. The interviewer was also a gamer (the job was not games industry related) and spent the first 45 minutes of our planned hour quizzing me on what my favourite games were, and how you can use game mechanics in a management role to keep people in line, and in task. I had to keep steering the conversation back to the job, performance expectations, and things that were relevant to, the job. After 90 minutes of nonsense I asked him to not follow up with me, as I can’t stand working for someone that can’t stay on task.

2) Pet fail

How am I supposed to work with this distraction?! )She just chimed in on my conference call.)

3) Look fail

(Although, a tweet reply pointed out: “His mother passed away and his partner lost her father last week, not to mention [Patriots' player James] White's loss. After a week like that, I'm sure he has far more important things to worry about than his outfit. Impressed he was able to show up & coach after the week his family (and players) had.”)

4) Frozen screen fail

My screen froze in a video conference yesterday and it made me look like I fell asleep during an editorial meeting. Which is funny I suppose.

5) Mute fail

Funny how a bunch of 8-year-olds having a video conference have the same issue with people talking without unmuting themselves as adults do.

Sometimes the opposite is the problem…

6) Mic fail

video conference meetings are always funny bc someone always forgets they have their mic on

7) Bystander fail

So I'm outside and Garrett decided it'd be funny to hurl pine cones in my direction while i'm in a video conference call and it scared me, I almost fell out of my chair lookin like a spazz.. my VP stops and said Adrienne are you ok...

8) Texting fail

My friend keeps sending me funny texts while we're both in the same video conference. and this is us trying not to laugh


Parody: A Conference Call in Real Life


9) Beer fail

Funny we just had a video conference and everyone had a Corona

10) Pyjama fail

Just got off video conference with my team. Almost everyone in my team are working from home too. It's simultaneously cool and funny to see everyone in their pajamas and having that I-just-woke-up look HAHAHAHAHA

11) Funny mom fail

Some people, working from home, are interrupted by their kids, their pets, and I have my mom. My mom walking in, in her pj's, during my video conference call, taking pics of me working from home, and showing me funny memes. My mom. I love her!

12) Yogurt fail

heard a funny story a guy working at home for the first time in his life having yogurt flung at him during a video conference with a client

13) Cereal fail

My 10 year old brother is having a video conference call for school while eating his cereal lmao. This is too funny to watch!

14) Kid fail

When dad has a #business video conference call but you missed him and need some snuggles and want to watch your funny faces in the monitor... that's what you do!

15) Hair fail

day 5 of self isolation: started calls at 9am this morning with wet hair. Five hours later, forgot my hair had dried in the same state. Wondered why I got funny looks on video conference. Just realised why!

16) Bathroom fail

“Woman's video chat blunder while working from home goes viral (Funny) #zoomvideo epicfail”

Thankfully, things sometimes turn out for the best:

Just had a video conference and boi is i nice to just be able to leave a meeting when it's done and not have to awkwardly stand while someone is trying to be funny after the meeting lmao

And an important tip for any future Zoom call:

blowing on wine mug makes it look like hot tea

Question of the article

What's the funniest thing you've done by accident in a Zoom call or video conference? Tell us in the comments.

What others are saying

Bonus: MORE ZOOM VIDEO CALLS GONE WRONG! (Hilarious Zoom Fails)

READ NEXT: How To Ace Video Job Interviews

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Jacob Share

Job Search Expert, Professional Blogger, Creative Thinker, Community Builder with a sense of humor. I like to help people.

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