In class right now for a required public speaking component of my program - kid stuff. Anyway, tonight we had to do a 3 minute, informal "presentation" on the topic "something that interests you".

This girl gets up there and after a long awkward pause, breaks out crying and does her presentation on anxiety and her family problems and not being able to cope leaving home, etc. it was really scattered and she was like choked up sobbing the whole time

I felt bad for her. I don't mind speaking in public but has anyone else seen similar breakdowns or anything interesting during in-class presentations?

9/7/2011 7:28:27 PM

I got really anxious once during a presentation in my biology class. I started stuttering, stammering, and immediately ran over and throat fucked my professor.
Mr. Billingsly did not appreciate that at all.

9/7/2011 7:31:17 PM

Everytime I had to speak I was following freaking MLKjr and I looked like shit. I know the kid following this chick was all like "score!"

9/7/2011 7:32:47 PM

My first job out of college, they would do these annual conferences where teachers would give various presentations and workshops about classroom related topics.

This chick named Naomi apparently got suckered at the last moment into doing a presentation on incorporating music into the classroom. She was pissed at her supervisor for this who was also present for the presentation.

She gets about a minute into playing a song she uses in class to teach animals or something, slams down her guitar and yells, "Fuck this. This presentation is pointless and I didn't want to do it in the first place. You all can piss off!" Then off the stage she goes with her guitar. I heard that she was later found in a bar slamming tequila. Amazingly she didn't get reprimanded, much less fired, for her shenanigans

9/7/2011 7:33:44 PM

Yeah that's pretty . I know this sounds like a trainwreck just from the title, but last year I went to the "Mr. Engineer Pageant" which was supposed to be a fundraiser. There was a representative from every branch of engineering on campus, and clearly not many people applied, because they had some very, very weak competitors.

Case in point was "Mr. Chemical Engineering" (I think he was Chemical). He was this gansta looking black guy that got up on stage and said his talent was "spoken word". He then puts headphones in and holds up his flip phone and tries to read his "spoken word" lyrics from it while listening I guess to music. He fumbles trying to get it to work for five minutes while we sit there in silence, then starts sobbing, then tries to do it from memory, and he's just stumbling over his words, crying in between lines, talking about "the real music from the streets" as he's wiping his eyes. And he was the second person to perform.

The whole audience just felt so bad for this guy, and everyone was DEAD silent, at least until we started clapping for him when he stopped altogether to collect himself. He came up later in the event for an "interview and questionnaire" and he did the same thing then. It was super awkward and the host had no idea how to handle it.

9/7/2011 7:35:37 PM

throat fucked my professor.

this is why EMCE is a damn legend

9/7/2011 7:37:22 PM

heh just remembered another one. In one of my sociology classes some chick gave a detailed presentation about "boy love" porn that they apparently make in Korea or something? I just remember everyone in the class, including the professor, being as she showed slide after slide of effeminate dudes making out. As each slide would change, she would get more and more excited about the topic. The strangest part was I'm pretty sure that her presentation had absolutely nothing to do with whatever the assignment was considering other people did topics like HR issues and parenting in the workplace

9/7/2011 7:51:08 PM

We were given topics in a speech class, our teacher was a grad student. My topic was the cons of affirmative action in college admissions. The person who spoke before me was a young black girl and her topic was the pros of affirmative action in college admissions. She spoke about herself and family members that got chances because of AA and how it's helped bridged the gap. I, the one of two white males in the class, got up and bashed AA.

Not a breakdown on my part, but completely negative reactions on the audience's part. Not even referencing South Park's flag episode cracked a smile. Just glares. I hated that teacher. I was always chosen to present the pro establishment arguments. By the third speech I just started adding references to her as my example of whatever the speech was about.




Completely forgot, for an English class we had to present a piece, poem, passage, short story or something after class. There were three or four other 100 lvl classes doing this and we had to sign up for whatever night. Got there, did my piece and waited for others to do theirs. One girl did a piece she had written based off the LotR. She spoke elvish during it, a lot of elvish. It went on for 30 minutes. 30 minutes of some stupid romance between some elves and something else. The worst presentation I've ever sat through. The entire group just sat there not knowing what to do and praying one of our teachers would tell her time's up. After the reading she went another 10 mins breaking it down for us.

[Edited on September 7, 2011 at 10:06 PM. Reason : the LotR nutjob]

9/7/2011 10:00:21 PM

Back in high school we had some kind of project where we were supposed to find someone who we thought of as a "leader" in the community. Some girl brought in her mom or step-mom who ran a construction company (or something like that). Her mom got about half through her speech (which was super informal to begin with) and then just stopped and told her daughter "I really can't do this...I don't know what I'm talking about" and then just left. It was really weird...you could tell she was nervous the whole time but I never thought she would just leave like that. Especially in a room full of 17 year olds who were hardly paying attention.

Personally, I don't enjoy speaking in public...but I'll do it. I always dread it, but once I get started I'm fine. I usually do better with some sort of visual aid like powerpoint than just standing there though.

[Edited on September 7, 2011 at 10:10 PM. Reason : ]

9/7/2011 10:07:11 PM

^^ lol wonder if that was the same girl from my sociology class

9/7/2011 10:10:02 PM

I was hoping for a viral video.

9/7/2011 10:25:58 PM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTKuyk5A7wQ

9/7/2011 10:42:56 PM

Thank you!

9/8/2011 5:33:56 AM

I have less anxiety addressing larger groups than I do smaller informal groups. Like 100+ people I do fine. Everyone blurs together. But I get really nervous for groups of 15-30 people.

9/8/2011 6:29:11 AM

^ I'm the same way though teaching helped me get rid of a lot of that.

9/8/2011 8:18:33 AM

was she hot?

9/8/2011 8:20:41 AM

I woulda walked out. And slapped the bitch on the way.

9/8/2011 8:53:31 AM

In 11th grade we had to do a meeting of the minds thing where we wrote a paper on someone who impacted the world and then did a 15min speech acting like we were delivering it as them. Imagine 60ish people doing 15 min speeches and you've got 15 hours (or two full school days) of potential freakouts. One girl was pretty nervous about it and started to pretend to freak out during her presentation. Guess she thought if she pretended the teacher would let her slide. But he was an ex-marine officer badass and she her acting was poorly executed. It ended with her "fainting" at which point she fell and slammer her head on a staircase off the stage. She was allowed to go to the school nurse. Found out later she had to go after school the next day and recite her speech to a classroom full of teachers


Public speaking is my forte. I was that kid no one wanted to go before or after

9/8/2011 9:09:30 AM

Quote :

" It ended with her "fainting" at which point she fell and slammer her head on a staircase off the stage. "

9/8/2011 9:16:35 AM

Holy shit

9/8/2011 11:56:32 AM