The job of a journalist carries immense responsibility.

But to err is human, and reporters often find themselves caught in erroneous situations on live television.

In a few rare instances, observed especially during the COVID-induced lockdown, these errors have been found to be harmless, and in fact, really funny. Here’s a look at a few such TV bloopers of the year 2021 – 

1. Carol Kirkwood from BBC had been holding her guide dog, Flash, by the leash when he suddenly decided to run off, pulling her over. Unable to maintain her balance, she slipped and fell face-front on the ground. Both BBC and Kirkwood shared the clip on their respective Twitter handles.

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2. In another incident, a dog interrupted Russian journalist Nadezhda Serezhkhina while she was in the middle of a weather report, and ran away with her handheld microphone. 

3. Anthony Farnell, chief meteorologist for Global News, was on-air when his puppy interrupted him. The video went viral in August, and was considered one of the funniest blunders to ever be recorded. His dog ‘Storm’ entered the green screen set when Farnell had been working from home due.

4. During a live shoot, CNN reporter Manu Raju had a cicada crawling up his suit, which he only realized when it reached his neck. Sharing the clip, Raju wrote, “Had an unwelcome visitor try to crawl into my live shot earlier.” 

5. For parents working from home, it is not uncommon to be interrupted by children, who are also constricted to their homes because of schools being shut. Carmel Sepuloni, New Zealand’s minister for social development, had a similar incident during a live Zoom interview with Radio Samoa, when she was interrupted by her son excitedly waving a carrot. 

6. In a hilarious turn of events, Noelia Novillo, newsreader on Canal 26, announced the death of playwright William Shakespeare, in place of another man with the same name. During the broadcast, she called him “one of the most important writers in the English language”.