Between game shows, reality TV, and social media, there are more chances than ever to accidentally (sometimes literally) stumble into fame. Someone asked people online “What’s your “15 seconds of fame” moment?” and netizens shared their experiences. 

From live TV fails and trivia game victories, to being featured in the news, people who had a brief moment in the spotlight shared their stories. So get comfortable as you scroll through, upvote your favorite examples, and if you have any experiences of being briefly famous, feel free to share them in the comments section below. 

#1

A documentary crew was visiting the hospital I worked at. They were filming the average shifts of doctors and nurses etc. I didn't want to be part of it and as I came around the corner, there they all were, coming straight toward me and talking to another nurse. I immediately turned left to get away, tripped over a wet floor sign and fell flat on my face. When the documentary aired, they included the quick talk with the nurse and all you could see in the background was me run, fall and then see my feet poking out of a cupboard.

Image credits: curiousopenmind22

#2

When I was 10, I got hit by a car.
Dented the fender with my knee, broke the windshield with my back, flew 10 feet, when they slammed on the brakes and didn't get hurt.
Local paper wrote about it with the title " boy hits car, car damaged"
Someone sent it to the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, and he talked about me and showed the newspaper clipping with my picture. Said something like, " The terminators kid is running around and to be careful

Image credits: Remarkable-Visit-471

#3

I beat a man half to death for ra$&@ my sister and got 4 years in prison when I got out I had the biggest party thrown for me by some people I knew and tons of random people who gave me cards with cash to start over I tried not to accept because I’d do it again and I’d think any brother would do it for there sister,but they wouldn’t take no for a answer and met my now fiancée there been with her ever since….never thought violence and prison would change my life forever for the good ?

#4

I voiced a video game and when I recently looked up the game reviews on Reddit, people said one of the most annoying aspects of the game is my voice!

Image credits: Comfortable-Ear-9186

#5

I ran with the Olympic torch when I was 10 years old in Connecticut.

Image credits: I_am_not_Spider_Man

#6

I was (14yo, 1985) a recipient of of one of the early Cochlear Implants this side of the country. I went on speaking engagements, did some interviews, articles in newspapers and teen magazines, did a benefit with Woody Paige (he wrote the newspaper articles too) and I met with prospective patients around the state for a couple years.

I stopped wearing my implant a few years after high school. I had had enough. Silence is golden! Remain a staunch supporter but it wasn't for me.

Image credits: onedef1

#7

2-day Jeopardy champion. One of the best experiences of my life.

Image credits: Wonder_woman_1965

#8

I made a reference to one of the fanfictions I wrote. And somebody was like, "HOLY S**T, IS THAT _______" they shouted it out in the middle of a grocery store......... that was my 15 seconds of fame moment.

Image credits: alonelydnd

#9

I was on Google Street View. Recognizably.

That's global, man!

Image credits: druu222

#10

I once donated a signed piece of tv show merch to a charity auction and it turned out to be the main attraction that people were really battling over. No one knew it came from me or anything but it was pretty cool sitting in the audience watching people fight over something I contributed.

Image credits: karmagirl314

#11

I became somewhat known in the retro gaming community for doing this insane YouTube video on an obscure shooter (SHMUP) from 1992. I’d go to cons and get recognized. It was incredibly bizarre but wonderful at the same time. It led to me meeting a somewhat well known game dev. In 2019 he invited me out to San Francisco to a game release party where I spent the day with a bunch of legendary game devs as well as Macaulay Culkin and Brenda Song. Good times.

Image credits: reefguy007

#12

I found myself on People of Walmart

Image credits: Jetter37

#13

Russell Howard asked me a question while he was performing stand-up in a tiny venue, and my panicked answer made him laugh so hard he bought me a drink afterwards. Most of the details of our interaction are lost to adrenaline, sadly, but he was nice.

Image credits: ibiacmbyww

#14

I ate 100 chicken wings in one sitting as a teenager and the chef came out to tell me he was impressed

Image credits: rapture189

#15

I roasted a celebrity that shall remain nameless in 2020 on Twitter, so many likes retweets replies and… bad DMs I ended up getting so scared I deleted my account.

Image credits: KatesCool

#16

Cramming a hotdog in my mouth while a famous golf shot was made in a Major. It is a rerun in a lot of sports highlight reels.

Image credits: never_stirred

#17

I'm a white Aussie woman, in my mid 20's I was flying to the USA and had a layover in Japan- Narita Airport. Went to the food court Macdonalds and I don't really know what what was said, but it became clear the girl at the counter mistook me for someone famous. Next thing I know I'm being mobbed and asked for pics with everyone! I just went with it and now have a pic of me sitting on the counter of the Maccas with about 80 Japanese people all posing with me very excited. I still have no idea who I was meant to be. I'm average looking and don't wear make up or fancy clothes.

#18

I was at a Transiberian Orchestra Concert. I was really into it and after a solid guitar solo from one of the bandmembers, I looked at him and stuck my fist in the air. Well, he saw it, looked at me, and did the same. He then encouraged the rest of the crowd to do the same when they were "feeling it"! Moments like those make you feel like you can command legions.

Image credits: ashley21093

#19

My google reviews are marked as helpful by thousands

Image credits: Standard-Carry-2219

#20

My dog was in the Latin-American soap opera, ¿Donde Esta Elisa? - he was even in the opening credits. (This is more towards my ex-wife's 15 minutes).

For me, I was on ESPN during the 1992-1993 HCAA hockey championship. I was in the pep band for UMaine and they put the camera right on me playing my tenor sax.

.. and yes, the UMaine Black Bears won. :D

Image credits: draggar

#21

I bought the winning ticket for my work lottery group. $10,000,000. 

Image credits: Artificial-insanitee

#22

My picture was in playboy magazine. My mom bought five copies

#23

I was on who wants to be a millionaire, i didnt participate but i was the one who came as a friend for the participant, after that episoded aired on the next day at school i was pretty popular. After 2 days nobody gave a s**t anymore.

Image credits: MrChopsticks89

#24

Tagged along with a friend to a house party where I barely knew anyone. Was walking in the kitchen when someone decided to prep a big fruit salad and I offered to help with the mango because just a couple days prior I had watched a Youtube tutorial on how to easily cut up a mango. (Cut off “flat” sides, cross score, flip inside out to get a “mango hedgehog”, cut off spikes, easy!). I had never tried that technique before but still gave it a shot. Somehow I managed to pull it off perfectly. When I looked up everyone in the kitchen was astounded by how skillfully I had prepped that mango. One of my buddies female friends so much so, that we ended up hooking up that evening and had a months long fling.

TL;DR Handled a mango, got the girl.

Image credits: anon

#25

I was killed at the red wedding (Game of Thrones)

Image credits: Ok-Fudge8848

#26

Went to a professional baseball game in military uniform as a “member of the women’s council”. Went on the field and everything before the game. I was the only male in the group (not actually part of the council) but my female army roommate gave me and another female medic the tickets and we weren’t aware it was an event.

The guy reading the names paused before reading mine. Made it a wee bit awkward ?

Image credits: FlyingDodoBird25

#27

John Daily made fun of me on the Daily show for a picture that was taken of me drunk at a football game. The same picture was on the front page of the newspaper and on every highlight of the game. Colorado 62 Nebraska 36

#28

My husband’s 15 minutes of fame is when we went and saw Bert Kreischer and as Bert was joking about having a hairy a*****e I pointed at my husband and for the rest of the bit he kept pointing at my husband and saying things like “this guy knows what I’m talking about.” My husband was mortified and it was the best birthday I’ve had in awhile lol

#29

I had a number one iTunes podcast and the logo for my podcast (and my face) was on a screen behind Steve Jobs while he was describing the top podcasts on iTunes. It was an Apple event for the iPod mini in 2005.

#30

Hanging out with the GZA and The Funky Nomads while GZA and my 12 year old played chess.

I will forever be famous to my son for this event! Thanks GZA!

For those who don’t know GZA is a member of the Wu Tang Clan.

#31

There was a while when American eagle in Times Square had a thing where if you took a picture in their store, it would show up on their massive billboard in the square for 15 seconds. The biggest one there. You didn’t have to purchase anything. So my friend and I went in and they took our picture and sure enough within a couple minutes we were on the biggest screen in Times Square!

And it never went away ? I guess nobody else wanted to do it…. Because our picture stayed there all night. We returned after dinner and a show and it was still there. Still wonder how many people saw that goofy picture of us just smiling at the camera.

Image credits: False_Aioli4961

#32

I was the only kid in sixth grade who could spell "psychology". And then everybody clapped. No, really.

#33

I was car-spotting and filming cars in London when a Lamborghini caught fire from revving too hard.
I had a large bottle of water on hand to help put out the car fire.

#34

I was one of the little kids trick or treating in the opening sequence of Halloweentown.

Image credits: necianokomis

#35

I got top comment on an AskReddit thread once

#36

I was on a TV show back in the day called Forgive or Forget. In a previous episode, I’d seen this young woman who was being abused by her boyfriend, but couldn’t afford to leave so I wrote the show to tell them if she was really interested in leaving she could stay with me in my New York apartment until she got it together. I’m single with no kids still.

So I went on the show and I was excited to meet her and then **do you know what this b***h did**? After the show, she asked me if her boyfriend could also move in with us. I was so through. Removed myself from the situation.

*But I looked good on television* ?. I wish I could find the episode. It was around 1999, before Robin Givens took over the show.

#37

Years ago when I was a teenager I was in one of those Truth anti-tobacco commercials. My role was the popular girl at a beach party that missed out on the fun because she just HAD to go have a smoke.

They made me take huge puffs from a real cigarette to induce coughing, it was nuts lol

I never got a copy of the finished commercial but I got to see it before it aired.

Image credits: SchylaZeal

#38

I was ranked world number 3 in my sport for 4 years. I’ve been interviewed for sport specific news publications in various countries.

Image credits: Time-For-A-Brew

#39

I was in college when the Virginia Tech shooting happened. My school had some sort of memorial service, and a couple friends and I decided to go because we had nothing better to do and it just kinda felt right.

Turns out the photographer for our school newspaper was there and my friends and I ended up on the front page, holding our candles.

Nothing really came of it but it was kinda wild to see my face on the newsstands.

#40

I used to do gymnastics, and to this day I can still just pull a backflip pretty much anywhere

So I was out clubbing w some friends, and we’re at the dance floor, and this group of guys decided to make a circle, so ppl are dancing and s**t. And a lot of girls were taking turns twerking, which there’s nothing wrong w that, but everyone was kinda waiting for someone to do smth else. So I go in and I do my little backflip, and I thought that would be the end of it.

Everyone starts cheering and going crazy as if I just scored the winning point at the Super Bowl. And for a while ppl kept like following me as we were leaving to get to our table, and the same group of guys even bought us a round of shots.

Obvs the hype ended up dying as the night went on, but I felt pretty cool abt myself, like a lil adrenaline came in lmao

#41

Profiled on Humans of New York.

Said profile also appears in Humans of NY Stories (book).

Image credits: CharminginBK

#42

When I was a child, maybe 8 or 9, my mum took us to London, and we were just on the way out of the natural history museum and there were a couple of people on the street with a camera asking passers by if they wanted to be on TV.

Long story short, I ended up on the Disney channel (in the UK anyway) announcing one of the nominations for some awards show, i think in an ad for the show and not in the show itself. Anyway, looking directly into the camera, I was instructed to say "this year, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrect was absolutely magical", and throw my arm towards the camera like I was casting a spell.

My poor grandmother recorded hours and hours of that damn channel so I could see the footage (we didn't have Disney Channel at home) and did manage to get it. Clearly the take where I threw my arm out didn't make it as they used one of the other ones where I awkwardly look off camera at my mum. I expect that tape is long gone now, but think about it from time to time. It's my go to if I ever need to share one interesting fact about myself.

#43

I hugged prime Britney Spears when I was 16 and she was dating Justin Timberlake, she came into the store I was working at and I told her to have a Merry Christmas

#44

I was on Good Morning America for about 15-30 seconds. Still have the video saved somewhere.

#45

A friend of mine posted a clip of us playing Lethal Company on TikTok that blew up and became the most watched clip of the game for a while. I had no idea until a bunch of people sent it to me and were like “is this you?”

#46

I got scouted off the street in NYC to be in a shoot for a hair salon, which got printed in a few small magazines. The shoot was ridiculous and so were the hair pieces they put on me. They had one concept for a photo that was “think tank” themed, so they literally… had me stand inside a giant fish tank with f****n e=mc^2 and chemistry equations on a chalkboard behind it. While wearing what I can only describe as waist-length puffy witch hair. While I was having my makeup done, the hair salon guy came around and said he didn’t like the “c*m lips” they gave me which—I agreed with, foundation lips are weird but *man* what a weird thing to say to someone you just met. There was also an older, actually signed model who was clearly going through something and felt threatened by me for whatever reason. She was also a vegan, and they had us in a photo together and made her stand in front of a grill holding a slab of meat with tongs?? With like some Whoville looking hairstyle. The whole thing was a mess ?

#47

I was the victim of a popular prank video on Tiktok that went viral. It's completely ruined my Social life

Image credits: Yaancat17

#48

I slapped some choking kid on the back at Disney world when I was 16. His parents didn’t realize he was choking. I didn’t even know if that was what I was supposed to do. It worked though. The awkward little emo I was hated the amount of attention it got, even if it was only a few minutes worth.

Image credits: babythrottlepop

#49

My mum won a BAFTA. Not really MY 15 second of fame, but it doesn’t stop me telling people.

If we’re talking exclusively MINE, I was very briefly featured on The One Show, in passing footage.

#50

I brought a dishwasher to school