Need help with ideas!

[Neo]

So most of you are probably familiar with the humor site cracked. They let most anyone write articles for them, so I thought I'd give it a shot. I've made five article pitches so far, one of which has made it to the editorial board. It was originally "6 scientific demonstrations that went horribly wrong," but they're having me change the focus to be people who were showing off in general and made fools of themselves.

These are the examples I have currently that I think will work:

A teacher that poured alcohol on an open flame and caught students on fire.
The DEA agent who shot himself in the foot during a safety demo.
The Navy pilots who dunked their helicopters in a lake while taking photos for facebook.

I need to find at least three more good examples of these types of failures. If you can help me out with ideas you will have my eternal gratitude. I can't use anymore examples involving teachers, and it can't be something generic like a drunk guy wrecking his motorcycle. They can be either youtube videos or stories from legitimate sources.

[Angrist]

I have a decent Dutch story that involves my university. And pot.

You'll have to google it yourself, but the story is that the police found a hennep (pot) plantation hidden in a field of maize. They immediately started clearing the field... until my university showed up and told them it was a scientific experiment. The plants had no 'active' ingredients.
The police destroyed half of the experiment, I don't know how much financial damage was done.

Only in Holland. :)

The field was next to a town called Lelystad, the university is called Wageningen Universiteit and it took place in september 2009. You can probably find an English report with that info.

[Neo]

Hah, that's funny. That might work if the police were playing it up as the awesome thing they did, only to suffer humiliation later.

Edit: found it http://www.cannabisculture.com/content/overeager-dutch-police-ruin-legal-cannabis-experiment

Dutch police were left red-faced after swooping on what they thought was an illegal cannabis farm only to partly dismantle a scientific experiment, the university that owns the plants said.

Silly police.

[manasecret]

What's the going rate on cracked articles?

[Combine 017]

Motorcyclist hits his head and dies while protesting motorcycle helmet laws.

[ZebraRampage]

http://gma.yahoo.com/blogs/abc-blogs/sinkhole-swallows-car-north-carolina-161146188--abc-news-topstories.html

Car drives into a sink hole, but I don't that it has the punch factor you're looking for.

[Neo]

The police example is funny, but I don't know that it fits the premise since the police weren't really showing off. Sounds like they just made a stupid mistake. Though that gives me an idea of a separate article... One dealing with epic law enforcement failures. Maybe dumbest police raids?

Motorcycle guy might work.

I was reminded of that guy who plunged to his death after running through a plate glass window (to demonstrate how strong it was). Unfortunately that example was already used in a different article.

Mana - they start off at $100 for a feature article.

[Neo]

So they're going to publish my article. I'll post the link after it goes live (probably sometime in October).