No idiots were harmed in the making of this comedy mishap
When I used to be a hospital lab technician, I used to wear my labcoat outside the haematology lab, strictly against the rules, as it would cause people to stand aside for me at doors and so on, on the assumption that I was a doctor. Annoying and egotistical, but totally irrelevant.

Once a week, we lab rats would go down to the laundry room in our stained and grubby old coats to change them for lovely fresh new ones. The major part of this operation was to transfer all the pens and stuff from the top pocket of the old coat.

I ought to explain that the number of pens in a labcoat top pocket was a reliable indicator of importance. Senior doctors might have four colours of biros, a couple of felt tips, tounge depressors, tweezers, pencils... NHS hospitals are the most status-obsessed places in the world. Nobly saving lives is so often an ego trip, and in any case folk need something to make up for the shit money.

So, one fateful Wednesday I was just into my new coat, with a fistful of rarely used writing implements ready to go, when a red biro fell to the floor. After getting the rest in place I bent down to get it. Unknowingly, I put my heel firmly on the tail of the labcoat in doing so. Then I stood up.

Of course, once my legs were half straightened, there was only one place for my shoulders to go. In effect, I pulled myself over backwards, with my legs shooting more or less straight up into the air as soon as my arse hit the deck amid the clatter of pens.

Productivity was abysmal that day, as everyone started laughing again every time they saw me.
(you_can't_get_there_from_here, Mon 6 Sep 2004, 0:36, Reply)