Everyone knows someone who is the pinnacle of calm—that level-headed person who is so even-keeled that nothing makes them lose their cool. However, everyone has their limits. Keep reading to discover what pushed some of the most chill people over the edge and made them lose their tempers, leaving those around them in total shock.
1. Friends Till The End
One day during recess, this kid was being a jerk for no reason. He was making fun of people, pushing others, and so on. For some reason, he decided I was worthy of getting punched, so he came from behind me and hit me in the eye. When I returned to class, these two tall kids, one girl and one guy saw I had a bruised eye and had been crying.
The moment they got the chance, they came over and asked me, "Who hurt you"? I remember thinking, “I can't let them know who hurt me. They'll kill him". They kept asking the entire rest of the week until I finally told them. When I did, I felt EXTREMELY guilty. These two kids weren’t the type who were ever seen getting slightly annoyed at anyone.
So when they kept asking me who hurt me, I felt scared for the guy that hit me, and I was right to be afraid. At recess, the day after I told them, I saw them drag the guy behind some trees behind the playground. I couldn't see what they did, but before recess ended, the kid who hit me apologized, and I could tell he had been crying on the way over to me.
I told him it was fine, and the two other kids let him go. After he left, I asked them why they hurt him. Their answer left me speechless. They said, "Because he hurt our friend, and we'll do it again if he tries hitting you again". I felt like crying after they said that but held my tears in. Those two hovered around me for the rest of fifth grade and all of middle school.
Anyone who seemed like they might want to start something with me got chased away by my two friends. They were the first people to ever get angry on my behalf and stick around with me.
2. Chill No More
One of my teachers in high school was THE calmest dude. He never yelled and never told kids off. He would just laugh and smile and wait for us all to calm down, then continue with his teaching. One day we must have been particularly rowdy, and we weren’t calming down like usual. He couldn’t get a word in edgewise.
I could see him getting increasingly frustrated, and eventually, he just bellowed, “SHUUUUTTT UPPPPP”. The entire class was shocked into silence. He never had to do it again.
3. She Was Usually A Softie
It takes a lot to make my mom yell. On the rare occasion she did, it still felt like she had self-control. However, one morning when we were teenagers, my brother was being really, really difficult. My very sweet, soft-spoken mother yelled, "GODDAMn IT SHAWN", and threw a butter knife down so hard it stuck, 1/4 inch deep, in the oak hardwood floor.
I can still hear the noise it made. We were all very well behaved for the rest of the day. I eventually asked her why she did that. She explained that she felt too angry to hold a knife, even a butter spreader, and was trying to get it out of her hand before she did something stupid.
4. The Hulk Stops Here
When I was a kid, I was at a friend’s house. His dad was the most chill, nicest guy. That day, my friend’s mom, who was also super nice, was across the street talking to the neighbor. The neighbor was one of those guys who never respected common etiquette. He would have music blaring, parked his boat in front of other people’s houses, had cars parked on the lawn, etc.
The neighbor started screaming at the mom, and we all went out on the stoop to see what was happening. As soon as we got outside, the guy called my friend’s mom a nasty word. I’ll never forget what happened next. My friend’s dad heard that and went full Hulk mode. He ran SCREAMING across the street, decked the guy, and crouched over him, shouting warnings and threats. It took a while for his wife to calm him down.
I don’t think any of them had ever seen him react to something in that way—not even the dad himself.
5. Pushed To The Edge
There was a colleague at work who was getting chewed out by a customer about something completely irrelevant. The dude was one of the most placid humans I had ever met, but he just snapped. He tore into this customer for almost ten minutes until the manager came down and took him to one side. I never saw him lose it like that again.
6. His Nerves Got Fried
I worked as a line cook with a chef with whom I became good friends. He was a really chill dude, easy-going, and very fun to cook with. I never really saw him get mad—until one disturbing night. We were getting slammed. One of the servers said something that ticked him off. The next thing I knew, he had sent the deep fryer basket flying across the kitchen.
He nearly missed the dish kid and shattered a light bulb. He stormed off and, five minutes later, after a smoke break, came back and casually continued cooking as if nothing had happened. He apologized about it the next day, and we never talked about it again.
7. Show Me The Money
When I was in my late teens, I was financially irresponsible and borrowed money from my grandparents to move out of my mom’s house. We made a plan on how I would pay it back in installments, and I only missed two payments. For each missed payment, I had called my granddad and asked if it was okay, and he was always cool about it. One day I got a call from him, and he was LIVID.
He was screaming at me on the phone, and I could hear my grandmother crying in the background. He was the angriest I had ever heard anyone in my life be and I was terrified. He wanted to know why I hadn’t made the payment that month, but I was sure I had. It turned out I had accidentally set the automated payment to be drawn from the wrong account, and it hadn’t gone through. It was an honest mistake on my part, and I explained that to him. I transferred the money immediately, and he instantly calmed down.
8. Raging Over Retirement
I used to see this woman in my building every day. She was much older than me, but we were very friendly and always checked on each other’s lives. However, it was friendly to a certain degree. A couple of years passed. One day, while riding the elevator, she told me that she was saying goodbye. I said I was sorry to see her go and asked why.
She said she was retiring that day. I asked if her office was throwing her a party or if she was being celebrated. She turned to me and her face contorted into an image of rage. She clenched her teeth and said she didn’t tell anyone in her office, including her bosses. She only told the human resources person last week. This was her last day, and she was never returning to see or talk to anyone in her office again.
9. Tea-Timers Got A Talking To
My husband worked in a very hands-on clinic. He had to be super calm and steady because he was poking needles in squeamish patients’ joints, elbows, and knees all day. I was brought into emergency because my labor wasn't progressing, I was running a fever, and the baby was in distress. He knew an emergency C-section was the only way to go, but these two maternity nurses were calmly chatting over my writhing form like it was tea time.
He very calmly asked them twice to call for the anesthetist and get things going. They knew he was always gentle and just nodded along without moving and continued chatting. I was half stoned when I witnessed him slamming both his palms on the side of the stretcher and yelling, "Is no one listening? Get the consultant in here"!
10. Pay Day
I had a friend who was a functioning alcoholic, but he was the calmest and most composed guy I have ever known. He never used to raise his voice or swear. Everything was done with meticulous precision. He once explained to me that if you use vulgar language and shout all the time, then you will have nowhere to go when you really do get angry. I had worked with him for about three years.
One week, he had been shafted on his pay, and the manager promised to get it sorted out by the Friday. Friday rolled around, and it had not been corrected. So, my friend walked up to the manager in the open office and declared loudly, "Where is my money? You promised this would be resolved". The whole office went silent, and the look of dread on the manager's face was haunting. The money was in his account by the end of the day.
11. He Went Old School On His Behind
Growing up, my dad’s best friend was a quiet, shy guy who was a bit socially awkward. He wasn't physically harmed in school, but this kid teased him constantly. This would have been in the late 50s or early 60s, so kids were expected to tough it out. My dad would usually confront the brute, but one day, a girl ran up to him and said that his friend and the kid were fighting.
My dad ran over to save his bud, but when he broke through the circle, he was shocked by what he saw. He found the bully flat on his back, his friend sitting on his chest, holding him by the ears and smashing his head into the pavement over and over. My dad tackled him, wrestled him to the ground, and screamed at him, asking what he was doing. Luckily they were kids, so the damage was serious but limited.
The bully escaped with stitches and a concussion, and my dad’s friend had to talk to the school psychologist. He and my dad stayed best friends, and when I met him as an adult, he was still quiet but less shy and awkward.
12. Sometimes, You Just Have To Roll With It
My dad is the most mild-mannered, composed, level-headed person I have ever met. I once saw him trip in our garage and land in a bucket of nails and screws, only to realize he had one lodged into his kneecap. He looked over at me and said, “Don’t tell your mom; she’ll overreact”, while he grabbed a pair of pliers and yanked out the screw.
However, whenever something happened to my special needs brother, he would change. He would get this sparkle in his eye that could scare a Navy SEAL. When I was eight years old, my parents took my brother and me to eat at a restaurant. It was a big deal because my brother had recently been diagnosed with a degenerative physical health issue which was racking up huge medical debts, all while my dad lost his job.
We went to our favorite Mexican restaurant and parked in the handicapped spot nearest the front door. I still remember having an unusually light-hearted time in which I could see my parents' stress level subside as we listened to funny stories about the past. We simply enjoyed a memorable dinner with lots of laughter. Looking back, I realized this was a significant expense that my parents probably couldn’t afford and sacrificed so we could have a normal night out as a family.
When we left the restaurant, we found a car parked next to us. Not in a parking spot, but in the yellow stripes immediately next to our van. Usually, this might not be an issue, but my brother was in a wheelchair, and we had a folding ramp, not the hydraulic lifts you see today. This was a Friday night, so traffic was busy and my parents didn’t feel comfortable just backing up into the street to load my brother.
So, my dad went into the restaurant to see if the manager could find the owner of the car and ask him to move. When my dad emerged from the restaurant, I saw a look I had never seen before. It was one of focus, determination, and rage. He looked at my mom and told her to get in the car. She just hopped in and said, “Um ok”, in a way that indicated she knew something might go down.
He turned to me and said, “Watch this”! He unfolded the ramp and slammed it onto the roof of the car next to us. Then he turned to explain that the manager told him, “I’m not responsible for what happens in the parking lot. Why don’t you just figure something out”. So he did. There were only 4–5 groups eating in the restaurant, so the manager could have easily asked someone to move.
We waited for a minute, and the manager came out yelling, “What are you doing? You can’t do that”. That was when my dad lost it! He picked up my brother’s wheelchair with him in it—which weighed about 150–200 lbs—and sat him on the hood of the car while yelling at the manager. He then jumped on the hood of the car and picked up my brother to put him on the roof of the car, giving the manager the business the whole time. And he wasn’t done yet.
He jumped up to the roof and calmly rolled my brother across the ramp and into our van. He told me to get in and calmly told the manager, “I figured something out”. Since that day, I have never seen anything remotely close to the same level of anger from him. We laugh about that story from time to time. We believe that the car in question was the manager’s because any customer could have seen what was happening from inside the restaurant. My dad is always quick to say that he overreacted, but I think he reacted just fine.
13. His Anger Multiplied
My math teacher in middle school prided himself on being cool as a cucumber. He would even brag about not being angry and how it was a useless emotion. One day, this kid angered him so badly that he swiped all of the kid's belongings off of the table in front of the whole class and booted him out of the classroom.
14. Christmas With The Cranks
When I was about seven, we had what we now refer to as the "Jerry Springer Christmas". One aunt hated her sister-in-law and started screaming at her. Then the shoving started. Husbands got involved, and it just continued to devolve from there. My mom went straight into mediator mode and tried to calm everyone down, but it wasn't working.
She decided to check on us kids and found my cousin and me holding each other and sobbing because we were scared. The next thing I heard was her scary mom voice screaming over everyone. She was saying, "Listen here. My kid is in there crying on Christmas because [the] family can't keep themselves together for the one day a year we all see each other. You're gonna march your behinds into that room single file and apologize to each kid individually.
“Then, you're going to shut up until I get them out of here. We're going to go find and look at lights, and this family better be the picture of Christmas joy by the time we get back". My mom never cursed in front of me and only used excessive language when things were really bad. That side of the family didn't celebrate Christmas for a few years after that.
15. He Turned In A Snap
I had a friend I knew since childhood who was always happy-go-lucky and smiling. He was the guy you would call at 3 AM with a flat tire, and he would just ask where you were at. He was never one to start anything and always managed to defuse any situation with a smile, an offer of friendship, and a drink. He wasn’t a big dude but had worked in labor-intensive jobs at his family business since he was young, so he was deceptively strong.
Usually, he would pick people up and set them down behind him when breaking up brawls. Something about being picked up by the biceps and just moved without brutality or malice seemed to always take the fight out of people. It was like his superpower. When we were around 21–22, we had a party at our house. This was an every weekend thing at the time.
We were all outside, sitting around a bonfire. A friend of a friend was being a moron. He was getting in people's faces, saying he was going to kick so and so’s behind, and we generally ignored him. He was plastered, and it was his normal behavior, so nobody took him seriously. He got into my friend’s face screaming at him because he was sitting next to his ex-girlfriend.
My friend let it slide since he never gets angry or confrontational. At that point, this other dude had his forehead against my friend’s and was just screaming. I guess something just snapped. Without warning or words, my friend picked up this guy by the throat and slammed him to the ground. Then, he started to beat the snot out of him, never letting go of his grip on the guy’s throat.
We were all frozen for a second. This was the first time we had ever seen our friend be violent. We quickly snapped out of it and ran to get them apart, but we found out that wouldn't be easy. It took five guys to pry the two apart. Once they were apart, our friend snapped out of it and began apologizing to everyone, including the other guy. After that night, I've only seen our friend snap once more.
16. The Teacher Was A Factor
In my first semester in college, I was in a math class with a horrible teacher. The entire class hated him. The girl who sat in front of me was very sweet and soft-spoken. One day, I don't remember what set her off, but she just snapped and started screaming at him. It caused such a commotion that someone called security to check if everything was okay. The teacher quickly dismissed security and returned to "teaching" as if nothing had happened.
17. He Was Clean Out Of Patience
During my previous pre-pandemic job, I worked with a talented, super nice manager named James, who was a total professional and very good with customers. He was one of those guys you would look at, and, from sheer physical size, you'd think he could easily be a bouncer. However, he was just an absolute teddy bear of a human being.
It didn't matter what changes came down from the top of the company or how business was going. This dude was a beacon of positivity. He never got visibly mad or upset and was pure Teflon to bad news. However, one day I got a call from a janitorial service we contracted with. During the call, they asked me to confirm that we had two-day shifts and one overnight shift cleaning our building.
It was puzzling since we only had one day and one overnight cleaning shift. They kept insisting that I must be mistaken and that surely there was a second shift during the day that I was just missing. However, I was the guy who had to regularly review their work and submit feedback to the contracted company, so I was 100% certain that we only ever had a single day shift.
Eventually, I put them on hold and informed James, and like a switch, the dude completely changed his attitude. Gone was the James, who always had a smile on his face and never let anything get to him. In his place arrived a stone-faced mountain of a man who asked me to let him talk to these people. I gave him the phone, he went into his office, and I watched through the window as he became increasingly animated, maybe even to the point of outright yelling.
The truth had come out that we were being charged for this second daytime janitorial shift that had never actually existed. It was like watching a teddy bear turn into a Grizzly in the span of three minutes. After the call, he was able to move past it and return to his normal self, but while he was on the phone, I could tell he was just incensed by the fact we were being billed for services we weren't receiving.
18. The Calm After The Storm
One time in high school, a couple of mean kids were in this other kid’s face. The dude was just sitting there with no expression, staring straight ahead, clearly not hearing a thing. One of the meanies inched closer, and the kid decked him as hard as he could in the face. The kid was knocked to the floor, speechless, with his nose bleeding everywhere.
The kid then calmly stood up, still with no emotion, slowly packed his things, and made his own way to the principal’s office as if nothing at all had happened. It’s still one of the most brutal things I’ve ever seen. It was like something right out of a movie.
19. Ringing To An End
One of my coworkers was a calm, quiet, easygoing dude. We had a receptionist at the time who was terrible. She would constantly leave the front desk phones unattended. We would have to stop mid-service to answer them ourselves and check people in and out. One day, she pulled her same nonsense. The phones were ringing, people were waiting, and she was nowhere to be seen. Well, my normally calm co-worker wasn’t going to take it anymore.
He just sighed and screamed her name in the loudest, angriest, most fed-up-I'm-done-scream. She scurried her trifling little self back up to the front in seconds like a little cockroach that knew it had messed up.
20. Tackle Royale
Back in high school, every time during lunch break, I would visit my friends in a different section to hang out. I knew a guy who was the most chill dude. He laughed a lot, participated in friendly banter, and cracked the occasional joke but generally preferred to listen in on the conversations. One day, I decided to hang out in his class as usual.
I greeted him with a "Hey man", but he just looked at me, took off his student ID, and gave it to me. Then out of nowhere, he TACKLED one of our classmates. He started punching the life out of this guy and hitting him with everything he got his hands on. Everyone was screaming while I was just holding his student ID, dumbfounded. Apparently, the classmate he beat up had been harassing and insulting him.
21. Leapin’ Lizards
My middle school homeroom teacher was amazing. She was a science teacher and had a chameleon in a huge wall-sized cage. It had branches for climbing, water, and tunnels. It was a perfect environment. One day before school started, she walked into her classroom while some kids were poking the chameleon with sticks. Big mistake.
The teacher physically radiated anger. She dragged them to the office, then when she came back, she told us to hang out or play science hockey until first period while she went to cool down in the office.
22. I Couldn’t Believe It
There was a girl in my grade in high school who was super quiet and shy. Very often, when we were in a group chatting, she would be quiet. If you turned to her and asked for her opinion, she would put her hands over her mouth, giggle nervously, and take a few steps back. Her mom was also kind of creepy and would follow her everywhere.
The first week of every month, the mom would follow the girl to school and walk around the hallways during class, bored. The rest of the month, she would stay outside the school at a cafe or the rec center, waiting for her daughter. When we would hang out, the mom would follow us from a little distance away. There were rumors that the girl was taken as a child, so that’s why they were like that.
One day, I saw her and her family at the dollar store. So, I started walking over to her to say hi, and suddenly, she started screaming at her mother. It looked like her mom asked her to translate the packaging. She apparently didn't believe her translation was correct because she was screaming, "FINE, DONT BELIEVE ME THEN”!!! It scared the bejeezus out of me.
23. He Was Out Of Line
Ed, the forklift driver, had tried Chantix to quit smoking. We worked in a warehouse with assembly lines packaging refrigerator components. It was a pretty stressful job at times. One day, we were packaging an order, and we ran out of a shelf due to poor communication, so the assembly line had to stop. Ed absolutely snapped.
He took off on his forklift to get the shelves. When he came back with the shelves on his left, he drove through the “spider” area where forklifts weren’t allowed. He slammed through thousands of components and ran his forklift directly into the assembly conveyor belt, destroying the entire operation. Bodies went flying—but the nightmare wasn’t over yet.
He then threw it in reverse and slammed it backward into containers stacked all the way to the ceiling, causing hundreds of metal and glass refrigerator shelves to come raining down. It was terrifying, and he nearly killed eight of us working on the line.
24. Sister Smacked Some Sense Into Us
My mom and I fought about finances, life, and generally everything when the financial crisis of 2008 started to affect us. We were shouting at each other, bringing up every hurtful incident from my birth till that day. Things began to fly—it was carnage. My sister grabbed my mom and pushed her to sit beside me while scolding us about our behavior. Then she smacked both of us on the face. We were totally stunned and shut up. She told us we should keep it together in dire times instead of arguing.
25. Uncle Suck
For years my aunt was always super calm, joking, and in a good mood. I had never seen her angry at anything or heard her curse—until one Christmas. My mom had two younger brothers. One uncle was a complete jerk, and the younger one was a pretty average guy and got along with everyone. For years my grandma enabled my jerk uncle, and despite my grandpa's best efforts, he just became more of a moron.
The previous summer, my jerk uncle and my now ex-aunt separated with a divorce pending. She was still nice to her nieces and nephews and called my grandma to ask if she could drop off our Christmas gifts. My grandma said that was fine. She showed up, and my uncle was mad. My grandma told all of us children, including the jerk uncle's daughter, to stay in the family room.
My mom came in and said that my jerk uncle tried to punch his wife in the face and my good uncle pulled him back. They fell through the neighbor's split rail fence. My always super calm aunt stood up and said, "I've had it with his wife-beating. I'm calling the authorities. I've had it with this psycho". I was stunned. I couldn’t believe it.
My grandma was in a panic because, again, she enabled it, and him going behind bars would likely cost him his job. The jerk uncle took off, and shortly after, we all left. Christmas ended a bit early that year. To this day, I've yet to hear my aunt curse again and have only ever seen her get upset about something. It was again about my jerk uncle.
26. His Anger Was Right On Target
I worked with a guy at scout camp who was in charge of the archery range. He was a super quiet and reserved guy, very nice and down to earth. One day we had a scout draw his bow and point it at one of his friends as a joke. I’ve never seen a kid get the fear of God put in him so fast after my friend ripped him apart for that.
27. The Story Of Joe And Jill
I was in the US Coast Guard, and along the way, I met a really calm guy, Joe. He was soft-spoken yet still authoritative when need be. He was always nice to others and worked hard. Then there was another worker, Jill. Jill was always on a power trip, annoying, loud, and disrespectful to anyone lower ranking than her. I could go on for days about her.
One night while on duty, Joe and his crew were out on a rescue case for over six hours. He and the crew got back to the station at 2 or 3 AM. They were so tired they collapsed on the couches in the lounge, which was connected to the conference/training room. It was divided by a folding partition you could pull out of the wall.
There was a note on the door to the big room that said, “Crew is sleeping from late night case. Do not disturb”. When morning came, Jill completely ignored the note, busted into the room, turned on all the lights, and began talking and laughing way too loud for that hour. She started to tell a ridiculous sea story. Joe immediately got up from the couch like a rocket and walked towards the partition in the wall. He was mumbling and cursing under his breath.
He was vigorously fighting the partition, yanking it from the wall and pulling it across the 20-foot-long rail. Jill was watching him, and as he was almost done, she said, “I can leave if you want”. Completely unwarranted, Joe yelled, “THAT’S WHAT THE DOOR IS FOR”! He closed the partition and laid back down. No one said a word, but I think everyone gained a little more respect for Joe that day.
28. Wrong Answer!
My science teacher was usually a pretty cheery and funny guy. I remember one day, half of the class didn’t do the homework, so he gave us a lecture on how we should work harder. He wasn’t too angry but was just a bit disappointed and talked in that generic strict upset teacher voice. For some reason, I looked up at him with a smirk on my face and said, “OK”. What happened next was seriously unhinged.
He then decided to release all the pent-up anger in his life on me and screamed as loud as he could for the next five minutes straight. It was the angriest he had ever been, and he was known not to lose his temper and be level-headed most of the time.
29. A First-Grader Finished Him
When I was in first grade, this sixth grader would follow my friends and me after school and harass us. He would pull our backpacks, mock us, trip us, throw things at us, etc. One day, he was pulling on my backpack laughing, and my friends were yelling at him, begging him to let go. According to a neighbor who saw the whole thing, my face went stony and emotionless for a moment.
Then, I pulled my arms out of my backpack straps, turned around, and punched him square in the nose. I was usually the calm one. His dad tried to get mad at my dad, but apparently, the boy failed to mention that I was a first grader.
30. It Was The Final Straw
In high school, I had a cool, chill teacher who liked me because I was one of the few who did the homework. He played movies for us and was a real stand-up guy. Close to finals, a lot of my classmates stopped doing homework. In a fit of rage, he yelled for a few minutes before he slammed a broom on the wall and knocked the clock off of the wall with it. It was extremely loud.
Then, he sat next to me and laughed before saying sort of quietly, “Look, you can hear a pen drop right now”.
31. She Made Her Mark
My Spanish teacher was a really laid-back and chill person who knew how to speak “teen lingo” and acted more like one of us than a teacher. One day, the ADHD kid was being a particular nuisance, and the teacher snapped. She grabbed a marker, tossed it, and nailed him clean in the forehead. No one got in any trouble because we all respected her for that move, including the kid who got headshot with a marker.
32. He Booked On Out
One time, my ninth-grade math teacher, who was usually super chill, had the class doing some Kahoots. Some kids were throwing books at each other. The teacher walked over and tried to get them to stop. One of the kids threw a book at him, and I guess that was the last straw. He proceeded to pick up said book and slammed it against this kid's head.
Then, he yelled at everyone who was throwing books—which was about half the class—to get out of the classroom. He retired the next day, and we didn't have an actual math teacher until about a month later. Even then, it was only the football coach going over basic stuff until we got the 12th-grade math teacher 11 days before school ended.
33. She Was A German Legend
I had a bio teacher in high school who once snapped. She was a super sweet German woman who was always very calm—almost too calm and forgiving for a teacher. A lot of people in my class openly disrespected her for weeks. They would talk during class, talk when she was handing out assignments, didn't do the work, etc.—just absolute teenage idiots.
One day, she finally told them to be quiet or leave the room. They did not listen at all. What followed was months of built-up rage towards these specific students. She started to raise her voice, lecturing them on their behavior for about five minutes. One of them said something like "whatever", so she snapped and started screaming at them.
She hurled insults and reminded them that they ruined class for everyone else. It was glorious! Some tried to defend themselves, but she cut them off every time. The more she talked, the angrier she got. And the angrier she got, the more her accent started showing. So, for 45 minutes, she yelled with a mad German accent. It was scary. I wasn't even guilty but was legitimately scared. They stopped being idiots after that lesson.
34. Family Of Freaks
A friend and I were heading out of town together for work. He suggested we spend the night at his mom's and sister's place because we had an early flight, and they were close to the airport. This family was nuts. We were on the east coast, close to the ocean. My friend had recently mudded some drywall for his mom, and because of the humidity, it took a long time to dry.
However, his mom kept yelling at him to paint it. His sister's kid, who was about two years old, was drinking coffee at midnight, and the family only screamed at each other. I was only able to keep my composure with them for about three hours before I lost it. I screamed at everyone and retreated to the garden shed where my friend had built his own refuge.
35. My Ex Left Me Shaking
I'm the usually calm one, but then my ex-wife came to crash at my place after a break-up sent her into a spiral. She and the kid came to visit me for a weekend just before he was to move back in for school. The weekend turned into her spending a week in the psych ward. I sat in the ER with her for eight hours, started a new job the next morning, visited her when she asked, and helped our kid do his online schooling from a fast food restaurant because we didn't have WiFi at the house.
She ended up staying with me for two months. I slept on a pallet on my own floor so she could have my bed. One day, all this stress steamrolled into one disturbing argument. She called me stupid, knowing I'm very sensitive about my intelligence levels. I just blew up and was screaming back at her. I was so mad I was shaking. My throat hurt from being so loud, and at one point wanted to reach out and smack her.
I've never felt the urge to hit someone before, and it scared me. I'm the same man whose own mother didn't hear me raise my voice until I was 25.
36. Lollipalooza
I had this deputy principal who was the calmest and nicest teacher ever. One day we were having a fun day with 800 students. There were attractions with free prizes, a haunted house, obstacle course, basketball, etc. Every booth was run by year six students, and every booth had a glass jar of lollies. Each student would guess how many. At the end of the day, each lolly jar was given away to the closest guess.
My principal was organizing this. One student who won a jar was on their way down to their seat when they dropped the glass jar, and chaos ensued. Trying to calmly manage the 800 students was challenging, and suddenly, he just snapped. He started screaming at the students to quiet down. Everyone froze, teachers and students alike. We had never seen this side of him, and I never did again.
37. I Couldn’t Stand For It Anymore!
I'm usually a very calm person and rarely lose it. I did this one shift in a nursing home, and there was an aggressive resident. Nothing would calm her down. She kept hitting the caregivers, leaving them with scratches and bruises. I lost my marbles because management was just turning a blind eye to it, saying they had already tried everything.
Nobody was standing up for these girls who were petrified, physically shaking, and crying. I ended up calling for an ambulance, and the authorities had the resident taken in for a mental health check. She was ultimately sectioned and diagnosed with schizophrenia.
38. Better Business Blowout
The mechanic I used to take my car to was a jovial, friendly guy. Customers, employees, and everyone loved him. One day, I brought my car in, and while it was being serviced, I sat in the waiting room reading. A man came in to talk to the mechanic. He identified himself as being from the Better Business Bureau. He made completely unreasonable demands on behalf of another customer.
He did it in such a voice that even I wanted to punch him, and I have never punched anyone in my life. The mechanic went ballistic. I had never seen someone lose their cool like that and would have never expected it from him. He screamed at the BBB guy for 45 minutes. The BBB guy stood there silently and unabashed, making the mechanic angrier. I left for a while and came back, and the mechanic was still yelling.
I don’t know how it ended, but later the mechanic said, “Sorry you had to see that, but boy did it feel good”.
39. Granny Had Some Gusto
I was on set with this lovely woman playing my grandma. She was extremely soft-spoken, super sweet, and never got upset. One of the other cast members was pregnant. The AC had to be turned off during scenes for noise reasons. We were doing this one scene that took place in a cramped space, and it was probably 80 or so degrees in there. The pregnant woman was sweating and really didn’t look good.
The older woman asked if the pregnant woman could take a break, and the director said, “Let’s just go one more time”, so we went again. They said, “One more time”, six times, and the older woman went off. She said, “NO. NOT ONE MORE TIME. SHE IS SEVEN MONTHS PREGNANT, IN PAIN, AND ABOUT TO COLLAPSE. THE SCENE CAN WAIT. TAKE TWO SECONDS, AND GET HER OUT OF HERE”.
Everyone was shocked. It was incredible. Nothing could make this director cave except this 78-year-old powerhouse telling him off for the first time in five years of us all working together. We got her out, and she actually did faint. We had a long cast and crew meeting about respect and when to speak up. I look up to that woman with all that I am.
40. Beware Of The Quiet Ones
I was actually the “normally calm” person in this scenario. I’ve always been very shy and hated confrontation. But, there was a girl in my hometown known for being a high school meanie. She was one of those girls who loved to pick on my friends and especially me. She’d shove us at the clubs and try to pick fights every time we saw her.
The thing that sparked it was that one night, she elbowed my friend in her back really hard. I just lost it. I don’t think anyone’s ever seen me so angry, and I am not a scary person by any means, but I got right in her face and scared the daylights out of her. Seeing the quiet girl go psycho on someone is pretty intimidating. She just stood there, too scared to speak, and we never had issues again.
41. He Flipped Out
I had a history teacher in high school who was an incredible guy. He was a very warm and understanding person and looked after the other misfits and me. There was this really obnoxious kid during my freshman year who made a very snide remark, as he was known for doing. This teacher must’ve had enough that day because he proceeded to flip a desk, call this kid a name, and booted him out of the classroom.
42. Words Of Warning
My dad was a really nice calm dude, but one day, the neighbor boy hit me in the face with a pan. The next time my dad saw him outside, he walked menacingly to the fence and yelled, "Next time you touch my daughter, I'll rip your head off and hand it to your parents". Even as an adult, that dude is still afraid of my dad 20 years later.
43. Switch Side Are You On?
My best friend was a gentle and kind soul. When we were in our mid-20s, his roommate was seeing this guy who was clearly bad news. One night, he was pounding on the door and screaming for her, and my pal and I were watching some movie, hanging out. We answered the door because this guy was big, and he was saying he would break it if need be.
The guy made it as far as the living room before my friend just said, "No", and pointed at him with a furious stare that I had never seen before or since. The guy actually backed down. I'm a pretty lightweight woman, so this nutcase would have gone through me like nothing. However, during that situation, my friend just switched gears. Then, he switched back to his gentle self. I never knew he had it in him until the chips were down.
44. He Didn’t Let This One Float By
I invited my two neighbors who both have kids my son’s age for his fifth birthday party. We had been neighborly for the past two years. One of my neighbors had a boy named David who could be a menace. He liked to hit sometimes, and his mother didn’t like to do anything about it.
I was inside at the time, and David swung an inflatable ax at my child, then took it and pretended to poke my other neighbor’s daughter in her rear.
The girl’s father saw that and asked David to get out of the pool. This guy was usually super chill, and we had never seen him raise his voice ever. But David just kept poking his daughter. He grabbed the kid and yanked him out of the pool. The boy left the party, and the father went off yelling that he was going to beat up David’s dad.
45. The Law Was Not On Her Side
My law teacher in high school was super cool and always calm. She was a successful lawyer before she made the career switch, and you could really tell from her behavior. She had this air around her that made it clear that you shouldn’t mess with her. However, she never showed off, never raised her voice, never lost her patience with the students, or made snappy remarks.
Everyone respected her, except for this one girl. This girl was a typical class bully. Everyone had enough of her, but no one could do much because of the way she always phrased her insults as if she was merely stating her opinion and didn’t mean anything bad by it. She had started to feel like she could get away with anything.
One day, this girl was trash-talking the teacher in the middle of her class, whispering to her friend but loud enough so everyone could hear. The teacher very calmly walked through the classroom as if she hadn’t heard it. The girl and her friend were laughing, thinking they had gotten away with it. Then, the teacher quietly stopped behind the girl.
She put her hands on the girl’s shoulders and whispered, in the same manner, the girl had been doing, “Get out”. The girl froze. You could tell from her face that she realized she had pushed it too far. She actually went a bit pale. When she didn’t immediately react, the teacher just calmly added, “Now”. The girl was suspended after that.
46. Vindicated
I’m usually a pretty chill guy, and I’ll let a lot slide because it’s easier and healthier not to be angry. I went to the hardware store, and it started raining just as I got there. I saw a guy waiting under some cover in front of his car for a slight break in the rain. So, I just parked, put my indicator on, and gave him a wave to say take his time.
It took about five minutes before a slight break came. Just as he started reversing, an older lady pulled up, looked me straight in the eye, and took the spot the second the guy pulled out. I beeped my horn, and she didn’t even respond. I was furious. I found another spot pretty quickly, but that wasn’t the point. I confronted her, and she tried to say she didn’t see/hear me.
I blew it and called this old lady a lying, selfish woman. She got all huffy, saying, “You can’t talk to me like that”, and looked around for support. A guy who’d seen it all said, “Lady, don’t look at me. He’s got a point”.
47. He Went Mental Over Some Merch
My friend had been playing a gig with his band. Before they played their set, someone took some merchandise from the merch table and ran. The band played the show. After the gig, my plastered mate saw someone outside the gig wearing one of the new shirt designs that the band had brought with them. He walked up to the man in the shirt.
He complimented him on it, then started whaling on the guy. I jumped in and wrestled him off the kid he was beating. But there was something he hadn’t known. This poor guy was a big fan of the band and had bought the shirt from the band at the gig. The actual crook was never found.
48. He Broke Loose Of His Cool
I had a friend—a former Marine—who didn’t lose his cool, ever. We were walking out of the mall, and we heard this guy railing at his girlfriend, berating her, and yelling that she was useless and had embarrassed him. Then he smacked her across the face. My friend immediately stopped in his tracks. He then walked over to them, grabbed the hand he hit her with, and broke two of his fingers.
He said something to the guy before he started walking toward his car again. I knew the guy for five years and only saw him mad that one time.
49. Show Stopper
I was pretty quiet in high school unless someone said or did something profoundly stupid. I was in color guard from the 10th to 12th grades. One night, when I was a senior, it was game night, and we were getting ready for a performance. One of my friends took a phone call, then excused herself outside. After a few minutes, I went to check on her. What she told me made me blood run cold. Her mom had called to tell her sister had attempted to take her life and was on her way to the hospital.
I was good friends with the older sister as well. I was comforting her and trying to control the crowd that was growing. This nasty instructor that we came over to ask what was the matter. I told her the girl’s sister was in the hospital, and it wasn’t looking great. She said to this poor girl, “Well, this is school, not home, so you should just leave those feelings at the door. We have a performance”.
I pretty much blacked out and berated this woman. I backed her up all the way inside the building and to the front of the room. She was so horrified, she ran out of the building with her bag, but forgot her shoes. She had to run back in and get them five minutes later. I never apologized, and it was never spoken of again.
50. Cast Out Of Class
My ninth-grade social studies teacher was usually a really soft-spoken, nice dude. One day, we had class right after the lunch break. Everybody came in and took their seats, except for one girl. She put her binder and textbook down at her own desk, then went over and stood near her friend’s desk and began talking to her. The teacher told her to take a seat, but she just ignored him.
Without one word, the teacher got up from his desk, walked over to the girl’s desk, grabbed her binder and textbook, then stepped out of the classroom and launched her stuff down the hallway. The girl saw this and ran out of the classroom to get her things. As soon as she stepped out, the teacher slammed the door and locked it behind her. But the most unforgettable part was what he said about it. He then looked at the class and said, "Even dogs can be taught to sit".
Sources: Reddit,
