Moment Teacher Prepping Class Notes Realized Microphone Was Still Recording

A teacher preparing notes for his class needed to stop to get his cat out from behind the computer monitor, but when he returned to his screen, he couldn’t help but laugh at what he saw.

Nick, who is known on Reddit as MongooseNeither1840, stopped typing when his black cat named Salem went behind his computer and started attacking the cords, which is a fairly common feline behavior.

An article from WebMD explained that cats are drawn to cords out of boredom, curiosity or simply because they like the way it feels to chew. This behavior often starts when they’re kittens and their teeth are coming in. Cats can also be drawn to computers because of the warmth they give off, the sounds of the keyboard and because they want to be near their owners.

After he finally got Salem out and returned to his chair to start again, he noticed his notes had changed. He accidentally left the “dictate” button on—a speech-to-text function—which recorded his conversation with Salem as he wrangled her.

The notes went from defining total utility to him asking, “Are you kidding me right now?” Nick called Salem a “menace” for getting behind the computer as he tried to work. He knew she wanted attention and some pets, but he wasn’t too happy with how she went about it, especially since it was hard getting her unstuck.

“My first reaction after getting her out of the space behind my monitor and sitting back down was, of course, to laugh,” he told Newsweek via Reddit. “It’s one of those moments that practically seems out of a comedy sketch.”

He immediately went to get his wife and show her as well. He can’t remember what she said, as this happened a few months ago, but she also got a big laugh out of it.

He shared his notes after the incident in the subreddit channel r/cats. Plus, he snapped a picture of what Salem did after her “adventure.” She took a nap on the desk next to Nick as if she didn’t just cause chaos.

Nick’s Reddit post amassed more than 47,000 upvotes and 947 comments within four days, leaving people in stitches over how calm, cool and collected he remained.

“The ‘Ohh’ sent me into deep belly laughs,” said one user, to which Nick replied that was the moment he noticed the microphone stayed on.

Another added: “‘Yeah I bet it’s uncomfortable….’ is absolutely sending me. We care for these little terrors so much.”

A third person joked: “‘Stop being bad just be good instead of bad, just make rational decisions,’ sounds like economic theory.”

Someone else commented: “I applaud your coolness under pressure, my language would have been much more colorful.”

Do you have funny and adorable videos or pictures of your pet you want to share? Send them to life@newsweek.com with some details about your best friend, and they could appear in our Pet of the Week lineup.