Why am I embarrassed when I fall?

CrowdScience

BBC

Science, Technology

4.8 • 985 Ratings

🗓️ 3 January 2025

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

When listener Diana fell on a run on her birthday, her first instinct was not to check her bruised hand, but instead to get up as quickly as possible and act as if nothing had happened. She felt embarrassed. Meanwhile, her son Marley loves to watch fail videos that, mostly, show people falling over. So why does falling – something that can cause serious injury – elicit both embarrassment and laughter?

In the name of CrowdScience, presenter Caroline Steel trips, stumbles and falls. She spends a morning with clown Sean Kempton who teaches her slapstick skills, including how to do it safely.

Psychologist Rowland Miller explains why falling can be embarrassing and shares his theory of why humans have developed this emotion in the first place. Then it’s time for Caroline to try out Diana’s predicament herself. If a BBC presenter falls in a park, will she feel embarrassed? From embarrassment to laughter, psychologist Janet Gibson lists the ingredients of a funny fall, and humour expert Caleb Warren explains how they can get funnier with distance. Then Caroline tries, semi-successfully, to make members of the public laugh. Will clown Sean do a better job?

Presenter: Caroline Steel Producer: Florian Bohr Editor: Cathy Edwards Production coordinators: Ishmael Soriano Sound engineers: Bob Nettles, Tim Heffer and Giles Aspen

Transcript

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0:00.0	Before you listen to this BBC podcast, I'd like to quickly tell you about some others.
0:05.2	My name's Andy Martin and I'm the editor of a team of podcast producers at the BBC in Northern Ireland.
0:11.3	It's a job I really love because we get to tell the stories that really matter to people here,
0:16.3	but which also resonate and apply to listeners around the world.
0:19.6	And because the team has such a diverse
0:21.2	range of skills and strengths, we have trained journalists, people who love digging through
0:26.0	archives, we've got drama and even comedy experts. We really can do those stories justice. So if
0:31.8	you like this podcast, head to BBC Sounds where you'll find plenty more fascinating stories
0:37.1	from all around the UK.
0:38.9	Hello, my name is Sean Kempton and I'm a circus director and clown.
0:45.2	Okay, now could you introduce yourself again, please, but while falling.
0:49.7	Hello, my name is Sean Kempton.
0:51.4	I'm a circus clown director.
0:55.3	I just, oh!
0:58.8	Hello and welcome to crowd science from the BBC World Service.
1:03.6	I'm Caroline Steele, and in this episode, I'm spending a lot of time with a clown, because he's got a skill I'm trying to learn.
1:12.7	Throwing myself to the ground, standing up, being hit, throwing myself to the ground,
1:16.3	standing up, falling off stage. I fall for a living, yeah.
1:21.5	As always, it started with a question from one of you listeners. Well, in this case, two of you.
1:28.4	Hi, I'm Diana. I am Mali's mum and I live in Nairobi, Kenya and I'm a keen runner.
1:36.8	And Mali, do you want to introduce yourself?
1:38.5	Hi, I'm Mali. I live in Nairobi, Kenya and I love playing football.
	...

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