Introduction
With being stuck at home in the midst of a pandemic, and exams being just around the bend, it’s sometimes difficult to find something to laugh about. Fortunately for us, however, science has shown that few things elicit laughter more than the misfortune of others.
To alleviate some stress you’re possibly feeling about finals, Lexicon gathered some funny tales from both students and lecturers of Taylor’s Law School to share with you.
Tale 1: For the first tale, it's lucky that guns are illegal in Malaysia… Whoever this lecturer is, please don't hurt us. And students, a valuable lesson that our TES evaluations are actually taken seriously!
“I walked into a class of 250 students. When asked some questions, no one responded. I told them that if I had a gun I swear I would use it and I could get away with it in at least 5 countries at my age. At my annual appraisal, I was shown a student's TES evaluation remarking, 'please don't give her a gun.' Needless to say, my interviewer was puzzled.”
Tale 2: Moots can be fun, the emphasis there is on “can”. Luck sometimes just isn't on your side...
“I was watching the finals of a mooting competition in Taylors. The mooter submitting brought up a particular case and was asked by the judge to explain it. The judge then said 'no actually, that's not what happened.' The mooter tried again and the judge said, 'actually, that's my case.' We all just sat there for a while in stunned and partially amused silence because luck was really not in her favour that day.”
Tale 3: Who said students can’t multitask!
“My class had a compulsory weekly meet up session with a lecturer. One of my friends didn't realise her camera was on and was sleeping in bed. My lecturer called her out by saying 'I see people joining us from all different parts of the world-even their bed'.”
Tale 4: Three years of study, panic, exams and repeat are sure to crush the strongest of souls.
"I was a bright, excited young girl, spirit not yet crushed by law school. This meant that I still took diligent notes in class. One day, in a lecture, I sat behind this young man. Halfway through the lecture, he starts watching a basketball game. Then he switches to a video of someone (might have been Gordon Ramsay) demonstrating the art of cutting fish, while still taking notes, mind you.
Naturally, I stopped paying attention and also started watching the video. The picture attached showing my notes gradually getting shorter speaks a thousand words! I never did end up paying attention again."
A wondrous depiction of the student's dying attention span.
Tale 5: Physical comedy is the best comedy, and if you disagree, with all due respect (that is, not much) you're wrong. How we wish we could have seen this in person.
“Back in Semester 1, my cohort was given a video assignment task which required us to record an entertaining video analysing the landmark case of Donoghue v Stevenson. For that, my group and I planned a skit showcasing the ‘neighbour principle’. The gist of the skit was essentially having my teammate, Tan Ejin, ‘negligently’ discard a banana peel on the floor resulting in me, a passer-by using my phone, slipping on the banana peel.
On the shooting day, as we got the camera rolling to shoot this skit, I realised there was no way I could observe the exact location of the thrown banana peel while pretending to use and look at my phone. Nevertheless, seeing that my teammate was narrating the scene smoothly, I decided to go with the flow instead of restarting the filming. I walked closer and closer towards the banana peel. Instead of me avoiding the banana peel and merely pretending to slip, I actually ended up stepping on it and genuinely fell. Funnily, none of my groupmates knew that was an actual fall. Ejin even took a peek at me in the skit and acted as if nothing happened. When I revealed the truth to my group mates after concluding the filming, everyone laughed and stood in disbelief. What were the odds of me stepping right on top of the banana peel? The best part is that the skit was successfully filmed in one attempt, the exact attempt whereby an unplanned accident occurred.”
Thank you to Ong Eng Hong for providing us with this spectacular clip of the incident.
Tale 6: A story from long long ago, the mystical days before lockdown. How we all long for those times. On a side note, it would probably be good for aspiring lawyers to say no to scammers.
"One day, after a long day of lectures, a whole group of us were walking out of Taylor's (wow physical classes feel like 50 years ago!). On our way out, there were a whole bunch of stalls set up on the boardwalk, as usual. One particular stall was a tarot card reader. Of course, our curiosity peaked and we fell for it and were possibly scammed.
One of my cohort mates sat down and had one very important question. 'Will I get a boyfriend?'. THE TAROT CARD READER SAID YES. A foreign boy, to be precise and told her to wait until October (this happened in September).
She, unfortunately, did not meet a cute, foreign boy. And a whole bunch of law students definitely spent a considerable amount of money that day. Oh well.”
Tale 7: Lockdown has been strange. With hours of online classes, some mistakes were sure to happen. We understand, we sympathise, and we warn students to stay away from their keyboards!
“We were having a live zoom class for a lecture. A student unmuted themself halfway through and we could hear that they were watching another video. Our lecturer stopped and asked if someone was watching another video. The student quickly muted themself.”
Tale 8: The old adage of “get a room” applies here. Come on guys...
“I was in a lecture on campus, in one of the lecture theatres. My friend was sitting next to me, eating kiwi slices while I read through the lecture slides. I was suddenly distracted by my friend's hand flying across my line of vision and looked up to see my friend feeding kiwi slices to the girl sitting on my other side. I sat there with the startling revelation that I was literally in the middle of their flirting.”
Tale 9: We personally can't remember physical classes. Lucky for us however Brenda Rachel Lee has a great memory.
"In the middle of my first semester back in August 2019, I remember waking up five minutes just before Contract Law I lecture started. For some reason, I could not hear my alarm ring that particular day, but usually, I would be able to hear it and wake up. I was probably too tired to wake up [morning classes are always awful]. Anyways, I chose to forego my breakfast and even my usual face washing routine and really just turned up in class almost 7 or 8 minutes before the 10-minute mark had passed. For some context, our lecturer for Contract Law I imposed this rule where if anyone entered her class after 10 minutes from the starting time, their attendance would not be marked. Hence, my choice to rush to class straight from my bed. Not to mention that it takes me about 10-15 minutes of walking time from my hostel to the lecture hall.
Because I had to rush to class, my choice of outfit was also a very simple one, although I could have picked a much better outfit to wear. The day could not have been any better (sarcasm intended). After our Contract Law I lecture had ended, we had a lecture on the English Legal System. For this lecture, it was centred on the history of jury trials and their usefulness in England today. Our lecturer spiced up the session by randomly picking several students to represent the jury in a simulated murder trial as well as picking one student to represent the accused. Funnily enough, I was one of the students who were picked to be one of the jurors in the activity. I thought to myself, “Why today out of all the days where I dressed up so nicely??” I mean, I did not even wash my face before going to class earlier, so I probably looked pale enough to be a walking ghost. However, I still walked to the front like it was nothing and I just stood there trying to look as normal as possible.
It gets even funnier from here onwards. The whole time I was standing in front of everyone together with the rest of the students being involved in the activity, without my knowledge whatsoever, a friend of mine snapped a picture of me with my arms crossed and my smirking face from where she was sitting. In the picture, it appeared as if I wanted to slide into someone’s DMs. I only knew about this when the activity ended and I returned to my seat next to hers. My eyes went wide and I asked jokingly, “why snap a picture today when you could have done the same thing on other days when I looked better?” She said that I looked fine and there was nothing to worry about. Who knew that she posted that exact picture on her Instagram story on my birthday next month? When I looked at it, I could not help but laugh at myself. It really looked like I either wanted to slide into someone’s DMs or I did not know what was going on at that time, knowing full well that I almost woke up late for class but still managed to survive through the day, looking alive as ever with just a shirt and tights on. This was one of the fondest memories that I still remember to this day. How I miss campus life!
PS. I had brunch after my morning classes ended. I still cannot figure out how I had the energy to participate in the lectures before that as I completely did not eat anything. Thank God for my water bottle as my lifesaver.”
Conclusion
See, who said law students can’t have fun? Between learning how to put bad guys in jail – or how to get them out of jail – and helping someone divorce their wife, we do find the time to enjoy a good laugh.
Lexicon thanks everyone who submitted these wonderful tales. As many, for good reason, chose to stay anonymous, we won’t remember their names but their stories will live on. We hope that these stories brought a smile to your face. Tall tales aside, Lexicon would like to wish everyone the best of luck in the upcoming exams. Let's hope that the funniest story out there won't be our grades!