20 Famous Figures Who Had One Job … And Screwed It Up

Carly Tennes Published 04/25/2024 in facepalm

Though often saved for the dumb people depicted in Reddit posts, the old online adage of "you had one job" very much applies to more than just internet everymen. From the dawn of time, workers have managed to spectacularly screw up the one thing that they were supposed to do, a tradition honored by the guys who let in the Trojan Horse, President John F. Kennedy's Secret Service team, and more recently, the Ever Given staff.

From the Costa Concordia disaster to the infamous Oscars slap, here are 20 people that somehow managed to screw up their one job.

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1. “Blockbuster. They passed on the opportunity to acquire a little DVD mail order rental business called Netflix and refused to acknowledge the growth of Internet streaming and film viewing. They went from 9,000 stores at their peak in 2004 to only 1 store.
2. “Lynette Fromm, who failed in her assassination attempt of Gerald Ford from 2 ft away because she was too stupid to realize she had to chamber a round before her gun would fire”
3. “Will Smith at the Oscar[s]. His job was literally to sit down shut his d—n mouth.”
4. Phil Tippet. “For those like me who didn’t know, Phil was listed in the Jurassic Park credits as a dinosaur supervisor because he supervised the dinosaur special effects.”
5. “Robin Hood trading app. Was created to ‘level the playing field’ between large equity trading firms and everyday traders. Then when the poors started making money and the big trading houses started losing money on their short positions, they shut down t
6. “Secret service for allowing JFK to ride around in an open car. Protecting the man means you gotta say “no”‘to what he wants.”
7. “Costa Concordia's captain. 33 casualties and $2billion in manpower required to move the stuck ship.”
8. “Head of FEMA Michael Brown during Hurricane Katrina.”
9. “[Robert Liston] The surgeon who had a 300% mortality rate during an amputation. Apparently he performed it under two and a half minutes…the patient died, someone in attendance died of shock and an assistant died because his fingers were also amputated an
10. “The fake sign language interpreter from Tampa that was signing gibberish… people will figure that out.”
11. “The guard at the gate in Troy that let the horse in.”
12. “Sam Bankman-Fried .. his stupid actions made a lot of people lose money.”
13. “All the cops at Uvalde. All they had to do was go in and take out the shooter. Instead they ran and hid and got more kids killed.”
14. “Steve Harvey at Miss Universe when he announced the wrong winner.”
15. “The guy who sends out ballistic missile warnings in Hawaii.”
16. “Liz Truss. Took office, went to extreme lengths to take care of her wealthy pals at the top, took our currency to historic lows with Kwasi Kwarteng's horrendously planned "mini budget", killed off the housing market, announced £45bn of unplanned tax cuts
17. “The CEO of Sears who thought the internet was a passing fad. As the definitive name in mail-order, Sears had the warehouses and logistics in place to be Amazon years before Bezos made it there. "
18. “That dude from Price Waterhouse Cooper's at the Oscar's a few years ago who mixed up the envelopes and f—ed up the Best Picture announcement. To the tune of the entire cast of La La Land coming on stage to celebrate, only to turn around and tell the cast
19. “Gerald Ratner, a jewelry shop owner who said the product his company made was c—p and cost his company £500 million in one night.”
20. “Has anyone mentioned that one guy who messed up with the Suez Canal ship and caused a massive economic chain of events?”

1. “Blockbuster. They passed on the opportunity to acquire a little DVD mail order rental business called Netflix and refused to acknowledge the growth of Internet streaming and film viewing. They went from 9,000 stores at their peak in 2004 to only 1 store.
2. “Lynette Fromm, who failed in her assassination attempt of Gerald Ford from 2 ft away because she was too stupid to realize she had to chamber a round before her gun would fire”
3. “Will Smith at the Oscar[s]. His job was literally to sit down shut his d—n mouth.”
4. Phil Tippet. “For those like me who didn’t know, Phil was listed in the Jurassic Park credits as a dinosaur supervisor because he supervised the dinosaur special effects.”
5. “Robin Hood trading app. Was created to ‘level the playing field’ between large equity trading firms and everyday traders. Then when the poors started making money and the big trading houses started losing money on their short positions, they shut down t
6. “Secret service for allowing JFK to ride around in an open car. Protecting the man means you gotta say “no”‘to what he wants.”
7. “Costa Concordia's captain. 33 casualties and $2billion in manpower required to move the stuck ship.”
8. “Head of FEMA Michael Brown during Hurricane Katrina.”
9. “[Robert Liston] The surgeon who had a 300% mortality rate during an amputation. Apparently he performed it under two and a half minutes…the patient died, someone in attendance died of shock and an assistant died because his fingers were also amputated an
10. “The fake sign language interpreter from Tampa that was signing gibberish… people will figure that out.”
11. “The guard at the gate in Troy that let the horse in.”
12. “Sam Bankman-Fried .. his stupid actions made a lot of people lose money.”
13. “All the cops at Uvalde. All they had to do was go in and take out the shooter. Instead they ran and hid and got more kids killed.”
14. “Steve Harvey at Miss Universe when he announced the wrong winner.”
15. “The guy who sends out ballistic missile warnings in Hawaii.”
16. “Liz Truss. Took office, went to extreme lengths to take care of her wealthy pals at the top, took our currency to historic lows with Kwasi Kwarteng's horrendously planned "mini budget", killed off the housing market, announced £45bn of unplanned tax cuts
17. “The CEO of Sears who thought the internet was a passing fad. As the definitive name in mail-order, Sears had the warehouses and logistics in place to be Amazon years before Bezos made it there. "
18. “That dude from Price Waterhouse Cooper's at the Oscar's a few years ago who mixed up the envelopes and f—ed up the Best Picture announcement. To the tune of the entire cast of La La Land coming on stage to celebrate, only to turn around and tell the cast
19. “Gerald Ratner, a jewelry shop owner who said the product his company made was c—p and cost his company £500 million in one night.”
20. “Has anyone mentioned that one guy who messed up with the Suez Canal ship and caused a massive economic chain of events?”

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“Blockbuster. They passed on the opportunity to acquire a little DVD mail order rental business called Netflix and refused to acknowledge the growth of Internet streaming and film viewing. They went from 9,000 stores at their peak in 2004 to only 1 store.

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NEXT GALLERY 24 Pics of Total Catastrophic Failure

1. “Blockbuster. They passed on the opportunity to acquire a little DVD mail order rental business called Netflix and refused to acknowledge the growth of Internet streaming and film viewing. They went from 9,000 stores at their peak in 2004 to only 1 store.

2. “Lynette Fromm, who failed in her assassination attempt of Gerald Ford from 2 ft away because she was too stupid to realize she had to chamber a round before her gun would fire”

3. “Will Smith at the Oscar[s]. His job was literally to sit down shut his d—n mouth.”

4. Phil Tippet. “For those like me who didn’t know, Phil was listed in the Jurassic Park credits as a dinosaur supervisor because he supervised the dinosaur special effects.”

5. “Robin Hood trading app. Was created to ‘level the playing field’ between large equity trading firms and everyday traders. Then when the poors started making money and the big trading houses started losing money on their short positions, they shut down t

6. “Secret service for allowing JFK to ride around in an open car. Protecting the man means you gotta say “no”‘to what he wants.”

7. “Costa Concordia's captain. 33 casualties and $2billion in manpower required to move the stuck ship.”

8. “Head of FEMA Michael Brown during Hurricane Katrina.”

9. “[Robert Liston] The surgeon who had a 300% mortality rate during an amputation. Apparently he performed it under two and a half minutes…the patient died, someone in attendance died of shock and an assistant died because his fingers were also amputated an

10. “The fake sign language interpreter from Tampa that was signing gibberish… people will figure that out.”

11. “The guard at the gate in Troy that let the horse in.”

12. “Sam Bankman-Fried .. his stupid actions made a lot of people lose money.”

13. “All the cops at Uvalde. All they had to do was go in and take out the shooter. Instead they ran and hid and got more kids killed.”

14. “Steve Harvey at Miss Universe when he announced the wrong winner.”

15. “The guy who sends out ballistic missile warnings in Hawaii.”

16. “Liz Truss. Took office, went to extreme lengths to take care of her wealthy pals at the top, took our currency to historic lows with Kwasi Kwarteng's horrendously planned "mini budget", killed off the housing market, announced £45bn of unplanned tax cuts

17. “The CEO of Sears who thought the internet was a passing fad. As the definitive name in mail-order, Sears had the warehouses and logistics in place to be Amazon years before Bezos made it there. "

18. “That dude from Price Waterhouse Cooper's at the Oscar's a few years ago who mixed up the envelopes and f—ed up the Best Picture announcement. To the tune of the entire cast of La La Land coming on stage to celebrate, only to turn around and tell the cast

19. “Gerald Ratner, a jewelry shop owner who said the product his company made was c—p and cost his company £500 million in one night.”

20. “Has anyone mentioned that one guy who messed up with the Suez Canal ship and caused a massive economic chain of events?”