50 Vacation Photos That Didn’t Turn Out As Expected

People love stories about vacation fails because they combine misfortune with relatability in a way that is both harmless and hilarious. Vacations are supposed to be the highlight of the year, a time when everything goes smoothly, the weather is perfect, and memories are made. The reality is often very different.

Flights are delayed, hotel rooms are nothing like they were in pictures, foreign cuisine makes people grab for pills, and family squabbling breaks out with the tension of traveling. When these events are shared, they are comedic gold.

Comedy often occurs from the incongruity between what is anticipated and actual experience. Everybody imagines themselves beach-bumming with a drink or posing in front of glorious landmarks. When the outcome is a torrent of rain, an unfilled reservation, or a rental car that breaks down in the middle of nowhere, the disappointment is extreme. That sudden transition from fantasy to disaster is funny because disappointment is so common. People laugh because they know they can just as easily be in the same situation.

Vacation failures are also funny because they are brief. Whereas truly tragic events result in significant suffering, these are mere accidents that are frustrating in the moment but typically become great stories afterward. Sunburn heals, luggage arrives sooner or later, and even horrible hotels can be tolerated for a night or two. Knowing that the cost is generally small makes one able to laugh at the misfortune. Viewers and readers are able to laugh along at the chaos because they are aware that the teller made it through.

There's also something universal for all of us with traveling disasters. Regardless of culture, age, or background, just about everyone has ever had a vacation that didn't go according to plan. The commonality of things not going right makes everyone identify by laughing. Someone who has been battling mosquitoes for a week in a cabin will sympathize with someone who inadvertently ended up passing the night in an airport. They both share irritations, which make people feel less alone and more willing to laugh at themselves.

Fails on vacation also offer the potential for schadenfreude, the enjoyment of other people's mistakes. It is not nasty; rather, it is an innocuous sort of fun. Watching someone else struggle to corral a melted ice cream, a dropped suitcase, or a photobombing stranger snapping a photo is funny because it is sloppy but harmless. The mess intrudes into the perfection that people tend to try to construct on social media, and so the story becomes more authentic.

A part of the magic is also the absurdity of small things. A bunch of people standing ostentatiously in front of a stunning sight, only to realize afterwards that their camera lens was smudged the entire time, is something that's both irony and absurdity. The audience cherishes the silly twists of fate that make the tale indelible. The prospective intruder who came across a honeymoon photo or the restaurant that has something completely out-of-place provides the kind of humor that can only be written.