Comical Historical Events

[San Lumen]

On August 2, 1923, President Warren G. Harding died unexpectedly from a heart attack in San Francisco while on a speaking tour of the western United States.

Vice President Calvin Coolidge was visiting his family home in Plymouth Notch, Vermont. The home had neither a phone nor electricity and Coolidge had to be informed via a messenger. His father being a justice of the peace and notary public swore him in.

It caused some controversy if his father had the authority and a federal judge swore Coolidge in when he arrived in Washington the next day. This second swearing in was kept secret for years.

[Ethel mermania]

Dude, ass jokes are funny. Two chapters of the Bible are basically one giant ass joke.

I believe, and maybe Archregimancy can back me up on this, that the first joke recorded to history was a fart joke.

Something about women sitting on their husband's laps only to let one rip, if I remember correctly.

You know when they ask if you can have dinner with anyone in history who would it be?

For me it would be the guy who wrote Samuel 5 & 6 and got it accepted into the canonical bible. 3500 hundred years of worship by billions and billions of people. Ass joke

That person, is my hero.

[Big Bad Blue]

Can't believe were on page 8 and no one has mentioned any of the three Defenestrations of Prague. The third led to the 30 Years' War.

I’m reminded about the time the French President died while receiving a blowjob.

How about governor Rockefeller of NY


https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperi ... rs-nelson/


they put his shoes on the wrong feet.

Reportedly the ambulance was held up because the young lady in question, having dialed 911, shouted "Come quick! He's dying!" and hung up. This was a couple years after Rocky flipped off a crowd of protesters from my alma mater.

The story of "Fort Blunder"...

tl;dr, the United States decided to build a fort to protect against Canada... by building it in Canada.

During the movement of the Nez Perce nation from Washington to Montana the denizens of Missoula constructed a fort to defend themselves. The Nez Perce moved to the next valley over and went around it (a maneuver they repeated several times). There's a marker and state park today at the site of "Fort Fizzle."

...https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kettle_War

In good company with:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_the_Bucket

Who can forget the War of Jenkins's Ear? Or the time secessionist general Braxton Bragg, then a young first lieutenant, argued about a requisition he refused to give himself?

I have heard in the old army an anecdote very characteristic of Bragg. On one occasion, when stationed at a post of several companies commanded by a field officer, he was himself commanding one of the companies and at the same time acting as post quartermaster and commissary. He was first lieutenant at the time, but his captain was detached on other duty. As commander of the company he made a requisition upon the quartermaster—himself—for something he wanted. As quartermaster he declined to fill the requisition, and endorsed on the back of it his reasons for so doing. As company commander he responded to this, urging that his requisition called for nothing but what he was entitled to, and that it was the duty of the quartermaster to fill it. As quartermaster he still persisted that he was right. In this condition of affairs Bragg referred the whole matter to the commanding officer of the post. The latter, when he saw the nature of the matter referred, exclaimed: "My God, Mr. Bragg, you have quarrelled with every officer in the army, and now you are quarrelling with yourself!" -- Memoirs of General Grant

Samuel chapter 5

God gives the philistines hemmeroids.


https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyl ... story.html

How about a couple more Biblical jokes like Galatians 5:12 where Paul says those who say Christians should be circumcised should just cut it off, balls and all? Or Micah 6:15, "You will sow but you will not reap?" Or in the original Hebrew, "You will fuck but you will not cum?" Or Ernest Hemingway in France during WW2 calling himself "Ernie Hemorrhoid, the poor man's Pyle?"

[Ethel mermania]

Can't believe were on page 8 and no one has mentioned any of the three Defenestrations of Prague. The third led to the 30 Years' War.

How about governor Rockefeller of NY


https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperi ... rs-nelson/


they put his shoes on the wrong feet.

Reportedly the ambulance was held up because the young lady in question, having dialed 911, shouted "Come quick! He's dying!" and hung up. This was a couple years after Rocky flipped off a crowd of protesters from my alma mater.

The story of "Fort Blunder"...

tl;dr, the United States decided to build a fort to protect against Canada... by building it in Canada.

During the movement of the Nez Perce nation from Washington to Montana the denizens of Missoula constructed a fort to defend themselves. The Nez Perce moved to the next valley over and went around it (a maneuver they repeated several times). There's a marker and state park today at the site of "Fort Fizzle."

In good company with:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_the_Bucket

Who can forget the War of Jenkins's Ear? Or the time secessionist general Braxton Bragg, then a young first lieutenant, argued about a requisition he refused to give himself?

I have heard in the old army an anecdote very characteristic of Bragg. On one occasion, when stationed at a post of several companies commanded by a field officer, he was himself commanding one of the companies and at the same time acting as post quartermaster and commissary. He was first lieutenant at the time, but his captain was detached on other duty. As commander of the company he made a requisition upon the quartermaster—himself—for something he wanted. As quartermaster he declined to fill the requisition, and endorsed on the back of it his reasons for so doing. As company commander he responded to this, urging that his requisition called for nothing but what he was entitled to, and that it was the duty of the quartermaster to fill it. As quartermaster he still persisted that he was right. In this condition of affairs Bragg referred the whole matter to the commanding officer of the post. The latter, when he saw the nature of the matter referred, exclaimed: "My God, Mr. Bragg, you have quarrelled with every officer in the army, and now you are quarrelling with yourself!" -- Memoirs of General Grant

Samuel chapter 5

God gives the philistines hemmeroids.


https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyl ... story.html

How about a couple more Biblical jokes like Galatians 5:12 where Paul says those who say Christians should be circumcised should just cut it off, balls and all? Or Micah 6:15, "You will sow but you will not reap?" Or in the original Hebrew, "You will fuck but you will not cum?" Or Ernest Hemingway in France during WW2 calling himself "Ernie Hemorrhoid, the poor man's Pyle?"

Mrs mermania graduated from there.

I played a hockey tournament up there as well. It was a "no checking " tournament. First 30 seconds in i misplay the puck and a guy beat me to it the corner and then skated in front of me, I absolutely leveled him. You could here the hit in Pennsylvania. I pick up the puck and fire it up ice for a 3 on 2. I look up at the ref and he waves it off and says "incidental contact" good times

[Big Bad Blue]

Can't believe were on page 8 and no one has mentioned any of the three Defenestrations of Prague. The third led to the 30 Years' War.



Reportedly the ambulance was held up because the young lady in question, having dialed 911, shouted "Come quick! He's dying!" and hung up. This was a couple years after Rocky flipped off a crowd of protesters from my alma mater.



During the movement of the Nez Perce nation from Washington to Montana the denizens of Missoula constructed a fort to defend themselves. The Nez Perce moved to the next valley over and went around it (a maneuver they repeated several times). There's a marker and state park today at the site of "Fort Fizzle."



Who can forget the War of Jenkins's Ear? Or the time secessionist general Braxton Bragg, then a young first lieutenant, argued about a requisition he refused to give himself?

I have heard in the old army an anecdote very characteristic of Bragg. On one occasion, when stationed at a post of several companies commanded by a field officer, he was himself commanding one of the companies and at the same time acting as post quartermaster and commissary. He was first lieutenant at the time, but his captain was detached on other duty. As commander of the company he made a requisition upon the quartermaster—himself—for something he wanted. As quartermaster he declined to fill the requisition, and endorsed on the back of it his reasons for so doing. As company commander he responded to this, urging that his requisition called for nothing but what he was entitled to, and that it was the duty of the quartermaster to fill it. As quartermaster he still persisted that he was right. In this condition of affairs Bragg referred the whole matter to the commanding officer of the post. The latter, when he saw the nature of the matter referred, exclaimed: "My God, Mr. Bragg, you have quarrelled with every officer in the army, and now you are quarrelling with yourself!" -- Memoirs of General Grant

How about a couple more Biblical jokes like Galatians 5:12 where Paul says those who say Christians should be circumcised should just cut it off, balls and all? Or Micah 6:15, "You will sow but you will not reap?" Or in the original Hebrew, "You will fuck but you will not cum?" Or Ernest Hemingway in France during WW2 calling himself "Ernie Hemorrhoid, the poor man's Pyle?"

Mrs mermania graduated from there.

I played a hockey tournament up there as well. It was a "no checking " tournament. First 30 seconds in i misplay the puck and a guy beat me to it the corner and then skated in front of me, I absolutely leveled him. You could here the hit in Pennsylvania. I pick up the puck and fire it up ice for a 3 on 2. I look up at the ref and he waves it off and says "incidental contact" good times

When I was there were no Greek societies and very little in the way of intercollegiate sports, the teams were called the Colonials (now Bearcats) played in Division III and the roughest bunch was the intramural rugby team (who had great parties btw). Then they moved to Div I, got handled by Duke in the first round of the 2009 Big Dance and finished up with a full-blown recruitment/sex assault scandal and a 2-29 season. They didn't know when they were well off.

[Valentine Z]

The Wicked Bible of 1631.

The name is derived from a mistake made by the compositors: in the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20:14, the word "not" was omitted from the sentence "Thou shalt not commit adultery," causing the verse to instead read "Thou shalt commit adultery."

[Page]

On August 2, 1923, President Warren G. Harding died unexpectedly from a heart attack in San Francisco while on a speaking tour of the western United States.

Vice President Calvin Coolidge was visiting his family home in Plymouth Notch, Vermont. The home had neither a phone nor electricity and Coolidge had to be informed via a messenger. His father being a justice of the peace and notary public swore him in.

It caused some controversy if his father had the authority and a federal judge swore Coolidge in when he arrived in Washington the next day. This second swearing in was kept secret for years.

There was also a low-key second swearing in of Obama because he said one sentence of the oath out of order. I was like "are you shitting me?" back then but after all the birther shit came up, I guess it was a necessary evil. Lest some Republicans try to remove him from office because "he said serve faithfully instead of faithfully serve!"

[The Archregimancy]

In January 1917, the Bronsteins, a young family of Russian Jews fleeing the consequences of the war in Europe reached New York City; in this they were apparently unremarkable. They rented an apartment in the Bronx, and while it was inexpensive by American standards, they experienced such hitherto unimagined luxuries as reliable electric light and garbage disposal chutes. The father of the family, Lev Davidovich, scraped a living writing articles for local Russian newspapers and lecturing emigres in German and English on political topics in half-empty halls. He also spent a lot of time in New York's Jewish delicatessens, where he soon made himself unpopular by refusing to tip on the basis that this would lower the waiters' dignity.

The family also bought some furniture on an instalment plan, and when they left their Bronx apartment in March 1917 still owed $200 on that furniture. It took some time for the credit company to catch up with the Bronsteins to try and get them to repay that debt, and when they did those debt collectors faced a new challenge - the head of the household was now the foreign minister of the largest country on the planet.

Lev Davidovich Bronstein is better known, of course, by his pseudonym Leon Trotsky; his brief New York exile is simultaneously little known, a little comical, and more than a little ironic given what he got up to on returning to Russia in May 1917. And it led to the classic headline in the the Bronx Home News: 'BRONX MAN LEADS RUSSIAN REVOLUTION'.

[The Archregimancy]

Dude, ass jokes are funny. Two chapters of the Bible are basically one giant ass joke.

I believe, and maybe Archregimancy can back me up on this, that the first joke recorded to history was a fart joke.

Indeed. A 2008 University of Wolverhampton study of the oldest recorded jokes gave us this Sumerian thigh-slapper from c.1900 BC:

"Something which has never occurred since time immemorial; a young woman did not fart in her husband’s lap"

Hi-la-ri-ous!

[Republic Of Ludwigsburg]

Paul Von Lettow-Vorbeck
Quoting from a wikipedia article:
In 1915, he gained the men and artillery of the German cruiser SMS Königsberg which had been scuttled in the Rufiji River delta. The cruiser had a capable crew under commander Max Looff, and its artillery pieces, converted to land use, became the largest standard guns used in the East African Theatre. In March 1916 British forces under General Jan Smuts and the Belgians under Charles Tombeur launched an offensive with 45,000 men near Tabora. Lettow-Vorbeck used the climate and terrain to his advantage, engaging the British on his terms. British reinforcements forced Lettow-Vorbeck to yield territory. Continuing his resistance, Lettow-Vorbeck fought a crucial battle at Mahiwa in October 1917, where he inflicted 2,700 casualties on the British. Lettow-Vorbeck himself lost 519 men killed, wounded, or missing while also running critically low on ammunition, forcing him to withdraw. The British would proceed to recover their losses and continue to hold an overwhelming advantage in numbers of men. For the Schutztruppe, this was serious, for there were no reserves with which to replenish their ranks. After news of the battle reached Germany, however, Lettow-Vorbeck was promoted to major-general (Generalmajor).
This is the context of the funny part:
Lettow-Vorbeck thus withdrew to the south, with his troops on half rations and the British in pursuit. On 25 November 1917, his advance column waded across the Ruvuma River into Portuguese Mozambique. Having essentially cut their own supply lines, the Schutztruppe caravan became a nomadic tribe. On its first day across the river, the column attacked the newly replenished Portuguese garrison of Ngomano and solved its supply problems for the foreseeable future. The subsequent capture of a river steamer with a load of medical supplies, including quinine, satisfied some of its medical needs as well. For almost a year Lettow-Vorbeck's men had lived off whatever was available, mainly provisions captured from the British and Portuguese; they had replaced their old rifles with new equipment and acquired machine guns and mortars after capturing Namakura (Nhamacurra in modern Mozambique) in July 1918.
He made a nomadic tribe during ww1.

[Hintuwan]

During the height of the Cold War in the Philippines, the CIA colluded with our government to apply psychological warfare tactics in the fight against local communist guerilla fighters (known as the Huk) who were hiding in the countryside. Specifically, the CIA faked the existence of corpse-eating monsters from Philippine folklore to scare the living sh*t out of local communist terrorists.

Okay, so for context:

Aswang is an umbrella term for various shape-shifting evil creatures in Filipino folklore, such as vampires, ghouls, witches, viscera suckers, and werebeasts (usually dogs, cats, pigs). The aswang is the subject of a wide variety of myths, stories, arts, and films, as it is well known throughout the Philippines.

Keep in mind that Filipinos are very superstitious, especially back in the day and especially when it comes to mostly poor rural farmers whose primary way of passing the time was oral tradition and mythology.

The plan was simple. A pile of dead bodies, usually deceased Huk fighters, would be left by the side of the road in a busy area in the province. And on those mangled bodies, holes were punctured to resemble animal—or aswang—bites. The terrible sight convinced anyone who came across it that it was the nighttime monsters of Filipino folklore that committed the atrocious act.

And surprisingly, or perhaps unsurprisingly, the plan worked. Reports revealed that the townspeople who were once either indifferent or sympathetic to the Huk cause were undoubtedly terrified. The same pattern of holes, animal bites, and carcasses were seen across the countryside in quick succession.

bruh moment:

In his memoir, Lansdale recounted how they would kidnap one Huk, puncture his neck with two holes, hang his body by the heels, drain him of blood, and dump the corpse on a trail that other Huks would pass by. When the Huks discovered their dead comrade, they’d promptly pack up and relocate to a different hill.

Another tactic used by Lansdale and his team was the “eye of God,” which would be painted on a wall facing the house of suspected Huk sympathizers in the dead of night. “The mysterious presence of these malevolent eyes the next morning had a sharply sobering effect,” said Lansdale.

...

Whatever the operation proved, it did show that even amid rebellions, wars, and political plots, Filipinos—past and present—are still scared shitless by aswang.

[Heloin]

In December 1900 with the Boer War entering what would become a guerrilla war a group of Boer kommandos prepared to ambush a train near the "town" of Val. Having blown the tracks and capturing the train's British guards the kommandos were delighted to find the train full of whisky, beer, cakes, and other treats. The quickly inebriated Boers quickly began sharing this captured loot with their prisoners and both groups who would be shooting at each other any other day began to have a party in the veld.

http://samilitaryhistory.org/vol156rs.html

[Dumb Ideologies]

I believe, and maybe Archregimancy can back me up on this, that the first joke recorded to history was a fart joke.

Indeed. A 2008 University of Wolverhampton study of the oldest recorded jokes gave us this Sumerian thigh-slapper from c.1900 BC:

"Something which has never occurred since time immemorial; a young woman did not fart in her husband’s lap"

Hi-la-ri-ous!

Fascinating. This suggests ancient women broke wind, and so presumably also pooped, in a similar way to men. I wonder at what point they lost these functions.

[Heloin]

Paul Von Lettow-Vorbeck
Quoting from a wikipedia article:
In 1915, he gained the men and artillery of the German cruiser SMS Königsberg which had been scuttled in the Rufiji River delta. The cruiser had a capable crew under commander Max Looff, and its artillery pieces, converted to land use, became the largest standard guns used in the East African Theatre. In March 1916 British forces under General Jan Smuts and the Belgians under Charles Tombeur launched an offensive with 45,000 men near Tabora. Lettow-Vorbeck used the climate and terrain to his advantage, engaging the British on his terms. British reinforcements forced Lettow-Vorbeck to yield territory. Continuing his resistance, Lettow-Vorbeck fought a crucial battle at Mahiwa in October 1917, where he inflicted 2,700 casualties on the British. Lettow-Vorbeck himself lost 519 men killed, wounded, or missing while also running critically low on ammunition, forcing him to withdraw. The British would proceed to recover their losses and continue to hold an overwhelming advantage in numbers of men. For the Schutztruppe, this was serious, for there were no reserves with which to replenish their ranks. After news of the battle reached Germany, however, Lettow-Vorbeck was promoted to major-general (Generalmajor).
This is the context of the funny part:
Lettow-Vorbeck thus withdrew to the south, with his troops on half rations and the British in pursuit. On 25 November 1917, his advance column waded across the Ruvuma River into Portuguese Mozambique. Having essentially cut their own supply lines, the Schutztruppe caravan became a nomadic tribe. On its first day across the river, the column attacked the newly replenished Portuguese garrison of Ngomano and solved its supply problems for the foreseeable future. The subsequent capture of a river steamer with a load of medical supplies, including quinine, satisfied some of its medical needs as well. For almost a year Lettow-Vorbeck's men had lived off whatever was available, mainly provisions captured from the British and Portuguese; they had replaced their old rifles with new equipment and acquired machine guns and mortars after capturing Namakura (Nhamacurra in modern Mozambique) in July 1918.
He made a nomadic tribe during ww1.

Behind us we leave destroyed fields, ransacked magazines and, for the immediate future, starvation. We are no longer the agents of culture, our track is marked by death, plundered and evacuated villages, just like the progress of our own and enemy armies in the Thirty Years' War.

If you want to go with a comical event from the East Africa Campaign the Battle of Lake Tanganyika is much, much funnier. The absolutely crazy Geoffrey Spicer-Simson defeating the larger German force on the lake with two small motor launches called the HMS Mimi and HMS Toutou. Shipped to Cape Town, South Africa The trains at the time only went as far as north as Élisabethville in the Belgian Congo now Lubumbashi so they both had to be carried overland the rest of the way, a distance of about 600 km. The Anglo-Belgian fleet on the lake would eventually consiste of the Mimi, Toutou, Dix-Tonne, Vengeur, and a captured German steamer Spicer-Simson renamed the Fifi.

[The Selkie]

[...] The Anglo-Belgian fleet on the lake would eventually consiste of the Mimi, Toutou, Dix-Tonne, Vengeur, and a captured German steamer Spicer-Simson renamed the Fifi.

HMS Fifi - truly a name to fear.

Bernard Montgomery, famed British Field Marshal, had two puppies (and canaries, but that is not the point). While in and of itself unremarkable, the two puppies, which apparently travelled with him to Normandy in 1944 (the image was taken a month after the landings), were named Hitler and Rommel.
I imagine an aide, having been ordered to walk the two, coming back and reporting, that Rommel shat well and that Hitler happily played with some local dogs or something like that.

[The Archregimancy]

Can't believe were on page 8 and no one has mentioned any of the three Defenestrations of Prague. The third led to the 30 Years' War.

Well, senses of humour differ, of course - but I just decided they weren't that funny.

The name of the Defenestration(s) of Prague is one of the great slightly comical names of European history, right up there with the Diet of Worms (which is only really comical in English, of course), and the Parliament of Bats (ditto); but I just don't think that the events behind those names are really that funny.

I mean, pushing some dignitaries out of a window in Prague (and I've stood on the very spot; though I didn't fall out of the window) and thereby initiating one of the bloodiest and most consequential conflicts in post-medieval European history just doesn't strike me as a barrel of laughs.

[Dumb Ideologies]

Can't believe were on page 8 and no one has mentioned any of the three Defenestrations of Prague. The third led to the 30 Years' War.

Well, senses of humour differ, of course - but I just decided they weren't that funny.

The name of the Defenestration(s) of Prague is one of the great slightly comical names of European history, right up there with the Diet of Worms (which is only really comical in English, of course), and the Parliament of Bats (ditto); but I just don't think that the events behind those names are really that funny.

I mean, pushing some dignitaries out of a window in Prague (and I've stood on the very spot; though I didn't fall out of the window) and thereby initiating one of the bloodiest and most consequential conflicts in post-medieval European history just doesn't strike me as a barrel of laughs.

So what you're telling me is that it's outside your humour window.

[Heloin]

In the vein of somewhat comical in spite of a lot of terrible stuff going on in the periphery the short and unexpected rule of Valentine Strasser who accidentally lead a coup and took over Sierra Leone for nearly 4 years. Sierra Leone was not in a great position in 1992 stuck in the middle of a civil war against the horrific RUF while most soldiers had not been paid in months. One of these unpaid soldiers was the young Valentine Strasser who was known for being a big fan of disco. Captain Strasser, two of his best friends also NCOs, and a fairly large group of soldiers decided to head towards the Capital in protest and demand their back salaries along with more support in the war.

The government fled the country instead and in the power vacuum the soldiers decided to become the new government, because why not? Strasser was made the head of this new government because he was the highest ranked soldier who could speak English. So 3 days after his 25th birthday Strasser would become the youngest head of state on earth.

His rule beyond this point isn't very funny. He would rule for 4 terrible years before being overthrown in a coup by people somehow worse than him. He went to the University of Warwick before dropping out after 18 months. Nowadays he lives in Freetown on his soldiers pension.

[The Archregimancy]

Well, senses of humour differ, of course - but I just decided they weren't that funny.

The name of the Defenestration(s) of Prague is one of the great slightly comical names of European history, right up there with the Diet of Worms (which is only really comical in English, of course), and the Parliament of Bats (ditto); but I just don't think that the events behind those names are really that funny.

I mean, pushing some dignitaries out of a window in Prague (and I've stood on the very spot; though I didn't fall out of the window) and thereby initiating one of the bloodiest and most consequential conflicts in post-medieval European history just doesn't strike me as a barrel of laughs.

So what you're telling me is that it's outside your humour window.

That's likely the only window of opportunity you had to tell that joke.

[Dumb Ideologies]

So what you're telling me is that it's outside your humour window.

That's likely the only window of opportunity you had to tell that joke.

I thought it was smashing, but if you didn't enjoy it sorry for being a pane.

[Dazchan]

In 1304, during a war with Scotland, King Edward I ordered the construction of the War Wolf, the biggest trebuchet that had ever been built. It took three months to build. As it was nearing completion, the occupants of its intended target, Stirling Castle, attempted to surrender, but Edward refused to accept it.

After he tested his new toy against their castle, he happily accepted their surrender.

[Forsher]

The Diet of Worms is only rivalled in ridiculousness in English by the parody version in Discworld, i.e. the Diet of Bugs.

Speaking of actual food related events (in the sense, if it actually happened):

In 1171 when the young Henry held his first Christmas court in Normandy (Bur-le-Roi) he came up with a brilliant idea to dismiss all those not named ‘William’ from one of his feasts, which still left him with 110 knights and barons, William being the commonest Norman name at the time (I can imagine Henry calling: “Non-Williams, out!”)**.

Though one can also find the version that the Williams were unsociable to all but their fellow Williams and refused to eat with them.

I must admit I've always found it somewhat surprising that there weren't more English kings called William... father and son, Mary's hubbie and Victoria's predecessor (whose kingship was, in many respects, unlikely). (Somewhat less so the failure to have a single additional Henry since Henry VIII.)

[The Archregimancy]

The Diet of Worms is only rivalled in ridiculousness in English by the parody version in Discworld, i.e. the Diet of Bugs.

Speaking of actual food related events (in the sense, if it actually happened):

In 1171 when the young Henry held his first Christmas court in Normandy (Bur-le-Roi) he came up with a brilliant idea to dismiss all those not named ‘William’ from one of his feasts, which still left him with 110 knights and barons, William being the commonest Norman name at the time (I can imagine Henry calling: “Non-Williams, out!”)**.

Though one can also find the version that the Williams were unsociable to all but their fellow Williams and refused to eat with them.

I must admit I've always found it somewhat surprising that there weren't more English kings called William... father and son, Mary's hubbie and Victoria's predecessor (whose kingship was, in many respects, unlikely). (Somewhat less so the failure to have a single additional Henry since Henry VIII.)

Though there is an additional Scottish king called William... William the Lion was King of Scotland for 48 years from 1165-1214. The Norman name is no coincidence. William was the grandson of David I, whose introduction of Norman feudalism to Scotland is often referred to as the 'Davidian Revolution'. David's mother was Queen Margaret, the sister of Edgar the Aetheling, which meant David had a stronger dynastic claim to the English throne than William the Conqueror's descendants, while William the Lion's father was David's son Henry (who predeceased David), who wasn't just the Scottish crown prince, but was also Earl of Northumbria and Earl of Huntingdon in England. So there were extensive Anglo-Norman connections between the Scottish monarchy and England in this time period.

Not comical - only added for colour and context.

[The Blaatschapen]

Jimmy Carter fighting off a rabbit on his boat.

At least Carter won.

Napoleon on the other hand.

https://www.historyanswers.co.uk/people ... t-rabbits/

[The Two Jerseys]

Paul Von Lettow-Vorbeck
Quoting from a wikipedia article:
In 1915, he gained the men and artillery of the German cruiser SMS Königsberg which had been scuttled in the Rufiji River delta. The cruiser had a capable crew under commander Max Looff, and its artillery pieces, converted to land use, became the largest standard guns used in the East African Theatre. In March 1916 British forces under General Jan Smuts and the Belgians under Charles Tombeur launched an offensive with 45,000 men near Tabora. Lettow-Vorbeck used the climate and terrain to his advantage, engaging the British on his terms. British reinforcements forced Lettow-Vorbeck to yield territory. Continuing his resistance, Lettow-Vorbeck fought a crucial battle at Mahiwa in October 1917, where he inflicted 2,700 casualties on the British. Lettow-Vorbeck himself lost 519 men killed, wounded, or missing while also running critically low on ammunition, forcing him to withdraw. The British would proceed to recover their losses and continue to hold an overwhelming advantage in numbers of men. For the Schutztruppe, this was serious, for there were no reserves with which to replenish their ranks. After news of the battle reached Germany, however, Lettow-Vorbeck was promoted to major-general (Generalmajor).
This is the context of the funny part:
Lettow-Vorbeck thus withdrew to the south, with his troops on half rations and the British in pursuit. On 25 November 1917, his advance column waded across the Ruvuma River into Portuguese Mozambique. Having essentially cut their own supply lines, the Schutztruppe caravan became a nomadic tribe. On its first day across the river, the column attacked the newly replenished Portuguese garrison of Ngomano and solved its supply problems for the foreseeable future. The subsequent capture of a river steamer with a load of medical supplies, including quinine, satisfied some of its medical needs as well. For almost a year Lettow-Vorbeck's men had lived off whatever was available, mainly provisions captured from the British and Portuguese; they had replaced their old rifles with new equipment and acquired machine guns and mortars after capturing Namakura (Nhamacurra in modern Mozambique) in July 1918.
He made a nomadic tribe during ww1.

Behind us we leave destroyed fields, ransacked magazines and, for the immediate future, starvation. We are no longer the agents of culture, our track is marked by death, plundered and evacuated villages, just like the progress of our own and enemy armies in the Thirty Years' War.

If you want to go with a comical event from the East Africa Campaign the Battle of Lake Tanganyika is much, much funnier. The absolutely crazy Geoffrey Spicer-Simson defeating the larger German force on the lake with two small motor launches called the HMS Mimi and HMS Toutou. Shipped to Cape Town, South Africa The trains at the time only went as far as north as Élisabethville in the Belgian Congo now Lubumbashi so they both had to be carried overland the rest of the way, a distance of about 600 km. The Anglo-Belgian fleet on the lake would eventually consiste of the Mimi, Toutou, Dix-Tonne, Vengeur, and a captured German steamer Spicer-Simson renamed the Fifi.

As if that wasn't comical enough, Spicer-Stimson also liked to wear a khaki skirt with his uniform.