Emma Guinness
It's no secret that easily startled people are prone to knee-jerk reactions, and now a particularly hilarious example has been caught on camera.
This is all down to a reporter who couldn't help but follow her instincts and wallop a mascot who snuck up behind her.
The hilarious incident made for a viral gold moment that's subsequently been shared to Reddit's funny forum.
In the footage, reporter Brooke Olzendam can be seen facing the camera, mic in hand, while the Oklahoma City Thunder mascot creeps up behind her.
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Now, the Thunder mascot isn't just any giant animal, but a pretty ferocious-looking bison, so we do have some sympathy for the reporter for what happened next.
The moment she realised Rumble the Bison was behind her, without missing a beat, she hit him with her microphone.
It all goes down when they make eye contact and she yelps before proceeding to attack and run away.
It worked too, and the mascot could be seen scuttling off to a different part of the sports arena while the reporter remains in front of the camera, slowly bursting into a fit of laughter.
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Clearly feeling a little bad about her actions, the reporter blows the mascot an apologetic kiss.
As you can imagine, Reddit users went wild over the clip, and it's been upvoted over 70K times in less than a day.
"His little trot afterwards," remarked one viewer, which prompted a second to add: "He ran like the person inside the suit genuinely felt bad for spooking them [sic]."
"Beauty and the Beast 2023 remake," joked a third.
A fourth user pointed out that after the mascot fled, he was handed a clipboard, presumably in a bid to draw attention away from the spooked reporter.
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They wrote: "Lol and the guy handing him the clipboard so he can look busy doing something totally unrelated to whatever just happened, lol… [sic]"
A fifth observed: "The fact that she attacked as she was stunned is what impressed me. Most people just curl up into a ball and wait for death. Fight or flight right there."
Brooke went on to address the incident on her own Twitter account afterwards, and responded once again with good humour.
Alongside a picture of herself and the mascot, she wrote: "Ran into my nemesis, tonight. He told me I should be scared tomorrow night…
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"Well, his eyes did."
Hopefully, the Bison will think twice before he decides to creep up on and scare another reporter...