Anyone who participated in theater as a kid remembers that dizzy, lurching, butterflies-in-the-stomach feeling right before the curtains get drawn. And where does this fear come from? The anticipation of humiliating yourself in front of an audience, of course. And in the age of social media, where everything is documented and immortalized on the internet nearly in realtime, the stakes are much higher than they used to be. Every gaff, flub and disastrous fail has the potential to haunt you for the rest of your life. The only way out is to fully embrace the embarrassment. So what if you fell straight on your face during your monologue as Hamlet. It might have felt like your big break at the time, but you were nine years old and it was hilarious. If you’d nailed it, half the audience would have been asleep halfway through the soliloquy. Now they’ll remember it forever.

@nathancykiert recently tweeted an epic theater fail on behalf of a pal who played a particularly clumsy Peter Pan in school. The clip went totally viral and inspired others to share their favorite examples of school play mishaps. Keep scrolling for the funniest highlights from the thread—a little schadenfreude never hurt anyone.