A Maine meteorologist has become an internet sensation after an uncontrollable fit of laughter disrupted his live television weather forecast. Patrick Osborn of WABI station was delivering a routine report on Sunday morning when he suddenly began to giggle, struggling to maintain his professional demeanor as the laughter intensified.
During the broadcast, Osborn could be seen gasping for air between attempts to state the weather conditions, repeatedly offering apologies as his speech became increasingly unintelligible. The segment, which lasted about a minute, concluded with Osborn stepping off-camera before returning and eventually handing the broadcast back to a colleague.
Osborn later explained that the on-air laughing fit was triggered by a prank he had intended for a fellow anchor. During a commercial break, Osborn played a short Charlie Brown video for its sound effects, unaware that it was an extended compilation featuring recurring audio cues. The sound unexpectedly played again while Osborn was mid-segment, initiating the bout of laughter.
"It's the Charlie Brown phone call noise. It's one where his mom or teacher calls him, and it's the 'Wa, wa, wa,'" Osborn told WABI. "Something as silly and light-hearted as a Charlie Brown sound made me completely lose my composure."
He described the difficulty of trying to suppress laughter in a professional setting, noting that the effort only exacerbated the situation. "When you're not supposed to laugh, you're in an environment when you can't laugh, and you're trying to hold it back, that just makes it 10 times worse," Osborn said. He attempted to finish the report, but the uncontrollable laughter ultimately led to his colleague Josh Gabbard leaving the studio.
Co-anchor Brian Sullivan commented on the intensity of Osborn's laughter, stating, "That's the hardest I've heard... really anyone laugh." A clip of the incident posted by WABI to TikTok had garnered nearly nine million views as of Thursday night.