16 times people didn't realize their microphones were on and wanted to die.

The microphone is a double-edged sword, allowing you to send your voice across space and time to echo through the ages, and also giving anyone within its range the chance to humiliate themselves in front of the world. Seeing as they're the ones near hot mics all the time, reporters, politicians, and dignitaries seem especially prone to these gaffes—although athletes also seem to have a particular problem with them. Long story short, assume you're always being recorded, and not just by Facebook and the NSA.

1. Rookie anchor A.J. Clemente, who lost his job on his first day. Read his reaction on Twitter here.

2. The mayor of Georgetown, TX went to take a restroom break during a council meeting without removing his mic, and his coworkers loved it.

3. Here's another local news anchor who accidentally let her coworker know what she really thinks. (Loud)

4. Perhaps alone on this list, Wisconsin basketball player Nigel Hayes' unintentionally flirting with a stenographer could have been creepy but ends up being pretty adorable.

5. Do they still let athletes have live mics during games? Because that was a bad idea.

6. This 'Call of Duty' player who didn't realize he was serenading his teammates in this deathmatch.

7. Perhaps the most famous incident on this list, alleged definite-murderer Robert Durst has a little chat with himself in the bathroom.

8. Reporter Matt Pieper loses his job after a technical error causes his rant against people on welfare to go on air.

9. It's not that billionaire Alki David didn't know the microphone was on, but he probably didn't expect this reporter to lower her hand to his waist level at exactly this moment.

10. That time conservative commentator Peggy Noonan bashed Sarah Palin's nomination as "political bullsh*t" when she thought she was off the air.

11. That time George W. Bush called a New York Times reporter, well...

12. That time Joe Biden congratulated Barack Obama on the passage of Obamacare.

13. CNN reporter takes her mic into the bathroom and starts trash-talking her sister.

14. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown is not happy that he had to talk to a woman who complained constantly about Eastern Europeans ruining the country.

15. Students running the tech booth don't realize they're broadcasting their reactions to a Sarah Palin speech.

16. Prince Charles does not like the BBC reporter who covers the Royal Family.

Bonus: That time the Polish defense minister mistook a lamp for a mic.