Another aspect of comedy that is still very visible in the 21st century is the idea that it is amusing when someone falls or is injured due to a poor decision that they have made. Many North American television programs have had great success and very long runs portraying this type of comedy to audiences. Some examples which come to mind include Americans Funniest Home Videos, which has been produced for over two decades, or the relatively new series Wipeout. In both of these television series much of the comedic material comes from contestants being put into physically uncomfortable situations for a variety of reasons. These types of situations are littered throughout the chapbooks and it seemed to be a very popular topic. Whether the injury falls on the protagonist or onto someone else due to an action by the protagonist, it was common that at least one person in each story would be feeling some sort of discomfort.

In The Comical Sayings of Paddy from Cork, our hero Teag is talking to a man named Tom about his life travels. In this particular story, Teag was acting as a servant in England and was sent to the post office to collect the mail for his master. When the post office worker asked for the name of Teag's master, Teag replied that it was rude to divulge such information. Because of this he returns home with no mail and is kicked down the stairs by his enraged master as a result.

Later on the hero Teag is telling his friend Tom how he had travelled to the doctor in an attempt to find out what type of illness was plaguing his wife. When the doctor asked Teag about the quality of her stool, Teag replied that sometimes it was "thick and hard", and sometimes in a form that would allow you to "drink it, or sup it from a cup". The doctor, not being very pleased with the answer that Teag had given him, kicked him down the stairs.

In The Comical History of Simple John. John has just been married to his wife Girzy and is spending his first night at her family’s home. In the middle of the night, due to a series of misfortunes, John finds himself with his hand stuck in a pitcher. He decides that it would be best to go outside and find a solid object to smash the pitcher as not to wake up anyone in the home. However, he mistakes his sister in law as a wooden post and smashes the pitcher on the back of her head.

In another part of the story once again we see misfortune befalling our hero, John. In this text he is returning home after accidently letting the family pigs loose and is unable to recover them. John is once again in trouble with Girzy, his wife, who brings out the "Tongue and Tangs". What is being expressed here is that not only is Girzy yelling and screaming at John, but that she is using her kitchen utensils to cause him physical harm as well.

In The Humours of Glasgow Fair, the  main characters Tam and Maggy had been at a carnival all evening divulging in quite a bit of alcohol. As the night moves forward their demeanor starts to become a little less controlled and eventually Tam and Maggy began to dance. Due to the level of inebriation that the two are both feeling Tam ends up hitting his head on the ceiling and falling to the floor.