Groucho and Harpo Marx were once invited to a bachelor party at a restaurant in a posh hotel. The brothers -- having noticed that the elevator doors opened directly into the dining room -- prepared a surprise for the assembled bachelors... and emerged with their clothes in valises, dressed only in top hats.

To their consternation, however, they were greeted not by the expected roars of male laughter but by the high-pitched shrieks of the bride and her friends, congregating in a dining room on another floor.

[Having pressed the wrong button, the brothers sought refuge behind a large potted plant, draped themselves in tablecloths, murmured abject apologies, and slinked ignominiously from the room.]

[At Enrico Faldini's wedding reception in 1981, the wedding cake exploded as a waiter was lighting the candles. Two guests, two waiters and a tourist taking a photograph were treated for shock. "I think," the chef later confessed, "I must have used too much alcohol in the mix."]