Yesterday, December 19th, 2021, many Japanese residents were holding their sides as they watched the country's top comic duos competing in the M-1 Grand Prix competition. But although careful planning and practice can create brilliant comedy, sometimes all it takes is an accidental occurrence to draw a good laugh.

A few hours after the comedy competition ended, a sequence of photos of an unfortunate Siberian tiger captured by Twitter user riku (@rikunow) became fodder for laughs, eliciting comments such as:

So what was everyone laughing about?

Riku was taking pictures of Siberian tigers at the Asahiyama Zoo in Asahikawa, Hokkaido one cold December day. Snow has been falling in Hokkaido recently, leaving heavy accumulations in many parts of the island.

One of the Siberian tigers seemed to be taking it all in, enjoying the winter wonderland. Riku trained his camera lens on the majestic beast as it casually looked up at a tree.

And then "tragedy" struck:

The heavy snow that had piled up on the tree's branches suddenly fell down on the unsuspecting tiger's upturned face.

In the fourth photo, you can almost hear the poor tiger's saying to itself: "What just happened?"

Siberian tigers are resistant to cold weather by nature. But this must have been an unexpected winter surprise, even for a Siberian tiger...

The tiger surely shook it off a moment later and went about its business but thanks to the perfectly timed photo sequence, many Twitter users had an extra laugh at its expense.

As for riku, he has some great photos he could use for his New Year's card for the Year of the Tiger 2022!