I really did some extremely dumb things in my twenties that I'm extremely lucky didn't kill me.

I once tried to rappel off the side of an apartment building using a garden hose I stole from the building so I could get into my apartment that I was locked out of because my roommate had gone away for the weekend, this was not to impress a girl, it was to get changed to go to the club to meet a girl. I'm also afraid of heights.

Luckily the apartment manager came driving up at the right time, probably saving my life.

that's true, but among humans the "impressing a girl" pattern seems to be more open ended as to how you will do it, and thus you end up with croc-riding accidents at times.

I was just thinking, perhaps all the fiction that has this as a plot point chooses it because of the man bites dog nature of the incident.