This dark gray leather couch may seem like an innocuous piece of furniture found at last night’s Funny or Die/Atlantic/NJ party at 1800 L St. Sponsored by Volkswagon, they somehow fit actual cars inside the party space. As you can see from the photograph at right, even a potential romantic hot spot. But downstairs in the darkened vast bar area was this gray piece of furniture that matched the carpet maybe a little too perfectly and caused a fair amount of trouble.

Needless to say this became FishbowlDC’s home base.

Early on in the party, a man walked by and completely wiped out, sprawling all over the couch. He managed to get himself upright rather quickly as people watched. No one really had to help him but some inquired if he was okay. Later in the night, a woman wasn’t nearly so lucky — she fell backwards onto it. And still later, in the thick of the alcohol-soaked party haze, a woman tripped over it to the point where her necklace was up over her face and she was entirely splayed on the floor. We tried to snap pictures, but the whole thing happened so fast and Eddie ( who was laughing and yelling at me not to take pictures of this) prevented me from getting the shot in time. About four people helped this last woman up.

By the end of the evening there should have been a team of medics standing by this thing.

At one point we anticipated that NYT Washington Bureau Chief Carl Hulse, who stopped by to chat with the Fishbowl team, might topple over it (horribly Peter said he had his camera ready just in case), but Hulse, after talking with us about music, his band and reporters, walked smoothly past the danger couch and made his way to the bar.