re: Are boat launches some of the most comical places on earth?

Yes they are, and I've been on the clown end of it myself before.

One time I was putting my boat in at a crowded ramp.
I had a great running old Johnson Seahorse 18hp motor on it, but I didn't know that I had backed into something and had cracked the swivel housing.
I dropped the anchor by the ramp, put the boat in and went to park my truck.
Came back to the boat, picked up my anchor and shoved my boat out and jumped in.
I went to my seat pumped my fuel up a little, pulled the choke, then the rope and it fires right up.
I put in reverse and back out into a little deeper water, then got it turned toward the channel.
I idled out a little further where I knew I was in about 10 feet of water and I gassed it.
The swivel broke and the whole motor comes off the back at full throttle and I'm still hanging on to the tiller handle.
I tried to hang on to it but it almost pulled me in with it, I had to let it go.
Damn that was embarrassing