John Paul Jones' Attack on Whitehaven, England

I figured that this would be a funny historical fact to add here.
In April, 1778, John Paul Jones attacked the British town of Whitehaven. He did manage to do some damage, having set fire to a ship, and having attacked two forts with no resistance, he sabotaged the cannons to help him escape safely. Since both of his ships had run out of lamp oil, he had no convenient way to burn down all of the British ships that were there(there were hundreds of merchant ships and coal transports anchored there), since the match had yet to be invented.
He had some sailors raid a public house, but they decided to get drunk instead, so he could only burn one ship.
Seriously. He would have burned all/most of the ships in Whitehaven, but his sailors got drunk on the job.
While he did manage to prove that the rebels could launch some small attacks, his plans were stunted by alcohol.
This might be the funniest thing I've heard about the American Revolution.