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33 Embarrassing Moments People Were ‘Blessed’ To See Others Do When They Thought No One Was Looking
Some people compare living life to riding a rollercoaster - one moment you're at the highest top, the next, you're falling and then climbing back up again. And it keeps happening.
The thing that drives this life rollercoaster is experiences of various kinds. Today, let's shine a light on the ones that are less appealing, let's say the dropping down part of the rollercoaster ride. To be more specific, let's talk about embarrassing experiences we've all had or witnessed others having.
More info: Reddit
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
Ugh okay, so basically there was a lot of construction going on in our house and one fine morning, I forgot to lock the door before bathing. My back was towards the wall, but there was a glass vase by which I could see the scene behind. One of the workers accidentally got in and froze. During this time I had the option of-
a) pretending I did not see him
b) shrieking for good god.
I went with option 'a' because my mom would have pretty much fired the poor guy who accidentally saw her daughter's tushy, but he literally just stood there for 30 frozen horrific seconds before running away. If you think that was awkward imagine the guy working on our house, and my room for a week after this. He couldn't look at me, I would constantly have a smile-grimace hybrid on my face when I'd see him, and on the third last day when we crossed each other and he gave me *finger guns* before scampering away like he'd seen an octopus with the face of James Franco.
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#2
The very first time my girlfriend ever came to my house we decided to watch Lord of the Rings. She had never seen it before and was excited to watch it. Anyway, she was laying down on my bed with legs pointed towards the ceiling and tushy up against the wall. Kind of like an "L" shape. So during one of the tense scenes (idk which) I do the whole grab her sides and go "RAGHH!" thing.
She then proceeded to let the loudest and longest fart I'd ever heard anyone release. And because her tushy was against the wall it reverberated and made it seem even louder.
I just burst out laughing for like 5 minutes straight. And she is so embarrassed she starts crying. It was the cutest thing I've ever seen. We're still together and have a 2 year old now.
#3
When I was a child, maybe 7 or 8 years old, time spent in the bathroom was an opportunity to read books or just have a moment of quiet contemplation. One time during one of my extended toilet sessions, I got the bright idea to use the toilet paper to make a Ninja Turtles-style mask for myself. No sooner had l torn the eye holes and wrapped it around my head, the door opens and my dad walks in. We make awkward eye contact for what felt like minutes, and then without a word being spoken, he slowly backed out and closed the door. I don't know why it was so embarrassing to me, but I still remember the whole scene quite clearly and that was 20+ years ago.
Edit: Gee whiz lookit all them updoots. Thanks for the gold too. Who knew a moment from my childhood would get me fake internet points in the future. The door wasn't locked because my parents owned an old Victorian which didn't have locks on any of the interior doors. Gotta keep your head on a swivel.
A typical person experiences a lot of various emotions. Basically, we as humans are very emotional. In the 1970s, psychologist Paul Eckman identified six basic emotions that are universally experienced: happiness, sadness, disgust, fear, surprise, and anger. You know, just as the emotions’ characters in the 2015 movie Inside Out.
But the truth is that we experience more emotions than just these, which is what the sequel of Inside Out points out too. Here, this article by Jonice Webb, Ph.D., says that we have 35 of the most commonly felt emotions.
#4
I once saw a girl holding an ice cream cone in one hand, and her phone in the other lick the screen of her phone. When we made eye contact and she realized I'd seen it happen, she looked like she was going to go in the ground.
#5
Oh god, it was me. I wore a new dress at work with a really full skirt. I was in the bathroom all alone, and grabbed the sides of my skirt to swish it back and forth, and twirled, and swished, and twirled. Imagine a frumpy middle aged woman going full-on Disney Princess.
In walked the Deputy Superintendent. Instant mortification. I avoid her like the plague now.
#6
One day I decide to take a walk to this park near my house. I take my book, a couple of smokes, good way to spend a summer's evening, right? So I go and find my favourite tree and climb up to a comfy position high up in the branches.
Some guy is walking in the park and well clearly, nature called. Without noticing me sat above him in the tree, he pulls down his pants and does a massive stinking number 2, pulls up his pants without wiping and walks off as if its all cool. So I'm sat there, having seen everything, and now I have to climb down from a tree with a massive man's number 2 right where I was going to climb down.
Still a traumatic memory to this day.
This list includes the aforementioned 6, but the other 29 are a good addition, too. For example, passion, which drives people to create and invent, or guilt, which compels one to repair their wrongdoing. We would also suggest adding yet another emotion to this already not-so-short list – shame. After all, it’s an emotion all of us have experienced at some point in our lives.
Yet, despite being common, shame is a rather difficult emotion to process. In fact, it might be one of the most challenging, as it impacts people’s self-perception by eroding self-worth and damaging the ability to connect with others.
#7
A former co-worker had bad acne all over his face and neck. While I was sitting in my forklift waiting for pallets to come up the line, I watched him pop a pimple on his neck and eat it. Horrifying.
#8
I used to deliver newspapers. One Sunday I got the papers extremely early, and delivered to a Sunday only customer at around 3 a.m. When it's this early, I always lift my paper up and smile so customers don't think I'm there to rob them.
As I apporached this house, I noticed movement inside. Cue the smile and raised newspaper as I witnessed a shirtless, middle aged man with a large potbelly rubbing his belly. Vigorously. I approach, smile and paper in hand. He notices me and runs out of the room. I'm thinking "No dude. Don't. Do your thing. I'm just a paperboy. Don't let me dictate how you live your life."
He canceled the next week.
More Information 44 minutes ago (edited)
On reddit, when questioned why a man rubbing his belly would be embarassing, OP answered with this: "There isn't anything embarrassing about it to me and you. But the sheer look of terror I saw when we locked eyes is burned into my soul. The only thing missing was a Homer Simpson yelp." It seems the man was indeed just rubbing his big belly vigorously.
#9
I use Duolingo to practice my Spanish while waiting for the bus each morning. When I'm alone, I like to say each question and answer aloud to practice my pronunciation as well. One day as I waited for the bus a group of people gathered behind me without me noticing. I had headphones on and practiced each sentence out loud as I worked through my days Spanish activities. When the bus finally came and I pulled off my headphones, I realized there were 6 or 7 strangers behind me, all had been awkwardly listening to me speak Spanish to myself for 5 minutes. I felt so embarrassed.
It can stem from a variety of places. From poor choices and harmful behaviors of your own to others causing it with harsh words or actions. Certain life conditions can also plant seeds of that in one’s mind, even if there is nothing to be ashamed about – a person's mind tends to dramatize.
What’s also interesting about the shame emotion is that it has “a kid” called embarrassment. You might think – isn’t that the same emotion, just a different name? Well, it kind of is, but at the same time, it isn’t. At the base, both leave us feeling similarly – confused, distressed, and uncomfortable to describe it in a basic way.
#10
At parties I would often dedicate myself a look in the mirror with a smile for a confidence boost, but this one time there was another guy doing the exact same thing, rising his eyebrow and smooching at himself.
There was a silent agreement not to talk about it. I still wonder if he remembers.
#11
Not my story, but my mum's. My sister had requested a cake from a specific shop that we'd never been to before, and mum went in to order it. The kitchen was visible from the front of the shop, and one of the workers was icing a cake. He licked the spatula and continued icing. Mum saw everything. She still ordered a cake from that shop, and we ate it.
#12
I once purchased adult toys online. I came home to find the parcel containing these items OPEN sitting on my bed with a note from my mum saying "sorry, thought it was my parcel". The shame was unbearable and I still cringe when I think about it. I tried to deflect by texting her to ask if she had any wrapping paper I could use for 'the joke present I bought for my friend's 21st'. Eurghhhh.
Blue Bunny of Happiness 4 hours ago
The only way this could have been worse is if the note had included Mum’s reviews of the items…
Yet, what’s different about them is that embarrassment tends to be fleeting, the feeling that can be brushed off, while shame is the lasting one. For example, of that fleeting feeling, imagine a situation where you do something cringey and realize someone saw it – you would feel embarrassment, wouldn’t you?
If you don’t really want to imagine that or comb through your memories for instances like that, you can just take a look at today’s list. We filled it with stories of people witnessing someone else doing something embarrassing without thinking they had viewers.
#13
I was in a meeting in my client’s boardroom. The boardroom was at ground level and the exterior glass was mirrored on the outside but see through from inside. In the middle of the meeting, some sketchy looking dude comes over and starts picking his teeth in the mirror. Then he looks left, looks right, sees he has privacy, so he whips out his thing and starts inspecting it in the mirror. He then started trying to pop pimples or something. My client just got up, walked over to the glass, and gave a little rap on the window in front of him. He put his thing away and moved on.
Edit: added “exterior” to clarify this was an exterior window with a probably homeless dude on the outside of the glass, oblivious to the inside of the glass.
#14
I was walking downtown with a buddy of mine, just casually chatting, and i stopped to light a smoke. While we were stopped, my friend started adjusting his hair, using his reflection in the tinted window of the glasses store we were right beside. As soon as i looked up at him, from my angle, i could clearly see that the front counter of the glasses store was like 6 feet behind the window where my buddy was looking, it was pointed directly at him, and both of the girls at the counter were just staring, perplexed looks and all, while he appeared to stare directly back at them, still adjusting and checking himself out.
So i obviously just watched and let this go on for another ~30 seconds until my friend started to walk away, at which point i told him to look *through* the window, so he immediately saw the two girls he'd been staring at for the last minute, they both waved and laughed and my friend awkwardly waved back and then looked straight at his shoes and briskly walked away.
Kind of a mortifying situation to find yourself in, when you really think about it, isn’t it? And yet, we've all probably experienced it – it’s like a humiliation ritual of the human experience.
Do you want to share your story like that? Our comment section is always open!
#16
One night I was sleeping next to my then-boyfriend and woke up because he moved. I noticed how he scratched his tushy with the hand he had been hugging me and proceeded to smell his fingers, then putting his arm around me again, his hand very close to my face. It had this...tushy smell, you know what I'm talkin about. Ugh.
Edit: I can't believe how many upvotes this got! I sometimes post random comments and they barely get any upvotes. I wrote this one in a hurry today before leaving with my NOW husband and my three kids, came back to find it exploded...whew!
Sara Frazer 2 hours ago
"NOW husband" giiiirrll you procreated with the self tushy sniffer???! 💀
#17
I have a lovely elderly neighbor across the way who tends her garden almost daily. She is sweet as can be, and doesn't bother a fly. Our houses are pretty far apart, I'm not a good judge of distances but it's far enough that she feels concealed.
When I sit on my front porch, I can see her clear as day wherever she is in her yard, but she can't see me because of the arrangment of plants between us, and my slightly higher elevation.
She always, ALWAYS, adjusts herself, like overtly. She has a routine every time she stands up and moves, from kneeling on a planting cushion.
She stands up, pulls off her garden gloves, does a little wiggle shake, jams her entire hand down the back of her pants and evacuates a wedge, pulls her bra strap down where it rode up in the back, scoops each breast back into place, and moves down to a new spot to garden.
She repeats this maybe 25 times before she calls it a day. I sit outside and smoke a bowl and watch her and it delights the hell out of me (in a she's a cute, funny old lady way, not an indecent way, just to be clear.).
#18
Every summer my friends and I go to a waterpark. As we are adults we often like to drink while we're at the waterpark. So one summer we were sitting in the bar area that the waterpark at set up enjoying overpriced beer, there was a woman sitting at a picnic table just below the balcony of the bar. She slides back so that her rear end is hanging over the bench and just urinates right there on the AstroTurf while still chatting with her friends. She thought that no one had seen her and that she had gotten away with it, but we saw and thought it was absolutely disgusting.
#19
I'm a canoe guide, and being the guide I'm usually in the back of the canoe, steering. On this particular day, because it was training and I was with a bunch of my coworkers, I was in the front.
When I'm in the back, I'll periodically check to see if any plumber's backside is showing by basically feeling my lower back/top of my tushy with my finger, then readjust my underwear if needed. I'm in the back of the boat, so no one sees that.
However, on this day I did it in the front, giving the guy in the back of the boat a full showing of me fingering my tushy. He promptly said "I think that's a back-of-boat maneuver.".
#20
It was when I was around 12 so I guess ya can't judge another 12 year old *too* much, but we were at day camp and I look over and one of the kids in our group is in the corner just playing with his thing without a care in the world.
#21
I was on family vacation to Hawaii when I was 9. For some reason, I didn't think anyone in the busy resort would notice me trying to stick my thing into one of the hot tubs water jets.......
#22
I love it when people fall/almost fall and they make a funny face after that.
#23
Idk if this counts but I saw an older dude, maybe 40s hit on one of my really attractive employees when his wife and kid walked away. He asked her what she was in college for. She told him accounting. Of course he had a cheesey line that had to do with getting her numbe and of course he got shot down. He stood there for like an hour after that with this look of embarrassment I guess processing the rejection? This was an all womens clothing store. Dang I miss being the only guy working there. My gf does not.
#24
I came back upstairs after leaving for work because I forgot my phone. My dogs thought I was gone for the day and didn't hear me come back up. Walk into living room and my youngest dog is laying on his back and my older dog is standing right in front of young dogs sniffing him. Not normal dog sniffing, deep, pronounced sniffing as if he was a sommelier trying to determine a wines country of origin. I laughed and both dogs looked at me in utter fear and embarrassment. Eyes were huge. You could see the shame in their eyes and one went to the couch and the other went to the bedroom. Neither looked me in the eye when I got home that afternoon.
#25
Ok so back when I was still living with mom she had one of her friends up for the week with her son. there wasnt enough room in the house for them to stay inside so they decided to camp out in the backyard. now I was working construction at the time and was up pretty early to get ready. the one morning while i was putting my lunch together i looked out the kitchen window to see my moms friend squating over a plastic bag taking a number 2 in it right there in the open. one of the most disgusting things I've ever seen. and then she proceeds to walk inside the with her bag of fresh number 2 to get rid of it and stops when she realises that im up....to this day i dont understand why if her plan was to come inside to get rid of it why she didnt just walk inside and use the fully functional toilet and just cut out squating over a plastic bag in the middle of a field.
#26
I do freelance work at sports events. One time, between setup and the time the game started, I was standing at the top of a hill that leads up to the building. I looked around to make sure nobody was there, then I laid down and rolled down that thing. It was super steep, and it was awesome. I got up, brushed myself off, and went back inside to work.
Found out the next week that my boss had seen me, and had told everybody on the crew. Joy.
#27
One day at work I had to fart really, really bad. This wasn't a silent fart I could crank out at my desk and blame on my geriatric coworker, I was legitimately afraid of blowing a hole in the back of my jeans. I got up and penguin-walked out the door, clenching my sphincter tightly.
In the hall, I realized things were happening and I wouldn't make it into the restroom to let this monster out safely. I looked around and saw there was nobody in the hallway, so I sighed and let go the loudest, rumbliest fart I've ever produced. My coworkers probably heard it, but assumed it was a passing semi truck blowing it's horn. My stomach immediately felt better and my belt felt looser, that's how much gas was trapped in there. Satisfied, I turned around to see a woman from a different office standing in the hallway, still holding the door she came from. She wore a look of sheer horror, at once nauseated by my boorish behavior and disgusted with herself for feeling impressed at the magnitude of my flatulence.
"Hello!" I said, plastering a cheerful smile on my face, and I ran back to my desk and put my hoodie up. I never saw her again, so I just assume she left after that day.
#28
Oh, it was me. I was waiting for an online interview for an internship program and while the interviewer was away I remembered I still had my septum piercing on, so obviously i pushed it inside my nose before anyone noticed. As I was adjusting the hidden piercing, the interviewer got online and saw me basically picking on my nose. We had an awful 5 seconds of silence before she decided to proceed with the interview like nothing happened. I got the internship and now have to avoid her around the company because she always seems to remember and look at me funny.
#29
Whenever my shift is quiet, I take a couple minutes break and go practise doing handstands on the nice grass by our building. I'm awful and can hold it for about 2 seconds before I flip over and land hard on my tushy.
Last week the security guy offhandedly mentioned there's a CCTV camera that points almost exactly at that location. He's been watching me handstand for about 2 weeks.
#30
I saw an old man doing stuff underneath his table at a New Orleans strip club. I didn't say anything because it took him about 20 seconds, and I was so drunk that I only had one eye open. There's different rules in New Orleans after midnight.
#31
Ok, so we were white water rafting on the New in WV just four of us in a boat we were behind our group. We were moving along a stretch of calm water when we came up on a couple of kayakers. One woman had her back to us and the other was tending to their equipment on shore, we were all quiet and passing them relatively close (30ft away). Woman A (in the river) takes off the top of her one piece neoprene wet suit and pushes it down to her waist looks to her left (we're exactly behind and a bit to her right) then quickly looks over her shoulder to the right (at that point we were just past her line of sight. She drops trou and begins to urinate, totally bare, thinking there is no one on the river. During all this our river guide brought us to about 15ft away then begins to clap, then we all do. She screams but is mid stream and is clearly both embarrassed and laughing. We all start to laugh. Good times.
tl;dr: saw a woman about to urinate she didn't see us. She stripped down out of her one piece neoprene suit and peed we all clapped.
Edit: phraseology.
#32
I was sitting in traffic, minding my own business and I look into the car next to me and see a guy vigorously scratching his thing. Like getting into every crevice.
He then takes his hands out, smells his fingers and recoils at the odor.
Then he sticks those fingers in his mouth and closes his eyes like it was the sweetest taste since Yoo-hoo.
I honked and got his attention, breaking him out of his trance. He looked at me and I mouth the words "why man? Why?"
He returned my gaze, smiled this satisfied smile and just drove away.
This was about four years ago.
He was a normal looking man but I think about that man more than I would like. What does he do for a living? Does he have a family? Do they know? Who is this man?
I'll never know.
#33
Working in large corporate parks during the recession there were lot's of huge office spaces with barely any residency. They basically overbuilt these large office parks expecting businesses to fill them up. So it would be like a huge complex with maybe two or three functioning businesses in them.
The best part about this was the fact that you could always find a restroom that nobody ever used. I went to a restroom on a building across from mine that had zero occupancy, every time I went over there I never ran into anybody.
One day during one of my particularly long bathroom breaks the timer on the lights turned off due to lack of motion. I thought no biggie so I got up out the stall and attempt to move around so the lights would come on, they weren't coming on so I ventured further out near the sinks and started moving my hands in a hip hop hooray motion while simultaneously saying Hayyy Hoooooo just for number 2 and giggles, so the lights turn on and I'm still waving for a few seconds afterwards thinking to myself how silly I must look with my pants and draws to my ankles in a public bathroom waving my hands in the air. That's when I heard the door close, somebody had have walked into that bathroom and saw some business man with his pants down his ankles waving his hands in the air yelling Hayyyy Hooooo and decided to abruptly walk back out.
What do you think ?
Rick Murray 4 hours ago
Me. Not so long ago. I live rural. There are cows in the fields. Sometimes on the way home after work I pull over and moo at the cows. If they're in an obliging mood, they will moo back. Sometimes we even moo back and forth. And *then* I notice my neighbour, the cow's owner, standing there watching this with a look of puzzlement. I wave at him, moo again to the cows, and drive off. I wonder what he says about me to others in town. Hopefully something like "weird but mostly harmless".
Rick Murray 4 hours ago
Me. Not so long ago. I live rural. There are cows in the fields. Sometimes on the way home after work I pull over and moo at the cows. If they're in an obliging mood, they will moo back. Sometimes we even moo back and forth. And *then* I notice my neighbour, the cow's owner, standing there watching this with a look of puzzlement. I wave at him, moo again to the cows, and drive off. I wonder what he says about me to others in town. Hopefully something like "weird but mostly harmless".
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