30 Times People Reached Heights Of Cringe They Didn’t Know They Could
Interview With ExpertCringe is everywhere around us—within us, even. So, when Reddit user PaddedValls made a post on r/AskUK inviting people to share their most embarrassing moments, many did. We at Bored Panda thought it would be a nice idea to pick out the wildest stories and remind each other that we're all exceptionally good at making fools of ourselves. It might not be very comforting in the moment, but after enough time passes, at least we're left with something to laugh about.
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In Vietnam, I visited a tiny spa for my first ever massage! The staff couldn't speak English, and I couldn't speak Vietnamese, so we used interesting hand gestures and did a lot of pointing.
I pointed to a picture with "30 minutes" for my massage. They handed me a towel and... a shower cap? They pointed to a bathroom at the back of the spa and did a mine of someone undressing, and then I went to get changed.
I emerged in my towel, and the ladies at the spa burst out laughing and started pointing at my head. They started typing something on Google Translate to inform me that the "shower cap" was actually a pair of paper knickers. I felt like such a tit, and burst out laughing with them.
A really similar thing happened to the Comedian Bill Bailey as well. It was one of my favourite parts of that performance
In a restaurant I needed to fart, so waited for a loud bit in the background music, then let rip. Then remembered I had earphones on.
If I went to the bathroom every time I need to fart, I'd be living on the toilet
Load More Replies...At the movie theater, the trailer for "Nope" was on and super loud. As soon as I started to let it out the loudness abruptly stopped and everything was dead quiet. Except for my fart and then my husband and kids hysterically laughing.
I was in a long line in a store yesterday, and the woman directly in front of me decided to crop dust me with an extremely loud banger. It was disgusting.
My mother does that, in the supermarket aisle, then turns back, looks at me, and snigger helplessly. I end up the most embarrassed, and it wasn't even my fart. For the record, she's nearly 70, and she's a fart terrorist for as long back as I can remember.
Load More Replies...Believe it or not when I was growing up and we were eating we had to excuse ourselves and go to the bathroom to fart.
"Embarrassment is a light form of shame, a universal emotion designed to inhibit anti-social behavior," psychoanalyst and AEDP psychotherapist Hilary Jacobs Hendel told Bored Panda.
"When we do something that makes us stand out in a way we don’t like or want, we are signaled by feelings of embarrassment to stop," added Jacobs Hendel, the author of It's Not Always Depression.
*Sigh* sadly this was not long ago. I was trying to say to my senior colleague “Well blow me down” And mid-mouth movement thought, no, GCP. Better to say, you could knock me over with a feather. What I actually said. To essentially my boss, was: *Blow me, FeatherKnocker.*
My husband says this to me regularly now.
As kids we would deliberately say ‘ particularly nasty weather’ if you say it fast it sounds like ‘ tickle my a*s with a feather “. 😂
A bit similar to yours, I walked all the way to a nearby village, about 4 miles to meet a girl when I was about 16.
I didn’t have money for the bus but didn’t tell her that. unbeknown to me I had grass and leaves all in my hair. She was very confused.
I had to confess I had walked and taken a shortcut through a corn field
It must have worked as she married me and we’ve been together for nearly 20 years
Her grandad gave me a lift back home when it was time for me go. Apparently, I had won him over straight away having walked all that way to meet his granddaughter.
There's an Irish song about someone who walks 10 miles to the town of Kilenshandra every weekend to meet a girl, which I think is very pretty. Devotion is about how far you will go to be with someone.
I traveled 15,284 kilometers to be with my girl. So, yeah I feel this.
As much as we would like to avoid it, being cringe is part of being human, and we have to accept this fact to be better equipped to handle the experience. "We can't prevent it without restricting our authenticity," Jacobs Hendel explained.
That being said, the psychotherapist reassured us that when we feel embarrassed, there are many actions we can take, both internally and externally, to minimize a bad feeling, primarily:
1. Immediately show ourselves compassion.
2. Listen to our embarrassment and learn what caused us to feel that way. Then, think through whether we deserve to feel embarrassed and determine if we need to apologize or if we should simply forgive ourselves and move on.
For example, Jacobs Hendel said, if we mistake a pair of paper knickers at a spa for a shower cap, we can:
1. Recognize and validate our feeling of embarrassment: "Yikes, I'm so embarrassed!" (We can use the Change Triangle as guide);
2. Say to ourselves, "Oops. Everyone makes mistakes. It’s okay." Then, be kind to ourselves, ask others for kindness, and demonstrate understanding.
We had a math exam in high school. The teacher distributed the test to everyone and always started the time at his clock "officially" so that we have exactly 45 minutes to write the test. As he counts down everyone in class was dead quit waiting for the start to turn their papers. One second before the countdown was over I accidentally released a VERY loud fart. After a moment of silence everyone started laughing. Then the teacher said "Well, this was your starting signal, Go!" We wrote the test and during the whole 45 minutes from somewhere in some row somebody started laughing by themselves again and infected a couple of other people. This suppressed laughter is the funniest and spreads like a virus. It were some very long 45 minutes for me.
I used to sit next to a girl in history class - rumor was she really liked me. She wasn't my speed, but it was intoxicating to think somebody had a crush on me. One day, I started to fart. I tried to hold it in, but that only made it go up in pitch. I tried harder, up it went even higher. The whole class was instantly silent while I sat there playing the butttrumpet like Dizzy Gillespie. For a while, one guy in class couldn't look at me in the hall without laughing.
Releasing the pressure. It happens! By the way, When I was a kid on a summer camp one activity we had was a relaxing evening foot massage on the back of another in pairs. Chill music and all. I was too good at doing it that the other kid felt half asleep and farted hard. The massage session ended there!
At the end, the teacher ought to have said "Well, the 45 minutes are over", then gesture to the OP "If tou would do the honour?"
I’m laying in bed next to my sleeping husband trying soooo hard not to laugh and I’m failing miserably.
My boss told all of us that she had an inoperable brain tumor. Without missing a beat I said, “I told you this place would [end] you.” It’s been 20 years, I’m still mortified.
Wow, talking about counting to 10 before saying what’s on your mind.
I dreamed last night my late husband told me I have a brain tumor, but I'm thinking it's all in my head.
First, "k.i.l.l" is replaced with "end". Soon, "end" will be replaced by something even less shocking, like "air", then "air" will be replaced with something less shocking like "flower", and then the language won't mean anything any longer
I find this particularly funny as I was just diagnosed with a brain tumor. Not sure yet if it is operable though.
My Dad told me he had stage 4 lung cancer and I offered him my blood. The thought of death (especially of a loved opne) does weird sh*t to your brain.
Licensed mental health counselor/psychotherapist Leon Garber, who is also the man behind the blog Leon's Existential Cafe, told Bored Panda that one must also question whether they're taking something personally.
"This means that maybe they're misinterpreting others' reactions to them. In the case of shame and public disgrace lining up, we have to ask ourselves if it’s possible that what we've done or who we are really isn't that awful, despite the negative feedback," he explained.
Yeah this is easy. In my 20s, I had a crush on someone at work. I bumped into him on the way back from the works canteen one afternoon, I'd told my team I was going and asked if anyone had any orders. Consequently I had my arms filled with chocolate and crisps.
He said something like "I hope that's not all for you"
I said - I will never know why - in a squeaky cartoon character voice, "I'm actually a little squirrel storing up all my nuts for the winter"
He looked sort of horrified. I went into a panic mode and exited the scene quickly... doing little jumps and squeaks LIKE A SQUIRREL
It was a lonely summer.
English people always use the word - Crisps, Potato chips are French Fries.
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When I was at University there was a blind student whose lectures were in the same building as mine. He had a guide dog - a Golden Retriever - and being young I decided to speak to him - you know, prove I considered him as just another student, I wasn't ableist, etc etc.
And what was the first thing that fell out of my mouth when I opened it?
"Isn't your dog a lovely colour?"
To his eternal credit, he grinned and replied, "So they tell me.".
Not only did you ignore the fact he was blind but you made him feel sighted! Nothing wrong with that. Never see the disability.
Not unless you're like me and start to tell a story about what happened to a fat woman and only halfway through, realize you're talking to an obese woman. She laughed, to her credit, but probably thought I was the world's biggest a*****e.
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I was working long hours building a studio set. I ended up staying in a nearby Travelodge, paid for by work. The next day, in front of the carpenters and warehouse guys and all assembled people I said to the boss "Thank you for last night. And this morning.".
When it comes to the internet in particular, one website recently asked 3,000 Americans about online behavior, posts, trends, etc., that they deemed cringe.
Los Angeles was ranked as the number one cringiest city when it came to social media usage, followed by Seattle and Nashville, while the top (or worst?) activities were:
- Captioning cliché quotes like “good vibes only”
- Lip-syncing to songs in stories
- Posting overly filtered or photoshopped pictures
- Recreating TikTok dances
- Themed day posts like #MotivationMonday or #ThrowbackThursday
When I was maybe 8 or so I really fancied this girl in my class but she was ‘going out’ with my best friend at the time. One day they broke up, as kids do, and I saw my chance. Asked her out, she said yes, and I invited her to mine to hang out one afternoon. I figured I needed to buy her a gift so I went to New Look and found a hot pink necklace that said ‘sexy’. That’s perfect, I thought! Bought it for all of two quid and showed my mum when I got home. She laughed and told me it was highly inappropriate for an 8 year old. Gave it to her anyway and she broke up with me because she didn’t like it.
edit: should add that i ended up a flaming homo so, was probably for the best.
The Top 10 Benefits Of Being Gay. Number 1: Being able to say the phrase, Flaming Homo!
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I was standing at my back fence smoking a joint, and the Amazon deliverer came up to me and asked "are you 13?" Me, a bit stoned and waiting for parts for a vape, assumed she was asking my age to verify if I was over 18 and take the package. I looked at her like she was stupid and said "yeah of course, I'm 28 years old!"
She says "...I mean, is your house number 13?"
Not the worst in the world, but I felt so stupid after 😭.
To be fair the delivery person should ask are you unit 13 or something like that
That's not bad. I once told the Cable Guy I loved him over the phone. "Okay, love you bye"
Not talking about D.R.U.G.S., talking about a leaf. A plant that grows in the dirt. It's all natural. Know what's not natural? 80 year old dudes with hard ons but we have pills for that. Give me a break man.
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I was working on a huge building site as an apprentice. I often had to take drawings to the site office of another company who were sharing the job with the company who I worked for.
I always took the opportunity to 'chat up' their hot admin girl and had boasted to others on the site that she was flirting with me.
One day near the end of Summer I went round there, and she said "I guess I won't be seeing you after this week eh"
I looked confused and asked why, and she said "because the school holidays are finishing and you'll be going back to school"
She thought I was a schoolboy helping my dad out over the Summer.
And them you gave her the Jim Carrey talk from dumb and dumber: i am just a boy who desperately wants to make love…
By the time I hit 6th grade, my measurements were 36-24-36 (thank you to all the creepy old men who stared at my boobs. I was 12!) I think I was about 14, and my Dad & I went out to lunch. The fact that I am the spitting image of my Dad notwithstanding, someone saw us and "informed" my stepmother that she had seen my Dad at lunch with a much younger woman. Now, my stepmother is a wonderful person and also pretty quick, so she said, "You mean his daughter? That looks exactly like him?".
Hadn't long started my first job as an IT apprentice. I was a really shy, quiet teenager who barely spoke, let alone cracked jokes or did "banter".
One day my boss asked if I had finished doing something. I thought it would be funny to reply with a Simpsons quote - "As long as there are absolutely no followup questions, yes, yes I have".
But I f****d it up and actually said "As long as you don't ask me again, yes".
Boss had a real short fuse but somehow managed to keep from exploding at me, although I could tell he wanted to as he went bright red.
He just stood there for a second before silently walking off as I hoped a hole would open up in the floor.
Oh just thought of another one - was chatting to the old lady next door about a cat that kept trying to get into people's houses. I meant to say "I wouldn't mind it coming in but I'm allergic to cat hair and get a really bad reaction", but stumbled over my words and said "really bad erection"...
During a work conversation about musical instruments we'd learned when we were young, a Chinese colleague said she'd played the piano. I asked whether she'd learned Chopsticks. I had precisely no thought for the connection, until everyone sort of just moved away from disgusting racist me.
Since "Chopsticks" is just the name of a simple song people learn to play on the piano this is not being racist. Everyone thinking the OP is making a racist comment simply because of the color of OP skin is in fact the racist portion of this story.
My friend saying racist jokes without thinking and getting yelled at ( his family is racist ) :
Maybe you should tell him to try thinking once in a while then.
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Without looking, when I was a young teen, I started walking with another family in the supermarket right next to their trolley. I only realised as I was about to put a bag of crisps in their trolley and got an awkward look from Not-My-Mum lady.
I scarpered, never seen them since, I often wonder what life would have been like..
I did this a few times as an adult, without looking talking to a man who was not my husband until a few seconds later I realised I was talking to a stranger.
Me too! It's because he wanders off worse than a child.
Load More Replies...Having worked in a supermarket, i can tell you, it happens all the time. Bonus points if you manage to walk the wrong trolley to the cashier and realize half way trough unloading it that it is not yours
HA! I was in line at the grocery store and without fully turning around, asked my husband if he was going to give me some money. Another man's voice replied, "That depends. What are you gonna do for me?" I wasn't embarrassed at all, but just cracked up - as did my husband standing 5 feet away looking at candy bars!
I held my dad’s hand at an amusement park. Until I looked up and realized he wasn’t my dad and screamed. Then he looked down and realized I wasn’t his kid and also screamed. Everybody got found.
Crisps. Trolley. Mum. How to tell us where this happened without telling us where it happened
I went to my work Christmas Party in black skinny jeans and a flannel shirt, literally all of the other 100+ guys there were in suit and tie.
My upcoming staff party, people are threatening to come in pj's. Bossman said, "Sure, why not?". (I work in a kitchen. Maybe a different environment .)
One of my favorite things about my job is that I can more or less wear what I like, provided it's in good repair (no ripped jeans, for example) and appropriate for work (no bathing suits, as another example). I just wear leggings and a button down or sweater.
Yeah, my job doesn’t care either (except for the caveats you mentioned). Wearing gym shoes instead of dress shoes is lovely.
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Did a sexy dance for my partner whilst believing my parents were busy in the kitchen. Dad was stood behind me….
I as a dad wouldn't care. As soon as I get what happens, I'd turn around and mind my own business 🤷
In year 8 or 9 I didn't want to do sports day at school so I pretended to faint, right on the field infront of the whole school while the teachers carried me inside.
I HATED "sports day" and, for that matter, everything related to PE. I've heard about some schools offering alternatives like yoga now, and oh, I wish so much that had been an option 30 years ago!
Child of the Stars, in the last few years of primary school (ages 10-12), there was a new head teacher, and she realised the only children who like sports day were the one who were really good at sports. She instead brought in different games for us to play, and had us work in teams. It was so much more enjoyable, vastly more enjoyable.
Load More Replies...I agree with the comment below, except I wish it had been an option 60 years ago !
Not my cringe but my sister's. She's a very relaxed chatty personality and upon joining her new office job, she accidentally said love you at the end of a Teams call to her boss. Mortifying!
Colleague made the same mistake so we often end our calls with "love you!" I'm a grumpy old cynic but it's better for morale and comradery than polo shirts with the company logo.
I’ve done this. That particular person was a male I’d been working with every week. His mom is very over the top and says stuff like, “luv ya.” So I thought he said that to me, meaningless CA style. So I said it back. There was a 3rd person on the call. So this wasn’t some secret love confession. Never saw him again. They immediately replaced him with a female. And started telling me all about his GF. I still cringe, and laugh, thinking about it. I’m like 15 years older than this guy.
When I was in the hairdressers she asked where my parting was but I thought she said parking so I replied ‘just up the road!’.
Years ago was at hairdresser, who is gay. She took a break while my hair color set. She smelled like cigarette smoke when she came back, so I asked her if she was having a f*g out the front. She laughed awkwardly, then looking puzzled, asked me to repeat what I’d said. We both laughed hysterically when she said “I thought you asked if I was out the front with all the faggots”.
Bumped into an old friend, his face looked a bit swollen so I jovially said hello and went bloody hell mate you been stung by a bee or something what's happened there (while laughing).
His response - no mate, I've got cancer and I've lost half my jaw.
Proceeded to show me, I've never wanted to jump into the biggest hole I could find more in my life.
Could have not called attention to his appearance at all. I'm sure if you notice an old female friend and she's a bit swollen in the middle, you don't ask her if she's pregnant. --No, I had a miscarriage in my 7th month.-- Oh, well, you couldn't have known in advance! Just don't comment on someone's appearance that you don't know well enough that would not make it a big deal--no, back that up, don't comment on anyone's appearance, esp. while laughing.
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My first ever job out of university was working for a consultancy in London, and it had an open plan office where we were all sat and could hear all and see all. It was quite a stuffy environment as you might expect, very old school place.
Anyway on the end of my FIRST day, I went to go home, I had my headphones in already and I tried to say "Ok, bye guys!" to the people near me.
What actually happened was me shouting "OK BYE GAYS!" at the top of my lungs to the entire floor.
OP is probably Spanish!!! 😂😂😂😂 That's a typical mistake of a person who speaks a language with only five vowel sounds. Another funny one I heard a million times when I lived in Ireland: "Oh, that's f***y!" (Instead of "funny"). Very funny indeed!
Dance off. A f*****g dance-off. I still can't believe it many years later.... while I was at uni, God knows what possessed me, but I have been grossly ashamed ever since.
A friend of mine (who was a bit of a metal fan and had shoulder length hair) really fancied a girl and she said something about not liking long hair on men, so he cut off his hair that night with scissors and gave her a carrier bag full of hair in school the next day, as an overblown romantic gesture.
She was pretty freaked out and it didn't work, obviously.
At least she didn't say she doesn't like guys with big ears. That's what happened to Van Gogh, right?
In 1993 or 94 I went to my then girlfriend’s 21st birthday party in beige baggy suit trousers, white grandad shirt, and a matching beige waistcoat. I looked like an absolute twat.
I don't think we'll ever out-twat the 70's. I remember feeling pretty damn good about myself at age 10, wearing plaid bell-bottoms, a fake satin cowboy shirt with yellow snaps, and brown platform shoes that I would regularly fall off of.
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School reunion... 25 years I think it was. We (group) were having a conversation about teacher's nicknames and I related the one about Miss Biscup who was rather well endowed in the chest department, being called Miss Bigcups.
To Miss Biscup.
Kicked my shoe off on a bus, which sped 3 seats away. Had to get up with 1 shoe on, tap the person on the shoulder who was sitting in the seat my shoe landed under and ask them to get up so I could retrieve it!!
Okay, serious question. Was at work and noticed guy with fly open. It was a group of us. Do I, as only woman in group, let them know ?
Load More Replies...Once, years and years ago, my dad, my uncle, my grandparents were in a train going somewhere. Halfway there, my dad got mad at his brother for some trivial reason; he reacted by yanking one of his brother’s shoes off and flinging it out the train window. Now my poor uncle only had one shoe left, and had to hobble around like that till they could find new ones 😂
I did an entire presentation with bird poop from the back of my shoulder to the middle of my back nobody said a word...
I thought a bartender was asking me out when he asked for my email for an email receipt. I pointed to my ring finger and said ‘I’m engaged’.
It was the first time I’d ever been asked for an email receipt, if that’s any excuse. It haunts me to this day.
It could be worse. You could have replied in the affirmative for a date.
Some lady on Twitter had a similiar experience to this on November 2, 2015. She posted that when she was going to get her sandwhich, the worker asked for her name. She said, "I have a boyfriend.", leading worker to clarify it was for the sandwhich.
I would've asked "what for?" not thought OMG I'm So HoT hE wAnTs To AsK mE oUt.
Sat in the sixth form centre having a conversation in a group of around 10 or so.
I can't remember what the guy said to me, due to the sheer embarrassment of what happened next, but whatever he said, I replied with the classic teenager line of 'Your Mum'.
Instantly remembered his mum died in an accident.
In my panic I apologise and say 'oh Your Dad'.
Instantly remembered his dad died in the same accident.
Cue me wanting the earth to swallow me whole.
Had a great friend in middle school that was super funny tough guy. We'd get into serious "yo momma" fights. Didn't see him all summer, and was stoked to share the jokes I'd learned. Ran up, hugged, and pulled out the best one I had. Boy broke down in tears. His mom had just been killed in Iraq. He wasn't mad, but boy howdy that was not a good moment.
I feel this cringe to my soul. Circa 2006 I was joking around with a friend and we were laughing about Zoolander and I ended up saying “you’re dead to me. More dead than your dead mother!” Only to realize as soon as the words came out of my mouth that my friend’s mom was dead :(. Total accident, movie quoting got the best of me! The worst part is no one else remembered that line from the movie… ugh.
I had a crush (I feel like most cringey stories start with that, right?!)
I had a crush on this guy who had loads of friends and was cool. Our group of friends had been on a trip out at camp, and I'd taken lots of pics, but I had some space left on the roll. So, bored, I got a scrabble board and wrote every cheesy word for love and sex that I could fit into the scrabble board, and his name in the middle, and took a picture of it. Had the roll processed. Forgot about the scrabble picture...
Everyone in our friend group wanted to see, and one of the girls snatched the pictures out of my hands before I'd looked through them. Found that one. I was the laughing stock of everyone.
Did I mention I'm also a guy?
It was the summer of 2012 and Carly Rae-Jepson's 'Call Me Maybe' was f*****g EVERYWHERE.
It was only a matter of time before it started to be used as a pick up line and sailing so, my friend Luke was in his mind, the first and only person to have this thought.
Smitten with the cashier in Holland & Barrett he fumbled his way through the transaction, then decided he had to take his chance.
Instead of asking, or thank f**k...Singing this, he decided he wanted to leave it as a little note. The first issue being, neither of us had a pen.
So he goes back into the store and asks the target for the pen. She's weary at this point but nonetheless gives the pen as Luke leaves with it. Second issue. We've no paper.
Luke goes back in a second time (Third if you count initial visit), and asks for some paper, again. Alarm bells ringing in this poor girls head but she prints off a piece of till receipt and hands it over.
Third issue, Luke follows inspiration from the song but f*****g butchers it and writes down
"Hey, I just met you.
And this is crazy
But my name's Luke
and here's my number"
Which pretty much negates his entire plan, but whatever.
We both go in, this poor girl is now reluctant to return to the till but a queue forms behind us so she is now contractually obliged to put up with this absolute nonsense.
He hands her the receipt, she doesn't take it. He places it on the till
"Y....y..you don't have to do anything with it....it's...it's just there BYE" And rushes out the store, within a nanosecond he returns with the pen "OH and your pen....S...sorry". As he darts out again. For some reason I'm next in the queue I shrug confused at the girl and go on my way.
He never did get a call.
Not even my story but second hand cringe does still indeed hurt.
A friend of mine did similar, but not with that lyric once, for a bartender as we were leaving. It was so awkward I actually started walking out before she handed him the note.
We had an absolute stunner of a girl in college. Probably one of the most beautiful people I've ever known. Super intelligent and as friendly as you can imagine. We always had a good chat in school despite the fact she knew I was very shy. Over time at college parties she got increasingly flirty with me. I was WAAAYYYY out of her league but without fail at parties I would often end up dancing with her. The weekend before we all went off to uni most of the 6th form we were out drinking and I was sitting down the side of the pub in the quiet area to cool off. Next thing I know she plops herself down next to me and we end up talking for an hour about uni and how much we'd miss our chats etc etc.
Drunk me decided to say this....
"Can I just say, you have the nicest pair of [breasts] in the world"
She promptly thanked me, got up and said bye and I never saw her again. At the time I didn't think anything about it but woke up in the morning remembering all of it and basically curled up into a ball and screamed.
To this day I'll never know if I had a shot, probably not, but certainly not after that.
Aw, poor lady probably thought she had found a real conversation partner only to be bombarded with séxual talks about her body
You opened your mouth & ended up being like all the other guys. She thought she'd found a decent potential partner by the sounds of it
I was an extra in a feature film that no one has seen when I was around 20/21 or so. On the day, it was a wedding scene so we were dressed smart for the wedding. This girl extra took a liking to me, flirting with me, said I look really nice in a suit, director happened to pair us up for some background walking and as a couple at a table type thing, really giggly etc. She's been an actress on some TV shows, and big Christmas adverts, that's all I'm going to say about that.
Well we were all invited to the wrap party. I had been texting with this girl for a few weeks, she lived in a posh part of London, really outgoing, loves life etc kind of girl.
For some reason, I decided it would be cool if I wore a tracksuit, hoody and talked a bit like a chav. Absolutely no idea why I did it other than I thought it would be cool. It's not who I am at all, I don't ever wear tracksuits etc.
Never heard from her again.
I used to work in Virgin Megastore when I was a teenager.
A girl came in to buy a DVD... it was an 18 and she was very short. I asked if she had ID... she got angry and said that she was in her 20's.
"Sorry, I can't serve you without ID"
I looked at the woman she was with and said "your mum can buy it for you though".
It was her girlfriend!
Interview at toy's r us, we were all handed a random toy to try and sell, I was given a box of lions.
My turn came up and was expected, complete brain fart.
I spend ten minutes trying to sell a box of 4 plastic lions to a group of 20 somethings and for some reason, unbeknown to me, my mind spat out "Sunday toys", and I hooked on to that word as its all I had, so I spent ten minutes of pure terror and confusion highlighting the benefits of 4 plastic lions whole saying "Sunday toys" way to many times.
This 18 year old man, sweating, pale, stood up in a small room clutching this small cardboard box of plastic lions, while mumbling something about education and loudly stating "Sunday toys" every few moments was met with the eyes of people who also had no idea what "Sunday toys" were and were wondering what childhood I had to only be allowed toys on a Sunday.
Didn't get the job, not because of Sunday toys, but because they asked would I work overtime for free, I said no, interview ended there.
Proceeded to get a job doing door to door sales.
Didn't happen to me, but what I unintentionally **did**, caused this to happen to someone else.
A friend of mine invited me out to this lass's birthday in her local pub. My mate fancied the pants off her and she offered for me and him to go back to hers for more drinks with her roommate.
I thought I'd do my mate a favor, acting the wingman, and say "Yeah sounds good" so he could chat with her more. When we got in hers I started to nod off on the couch and left them to talking. Before I fell asleep however, she said she needed to go upstairs as her roommate was vomiting in the loo.
Anyway at an undisclosed amount of time later. There's a knock at the door, which woke me up, but I kept up the guise I was still asleep. I'm f*****g glad I did as the next few minutes still haunt me.
My mate had been sitting on the couch for sometime and it looked like the lass he was crushing on still hasn't come back down stairs yet. So he gets up answers the door and its a **lad his crush has invited round from Tinder**...
She comes down stairs and says "Oh I forgot you two were here" and ushers the Tinder lad upstairs to my mates horror. **Oh f*****g no** as you can imagine.
I "woke up" a few minutes later, pretending like nothing happened and got a taxi home with my mate. He said nothing to me the entire trip home.
Tried to do my mate a solid and it backfired massively. I always thought after that, she defo did him dirty like that on purpose, as I think she knew he fancied her and she was a bit Regina George at times...
Saddest part is said mate is now engaged to her despite all of that 😂.
I once told a classroom of teenagers to 'take a s**t' instead of a sheet. 🙂.
I once packed up an enormous load of filming equipment for a student to borrow from our loan counter. He happened to be living with cancer at this time, just recently back from a few months off for serious amounts of chemotherapy. His mum was picking him up in an old Ford fiesta and this kid has packed broadcast cameras, lighting and a micro crane for his short film. I asked if he was sure he wanted to take all of it knowing his mum would need to cram it into a tiny car? “Ok then mate… it’s your funeral.”
I wished the earth would have swallowed me while at that point. Great kid though, he just made a dark joke and laughed.
At work in the smoking room when I was younger, talk turned to rising house prices, I said how will I afford a house. Someone replied your parents might leave you theirs, as a (bad taste) joke I asked if anyone knew a hitman. Later that day I was asked did I not know about my colleague (who was in smoking room), I said no why? He had been convicted of shooting 2 people dead. Good times. FML.
What kind of flimsy sentences are they handing out these days that someone with that kind of conviction is roaming free?
Asking a blind chap if he could "see what I mean".
Even if he was sighted, one does not always literally "see" what another person means.
Load More Replies...It is okay. Like saying "see you later". You really do not have to watch every single word.
I accidentally said "I love you, bye" instead of "okay bye" to my tutor lmao, idk how it happened I was trying to say okay bye and it just sounded like I love you help.
One time I was at the mall as a teenager and there was a really cute guy working at the Chinese place giving away free samples. Well I took one and went to eat it but somehow my hair got caught in my hand or some s**t and went into my mouth with the chicken. So I had to pull my hair out while trying not to spit the chicken out all the while this dude is just staring at me like what the f**k.
I just mumbled okay thanks and walked away. Still have nightmares about that s**t sometimes lol. And it wasn’t a small piece of hair either it was like a whole chunk some how 😂.
I sent a girl I really fancied a full bunch of roses for (I imagine) Valentines Day, in hindsight going from casual Hi in the corridor to full on bunch of roses was skipping a few too many steps. I think i got a thanks and then we never mentioned it again. I was such a goon.
The only time I've received anything for Valentine's day (thank goodness, I don't really see the point) I was 16 and we were at the school's swimming carnival at the local pool. This guy had barely exchanged more than a couple of words in person but I knew he liked me. He did message me on msn (es, I'm that old) but again only a couple of messages, very superficial ones. Anyway, we were at the pool and he approached me when I was with my group of friends, said hi and happy Valentines and handed over a bunch of roses and chocolates. I said thanks and he just walked off. I don't think he ever spoke to me again after that, I'm not sure what he was expecting since we barely knew each other. I was very embarrassed, but didn't want to seem rude so walked home with the flowers, fielding questions from my brother and his friend.
Got a haircut from a drop-dead gorgeous brunette. She was tall, statuesque and was very friendly. Decided to try and chat her up when she wasn't working on my hair, so dropped into the salon one day and asked for her. She came out from where she was, looking entirely frazzled and out of sorts. Tried asking her out and got brutally denied. I took the L and slunk out of there like the loser I was.
That is so awful. I allways feel for people who muster the courage to open up to somebody and get brutally rejected.
History class. We were watching Roots which, if you've not seen it, is a decent show about slavery. I come from a former mining town in the north which had all the diversity of a single occupant flat. It's better now.
This is where I heard the N-bomb for the first time. *However*, I hadn't appreciated (somehow, God knows how) that it was a bad word and not to be repeated in polite company.
A tune went through my head. "Figaro". I began to sing to myself, as can happen when you space out in the dead periods between lessons.
Luckily, the first person who heard what I was actually singing was enough of a friend to explain why I needed to stop.
I need to stress that I was 14 at the time and had absolutely no idea what the word meant, having heard it for the first time an hour prior.
Not the cringiest by far but two recent ones.
There’s a woman at work who once a month will curl up in a ball on our sofa in the office and sleep/complain of being unwell. The sofa is in a lounge area so not very public to the general office/company. I concluded this must be her ‘time of the month’ as it happened about once a month. One day I was with two colleagues and one made a comment about how this woman wasn’t feeling well, or something like that. I confidently proclaimed “she’s on her period”, they both looked at me and awkwardly asked how I knew, (I guess just conversation reaction) and I explained how I noticed she was unwell once a month blah blah blah. I then realised this was a pretty awkward thing to be discussing, especially as im not remotely close with either of these two people or the woman, and why the f**k am I monitoring/speculating on a colleagues menstrual cycle?!? so quickly changed the convo then left.
When I started at said company there was another woman in a different department, I swear to God she kept staring at me. This made me really nervous of her as she is a 10/10 and I dont like attention. I worked up the courage and approached her and had a very nervous awkward conversation- she seemed cool as a cucumber. She kept staring at me and I started to avoid her as I was too nervous and it was just always awkward. Many months later I’m walking past her and she asks how I am, 10 second awkward conversation later I walk off. I conclude she's definitely interested so go straight on teams and ask if she wants to get a drink or coffee sometime.
She replies "maybe a coffee, il let you know when I’m free". 12 months later nothing. I guess shyness is not attractive.... who knew? lol
And she still stares at me!
Has anyone every told you that people can be awkward without being autistic?
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Gosh, my old manager and I got on fairly well. We would go for drinks every Friday etc.
The new head boss asked me to go through some reports, which I did. Everything was wrong, it was for procurement so had to be 100% on money.
My role was a standalone role so my manager didn’t have anything to do with me other than holiday requests and reviews.
My manager went ape s**t at me. I told her that she used the wrong (simple) equation. Which fuelled the fire.
It doesn’t sound that cringey but I then learnt not to be friends with people you work with.
First ever gf...met at a holiday park in Devon when I was 16, she was playing air hockey with her mum in the arcade, how the hell did I start chatting her up in front of her mum, no idea...we were together 4 months and still friends today
Other one people say is cringy in todays world but back then everyone thought it was really sweet. On the bus home, heard this girl behind me giggling so turned around and she had the most beautiful smile ever. I was too scared to say anything. I got home wrote a letter and hoped to see her again but never did for 2months...then she was on the bus again but with loads of people, didn't do anything again. Then she was in the local paper for some charity thing...last name, looked it up in the phone, only a few names and one right by where she gets off the bus...so rewrote the letter and sent it...she called me that day (back in 98 so no mobile) and didn't remember me...wanted a photo so popped it over on the way to college...didn't expect to hear from her but she called that night, 4hrs on the phone and met that weekend. Was together two years.
I went to a stage do as kinda a plus one.
My mate worked with the groom and someone had dropped out so there was a spare ticket. It was a big group maybe 15/20 of us. I had a good time.
Even though I barely spoke to the groom I got an evening invite to the wedding. Turned up to the wedding and sat on the table with some of the lads from the stag do. Asking each other if they were day guests or just evening guests.
Anyway turned round and asked some turns out they were the groom. Felt mortified.
I fancied this girl all the way through secondary school. I sent her a valentine's card in the first year but had no idea what to write in it so filled it with rude rhymes. She said nothing to me but I phoned her and her mum answered and said oh it's you that sent the disgusting card, she does not want to talk to you. She agreed to go on a date but cancelled for no real reason and would do throughout school (she came to my house one Saturday afternoon with 2 mates). For some reason I got a rush of blood to the head in the playground and ran up to her whilst she was on the grass but in my head I decided to run full pelt and knock her over. I have no idea why.
My first year at work I was asked to come in at the weekend to re-organise the archive (huge boxes full of papers for legal reasons) and I'd been DJing the night before and done acid. I came into work at 9am still tripping my tits off. The guy in charge asked me to move these boxes from X to Y but he then went off for a "meeting" which happened to be the local pub. He came back after lunch to find that I'd moved them only 1 foot. He was so enraged he sent me home and I had to walk all the way as he refused to give me a lift and then never asked me to work the weekend again.
I once fell down the steps at work when it was icy and bounced down every single step like a cartoon and hit the bottom in a pile. I thought I'd got away with it but a cheer rang out from the other side of the yard.
I have 2. A couple of months ago I went out with a friend. When we arrived at the bar I greeted the hostess with "Good morning!" I laughed it off with "Imagine when I start drinking!" The second one was more embarrassing. I was walking down the street when I saw a man I thought he was disheveled and with the appearance of a homeless person. He was holding a cup so that made me really think he was a beggar. I then proceeded to put some change in the cup only to realize he was holding his coffee! I was mortified and ran away as fast as I could without looking back!
well Im Miss Cringe, but this one was the first that came to my mind. I was in the UK and realized i never use the coins i always carry around with me so I thought Im going to donate them to the first person begging at the trainstation. It was about 7 pounds. Sure enough theres a guy sitting there asking for some spare change. I said "absolutely!" and gave him the 7 pounds. Obviously he was happy with it so he went like "Oh wow thank you so much!!" i wanted to say "you're welcome, take care!" but as i only had like 3 hrs of sleep the past week, i managed to say "You're welcome, I love you!" I RAN.
I remember being the victim of a mutual cringe moment back in grade school. Some joker had taken to pantsing kids during recess, and picked me as their target that day. I had unfortunately not worn underwear that day. Never seen the schoolyard noise level go down that fast before or since. Funnily enough nobody got pantsed again that year after that...
I had to take a radio of my chest. After the radio the doctor said I could go into the dressing room and exit by the other door that leads to the waiting room (full of people). I went into the dressing room and didn't found my bra and blouse, I took the wrong dressroom!! I wanted to go back to the doctors office but the door was locked. I knocked on the door, I screamed for 5 min "Please I have to go back into the doctors office"! After 5min the doctor returned and opened the door so I could go to my dressing room. I was never so ashamed.
This one was kind of a mutual cringe. Me and my boy best friend went to the same Catholic middle school. There was a type of "spirit week" where each day was a different theme. One of the days was Cross Dress Tuesday. We thought it was crossdressing, like dressing as the opposite gender. Turns out we were supposed to dress with cross motifs (like the crucifix). So we both turn up to school that day, me wearing a kind of punk-rock outfit and my friend wearing a skirt. You can imagine how that went. Anyway, now he's an aspiring drag queen.
In grade four I used broken Japanese (not even an anime watcher I just played gacha life) and made cat noises at people. To be fair it was my way of expressing being upset and stuff because facial expressions don’t really work for me, but my reputation is still not recovered fully. Whenever there’s a new kid they are like instantly filled in…
I had a job checking in truckers. I was looking down at my desk finishing paperwork when a different trucker came up to the window and started tapping the counter at me. Without looking up I flippantly said, 'that's a good way to lose a hand'. Only to finish the previous paperwork, look up, and see he was missing half a hand. Managed to feel bad for losing my temper, feel bad because he might've thought I chose that phrase on purpose, felt bad all around.
When I had my first bf I was 17 and shared a room with my sister and her baby. Well, making out in the bedroom wasn't an option so we snuck into the living room to "spend time together". Long story short, my dad walked in as I was giving my bf a blowjob on the couch (it was like 3 am). I think nothing can top that embarrassing moment. It took me a loooong time before I could look my dad in the eyes, again 😬😬😬😬
I have 2. A couple of months ago I went out with a friend. When we arrived at the bar I greeted the hostess with "Good morning!" I laughed it off with "Imagine when I start drinking!" The second one was more embarrassing. I was walking down the street when I saw a man I thought he was disheveled and with the appearance of a homeless person. He was holding a cup so that made me really think he was a beggar. I then proceeded to put some change in the cup only to realize he was holding his coffee! I was mortified and ran away as fast as I could without looking back!
well Im Miss Cringe, but this one was the first that came to my mind. I was in the UK and realized i never use the coins i always carry around with me so I thought Im going to donate them to the first person begging at the trainstation. It was about 7 pounds. Sure enough theres a guy sitting there asking for some spare change. I said "absolutely!" and gave him the 7 pounds. Obviously he was happy with it so he went like "Oh wow thank you so much!!" i wanted to say "you're welcome, take care!" but as i only had like 3 hrs of sleep the past week, i managed to say "You're welcome, I love you!" I RAN.
I remember being the victim of a mutual cringe moment back in grade school. Some joker had taken to pantsing kids during recess, and picked me as their target that day. I had unfortunately not worn underwear that day. Never seen the schoolyard noise level go down that fast before or since. Funnily enough nobody got pantsed again that year after that...
I had to take a radio of my chest. After the radio the doctor said I could go into the dressing room and exit by the other door that leads to the waiting room (full of people). I went into the dressing room and didn't found my bra and blouse, I took the wrong dressroom!! I wanted to go back to the doctors office but the door was locked. I knocked on the door, I screamed for 5 min "Please I have to go back into the doctors office"! After 5min the doctor returned and opened the door so I could go to my dressing room. I was never so ashamed.
This one was kind of a mutual cringe. Me and my boy best friend went to the same Catholic middle school. There was a type of "spirit week" where each day was a different theme. One of the days was Cross Dress Tuesday. We thought it was crossdressing, like dressing as the opposite gender. Turns out we were supposed to dress with cross motifs (like the crucifix). So we both turn up to school that day, me wearing a kind of punk-rock outfit and my friend wearing a skirt. You can imagine how that went. Anyway, now he's an aspiring drag queen.
In grade four I used broken Japanese (not even an anime watcher I just played gacha life) and made cat noises at people. To be fair it was my way of expressing being upset and stuff because facial expressions don’t really work for me, but my reputation is still not recovered fully. Whenever there’s a new kid they are like instantly filled in…
I had a job checking in truckers. I was looking down at my desk finishing paperwork when a different trucker came up to the window and started tapping the counter at me. Without looking up I flippantly said, 'that's a good way to lose a hand'. Only to finish the previous paperwork, look up, and see he was missing half a hand. Managed to feel bad for losing my temper, feel bad because he might've thought I chose that phrase on purpose, felt bad all around.
When I had my first bf I was 17 and shared a room with my sister and her baby. Well, making out in the bedroom wasn't an option so we snuck into the living room to "spend time together". Long story short, my dad walked in as I was giving my bf a blowjob on the couch (it was like 3 am). I think nothing can top that embarrassing moment. It took me a loooong time before I could look my dad in the eyes, again 😬😬😬😬
