Picture this: you're laying in bed, peacefully drifting off to sleep, when suddenly your brain reminds you of that time you embarrassed yourself in third grade. Suddenly, you're wide away and cringing as you reply that moment in your head.
Maybe that moment was when you were trying to impress a crush, or maybe you tried to crack a joke that flopped.
Well, we wanted to know what those embarrassing and absolutely cringeworthy moments were so we can have a good laugh about it.
Redditor LexiDuck asked:
"What is the cringiest thing you've done?"
Let's get into some second hand embarrassment.
Laugh out loud.
"Said 'lolololol' out loud. It was like the sad, pointless mating call of a prehistoric nerd."
"Using this face I hope."
"I say lmao out loud and make my friends die inside."
Get Out Ugh GIFGiphyEveryone knew they were lying.
"Told some female co workers that I spent 2 weeks in jail…. They knew I was lying. I knew I was lying. Why did I do that."
"Idk, have you tried staying up all night thinking about it?"
Teenage emo phase.
"All of these were when I was a teenager:"
- "Went into a barbers with a picture of an emo dude I found on the internet, and I told them I wanted my hair done like that. They told me my hair already looked like that."
- "Made a really stupid sexist joke in front of a girl I sort of liked. She definitely didn't find it funny."
- "Walked around in a T-shirt that had a huge American flag with a hammer and sickle in place of the stars. It wasn't for political reasons, I didn't even know about politics at the time, I just thought it was cool."
- "Following on from #3, I used to wear some ridiculous outfits to college that were radically different every day. One day it was a fedora with a white dress shirt and black waistcoat, the next it was bright red skinny jeans with a leather jacket and huge sunglasses."
emo GIFGiphy"I know this is all kinda cringe but I love you so much lol this is all the best honestly ❤️ we all had emo hair at one point and they were the absolute best days ever."
"Everything but #2 makes me think you're cool."
Paralyzing cringe.
"I was at my friends house and went to get something from the lower part of the fridge. As I squatted down I farted so loud that I got paralyzed for about 5 seconds."
"I don't know if this classifies as cringe or just straight up embarrassing."
- iCalet
"First time in a while I've laughed out loud from a comment."
Cringe Wince GIFGiphy"When I was a stupid teenager, at Christmas, my uncle was poor. He gave me my Christmas present and having heard this joke elsewhere and thinking it clever I said 'thank you, I'll have the rest later.' The room went silent, I tried to explain but I made it worse. That was about 25 years ago and I still cringe at the memory!"
"Aw damn poor uncle."
Bluetooth headphones.
"Definitely answered someone while they were talking on a Bluetooth. Numerous times."
"That's on them for wearing a Bluetooth device, especially if it was within the last 10 years."
"As a former cashier, folks on the Bluetooth would piss me off all the time. I'd ask how they want their things bagged, or say hello, and they'd hold up a hand to their head and say 'I'm not talking to you, hold on.'"
Dont Touch Me Season 4 GIF by The OfficeGiphyAll for a crush.
"Joined a dance performance at school because my crush was in the group. She dropped out a day before the performance and I still had to go on."
"The song was that car wash song from shark tale. I still hate hearing it and remembering this."
Judge Judy Reaction GIFGiphyNot the more typical response.
"I was at target and just got done purchasing stuff and said 'you're welcome' to a target cashier after she said 'have a nice day.'"
"For some reason, I laughed so hard at this! I guess because I can imagine myself doing the same thing."
"I hate when somebody says something like 'ok sir you're all set,' and my dumbass will be like 'thanks, you too,' lol."
"I was at a gig and it was being recorded by the venue owner. Really cool place, local brews from all around America, original music and local art on the walls for sale. Super cool crowd."
"I hate even remembering this and I never play the CD for this specific reason. I took a gulp of this delicious cider and said into the mic (too loud and in a weird announcer voice) 'Liquid Confidence!!' No one laughed. There were like 60+ ppl there. I'm so furggin dumbbbb."
"Well you made me laugh so you have that going for you."
Robert Downey Jr Shrug GIF by MOODMANGiphyPeople Break Down The Best Purchases They've Ever Made | George Takei’s Oh Myyy
Miles high.
"I just realized this is 2nd most cringe. First most cringe was when I was first starting to travel for work. I was talking to my boss (25 yrs my senior, also a VP of our division) and his counterpart (30 yrs my senior, also a VP) about how I aspire to get enough southwest points to be an A-List member, and I said 'When I get on the A-List, I'll finally be in the mile-high club. Or, what is it? The 10,000 mile high club?'"
"They both looked super uncomfortable and I, a social idiot, was like 'What is it called?' Neither of them had the heart to tell me how cringe that was to say. Saddest part is, I never even made onto the A-List. The closest I got was 2 flights short."
Laughing at him, not with him.
"In elementary school I was sitting at the front of the school bus preparing to go home and naturally got bored so I started playing around. I did the invisible lasso thing where you pretend to swing a rope over your head and 'catch' a nearby person before slowly reeling them in. Not only did the person look at me like I was insane, but because I was naïve I assumed that the laughing classmates and other kids were laughing along with me and not at me."
"So when they said, 'Do it again! Do it again!' I listened and did as they said repeatedly, smiling like an idiot the entire time and thinking I was the coolest person on the bus. It wasn't until years later that it hit me what really went on since the memory had almost vanished from my mind by then. Now it's one that visits me at random every time I think of the invisible lasso thing."
denzel washington cringe GIFGiphyPranks.
"When I was about 9 years old, I saw a group of older neighborhood boys playing nearby. I ran over to them and then pretended to fall down and hurt my leg. When I was laying on the ground, pretending to wallow in pain, they came over to see I was ok. I screamed "GOTCHA" and then ran away. I still cringe when I think about it. To this day, I have no idea why I did that."
"Nah that's not cringe, you totally got them."
"It wasn't so much what I did, I was more the target of a cruel prank by my friends."
"When we were teenagers we were all in our mate's house when his parents were away, and we had a few drinks. There was a girl in school I really liked and my friends encouraged me to phone her and tell her. The lad whose house it was said I could use the house phone upstairs for privacy (this was before we all had mobile phones) so I did."
"But they then put the downstairs phone on speakerphone but on mute and listened in as I told her how I felt about her, asked her out, and got rejected."
- kitjen
"I'm a waitress and a few years back I had a party of 9 or 10 stop by in really nice dress clothes. Upon greeting the table in my perky table voice I said, 'Hi everyone how are we all doing? You all look great, what are we celebrating today?!' They replied they had just gotten back from a funeral. I was so embarrassed but they were very nice!"
"I did the same exact thing when I was waiting! They were mostly wearing brown and gray suits on a Sunday afternoon, so I thought it was either from some church event or a wedding."
Henry Danger Wow GIF by NickelodeonGiphyNot the best move.
"Told my wife she had thunder thighs."
"I told her this the second day we knew each other too… we were just talking and I immediately regretted it. Luckily things worked out but damn, what a stupid thing to say to a girl you like when you barely know them."
"I once pretended I was Abraham Lincoln's reincarnation while trying to impress a girl."
"I was chatting to this girl who liked history and the American Civil War so I pretended I used to be Abraham Lincoln."
"Someone started having a seizure during a game of charades and I thought it they were trying to act it out and I started yelling 'Freak out! Spazzing! Twitching!' When his mom yelled at me to stop telling me he was having a seizure. I just about died from embarrassment."
- Womper1
"Why didn't the mom help him out sooner, what the f*ck. You're not in the wrong."
- aew360
"Watching Serendipity (romcom about destiny) and messaged my crush 'if you're watching this too its meant to be..'. Yeah I know.. I then received a call from her! ... It was her and her friends laughing at me down the phone."
"Great movie though."
Funny Face Reaction GIFGiphy"High school girlfriend had just dumped me and I got a fresh haircut one day so I sped down the highway to pass by her school bus and flex my cut and thought maybe it would make her change her mind lol, found out later that same day that she left me for another guy. God it's so terrible it hurts just thinking about it years later."
We are sorry to laugh at everyone's expense here, but a lot of us will find these are pretty common embarrassing moments. Maybe we don't need to cringe at them as much since a lot of people have done this before. It's pretty normal at this point!
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Experiencing death is a fascinating and frightening idea.
Who doesn't want to know what is waiting for us on the other side?
But so many of us want to know and then come back and live a little longer.
It would be so great to be sure there is something else.
But the whole dying part is not that great, so we'll have to rely on other people's accounts.
Redditor AlaskaStiletto wanted to hear from everyone who has returned to life, so they asked:
"Redditors who have 'died' and come back to life, what did you see?"
Sensations
Happy Good Vibes GIF by Major League SoccerGiphy"My dad's heart stopped when he had a heart attack and he had to be brought back to life. He kept the paper copy of the heart monitor which shows he flatlined. He said he felt an overwhelming sensation of peace, like nothing he had felt before."
PeachesnPain
Recovery
"I had surgical complications in 2010 that caused a great deal of blood loss. As a result, I had extremely low blood pressure and could barely stay awake. I remember feeling like I was surrounded by loved ones who had passed. They were in a circle around me and I knew they were there to guide me onwards. I told them I was not ready to go because my kids needed me and I came back."
"My nurse later said she was afraid she’d find me dead every time she came into the room."
"It took months, and blood transfusions, but I recovered."
good_golly99
Take Me Back
"Overwhelming peace and happiness. A bright airy and floating feeling. I live a very stressful life. Imagine finding out the person you have had a crush on reveals they have the same feelings for you and then you win the lotto later that day - that was the feeling I had."
"I never feared death afterward and am relieved when I hear of people dying after suffering from an illness."
rayrayrayray
Free
The Light Minnie GIF by (G)I-DLEGiphy"I had a heart surgery with near-death experience, for me at least (well the possibility that those effects are caused by morphine is also there) I just saw black and nothing else but it was warm and I had such inner peace, its weird as I sometimes still think about it and wish this feeling of being so light and free again."
TooReDTooHigh
This is why I hate surgery.
You just never know.
Shocked
Giphy"More of a near-death experience. I was electrocuted. I felt like I was in a deep hole looking straight up in the sky. My life flashed before me. Felt sad for my family, but I had a deep sense of peace."
Admirable_Buyer6528
The SOB
"Nursing in the ICU, we’ve had people try to die on us many times during the years, some successfully. One guy stood out to me. His heart stopped. We called a code, are working on him, and suddenly he comes to. We hadn’t vented him yet, so he was able to talk, and he started screaming, 'Don’t let them take me, don’t let them take me, they are coming,' he was scared and yelling."
"Then he yelled a little more, as we tried to calm him down, he screamed, 'No, No,' and gestured towards the end of the bed, and died again. We didn’t get him back. It was seriously creepy. We called his son to tell him the news, and the son said basically, 'Good, he was an SOB.'”
1-cupcake-at-a-time
Colors
"My sister died and said it was extremely peaceful. She said it was very loud like a train station and lots of talking and she was stuck in this area that was like a curtain with lots of beautiful colors (colors that you don’t see in real life according to her) a man told her 'He was sorry, but she had to go back as it wasn’t her time.'"
Hannah_LL7
"I had a really similar experience except I was in an endless garden with flowers that were colors I had never seen before. It was quiet and peaceful and a woman in a dress looked at me, shook her head, and just said 'Not yet.' As I was coming back, it was extremely loud, like everyone in the world was trying to talk all at once. It was all very disorienting but it changed my perspective on life!"
huntokarrr
The Fog
"I was in a gray fog with a girl who looked a lot like a young version of my grandmother (who was still alive) but dressed like a pioneer in the 1800s she didn't say anything but kept pulling me towards an opening in the wall. I kept refusing to go because I was so tired."
"I finally got tired of her nagging and went and that's when I came to. I had bled out during a c-section and my heart could not beat without blood. They had to deliver the baby and sew up the bleeders. refill me with blood before they could restart my heart so, like, at least 12 minutes gone."
Fluffy-Hotel-5184
Through the Walls
"My spouse was dead for a couple of minutes one miserable night. She maintains that she saw nothing, but only heard people talking about her like through a wall. The only thing she remembers for absolute certain was begging an ER nurse that she didn't want to die."
"She's quite alive and well today."
Hot-Refrigerator6583
Well let's all be happy to be alive.
It seems to be all we have.
Trying to lose weight is a struggle understood by many people regardless of size.
The goal of reaching a healthy weight may seem unattainable, but with diet and exercise, it can pay off through persistence and discipline.
Seeing the pounds gradually drop off can also be a great motivator and incentivize people to stay the course.
Those who've achieved their respective weight goals shared their experiences when Redditor apprenti8455 asked:
"People who lost a lot of weight, what surprises you the most now?"
Redditors didn't see these coming.
Shiver Me Timbers
"I’m always cold now!"
– Telrom_1
"I had a coworker lose over 130 pounds five or six years ago. I’ve never seen him without a jacket on since."
– r7ndom
"140 lbs lost here starting just before COVID, I feel like that little old lady that's always cold, damn this top comment was on point lmao."
– mr_remy
Drawing Concern
"I lost 100 pounds over a year and a half but since I’m old(70’s) it seems few people comment on it because (I think) they think I’m wasting away from some terminal illness."
– dee-fondy
"Congrats on the weight loss! It’s honestly a real accomplishment 🙂"
"Working in oncology, I can never comment on someone’s weight loss unless I specifically know it was on purpose, regardless of their age. I think it kind of ruffles feathers at times, but like I don’t want to congratulate someone for having cancer or something. It’s a weird place to be in."
– LizardofDeath
Unleashing Insults
"I remember when I lost the first big chunk of weight (around 50 lbs) it was like it gave some people license to talk sh*t about the 'old' me. Old coworkers, friends, made a lot of not just negative, but harsh comments about what I used to look like. One person I met after the big loss saw a picture of me prior and said, 'Wow, we wouldn’t even be friends!'”
"It wasn’t extremely common, but I was a little alarmed by some of the attention. My weight has been up and down since then, but every time I gain a little it gets me a little down thinking about those things people said."
– alanamablamaspama
Not Everything Goes After Losing Weight
"The loose skin is a bit unexpected."
– KeltarCentauri
"I haven’t experienced it myself, but surgery to remove skin takes a long time to recover. Longer than bariatric surgery and usually isn’t covered by insurance unless you have both."
– KatMagic1977
"It definitely does take a long time to recover. My Dad dropped a little over 200 pounds a few years back and decided to go through with skin removal surgery to deal with the excess. His procedure was extensive, as in he had skin taken from just about every part of his body excluding his head, and he went through hell for weeks in recovery, and he was bedridden for a lot of it."
– Jaew96
These Redditors shared their pleasantly surprising experiences.
Shopping
"I can buy clothes in any store I want."
– WaySavvyD
"When I lost weight I was dying to go find cute, smaller clothes and I really struggled. As someone who had always been restricted to one or two stores that catered to plus-sized clothing, a full mall of shops with items in my size was daunting. Too many options and not enough knowledge of brands that were good vs cheap. I usually went home pretty frustrated."
– ganache98012
No More Symptoms
"Lost about 80 pounds in the past year and a half, biggest thing that I’ve noticed that I haven’t seen mentioned on here yet is my acid reflux and heartburn are basically gone. I used to be popping tums every couple hours and now they just sit in the medicine cabinet collecting dust."
– colleennicole93
Expanding Capabilities
"I'm all for not judging people by their appearance and I recognise that there are unhealthy, unachievable beauty standards, but one thing that is undeniable is that I can just do stuff now. Just stamina and flexibility alone are worth it, appearance is tertiary at best."
– Ramblonius
People Change Their Tune
"How much nicer people are to you."
"My feet weren't 'wide' they were 'fat.'"
– LiZZygsu
"Have to agree. Lost 220 lbs, people make eye contact and hold open doors and stuff"
"And on the foot thing, I also lost a full shoe size numerically and also wear regular width now 😅"
– awholedamngarden
It's gonna take some getting used to.
Bones Everywhere
"Having bones. Collarbones, wrist bones, knee bones, hip bones, ribs. I have so many bones sticking out everywhere and it’s weird as hell."
– Princess-Pancake-97
"I noticed the shadow of my ribs the other day and it threw me, there’s a whole skeleton in here."
– bekastrange
Knee Pillow
"Right?! And they’re so … pointy! Now I get why people sleep with pillows between their legs - the knee bones laying on top of each other (side sleeper here) is weird and jarring."
– snic2030
"I lost only 40 pounds within the last year or so. I’m struggling to relate to most of these comments as I feel like I just 'slimmed down' rather than dropped a ton. But wow, the pillow between the knees at night. YES! I can relate to this. I think a lot of my weight was in my thighs. I never needed to do this up until recently."
– Strongbad23
More Mobility
"I’ve lost 100 lbs since 2020. It’s a collection of little things that surprise me. For at least 10 years I couldn’t put on socks, or tie my shoes. I couldn’t bend over and pick something up. I couldn’t climb a ladder to fix something. Simple things like that I can do now that fascinate me."
"Edit: Some additional little things are sitting in a chair with arms, sitting in a booth in a restaurant, being able to shop in a normal store AND not needing to buy the biggest size there, being able to easily wipe my butt, and looking down and being able to see my penis."
– dma1965
People making significant changes, whether for mental or physical health, can surely find a newfound perspective on life.
But they can also discover different issues they never saw coming.
That being said, overcoming any challenge in life is laudable, especially if it leads to gaining confidence and ditching insecurities.