There's nothing some people love more than drama. Not being involved with it, of course, but getting to witness it, and indulge in all the glorious weirdness of it. It's addicting. Don't lie, we all love to hear about it.
Sometimes the tension is too much to handle. Piebalddacshund asked:
What's your greatest, "you can cut the tension in the room with a knife" story
Awkward moments are usually pretty d*mn cringey. Here are some of the wildest stories.
A bad time for twerking.
“I bartended in college. The new manager, during the club rockin, at midnight, proceeded to cut off the music and tell 200 drunk college kids about how he was 120 days sober and showed everyone his coin. Then he preached about sobriety and him not having custody of his kids for about 4 minutes before putting Lil John back on so girls can twerk.
No one twerked.”
Now THAT’S awkward.
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“Graduation day at the college where I work. The commencement speaker, a famous journalist, is giving her inspiring speech, working in little bits of trivia about our school. But something seems off. And as she starts listing our famous graduates, we realize she's Googled the wrong college, and is talking about the hyper-conservative Christian school a thousand miles away that happens to have the same name.
But the speech goes on and on, fifteen minutes more, with more awkward details she looked up on the wrong Wikipedia. And nobody wants to tell her while she's onstage. A murmur goes around, even the graduates' parents have figured it out by now, and several thousand people slowly cringe themselves to death.
To her credit she graciously apologized on her TV show and gave the college a nice promo.”
Yup, she REALLY did something there.
“At my sister's wedding, her "frenemy" showed up wearing a white dress... and to make it KNOWN she came upstairs to her room at the banquet hall before the "big entrance" (classic Italian wedding, you know?). She walked in and all of us bridesmaids and my sister were just slack-jawed. (she had zero reason to come upstairs except to show off her floor length white dress).”
[deleted]
“I just don't understand the mentality here. Is there a single person anywhere who would think ‘wow, she really showed the bride’ rather than ‘that guest in the white dress must be a raging c*nt’? That just makes yourself look bad.”
When family gets involved, that’s when you know sh*t has REALLY gone down.
The husband handled that well.
“Several, it really makes you feel older and make your BP skyrocket.
My cousin (F) came out to our family during a party. In front of her husband of 5 years and their 2 kids. She confessed to seeing another woman behind his back and that they've been together for far longer than she'd been married and she was the true love of her life and the kids names were her idea.
She then introduces her to everyone and as the silence went on and the the color in our faces returned, her husband just stands up and shakes the woman's hand and tells his wife that the papers will be coming along.
Party ended right there and her parents were pissed, they didn't care about her being a lesbian but her cheating was a big problem.
I learned that her lover had been in and out of rehab and is in no condition to support her or the kids.
My cousin had her marriage annulled but she lost custody of her kids, and could not get any settlement. By the end she didn't have a house and was basically homeless.
She's still with her but her kids refused to visit or have anything to do with her. Her girlfriend acts as if she's the one who gave birth to them and sends hateful messages to the father.”
This might win for the most tense.
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“My dad was an amazing father but once, when I was about five, he was gone all weekend. It was not like him to do this. He was a great dad and we were all crazy about him and so was my mother. Mom was stressed beyond belief.
At the time, she didn't work and he was our sole provider. There were four of us. She was a devout Catholic and Friday night, she lit candles and had all of us kneel and pray for his safety. Saturday morning, she called the police and said he was missing. Sunday morning, they called and asked her to come and identify a body that matched the description she'd given.
She was f*cking rattled when she got back. Some guy who was my dad's height and weight had been murdered. I can only imagine what she felt going into that room and seeing THAT on the slab. She asked to see his arm that had a tattoo and it was the wrong tattoo.
Dad came home Sunday evening with some cock and bull story about being slipped a mickey (old school roofies). You would have needed a jack hammer to cut the silence between them.
My mother always brought his plate to the table first. That night she brought all of our plates first. When she put his down, it was SO HARD, I remember his food being about two inches in the air from his plate. He didn't say anything. She didn't speak to him for a good while. Let's just say it never happened again.”
Things That Are Normal Where You Live But Crazy Anywhere Else | George Takei’s Oh Myyy
This is so sad.
“My mom died due to an overdose and without a will. At the funeral home, my stepdad, grandmother, aunt, brother and I were in the office to plan my mother's funeral.
My aunt and grandmother hated my stepdad. They said he enabled my mother, and didn't take care of her. My stepdad also owed my grandmother money.
My stepdad hated us all. My brother had stolen from him, he thought my grandmother and aunt were over-bearing, and he blamed me for my mother dying because I had cut off contact with her (it was for my own well-being).
My brother was just plain angry at everyone but me. He thought my grandma hadn't supported my mom. He also was in such denial that he thought my stepdad had murdered our mother.
My grandma also partially blamed me for my mother's death because of going no contact. My mother had been an addict for years, but apparently I was the reason she overdosed.
I was fuming angry that all of these people blamed me for the actions of someone else and I was being scapegoated again for my mother's actions. I was mad at my mom for not having a will, and for dying when I was 25.
I cannot imagine the tension that funeral director felt in that room, as all these people who detested one another tried to agree on funeral arrangements.”
Friendships can be really fickle, especially when we’re young. Definitely makes for a whole lotta awkwardness.
That’s karma.
“Back in highschool, my best friend was dating one of the most popular guys in school (not just our grade, the entire school). So it was a huge deal, and she gained a lot of popularity from it. This meant her getting invited to a lot of parties and I got to tag along to many of them.
During one of these parties, I was sitting with her boyfriend and another mutual friend of ours. I had gotten up to go inside and wash my hands, when I heard muffled sounds coming from the pantry in the kitchen. I went and looked, and my friend was in there hooking up with another dude. It wasn't just any dude either, it was the "weed guy" of our grade who was very awkward and weird.
Word spread around the party about this, and basically everyone knew what was going on but my friend's boyfriend because he had stayed sitting in the same spot for a while and nobody had the balls to tell him what was happening.
Finally after like twenty minutes, my friend comes out with the "snacks" she was getting and sits next to her boyfriend. You could've heard a pin drop as everyone got silent and stared at the two of them.
Worst part of it all, her boyfriend chuckles and says "you were in there for a while, what'd you do, lock yourself in the pantry?"
The tension was practically unbearable. Eventually he found out the truth, not sure how, but they broke up the next day and she basically became ostracized from hanging out with anyone that was even slightly popular. It never really blew over either, she had to transfer schools for the next school year and she deleted her social media accounts for several years."
We’ve all been in this situation.
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“I had a friend back in middle school that invited me to spend the night at her house. I was there for maybe 1 hour when she asked her mom if we could order pizza and her mom said no. My friend then proceeded to have the absolute worst, over dramatic screaming temper tantrum at her mom and then started screaming at her that I wanted the pizza and they were being rude for not buying it. This carried on for the rest of night and I just sat on her couch beet red waiting for it to end.”
Awkwarddddd.
“"When I was in 6th grade or so, I was invited to my friend's birthday sleepover party. She tells me to be there on Friday after school. So I show up with my overnight bag. Nobody else is there yet but I didn't think much of it. I just thought she wanted me to be there early to help set up and hang out. She says nothing. Her parents say nothing. But I could start to feel something was up when her mom takes us to Walmart to get things for the party. I said things like "we're going to have so much fun tonight!" that was met with awkward silent tension. I sat and watched TV with her family for a while and I could feel the whole room just go stagnant.
About an hour after we got back from the store, her mom started making dinner. I asked if I could help her, but that I thought she was going to be ordering pizza for the party. She finally told me that I was an entire day early for the party and that I needed to go home.
Edit: for those who asked, the party was terrible. She invited all the "mean girls" from school. It felt like Jenna's birthday party in 13 Going on 30 fr. I ended up leaving early after they started making tiny baby gay me uncomfortable by daring each other to kiss."
Not the impression you wanna make.
“My ex's family camping trip. Her mom is talking to one of her daughters, and the daughter says something along the lines of "I don't think I've ever seen you actually angry" and my dumb*ss has to chime in, ‘she was pissed at me once when I took your sis to two movies in a row and forgot to give her a heads up that we were gonna be back later’ mom chimes in ‘nope, I was pretty mad at you around thanksgiving a year or so back’.
I immediately grabbed my toast, downed a big ol glass of shut the f*ck up, and dipped out of that conversation. She was referring to when she found out I took her daughters virginity.”
We've all been there, on every end of it. Awkward moments are just a part of being human. Just remember, “this too shall pass". Or something.
Tension passes. Don't forget that
The old wives' tales.
They are the stories of legend.
I think we all need a big DEEP Google dive though.
Where did they originate?
WHO ARE THE OLD WIVES!
You don't hear about them as much anymore.
It's like science and logic are suddenly a thing.
But they sure are a good way to keep your kids and their behavior in line.
Redditor the_spring_goddess wanted to discuss the tall tales we've all been fed through life, so they asked:
"What is an old wives tale that people still believe?"
"Wait an hour to swim after eating."
What a crock!
So many summer hours wasted.
I want revenge for that one.
Say Nothing
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"An undercover cop has to tell you he's a cop if you ask him."
LonelyMail5115
"Pretty much most advice when it comes to cops are old wives tales. I’m not even a cop but most of the advice you hear is pretty off."
I_AM_AN_A**HOLE_AMA
Say Something
"That you have to wait 24 hours to report someone missing."
Severe_Airport1426
"I really think this one is important and should be the top regardless. As it’s a piece of advice that needs to be relearned and the only way to do that is through awareness."
crappycurtains
"This used to be true. I think they changed it after some guy named Brandon went missing back in the '80s or '70s. You used to have to wait 24 hours if the missing person was an adult because they had 'a right to be missing' and then everyone realized that was stupid and stopped doing it."
AlbinoShavedGorilla
Body Temps
"That drinking ice cold water after eating oily foods will solidify the oil and permanently remain in your body. I informed my coworker that if your body temperature ever reached that point, you’d have bigger problems than weight gain."
chriseo22
"Oh, I have a cousin who 100% believed this. One of those guys who believed every early 2000s internet rumor and old wives tale. One night I chugged a big glass of ice water after dinner and he started freaking out and saying my guts were gonna harden."
"I sarcastically told him to drive me to the hospital if that happened. Obviously, nothing happened and the next morning I said something like 'Thanks for being on standby in case my guts filled with hardened oil.' He just walked off muttering under his breath."
apocalypticradish
Arms Down
"When I was pregnant, I was told by young and old alike that I should NOT raise my arms above my head or exert myself in such a manner because it could cause cord strangulation to my unborn sons and daughters."
Fatmouse84
10 Years Actually
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"Chewing gum stays in your stomach for 7 years."
"I remember accidentally swallowing a piece of gum when I was a kid in like 1995 and just accepting my fate like welp, gonna have this in my stomach til high school I guess."
Gecko-911
I was so afraid to sallow my gum when I was young.
This tale is haunting.
High/Low
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"You can tell the sex of the baby by how you carry."
LeastFormal9366
"Pregnancy certainly wins awards for the most old wives tales. So much absolute BS was repeated to us by everyone we talked to."
IllIIIlIllIlIIlIllI
The Cursed
"If you’re a woman and you wear opal jewelry but opal is not your birthstone (October), you’ll never be able to have children, or will be widowed, or just generally have bad luck or something. You can counteract this by having a diamond in the same piece of jewelry as the opal, though."
"I have a nice opal ring that my parents gave me years ago, and I’ve had other women give me this 'advice' unprompted more than once when I’ve worn it. I have absolutely no idea where it started, but I’m pretty sure this little chunk of silicate rock has no concept of what month I was born in, let alone of how my reproductive organs work."
SmoreOfBabylon
Stay In
"Going outside with wet hair will make you get pneumonia. Or an earache. Or maybe arthritis. Depends on which old wife you listen to."
"Jokes on them - I haven't blow-dried my hair in decades and usually leave the house with wet hair in the morning. On winter mornings, the tips of my hair get frozen. No ear infections or pneumonia or arthritis yet."
worldbound0514
Dreams and Facts
"You never make anyone up in your dreams you've seen everyone in your dreams somewhere else before and never make anyone up entirely."
"How would you possibly prove that to be true? My partner adamantly believes this and tells me this 'fact' whenever I have a dream about someone I've never met before."
mattshonestreddit
"My late wife used to tell me that before she met me she would have dreams of standing at an alter on her wedding day but could never see the guy's face, no matter how hard she tried. After meeting me the face was filled in with mine. Don't know if it's true but one of those things I like thinking of every now and then when I miss her."
Darthdemented
Cracked
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"Some people still believe cracking knuckles causes arthritis."
Choice-Grapefruit-44
"There's a doctor (Donald Unger) that cracked his knuckles a couple of times a day for 60 years, but only on one hand, just to prove it. Both hands remained exactly the same."
MacyTmcterry
I love my knuckles.
Do you have any tall tales to add to the list? Let us know in the comments below.
