It's called cringe, and strangers online had plenty to say about the all-too-familiar phenomenon when Redditor brownGoddess01 asked:
"What is something you find REALLY cringe?"
There is a time and place for things. That doesn't mean the unspoken rule is broken.
Indecent Proposal
"A disastrous engagement during someone else's wedding."
– piglalopa
"El Diablo"
"This happened at my cousins wedding. My other cousin was proposed to by her bf during the reception. The cousin getting married eventually got a divorce and the cousin who was proposed to never got married. My grandma went to her grave calling the guy who did the proposal 'El Diablo.'”
–iamtommynoble
Inappropriate Declaration Of Love
"I used to work wedding receptions. One time during the speeches I witnessed the best friend of the bride profess his love to her, in front of the groom and everybody. It was one of the most awkward/cringiest moments I’ve ever witnessed."
– aande116
There are some things we do that we can't take back.
How Far We've Come
"my past self."
– atermoiment
"That means you’ve grown. Respect."
– joeybagofdonuts80
The Moment We'd Like To Forget
"My mind randomly replaying an embarrassing moment I've done that I want to forget."
– mokimika
Audio Playback
"Listening my recorded voice."
– No-Carrot8948
Some people love living their lives on camera. Some participants don't have a say in the matter. And others just don't wanna see it.
All The World Is A Stage
"Family bloggers. Constantly having your life recorded as a child can really f'k you up. Especially since a lot of the time the parents are just using their children for content."
– guitarcum
Overzealous Parents
"I will extend this to normal people who post every second of their child’s lives, they often hide under ‘it’s so my family can see it’ but it’s not really, is it? Or else you’d have an account just for family not your 900 additional ‘friends’"
– Potatopugz
Crying You A River
"Recording yourself crying on social media."
– satinaboupoupou
Selfie Time
"when individuals share sobbing selfies. No joke, when my friend's sister and her children put their dog to die, she tweeted selfies of them both crying. and the deceased dog."
"Like, is it a private moment of mourning and not a chance for a selfie?"
– Perfect-Respe
Click Bait
"All these 'prank' videos getting millions of views."
"Edit: To be specific, I’m referring to 'prank' videos that are clearly staged."
– Beard341
Unsolicited Life Coach
"People whose lives are an absolute self-induced disaster and post selfies with motivational quotes telling other people how to think and live."
– i_want_that_boat
Being in the entertainment industry and knowing how humbling it is when there are more rejections than there are bookings, we tend to be our own worst critics.
So there's nothing more cringey than revisiting an old recording of myself performing at a high school talent show when my interest in theater was fresh and exciting and I already thought I was a pro.
Unfortunately for teenage me, I was blissfully unaware I had ways to go before honing my craft.
Let's just say that all those old VHS recordings of me performing an imitation of Michael Crawford as the Phantom of the Opera need to be burned.
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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