People Share Their Most Cringey Experiences with Second-Hand Embarrassment
First-hand embarrassment is hard enough, but there’s something particularly difficult about digesting the most humiliating moments of others in real time.
From these love moves that crashed and burned to jokes that died on arrival, these Redditors showed how there’s no one way to be a fool. That being said, it’s truly our empathy for others’ pain (and social mortification) that makes us human.
Cringe to these shocking moments of second-hand embarrassment.
1. You, But With a Woman’s Touch
My buddy tried hitting on my sister. "I always thought it would be cool to have a chick that's a female version of [my name here]." Swing and a miss.
2. You Kiss Yours With That Mouth?
I was at a college basketball game years ago when there was a bad call on the ref's part, and the guy like two rows ahead of me and my friends yelled out something like, "You screw your mother with that mouth?!"
Like it was really weird and inappropriate and not something you'd yell at the ref because it makes no sense...and then like everyone around him just got quiet and turned around to get a look at the guy who just yelled that with a "
What the heck is wrong with this guy" look on their faces.
3. No One Likes a Tourist
I once went out with my mom and one of her friends. She kept flirting with the young Hispanic waiter. When he asked us what we wanted to drink, she said "agua" really exaggerated-like and then turned to us and said, "it's Mexican for water.”
Cringe. That was only one of the many things she did. She also kept talking about how handsome Hispanic men were any time he was around. She was at least twice his age. I actually found the guy after we were done and apologized for her behavior...
4. Not Getting to the Bottom of This One
It was in my public speaking class at a community college over a decade ago. I can't remember the exact assignment, or the context of the assignment, but we had to give a speech in front of the class every week.
This girl got up in front of everyone and gave a full 5-minute speech about how her friend "had sex in the butt hole and didn't like it."
I have erased most of what happened from memory—for good reason—but I just remember her shouting, at the top of her lungs, the phrase "sex in the butt hole" multiple times in five minutes.
I have never been more uncomfortable in my entire life and you could tell the entire class felt the same. Then I looked at the professor in the back of the class and she was white as a ghost.
Like, she didn't know how to process what the heck just happened. Sitting through five minutes of that was the most uncomfortable experience I've ever had in my entire life.
