What’s the worst second-hand embarrassment you’ve ever felt? – 17 moments of unforgettable cringe

When it comes to being embarrassed, you don’t have to be the person messing up to feel overwhelmed with shame.

Even just being near someone making a blunder is enough to make you feel uncomfortable for years. And we know this because fossacecak put the following question to the humiliated folks over at r/AskReddit:

What’s the worst second-hand embarrassment you’ve felt from someone else’s actions?

Brace yourself for cringe, here are the top replies…

1.

‘I was helping a friend deliver some flowers for a wedding (she asked to borrow my van and I offered to drive as the quantity was too much for her little Caddy).

‘When we arrived, I backed the van up to the door to make unloading easier. She got out first and opened the back door of the van. A young woman came out of the building with a big smile saying “thank you for this” and the usual general chit chat explaining that she was actually the bride. At that moment an older gentleman came out and said “do you need a hand my love?” to which my friend replied “oh, you must be the father of the bride. Hi.” There was a long pause and then the bride cleared her throat and said “not quite, this is my fiancé.” Cue the next 20 mins or so being completely silent.’
-redwolve378

2.

‘In college, first day of class, the teacher got upset with a student and said “hey, wake up. You, the boy with the long hair, wake up.” He kept persisting and everyone in the room suddenly understood- the student in question was in fact a blind female student who had her eyes closed (because she was blind).

‘The teacher realized it at the same moment as everyone else and just said “oh. I’ve made a grave mistake.”’
-Recipe-box

3.

‘My father called my 8th grade teacher a “hoochie mama” during the parent-teacher interview because he heard it on TV and thought it was a compliment.’
-ManicMaenads

4.

‘There was this awkward kid who was adjacent to our college theatre major’s group who sometimes came to hang-outs at my apartment.

Well, the guys were all discussing the movie Apocalypto, and someone said something about the Mayans, and this kid chimes in with the most condescending, arrogant laugh and says “It was the Aztecs, my guy. Easy mistake to make though.” The person he “corrected” was cool about it and replied, “I’m pretty sure it was the Mayans in the movie,” and this dude then lost his shit. He stood up, aggressively approached the other guy and screamed “It was the fucking Aztecs! I know what I’m fucking talking about!”

Everyone went silent and was super uncomfortable, when another gal chimed in and said “I just googled it and it was the Mayans.” The aggressive dude turned 50 shades of red and just…went back to his seat mumbling under his breath and didn’t speak to anyone the rest of the night. It was SOOOO uncomfortable and I think about it every so often and cringe.’
-BoxFullOfSuggestions

5.

‘On a date when the guy decided it’d be super romantic to sing to me very loud in the middle of a busy mid-tier chain restaurant’
-TheMiceWillGetPerms

6.

‘I went to a comedy open mic and this one girl just crashed and burned SO BADLY. We made brief eye contact and I wanted to crawl under the table on her behalf.’
-mahhhhhh

7.

‘I was the only person to show up at a coworker’s surprise birthday party. He was always known to be a bridge/relationship burner, but I thought I was doing the right thing by representing the office, even had a card I signed “from the office”.

‘Standing in the middle of the kitchen, talking to him and his wife, with the entire house decorated in birthday stuff. Longest hour of my life.’
-JustLookingForNow69

8.

‘A friend of mine in college shit himself during class – it was not a big class and everyone noticed and smelled it. He had food poisoning and it was quite… the shitshow.’
-quietlikesnow

9.

‘A bunch of us were taking a group photo at school. Typical “hey, look how much fun we all have” year book photo/school publication deals.

‘One guy figured that was his chance to grab and aggressively French kiss the girl next to him who was dating another guy. Nobody knew what was happening until the “WHAT THE FUCK?!” she let out. She was kind of shock-laughing, kind of crying, as her friends tried consoling her. Everyone else froze. The guy stood up, realizing how much he fucked up, muttering, “I gotta go” and walked out as everyone was glaring at him.
I still cringe thinking about it, and I had nothing to do with it.’
-ImpressionFast923