We're all had those moments. Those awkward times when one person can change a whole room. People are having a great time and then all of a sudden it changes. These redditors details their most awkward and hilarious moments. Some changes have been made for clarity.
Why Would He Do That
“Not my story, but a friend of mine was attending a Christian Pentecostal summer camp a few years ago with some high school students and other adult leaders. For anyone who is unfamiliar with Pentecostal youth camps, the evening church services can get pretty lively and charged with emotion. People being slain in the spirit, speaking in tongues, lots of worship and confessing sins. That sort of thing. There were probably a couple hundred students, so things may have gotten chaotic. Anyway, my friend and one of the other adult leaders get pulled on stage to confess sins to the audience. Not sure who thought this was a good idea, but maybe it wasn’t planned. And the other adult leader, a nice guy in his 20s (newly married), confesses to the packed auditorium of high schoolers hyped up on Jesus that he used to have intimate relations with his dog. The evening service pretty much ended after that.”
Caught In The Act
“When I was a kid, there were about 6/8 families in our area who were a good group of friends. Regular holidays together, kids all close friends too and in the same classes at school etc.
The backstory was that one of the families kept noticing money going missing from a drawer in the master bedroom. They had an older son who was getting the blame but was denying it.
Fast-forward a few weeks and it’s their younger kid’s birthday, and everyone is at their house. Usual script was the kids party would be late afternoon, then in the evening the kids would end up playing games in some bedroom as the adults had a few drinks. Kids were happy because we got to stay up late with all our friends, parents got to have a few guilt free drinks. This night was going as normal until we’re all shuffled out and home earlier than usual. We got the full story the next day.
Once the kids were out of the way, the owners of the house had turned on their tv and pressed play on a video. On screen there was cctv of the bedroom where the money had been going missing. Clearly in the video you could see the wife of one of the other couples, sitting in that very room, going into the drawer and taking money. Apparently the switched off the video, said ‘what you saw is exactly what it looked like’ and asked that couple to leave. Everyone else left shortly after.”
100 to 0 real quick
“My friend used to work for a company that has always promised the IT department a trip to Hawaii for working through a couple of rough years without pay raise and on the flip side we won’t get any personnel cut. It was a verbal promise that once we are back to profitable, the IT department would get all expense paid trip. Back around October of 2015, they were gathered in the largest meeting room for a meeting with the president. There were snacks, drinks, pizza, etc. It was assumed that it was a celebration for a good year and they’d get the promised trip. It was a mass layoff since IT has been outsourced. All credentials were locked during the meeting and everyone was asked to leave the premise right after the meeting.”
Wet Times
“I was on a Chicago to NY flight. We all get on the plane, but were delayed taking off due to a heavy storm going on. About 20 minutes in, everybody was still pretty calm until the pilot announces they’re working on getting our baggage loaded, because it’s been sitting on the tarmac this entire time. The entire plane looks out, and sees all our luggage just sitting there in the pouring rain uncovered, and starts freaking out.”
Bad Form
“The President of our company got completely plastered at our Christmas party. His speech started off funny because he was slurring hard and he was playing on it. Then he started talking about how he came from nothing and became something. Then he proceeded to tell us how if it wasn’t for us working so hard and keeping our clients happy, he wouldn’t have been able to accomplish building his mega mansion for him and his family, nor would he have been able to afford his new Benz. Awkward muttering, followed by him directing us to ‘drink up & enjoy, because due to budget cuts, the future Christmas party/bonus budget is cancelled from here on out.’ Many of my coworkers relied on that bonus. No one was impressed. Except for 1 person, the rest of us quit within the first few months into the new year.
Dammit Mom
“I made the mistake of playing Scattergories with my mother. She said “No Foreign words, you have to use English words”. Fine, fair enough. She then called out someone for using a foreign word (I can’t remember, it’s been 10 years). He took off the points. The next round she used three foreign words. I called her out on it and she said it was no big deal, it was just a game. I argued that not only had SHE set the rule, but that she already called someone out for doing it.
She called me a prick and left the room. The Thanksgiving family time was over as pretty much everyone decided that was the time to leave.
Total time from game start to end of the family time? 6 minutes.”
Big Mistake
“Party at a woman’s house. Everyone talking and happy. They mention a local business burned down.
Inebriated guy yells ‘Must have been Jewish Lightning!’
The entire party goes silent, awkwardly glancing between him and the hostess, who just so happens to be Jewish.
The man looks around, thinks for a moment, and realizes his mistake. They didn’t hear him! So he yells louder, ‘MUST HAVE BEEN JEWISH LIGHTNING!'”
Savage
“Drinking with colleagues from work. A guy was needling me and a friend about how out of shape we are (it was fair and light-hearted). Suddenly my friend blurts out ‘yeah, at least we have attractive wives.’ Needling guy’s wife was standing right there.”
That’s Very Dangerous
“Bad snowstorm started about 4am a few years ago. My co-workers and I were texting each other thinking no way would they make us come into our job today (we are non-essential workers). We’re all home waiting for the email to go out regarding whether or not our boss would give us the day off. Email finally goes out around 7:30am saying that we would have a shorter day but everyone must show up for work by 9. So I layered up, cleaned off my car, shoveled out of my parking spot and headed to work on VERY precarious roads. I got to work on time and was greeted by my co-workers who were all pretty happy just to not have gotten into an accident on the way over. All of the clients and meetings had been cancelled so there was a party like atmosphere. Just as we were talking about playing charades, we get another email from the boss saying because road conditions were so bad they were closing the agency after all and everyone had to go home. This was 20 minutes after we had all gotten there.
I have never seen 20+ people all scream ARE YOU KIDDING ME at the same time before. It was absurd and everyone was enraged.”
A Strange Delay
“In Portugal during the world cup. Get there early to find a street bar in the center with a big screen. Place is soon packed. England start really well and everyone is singing and laughing. All of a sudden the bar up the road erupts into massive cheers. Lots of people go out into the road to see. Apparently someone just dropped an entire tray of drinks? We all laugh and go back to watching the game. 10 seconds later England score. Our bar erupts and we spill into the street. The bar up the road is deadly silent now. Weird.
The game starts again and the bar up the road starts shouting again. Nothing in the game. Whats going on? People look up the road again. Can’t quite work it out.
Then a really bad tackle goes in and the penny finally drops: Our bar’s TV is the only one using satellite and all the other bars have cable. Our feed is about 20 seconds behind everywhere else. Every exciting moment is audible about 20 seconds before we get to see it.
Have never seen a bar empty so fast in all my life.”
Where Is My Pizza
“One day at work we had an hour meeting followed by a planned pizza party as a reward for meeting some safety goal. They’d been telling us all week not to worry about food because they were getting pizza. Well after the meeting were sitting around waiting for the pizza to get there when out boss comes in and tells us there was a failure of communication and no one actually ordered the pizza. If you want to see 50 factory workers go from excited to murder ready in less than a second that’s what you tell them.”
State Fail
“In grad school we were gathered in a room to hear about how the last term of classes in the program was going to be cut due to a new law regarding educator requirements for the state. Everyone was stoked because it was gonna save us like 5-8 thousand dollars.
Then they told us that due to ‘state budget cuts,’ our total tuition was going to double…”
Why Would You Do That
“Dude decided to pop the question to his girlfriend…at a work holiday party.
She said no.
Both parties began to cry inconsolably. All the guys in the room tried to cheer up the guy with their tales of woe. All the women in the room took the woman aside and did whatever the female version of the above was.
Went from a fairly happy event to a complete disaster within minutes.
Plus side, while all of this stuff was going down no one was hitting the buffet so I cleaned up.”
That’s Terrifying
“When the Metallica concert in New Delhi was canceled. 30,000 fans were already at the venue, super excited and waiting for 3+ hours for the concert to begin. India is not exactly a hot destination for big musicians so when Metallica came over for their first concert in India ever, people flew in from all over the country to attend. Metallica is pretty popular in India as well. I hear angry fans rushed the stage and broke equipment after the cancellation was announced.
They said 30,000 fans were waiting said 3+ plus hours, some security barricades at the stage gave way and couldn’t be fixed. So the organizers cited safety issues and just canceled the whole thing. I think the organizers were arrested for breach of trust because the whole thing sounds shady to be honest.”
Creepy
“This is more of a mild story but still very uncomfortable! It was at work during break, a whole bunch of us were outside smoking. One guy asks my coworker if he has any kids, says that he likes to dress up as Santa for the young ones. So my coworker tells him ‘I have a daughter that just turned 20,’ and he replied with, ‘Well she can definitely come sit on my lap!’ The silence after that sentence was so painful. Everyone ended up going back inside after that. It was super awkward.”
What An End
“50th anniversary for my old rugby club. People were flying in from all around the world, 150+ people ranging from late teens to 70’s. We went on a big pub crawl, combined with my dads 60th birthday, the night before the big dinner. One of the old boys fell over outside the local pub, hit his head on the concrete and was knocked out. Ambulance was called and we helped him get into it, explained what happened to the medics and off he went with his brother to the hospital. We laughed it off and went back to drinking (by far not the first time a player has gone to hospital after a night out). The night after at the big suit and tie dinner, one of the old boys was wondering where him and his brother were, so he called the brother and asked if he was okay. He wasn’t. He had a brain aneurysm and had little to no chance of surviving. A room full of 150+ tough as nails men and women went from having the time of their life, to pretty much dead silent. He died 4 days after.”
Why Would He Say That
“I was in a local independently run bookshop in my home town and it was full of people happily searching the labyrinth of books, and the owner was taking to one particular shopper about World War Two history books. They seemed to be having a proper good chinwag and it was kind of obvious that most of the other shoppers were tuned into their conversation, after all it was a very interesting talk they were having about history. Right up until the shopper said something along the lines of.. ‘you know there’s actually a lot of evidence to suggest that the holocaust didn’t exactly happen.’
The tension in that room went up so quick I could smell it, it felt like we were all walking underwater, then the shop owner exploded and threw the guy out of the shop.
We all perused the shelves in silence.”
What A Stupid Thing To Say
“We were discussing road safety with the headmaster. One of the pupils pointed out that there had been a car crash right in front of her just as she had been about to step out onto the road, earlier that week, which had been really scary. The headmaster laughed and asked her what she was wearing and if it had been her fault. Absolute silence for ten seconds as he squirmed and then mumbled ‘I mean were you wearing a ball gown, or…’ as if that had been what he’d meant. Pathetic and excruciating. A 50 year old man to a teenage girl.”
Bad On Many Levels
“That time my boozy aunt started getting on my teenaged cousin’s case about his pants sagging and gave him a wedgie ‘helping him’ pull them up during a fairly formal holiday dinner.
He chased after her to give her a wedgie back.
She was wearing a skirt and nothing under it. My cousin managed to pull it up over her head while making contact with deeply disturbing parts of Aunt Janice.
Every fork in the place just froze while my aunt was standing there too out of it to understand why her skirt was over her head and my cousin stared in horror at his hand that was wet or dirty or God knows what, whispering audibly, ‘But… no.'”
He Bombed
“My wife and I went to go see a comedy show. About halfway in, the comedian seemed particularly annoyed with one woman in the crowd because she kept looking at her phone instead of paying attention to him.
At some point he essentially stops the entire show and starts to pick on her instead. It started out simple enough, ‘look at this woman; her life is so important, blah, blah, blah.’ Harmless enough at first and the crowd is on his side. At some point she decides to defend herself and starts jabbing back. Calling him a hack or whatever. Then he escalates his attacks by calling her an effing brat. It was so awkward, that the entire audience went quiet. Even worse, some people in the audience started taking her side. Got real ugly and he never really recovered.
The comedian apologized profusely and said he was out of line. But it was too late. Several groups of people outright walked out. We stayed until the end but it was really uncomfortable.”
Bad Dad
“My dad didn’t show up to my wedding. I told the DJ to skip the father daughter dance. He did not. He announced ‘it’s time for the father daughter dance.’ The whole crowd looks at me, shocked with their jaws dropped. Then he says on the microphone ‘oh sorry- God. No one told me.’ I hid and took a shot, dried my tears and faced the crowd. Worst. DJ. EVER.
Awkward
“I was in a room with a bunch of inebriated people (I don’t drink for medical reasons). Of course people are asking embarrassing questions that everyone has to answer. Some weren’t too bad, when was the last time you pooped yourself? Others got a bit personal. The one that ended the game was when was your first time, how old were you, how old were they. I was ironically the last person to answer and the two people who knew looked over with sudden horror/embarrassment.
‘You don’t have to answer it’s okay!’ Friend 1 shouted. Friend two kinda sack into her seat with her drink like she was withdrawing into a turtle shell. Of course the whole crowd erupted asking for the answer all thinking it would be great.
‘She was 26, I was 7.’ You could hear a pin drop.”
What A Prank
“My uncle bought my aunt a fake winning lotto ticket from Spencer’s. She opened it saw she won and went berserk. We all knew it was a fake. She did not. She went around basically burning bridges telling everyone to eff off she’s never giving anyone any money she hates all her nieces and nephews. Just a total Hindenburg level explosion of hate came spewing out of her maw. After she figured it out things got REAL awkward. 20ish years later we no longer have Christmas at her house let alone talk to her. She’s also in the midst of a nasty divorce annnnnd she had to file bankruptcy. Overall a total win for my uncle (her younger brother) if you ask me.”
Not On Mate
“Melbourne Cup in Melbourne AUS. It’s a big deal, so big it’s a public holiday there.
Bars put on full day events to lure the crowds, and the one we chose was no different. Even had an entry fee for it.
Come time for the big race in the big outdoor, especially-installed-for-the-day screen. Final horse goes into the gates…ready…cut to black screen with ‘CHANNEL SEVEN DOES NOT HAVE BROADCAST RIGHTS TO THE LIVE RACE.’
Turns out the pub didn’t pay for the right tv rights.
The race was over before anyone could finish screaming.”
Oof
“Back when I first started college, I was hanging out with a few people I didn’t really know. We were all laughing and having a good time, had just made our first Walmart run of the semester and stocked up on snacks and drinks, so spirits were high. The girl I was interested in started talking about her brother in jail, kinda dark topic but ok. Til it turns out her brother was in for murdering one of my best friends. Small world.”
DJ Fail
“My own wedding. Was nervous for months leading up to it about a tribute video we were going to put up for my husband’s father as he had passed a few months earlier. I was nervous about the song, about how people would react, and if my dad could give a well-placed speech to turn the night around.
Had two videos the DJ was supposed to put on. One labeled clearly US, which had cute pics of us growing up and dating to us now, and one labeled DAD which obviously had the tribute.
I had gone over the details a million times with the DJ and the assistants multiple times. Basically anyone who touched our paperwork. I was told don’t worry, this isn’t the first tribute, we got it just label dad’s file clearly. We’ll play your pics first, then the tribute, then back to you guys.
We get introduced as the new Mr. and Mrs., walk in, I do one quick walk around and then see a bunch of my husband’s family crying. What? Weird.
Scan the room, like a chain reaction, every person I looked at started tearing up or just straight up dropped their smiles.
Look up at the screens, they’re playing the tribute.”
They Had To See It Coming
“Worked in telemarketing sales for a pretty big advertising company. Every year we would get bonuses around Christmas time based off of your level of sales for the year. They gathered us in for our end of year meeting where the bonus structure is usually announced and told us that instead of adding our bonuses onto a paycheck they would be given to us on pre-paid amex or visa cards. Didn’t sound right. Immediately there is a protest but but not yet a riot. They managed to quell everyone by reassuring us that this was just a contract thing the company had signed with the Credit Card Company and that bonuses were still coming in full. For the next month we were given excuse after excuse as to why the cards had not arrived and the money not added to our checks. Finally, one day we get an email to come to the conference room for good news. They gather us together, party level atmosphere in the conference room, finally getting our money. Then the district manager steps up and tells everyone that the cards were delivered…..to another building across the city……and that she’s not willing to send anyone to pick them up so we’ll have to wait for re-delivery. I’d never seen anything like it. It was the riot we all knew was coming. Chairs thrown, walk-outs, screaming at managers, overturned desks, the whole 9 yards. It got so bad that they had to shut it down for the day and a number of my co-workers didn’t come back. A clash action law suit was filed not long after that in regards to not only the bonuses but charge backs that the company had been taking out of our checks when sales went down. I quit not long after that and got my settlement check but I still hope that place has been burned to the ground.”