You can find embarrassing situations left, right, and center. The closer you’ll look, the more you start thinking about what situations are truly socially awkward, the more likely you are to realize that navigating through life can be a nightmare, with pitfalls everywhere. Hopefully, alien species don’t have to deal with the same stuff that we do, whatever part of the galaxy they’re from.
Even situations that logically thinking shouldn’t be embarrassing at all can have us blushing from the awkwardness. That’s exactly what TikTok user Lily, aka Big_big_simp shared in her viral video about all the little things that she sees as totally embarrassing for no reason. From sneezing in class (oh, Lord, I’ve been there and it’s awful) to walking across the street with a car stopped in front of you and more.
The internet’s full of similar simple but super awkward situations that many of you Pandas are bound to relate to. I know I do. Check them out below, upvote the ones that you find the most embarrassing, and let us know in the comments what situations make you cringe inside so much, you want to run away and live as a hermit on a mountaintop. And be sure to read on for Lily's interview with Bored Panda. Oh, and keep in mind that being embarrassed has its upsides!
A lot of people related to Lily's viral video about the weird things we find embarrassing
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People watching you do things then it makes you forget how to do things normally
Pretending to need something else at the groceries until the person moves out of the way of what you actually need
Bored Panda reached out to Lily to learn more about her viral video. She told me she "definitely didn't expect" to get so much attention online. Going viral was a pleasant surprise for her. "One of my friends actually inspired me to make the video. My friend and I were talking about things that we think are embarrassing and I decided to make a TikTok video about it," she revealed the inspiration behind the incredibly successful video.
When your chair moves and makes a fart noise and then you have to try to recreate it to let everyone know u didn’t fart
Walking out of a store without buying anything
my mind goes "oh god what if i've accidentally shoplifted"
You say bye and you both walk to the same direction together
I wanted to get Lily's take on why the video resonated with so many people and why they find these situations very embarrassing. According to her, it's all about unwanted attention. "I think that people find these kinds of things embarrassing because you feel like everyone is watching you. The best advice I could give is to try and ignore everyone else and just focus on yourself," she told Bored Panda.
Lily added that she fully believes that showing signs of embarrassment strengthens social connections.
Walking back after bowling
Gutter balls - that will do it every time - and with me that is every time.
Getting out of the pool
I’m convinced that a lot of these are learned. I have medication-level social anxiety and it’s never occurred to me to worry about stuff like this, and it makes me wonder if that’s because I spent so much time alone that I never learned those insecurities.
Lily’s viral video got over 7.5 million views since being posted on July 22. What’s more, the video was liked a whopping 1.4 million times, reshared 35.5k times, and received 24k comments. Obviously, a whole bunch of people could relate to the TikToker’s brain finding random situations embarrassing.
It got me thinking that life can truly be incredibly difficult if we don’t have the mental fortitude to accept things as they come. Fortunately for us, embarrassment is, well, nothing to be embarrassed about! Earlier, I had a chat about this with Vanessa Bohns, an Associate Professor of Organizational Behavior at Cornell University and the author of the forthcoming book 'You Have More Influence Than You Think.’
when you see someone coming your direction from super far away and you have to awkwardly wait until theyre close enough to smile or say hi
If it's someone I know well, I sometimes make big goofy arm waves from far away. That way they're more embarassed than me. And sometimes a stranger may think you wave at them, wave back and be embarassed as well when they realise it was not for them. Wich is a nice added bonus.
somone holding the door open for you but you're still a bit far from the door
Vanessa explained to Bored Panda that when we openly and honestly demonstrate that we’re embarrassed, instead of hiding it, this helps us connect to others better.
“Displaying signs of mild embarrassment can actually be socially constructive and make people feel more sympathetic towards you in the face of your faux pas,” Vanessa told Bored Panda earlier.
when someone knocks on the door while you’re in the restroom & you have to answer so they know you’re in there
I either say "Come back with a warrant" or "There's room for us both if you're willing to cross streams"
Walking up the stairs in front of someone
And holding your breath so they don't hear you panting like a dog.
“I don’t necessarily think you need to take pains to hide it,” she said that we should embrace how we’re feeling at the moment. The goal, however, is to prevent your embarrassment from turning into shame.
“What you want to be careful not to do is to let embarrassment morph into the more destructive self-conscious emotion of shame, where you feel so badly about a minor mistake that you start to think there is something wrong with you and feel the need to completely disappear and hide away yourself,” Vanessa said.
The worst one is looking for someone in a restaurant who is already there but you don’t know where they’re sitting
I get embarrassed the most when I speak and no one hears me then someone goes WHAT
Entering a elevator with a bunch of people and the whole time it’s silent.
Turning around and walking the other way.
This used to feel awkward for me. I would be walking on a road filled with people then remember that I forgot something at home. Then I would whip out my phone and pretend that I got a call so as to turn back. Not anymore. I just turn around whenever I want to.
Eating messy food
Coughing/sneezing in class
I have a story for you, before covid I got a cold during winter and none of my professors at university were bothered by this, as it is quite common for a few students to get colds. That is until I had a class with one of the associate professors and he told me to leave the classroom... Not because I was sick and would give it to others, but because I was breaking his concentration when I coughed occasionally!!! The funniest thing was that most students hadn't even noticed, so everyone was shocked by his petty comment. From my point of view, he created more disruption by stopping the class and forcing me to leave
Pushing your grocery cart to only realize you got the squeakiest/loudest cart
I thought it was going to say "only buying beer and snacks". Because I find that slightly embarrassing. Without any "adult" items like bread or milk or egg etc..
Wiping my nose
Blowing my nose is embarrassing. Unfortunately I am a loud blower, I have tried many times to do it quietly but I just can't seem to.
Walking past a group of 8th graders
Young people! Scary. I'm always afraid they'll make fun of me, just like in 8th grade.
when you’re backing out your car and someone is waiting to take your spot
Walking past a group of people the same age as you
It gets less and less frequent the older you get, if it can reassure you.
Eating in front of ppl
A lot of these dont suggest embarrassment so much as extreme social anxiety. I remember feeling awkward with some of these, not embarrassed, but one of the lovely things about reaching the other side of 35 is that there seems to be a switch in your brain and you no longer even notice, much less care about many of these situations. However - the farting chair *never* loses the embarrassment factor!
Yes! As I said on a couple of them, I’ve never been embarrassed by stuff like that and I still qualified to go on social anxiety medication. If these things embarrass you, it’s worth trying to talk to an expert.
Load More Replies...Sometimes I’ll randomly wonder if I’m walking weird and then I’ll forget how I walk normally so I’ll just keep walking hoping I’m doing it right
I choke on my own spit embarrassingly often, enough that I fail at being human.
Yesss.... And it seems like everytime I choke on spit its always in public...
Load More Replies...A lot of these dont suggest embarrassment so much as extreme social anxiety. I remember feeling awkward with some of these, not embarrassed, but one of the lovely things about reaching the other side of 35 is that there seems to be a switch in your brain and you no longer even notice, much less care about many of these situations. However - the farting chair *never* loses the embarrassment factor!
Yes! As I said on a couple of them, I’ve never been embarrassed by stuff like that and I still qualified to go on social anxiety medication. If these things embarrass you, it’s worth trying to talk to an expert.
Load More Replies...Sometimes I’ll randomly wonder if I’m walking weird and then I’ll forget how I walk normally so I’ll just keep walking hoping I’m doing it right
I choke on my own spit embarrassingly often, enough that I fail at being human.
Yesss.... And it seems like everytime I choke on spit its always in public...
Load More Replies...