Innocuous things that make you irrationally embarrassed

because, for me, embarrassment is a much more common reaction than anger

e.g. when people respond to comedians' tweets or (especially) instagrams with "funny" comments

any type of performance that requires being HAPPY! in a really showy way (which means i can't watch any singing/dancing-based reality show)

eating in public

trying on clothes in department stores

being introduced to new people

"mingling" at parties

every single episode of breaking bad

taking cyrus in to school in the morning. and its not just me, half the people in there could teach a master class on avoiding eye contact.

god yeah, i frantically hunt the playground for the 2 or 3 people i can talk to

being around my dad when he talks to anybody in a shop, pub etc

i could list these things all day but i am too embarrassed

i used to get embarrassed when my dad would ramble on and never listen to the person trying to talk to him but now i don't care. i'm just glad he's still alive so i just watch him and smile. its like watching a big demented baby talk to people. who is hard of hearing. and who listens to jazz all day long and reads the wall street journal. okay, that's a really weird baby...

guys trying to flirt on facebook, publicly

People who comment on the food I am eating, or have just ordered. A truly irrational pet peeve.

People trying to impress their favourite musicians on facebook by posting fawning comments. It's even worse in real life. Note : I have done both of these things myself.

i told kim gordon that i really liked the harry crews album when i was drunk years ago. #bigfatliar

eating chobani yogurt fills me with disgust and self hatred, but i like this one flavor so much that i will suffer through the shame to eat it.

why does it make you feel that way? also, which flavor?

passion fruit

1) the name is so focus grouped that it makes me ashamed to say it, or even think about it
2) yogurt is for woman, and i am a woman
3) stirring up the fruit from the bottom is the worst sound on earth
4) i have long had an aversion to watching people eat yogurt, it's at least 20 years old
5) do i need another reason?

all completely valid reasons! especially #1; that's one of those words i do anything to avoid saying, and if i absolutely must say it, i involuntarily shudder.
passion fruit is one of the best flavors, though. recently i've been buying cabot greek yogurt which is cheaper and way better, but doesn't come in the individual sized cups so i can't bring it to work.

i hate this brand of yogurt so much that i have thought about ways to create my own passion fruit yogurt by making the pulp myself and freezing it in little individual tubes so that it defrosts by lunchtime and i can enjoy my yogurt with peace of mind.

empty shops/restaurants that are clearly struggling for business

people baby-talking to their kids, especially if it's about their faeces.

people pronouncing things wrong. my favourite is when people ask for the beer "bombardier" (pronounced in the ww2 spiffing way) and say "bombard-e-ay" in the french way, just a perfect failure. (i definitely pronounce things wrong myself, obv, sometimes, and then get even more embarrassed)

i heard a mom at the grocery store ask her toddler "do you wanna do oj or peach mango?"
kid in the cart: "let's do oj"

me: shame at having overheard that, it was just too personal and also since when did little kids say "let's do _____" when they want something?!?!

live theatre :-/

i think you mean bad live theatre

there is *a lot* of bad live theatre though, so yeah

Cartoon characters on generic products.

hockey players in advertisements

overheard conversations

generally

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOrvdvczpEA

improv

People who comment on the food I am eating, or have just ordered. microwaving.. A truly irrational pet peeve.

"ooh, that smells nice..."

DO YOU WANT SOME?????

there is *a lot* of bad live theatre though, so yeah

painfully true. but i do tend to be irrationally embarrassed by people ~acting~ in a live setting, regardless of the quality of performance/ production. the closer they are to me physically, the more embarrassed i get.

improv comedy or improv anything?

comedy i guess? i'm not sure what other kinds of improv i'd run into

omg hahaaaa, mooks knows what i'm talking about
that clip is practically canadian
xps

http://youtu.be/vDggoBZ2A48

though the wayne gretzky ones of the 80s/90s were prob worse and more ubiquitous...

Everything I say and everything I do.

irish politics

Oh man. When I correct someone, or answer a question earnestly, and then immediately realise they were only joking. I guess it's rational to feel some embarrassment about that, but probably not rational to feel so much shame I just want to leave work straight away, get the train home, run upstairs to a cupboard, turn out the light and hide under every bit of linen I can find.

stop correcting ppl, it's ama awful habit, even when they're wrong. get home.

*points out typo*

*kills self*

witnessing people bragging

good one

I probably embarrass people when I temporarily bond with sales people (usually at the cosmetics counter).

empty shops/restaurants that are clearly struggling for business

I end up never even going into these places since I know that if I go in and start browsing I will feel obligated to buy something because I feel bad about their business not doing well.

I don't really feel embarrassed or anything though, this is just expensive sympathy.

A good stylist is like a good shrink, hang on to them for dear life

i don’t really understand either of these more recent gripes, but then again i love assembling my own weird food things and find getting a haircut an annoying if innocuous task

question tho: like, do those who hate the assemble your meal phenomenon like to cook? i guess that to me, if i am in a certain type of restaurant, i can easily imagine what certain ingredients will taste like, and so it feels nice to be able to choose exactly the sort of meal i want.

I actually don't mind getting g my haircut, it's just that whole "Right, what are we doing today?" question that makes me feel personally embarrassed.

As for "make it yourself" restaurants, well it's okay and I get it, but I agree that I'm eating out so I don't have to think too hard about these things

I also have no problem with choosing ingredients for my restaurant meal, and objecting to it feels a bit odd to me.

Yeah y’all are weird.

I mean it's a personal preference, yea? I don't think it's weird if you like doing that, but like tabes says, it might come down to:

1) level of food knowledge/experience cooking or

2) people who get anxious w making decisions a la me

Or lots of them in short succession if there's a line behind you lol

I am fine with choosing my ingredients, it's calling it "pick a protein" which is a crime

I can handle choosing a meat or whatever. But when i’m choosing a base, and a protein, and the toppings, I feel like i’m telling people how to make my food and it’s not fun. I want to order a dish and sit and eat it. I don’t want to cook it myself or tell people how to put it together.

Really, I like sit down restaurants where people bring me shit and take the dirty dishes away. Sheer bliss is where I’m a regular and they know what I want and bring it to me. There was a mediocre mexican place in Houston. I was a loyal customer because my waitress there knew what I liked and knew not to give me a straw because I don’t use them.

So the build-a-bear restaurant model is definitely not for me.

How would you like your amino content? Rich or lite?

I really really don’t get it, but I’m used to ordering burritos and stuff

Its almost as if people are getting embarrassed in an irrational way about things mist people would consider innocuous

I'm still childish enough to think of eating out at a non-fast food restaurant as a treat, not something I do because I don't want to cook.

Its almost as if people are getting embarrassed in an irrational way about things mist people would consider innocuous

Get irrationally embarrassed when customers ask 'how are you doing today?' when I serve them at the till. Rationally I know that all that is required is for me to say 'good, how are you?' but I can never bring myself to do it. I don't really know why. I just carry on like they haven't said anything and scan their books and tell them the total.

Haven’t perfected your service mask? I only perk up when ppl ask me weird questions like “are you filling up someone’s water bottle?” And I have to reply “yea, mine”

Put the bins out on the wrong day. Now seppuku is my only way out.

brutal

A former colleague of mine admitted on social media that he actually pushed the "door open" button on the Central Line - he got many suggestions in the replies for what he should do next eg turn himself into the police, leave London forever, etc

So it’s not like continental tube systems where you have to push the button to get on the train?

You do that on the overground but NOT the tube. We have created this system in order to better identify and scorn tourists.

Two things I find uncomfortably cringeworthy are men dressed as older women for comic effect and old people doing young people things (eg dance moves) for similar comic effect. There are posters all over London for the Mrs Doubtfire musical at the moment which feature both these things. I'm squirming to death here.

what about old people doing dance moves for unintentional comic effect? I may need to rethink some of my personal choices

https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/sixflags/images/9/97/Mr-sixphoto.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20191029064252

All gender bathrooms that aren’t single occupancy

^ I don't think I've ever seen this

Maybe I just don't get out enough anymore

Nope this one had stalls and urinals

I mean, its still single occupancy, it just offers you a choice

Oh. Well that's.... innocuous then...

I guess pissing at a urinal in a place where (people who identify as) women are is a New York thing?

I’m talking about a large room with multiple stalls and urinals where people are coming and going, not a place where it is just you and you can lock the door so no one else comes in.

feel like if it’s all stalls, then all gender restrooms for multiple people are fine. the urinals adds a little something that i can understand making people uncomfortable, tho i personally don’t care ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

New answer: songs that have "thee" instead of "you" in the lyrics just to make a rhyme work. And they weren't written in or set in the 19th century or earlier. Examples: "Upside Down" by Diana Ross, "Oh Christine" by the Reigning Sound, plenty of others I'm sure.

Fuck Thee Police

I walked into one of these restrooms ^^^^^ and walked right back out, I thought I was in the wrong place
It was just stalls and sinks, no urinals

communal piss troughs or GTFO

There used to be street piss troughs in central London of a Saturday night, not the nicest thing to see tbh

this is not something that makes me embarrassed. it's one of those situations where it's equally embarrassing for everyone in the bathroom so it evens out and becomes not embarrassing.

i live in a city with lots of all-gender bathrooms but recently saw bathroom signage that was new to me - instead of indicating who the bathrooms were for, the signs just said "this bathroom has one stall and one urinal" and "this bathroom has three stalls." maybe a little overly objective but still an interesting approach.

This is how we denote all-gender restrooms in Texas (as seen at the Frost Bank Center, home of the San Antonio Spurs)

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/ehcl77cnjn3shgquw5x1t/20250329_174746.jpg?rlkey=di6t6y8ubka86lo6zikjfxkpx&st=88agaz3w&raw=1

Are those asterisks, or are they wearing spurs?

(I'm assuming the handicapped person has bone spurs.)

it's asterisks that lead to a note saying "these people are wearing spurs, not pictured"

this is not something that makes me embarrassed. it's one of those situations where it's equally embarrassing for everyone in the bathroom so it evens out and becomes not embarrassing.

i live in a city with lots of all-gender bathrooms but recently saw bathroom signage that was new to me - instead of indicating who the bathrooms were for, the signs just said "this bathroom has one stall and one urinal" and "this bathroom has three stalls." maybe a little overly objective but still an interesting approach.

ime in Sweden it’s pretty common to have all-gender bathrooms w multiple stalls. i don’t remember the urinal situation tho tbh

Ally McBeal would've been more fun if they had urinals

sweden also has the stall doors that are actual doors, not partial panels.. so you may not even be aware of who's next to you

I think that’s all of Europe, it’s only the US and hat has the peek-a-boo doors

*that has

The place I was at yesterday has doors marked "STANDING UP" and "SITTING DOWN". I was in the Standing Up when someone walked in with a bag of hot takeway food. Strange place to be delivering an order, I quipped, in mild embarrassment.

Xp Boring — yeah, I find it a bit awkward as well, though having read and analyzed bathroom fixture requirements for various uses, it makes a different kind of sense, especially where space is at a premium.