Our friends and family usually want the best for us, but sometimes, for a range of reasons, their outrageous outbursts, tantrums, tears, and bizarre behavior are enough to make anyone wish the earth would open up and swallow them whole. Strap in for some schadenfreude, these Redditors’ experiences are hilarious, heartbreaking, and so cringe-inducing that your shoulders will get a great workout.
1. Sir, This Is An Applebee’s
My dad had a deep growly voice that is barely a subsonic rumble. To make things worse, he also had his own unique way of naming foods that other people didn’t understand. For instance, he would ask for “slop and rocks” instead of biscuits and gravy. So, we were at Applebee’s because my mom loved it. Our waiter, a sweet young guy, took our drink orders. What ensued still haunts me.
“BEEFEATER ROCKS,” my dad rumbled. “Pardon?” said the waiter. “BEEFEATER ROCKS,” my dad repeated, louder. Our poor waiter looked scared. He couldn’t figure out what my dad was saying, and my dad was looking angrier by the second. How many Applebee’s customers order a gin on the rocks like they’re in some 1940s film noir?
“BEEFEATER ROCKS!” Dad yelled for the third time. Finally, someone had mercy on the poor lad and translated my dad’s order for him.
2. He’s No President Snow
I have an uncle who is loud, willfully ignorant and has used temper tantrums and unpleasant behavior to get his way for his entire life. He’s like the villain in a bad teen novel. The last straw was when my grandparents passed. This uncle tried to take everything from his siblings, and when my mother stood up to him, he threatened to bump her off.
I’d really like to believe there was a mix-up at the hospital when he was born and that we aren’t actually related.
3. A Real-Life Cousin Eddie
My mom and I rented a van and drove from Florida to Virginia while picking up my grandma, uncle, and cousins along the way since none of them wanted to fly to my cousin’s wedding. You can imagine the headache that was. When we got there we were all going to meet at a nice Italian restaurant the day before the wedding to celebrate.
During our drive, my uncle Jack and grandma were both adamant that we needed to stop and get “real food”, which, according to them, was a fast-food hamburger. For the entire seven-hour journey, the only place they would eat at was McDonald’s. My mom and I were appalled. Anyways, we finally got to the Italian restaurant. I could tell it wasn’t going to go well.
My uncle Jack was talking to himself about how this place wasn’t “American” and asking why the heck we chose this FOREIGN restaurant when we could have had us some good old AMERICAN food somewhere and it would have been SO much better. The cousin who rode with us had gotten so stoned as soon as we had gotten to the hotel—after that car ride, I decided it was necessary.
My mom, my cousin who was getting married, his fiancée, and my grandma were all ignoring my uncle as he talked. My stoned cousin and I were cheesing out and I was getting very uncomfortable listening to my stupid uncle go on and on. The waitress came over and started to take his order. I couldn’t believe what came out of his mouth…
His exact words were, “Well, woman, since you ain’t got nothin’ AMERICAN on here, and I don’t know what half this stuff is, I guess the only thing I can read is ‘spaghetti and meatballs’ so I’ll order that. Psssh”. My mouth dropped open. My high was completely ruined. As I looked at him, I was horrified to notice something else…
On top of it all, he had been FLOSSING HIS TEETH at the table. He had a disgusting pile of floss picks on his plate—like four or five of them. I pretty much ran to the bathroom and hyperventilated. I’ve never felt so uncomfortable about being out in public with someone in my life. Hopefully, I’ll never have to go through anything like that ever again.
4. Lucky Escape
I had been dating this woman for two months and we were going to a bar to watch football. She was a Packers fan and I’m a Bears fan. I was wearing my Justin Fields jersey and she started to chastise me about it. She said, “I’m mad you didn’t consider my feelings when wearing that”. Weird, but OK. I just thought she was joking.
She wasn’t joking. She said, “You’re very selfish for not considering how I would look standing next to you in that”. OK then. I made a conscious effort to bite my tongue. That wasn’t the worst part, though. We were still in the parking lot. We hadn’t even walked into the bar yet and her mom called. She started whining at her mom.
She told her mom, “You didn’t consider my feelings when you forgot to buy me chips”. Whaat? Who says that? Then she started throwing a temper tantrum like a child. She kept saying things like “You’re selfish for not considering how I’d feel” and “You don’t love your daughter if you couldn’t even get her some chips”.
I couldn’t believe how she was having a total meltdown in front of me in the parking lot. I awkwardly told her that this wasn’t going to work between us and quickly got in my car and drove away. On that day I learned that a) Her parents still grocery shop for her and b) I may have my faults, but I’d never ever act like that.
5. The Gift That Kept On Giving
My dad is one of the worst people to go out to eat with because of the way he treats restaurant staff. One time, as a waitress was telling us the specials, my dad turned to my boyfriend and yelled, “IS SHE MUMBLING”?! For the record, my dad is by no means hard of hearing. My boyfriend, who has since become my husband, still yells that out to me at least once a week. We’ve been married for 28 years.
6. No Wonder He Has Issues
One time my brother was trying to talk to my family about his anxiety and was also trying to explain that he thought he could possibly have OCD. He was 16 at the time and not an idiot. I could tell that he knew what he was talking about. As he was talking about it he was stuttering since my family isn't great with the whole mental illness thing.
He finally got it out. The way our grandparents and parents reacted made my blood boil. They burst out laughing and continued to tell him he had no idea what he was talking about. Later on, he got diagnosed with both OCD and anxiety. As the younger sister, this made me terrified to tell my parents anything. I’m so embarrassed that they even think like that and that they made my brother feel stupid.
7. A Meal To Remember
One Mother’s Day, my family was visiting my dementia-ridden nana for dinner. Nana was still okay to be at home, but her short-term memory was almost completely gone. We were sitting around the table when my mom referred to my sister as a lesbian. Nana, who had forgotten that my sister actually was gay, thought that my mom was just randomly calling my sister a lesbian in jest.
Nana went on to scold my mom for saying such a thing. My sister found it so hilarious that she ended up crying in her soup.
8. How Do You Say “Karen” In Japanese?
When I studied abroad in Japan, there was this one British girl who lived across the hall in my dorm. She was super homesick and had never been to Asia or traveled alone before. She was so miserable, in fact, that very night I could hear her sobbing really loudly across the hall. During the first week of school, I went to the market with her—but I wish I hadn’t…
While we were at the market, she had a full-on toddler tantrum. It was horribly embarrassing. Apparently, she was so miserable and homesick that the money difference and all of the Japanese foods that she wasn’t used to just pushed her over the edge. I had to walk away from her meltdown because I didn’t want anyone to think I was associated with her.
After that, I started avoiding her, but I felt really bad about it. Eventually, I had a chat with her and explained how I wanted to still be friends with her but that her attitude made her hard to be around. After that conversation, to her credit, she worked very hard to be positive and not whiny or tantrumy around me. I really respected that—happy ending!
9. A New Way To Snack
I had a family member who, for some reason, would store food in her purse. We’re not just talking snacks, either. She would put pasta and frozen meals in there and would eat them throughout the day. In high school, people would come up to me and tell me about all the things they saw her eat from her purse. It was pretty embarrassing, to say the least.
10. Someone Needs A Chill Pill
So, my husband and I had been married for a few years, and I had told him so many stories about what my Dad was like when I was growing up. He had a drinking problem and would often freak out at the rest of the family with absolutely zero provocation. However, to his credit, he did mellow out quite a bit after he retired.
My husband and I live about 1,600 kilometers (1,000 miles) away, so we don’t get that many chances to visit. But we were staying at their house, visiting, and we were helping to set everything up for a family party. I made the mistake of asking my dad if he wanted me to move the plants away from the door in the sunroom so that people could go in and out to the patio…
His reaction was devastating. He started screaming that he didn’t want people using that door, and he hadn’t even wanted that door put in there, but my stepmom had insisted, blah blah, blah. He screamed and swore about that door for a good 10 minutes until I finally said, “OK, Dad, got it. We’ll leave the door alone”. I grabbed my husband and pulled him outside.
When we got away from the house, my husband turned to me in shock and asked “What on earth was that”? I kind of laughed and said, “Yeah, that was my dad. Lucky you, you’ve finally had the pleasure of meeting the guy I’ve been telling you about all these years”.
11. A Crying Shame
I was in line at Walgreens and this elderly woman was in front of me waiting to complain to the manager about something. When the manager asked her what the problem was, she loudly exclaimed that this was the worst candy that she had ever tasted. She held up a big, clear plastic candy cane filled with little pastel balls.
The manager looked at her with a very stern expression on his face, because he was trying not to laugh. His reply was absolutely legendary. He said, “Ma’am, that’s because these are bath salts”. The lady spun on her heel and walked out of the store without saying a word. Once she had gone through the door, everyone within hearing range burst out in laughter.
It was like somebody had unpaused a video. I actually had to hold onto the side of the counter so I wouldn’t fall over from laughing so hard. The lady behind me actually had tears in her eyes! To top it all off, the old woman left her “candy” cane behind on the store counter.
12. Worse Than Rain On Your Wedding Day
This happened when I was a bridesmaid at my cousin’s wedding. Quick context: We’re one of those cultures that have multiple ceremonies for a wedding, and this story is about the reception and the homecoming. My cousin and her groom were doing the rounds at the reception and greeting all their guests when it was announced that food would be served soon.
A few minutes later, my cousin came back to our table in tears. She said that she and the groom had been encouraged to speed things along so that the food could be served, which meant that they didn’t get to spend a lot of time at every table. She told us that some of the elder relatives confronted her, saying, “How dare you not talk to us? Are we not good enough for you?”
A couple of days later we had the homecoming, which went on pretty long even for a homecoming. I was dancing with a bunch of the groom’s family members but was getting pretty exhausted. I was also wearing heels, so I finally decided to take a break. I apologized to the people I was dancing with and went off to have a seat.
A few minutes later, I was standing with my other bridesmaid cousin and our two male cousins when a clearly tipsy uncle, whom I later learned was the groom’s father’s brother, came up to us and started yelling. He grabbed my bridesmaid cousin’s wrist and attempted to grab mine too, but I pulled away. He tried again, but I did the same thing.
He then tried a third time, and I pulled away so hard that he ended up hitting himself in the nose. He then screamed, “What good are bridesmaids if you’re not even going to dance? Why even come? You are useless”! I pulled my male cousin between us for protection and the uncle spat in his face. We just stood there in shock until the uncle’s wife came and pulled him away.
We later told the bride and groom about the incident and the groom apologized profusely and mentioned that that was the same uncle who’d been so rude to them at the reception. I’d never dealt with anything like that before at something that was supposed to be a joyous celebration. It was a pretty disgusting experience.
13. The Mysterious Hunting Stand
My cousin was walking through the woods with her son one time when she found a hunting stand only a couple hundred feet from her house. For some reason, the hunting stand was pointed toward her house and not the woods. She climbed up into it, sat down, and found a pair of binoculars hanging there. She looked through them only to find...
Her bedroom window. Yeah, someone was a peeping Tom. She told me and my brother, and in the name of justice, we tore down the hunting stand, which was an old piece of junk, so not worth anything anyways, and quite literally wrapped it around a tree with brute force. I got a call the next day. It was my mother. She wanted to know if I had torn it down.
I cheerfully said, “Yup”! Her answer made my blood run cold. She replied, “Well, that was your uncle’s”. This was a different uncle, not my cousin’s dad, but obviously still a friggin’ creeper, nonetheless. My mom then had the nerve to say, “You owe him an apology and you should pay for it”. Yeah, like heck I will. Good luck with getting me to do that.
14. The Lowest Of The Low
I’m disabled with a walking incapacitation and my dad has always envied me for it and has even accused me of faking it to somehow get back at him. If it’s not clear already, he has a long history of being an awful person. For the last few years, he’s insisted he needs a wheelchair and is vile and violent if anyone challenges him about it.
On one rare family outing, we went to see a sports game when the “family team” was touring the world. We were late. Once we got there and were looking for the wheelchair section, the siren sounded. My Dad shot up out of his wheelchair and sprinted to the next gate opening, which was about 40 meters (130 feet) away so that he wouldn’t miss anything.
This was not only in front of my family but also a large community of people with legitimate disabilities. He then tried to save face by chastising us for wheeling him around. I apologized profusely to everyone and sat with my disabled peers. I’ve never been out with him again. Or seen home, really. That was the last straw.
15. Can’t Take Her Anywhere
My stepmother throws these extreme temper tantrums in the most normal situations. For instance, we were at Goodwill and were about to get in line behind someone when a woman in between two racks calls out, “Ma’am, the line is over here”! Even though the woman was nice and calm about it, my stepmother was not happy—at all.
My stepmother said, “Well, the line is supposed to be over here, by the cash register. Idiot”. She then poked me in the ribs to emphasize the fact I needed to agree with her. So, I just nodded ever-so-slightly. The woman shook her head and said, ”Well, there’s no need to be so rude. Everybody is over here so that they don’t crowd the walkway”.
This time my stepmother really went off on the woman, calling her every name in the book. However, she eventually had to get in the proper lineup because she was “sick and tired of all these wusses”. As we were walking out, I whispered “Sorry” in the woman’s ear. I always try to apologize to the people my stepmother terrorizes, which means I’m obviously apologizing to myself 24/7.
16. A Slight At The Museum
My high school girlfriend and I went to a WWII museum on a day when there was going to be two Air Force veterans on site to answer any questions. My girlfriend was a stereotypical ditzy girl who did not have any interest in education of any kind and was solely focused on trying to start a career in beauty or modeling.
Fair enough, school isn’t for everyone, but I feel like everyone should at least have some kind of basic education to draw from and fall back on. When we approached the museum, the two veterans greeted us and asked if we had any questions. My girlfriend said, “Hi, which war were you in”? The two men were confused.
“Miss, this is a WWII museum. We fought in WWII.” Then it got worse. My girlfriend asked, “Did you win”? The men now looked very confused and kind of upset. “OF COURSE WE WON”! My girlfriend then asked, “Which side were you on? Like, who even won”? At that point, I grabbed her, apologized, and started asking questions related to our class project.
From that point on I tutored her in history, English, and biology until we went our separate ways the following year.
17. Smarty Pants
Back when I was 12, I was waiting for my parents to pick me up from school. I was standing in front of the staircase a few steps away from some classmates. The two of them were standing in front of the janitor’s room, which had the door open. Inside there was a big picture of the janitor’s baby hanging on the wall. Both of my classmates (who were also my age) were fawning over that baby.
They were saying, “I want four babies,” and then “I want 10 babies”! I was quietly observing and listening in. When I heard the 10 babies part I mentally facepalmed and wondered…Do they not know how babies are made? They probably don’t. Should I tell them? I couldn't hold back. I gave in to temptation and slowly approached them.
I went up behind them and said, “Do you guys not know how babies are made”? They replied, "Of course we do”! And then they proceeded to tell me some story about how if the dad kept his hand on the mom’s belly and they both prayed together, God would give them a child. I was completely floored by how ignorant they were about this.
I proceeded to tell them that that’s not how it works—AT ALL. They both learned a valuable biology lesson that day. Now it was their turn to be shocked. They absolutely would not believe me and even accused me of lying. Luckily I was able to prove my point with the help of the internet. Also, that was the day our friendship began.
18. A Real Head-Scratcher
Well, well, well, this one just happened to me today…My mom was trying to use an Arby’s coupon at McDonald’s, which they usually let her do, but when they wouldn’t accept the coupon the way she thought they would, she started complaining and not full-on arguing, but “debating” the manager through the drive-through window.
She even went so far as to throw the worker who had previously let her use the coupon the way she had wanted under the bus. Then she took it to the next level. She tried to use the fact that she has eight kids (technically true, but three are moved out) and her husband is in the hospital (also true, but completely unrelated) to make them feel sorry for her.
I couldn’t handle it after that and got out of the car and walked home. This was all because she had to pay $2 instead of $1 for a shake. This wasn’t the first time this happened, either. She also got mad when Long John Silver’s wouldn’t accept a coupon that expired in 2003. She pretended not to know that the coupons were expired even when she did, in fact, know.
19. Let’s Not Taco ’Bout Jesus
This one time we were at a Mexican restaurant and our server was named Jesus. Every time something happened that my brother liked, he’d shout, “Praise Jesus” really loudly. Some examples: “Praise Jesus, these are good tacos” or “Praise Jesus, the pico de gallo is really fresh today”. I came very close to punching him.
20. Who Do You Think You Are? Road Trip Edition
My husband did his ancestry test and confirmed that his family lineage was mostly Latino, which he had suspected. Shortly afterward, we were on a road trip and my husband was telling my mom about his ancestry as he drove. My mom replied, “Well that makes sense. I always felt you came from a strong shamanic bloodline”. We were then stuck in the car together for 15 more hours.
21. Someone Has To Be The Crazy Aunt
I have an aunt who suffers from mental illness. She lusts after every man she sees, and at one point she actually tried selling off all her stuff to move to Sweden so she could marry some guy she met online. This “guy” used every romance novel cliché in the book. He told her that he was a doctor with a six-figure income who also owned a horse farm.
Eventually, the pathetic truth came out. She ended up getting swindled by someone using a bunch of photos from a brochure. Whenever I try to text her, she’ll call me instead because she is convinced her phone is bugged.
22. Unforgettable Vacation Memories
The last time our family got together at a vacation rental, my mom made spaghetti and marinara sauce. There was no meat in the meal because my husband is a vegetarian. My dad threw an epic tantrum because there was no meat in his spaghetti sauce. He then put the whole plate of food in the sink and walked out of the house.
He didn’t even tell anyone where he was going or when he would be back. My husband was aghast and my mom was embarrassed but obviously used to such irrational behavior. She offered no apologies for my dad. She just poured a glass of Merlot and simply told us, “I’m making darn sure that I’m getting the house”.
Dad eventually came back hours later. My husband and I stayed in our room and hid. We could hear that words were exchanged, but they were whispered. We don’t know what exactly my parents said, but my brother and I have a standing bet on when mom will serve the divorce papers. That was the day I lost the last shreds of respect I had left for my father.
23. Science Vs. Old Wives’ Tale
My best friend from childhood quickly met a girl right out of high school and knocked her up. This girl LOVED to dye her hair pre-pregnancy and did so a couple of times while pregnant. We were in our early 20s and my mom looked me in my eyes and, without missing a beat, said, “Well, that baby is going to have ugly hair when it’s born”.
I was shocked but decided to see where this would go. I can’t believe the words that came out of her mouth. I said, “So, mom, why do you think the baby will have ugly hair”? She replied, “Oh, because your pregnant friend dyes her hair and that WILL affect the baby’s hair color”. I laughed so hard. “Yeah, mom, that’s not how it works”. She said, “Yes, it is,” and I just sighed.
I then said, “Well, you are right that parents do pass traits like eye color, height, and, yes, hair color to their offspring, but you are very wrong about how the process works. So unless that hair dye will somehow change her DNA, then the baby will likely be born with brown hair since BOTH PARENTS have brown hair”. About nine months later and, yep, the baby was born with brown friggin’ hair!
24. With This Ring, I Thee Shame
My husband and I were in Spencer’s at the mall one day, just walking around for exercise, looking at all the silly stuff, and we walked down the “adults only” aisle. They had silicon rings for men to use during sex. The rings were very small but stretchy. My husband held one up and said, “Who the heck could wear this? A little kid”?
I just stared at him with my mouth open in shock, and he suddenly realized just HOW INAPPROPRIATE that comment was, mumbled something like, “No, because they’re so small…” and then put it down and tried to casually wander out of the store. I mean, I didn’t divorce him or anything, but I was a bit embarrassed to have been part of that conversation.
25. The Unhappiest Place On Earth
I went to Disney with my husband’s family. It was a total nightmare. We were 100% “that” family the entire time. My brother-in-law and his wife have the WORST relationship and are constantly bickering. My mother-in-law is a drama queen who can’t follow a plan to save her life, which caused a ton of confusion and even more arguments.
To top it all off, my brother-in-law screamed swear words at my husband in the middle of Disney in front of my child. And all my husband was doing was trying to figure out logistics for them to go on Space Mountain together. I was appalled at all of it and wanted the ground to open up and swallow me. I avoid talking to them now.
26. Mean People Suck
My good friend’s brother took his own life earlier this year. He was bipolar and went off his meds. I knew him pretty well from my early childhood but I didn’t really have much contact with him later on. My parents are good friends with the brother’s parents. I overheard them talking about him after they found out what happened.
My dad said, “I’m not surprised. He probably deserved it” and my mom agreed with him. What. The. Actual. Heck. I froze. I felt so sick that I wanted to throw up. I love my parents and they’ve usually been good to me, but as a person who also has bipolar depression and struggles with suicidal thoughts, this hit me pretty darn hard.
It makes me think that they would say the same thing if I ended my life. I told my mom later that I never want to hear anyone say anything like that ever again as long as I’m a part of the family.
27. Who Got The Dog, Though?
Someone I’ve known for years got in a relationship with this girl. They were together for years, and they owned a house and a dog jointly. All was well. Then they broke up and he came over for a shoulder to cry on. I asked what happened, as one does. When he told me, I was stunned. It turns out that he decided she needed to lose weight—so he told her.
I asked him if she had ever expressed this interest or concern and he said no. I was a bit taken aback as I started to think about how I would feel if my partner decided this about me. Then he explained that she wasn’t making any effort to lose the weight so he decided to withhold physical affection in order to motivate her.
Well, this shocked the heck out of me. I thought I knew this man. I told him he needed to see a therapist because whatever he thought he was trying to do to “help” her was clearly more about himself. He also told me that he worried about what people thought. I told him that he’s a grown man, and what people think shouldn’t matter.
28. Too Soon
I was watching a documentary about 9/11 with my roommate and her boyfriend. This happened about 15 years ago, so it was not that long after 9/11. The documentary was showing the people jumping out of the windows in a desperate effort to save themselves. I couldn’t believe it when her boyfriend suddenly started to laugh.
As he was laughing, he started saying things like, “How stupid do you have to be to jump out the window of such a high building”? I couldn’t believe that he was laughing out loud about people trying to save their lives. The last I heard from them, he had knocked her up so they decided to get married. Good luck to her.
29. Watch Your Language
I was hanging out with my friend and cousin when my friend said, “I’m in the top 5% of Duolingo users”. My cousin replied, “Oh, neat! My sister is in the top 3%”. My friend paused for a moment and said, “I must have children with her, purely for the Duolingo stats”. To which my cousin replied, “Dude, she’s 15. What the heck”?
30. It’s The Most Stressful Time Of The Year
I was at the TJ Maxx checkout with my mom and the girl at the register asked my mom if she wanted to get a TJ Maxx credit card. My mom said no and the woman asked again with some extra details about how much money it would save us. My mom just snapped and said, “Excuse me, but I know what’s best for my family” and handed the girl her normal debit card.
It wasn’t the most insane thing in the world but was just so disrespectful, unnecessary, and condescending. It was the holiday season and that girl was definitely getting pushed by her manager to get more people to sign up for the company credit card. All I could do was turn to my mom and ask her what on earth she was doing and then apologize to the girl at the register.
My mom is usually very kind and understanding. She has worked retail for a chunk of her life and taught me and my siblings to always respect staff and treat them like the human beings they are. For some reason, that day she did a total 180 and yelled at this poor girl for doing her job.
31. Fashion Statement
My wife’s cousin, who was a freshman in college, wore a “Free Alex Jones” shirt to Christmas dinner in 2019. His uncle asked him who Alex Jones is, and he answered, “Just a misunderstood genius”. I went on a rant about how Jones spreads false information about Sandy Hook and how it led to harassment of the victims’ families.
After my explanation, the uncle promptly whacked him upside the head and told him to go change. Later, an aunt asked him if he had a girlfriend at college, and my wife chimed in with, “Not if he keeps wearing shirts like that, he won’t”.
32. What’s Your Age Again?
Last year at Christmas, my grandpa and I played some chess together. I was not too bad at it, though I rarely beat my boyfriend who had started playing with me a few weeks earlier. Since it was my grandpa who had taught me how to play way back when, I asked him for a game. He had always wanted a chess buddy, so he was enthusiastic about it.
Now, I’m someone who needs time for my moves. I visualize everything on the board, imagine how the figures move, and think ahead: Where do I need to apply pressure? Which exchange can I win? How do I get the darn horse in a good spot? My mum and sis were watching us, constantly complaining about how long I took, which was not good for my concentration.
I really need to focus to see all the moves. I highlight the important fields and possible moves on the board in my head, but I need to rebuild that visualization from scratch if I’m interrupted. My grandpa made his moves faster, but, frankly, he had time to think while I was thinking, so it isn’t exactly a fair comparison.
It’s not like I took ages—maybe a minute each time. My grandpa didn’t comment on it. He only refused to let me take back a move I made right after I made it, which lost me a piece, but I took it in stride. His game was weak; I had my queen smack dab in the middle of the field half the game and was up on the exchanges.
The endgame had him with his king and bishop, while I still had a rook and my queen. This is usually the point where a chess player admits defeat and the game ends. Instead, my grandpa started running around with his king, at one point going back to my starting row(?), completely humiliating himself in terms of chess etiquette.
I didn’t take as long for my moves but still didn’t want to lose a piece to his bishop. He started to complain about my deliberations, saying we should call the game off and call it a draw. A draw! My mom and sister, who were only interested because they had recently watched The Queen’s Gambit, got bored but mom stayed put.
Now, it finally ended because grandpa moved his king into a field I covered. This is technically against the rules; you can’t even remove a pinned figure. You can’t just checkmate yourself, but he did. I was tired at that point. I told him it was not allowed and pointed out the fields he could move to, which would have gotten him right into my trap, as I had positioned my rook and queen to checkmate him next turn.
He tried to take the move back, but my mom was tired of him as well, as the fleeing king made up half the time we played. So she said, “She wasn’t allowed to take her move back earlier, either, so you’ve lost”. He pitched a small fit about how he didn’t know the field was covered by me, blah, blah, blah, but ended up shaking my hand.
For the rest of the evening, he huffed and puffed, said I won unfairly and didn’t even help clean the board. My grandpa, who had always wanted me to play chess with him, couldn’t take a loss and made a total embarrassment out of himself. He has since refused to play chess with me.
33. With Friends Like This…
I went to a restaurant with a friend and we were looking for a table to sit at. One of the workers had just finished cleaning one, so we asked if we could sit there and she said yes. We took our seats and ordered our food. Since we sat at the table as soon as the worker finished cleaning it, she had forgotten to give us silverware.
We still didn’t have any silverware by the time the food arrived. This was not a big deal for me, so I called a waiter, and just as I was about to ask him politely, my friend interrupted. What she said was so rude, my jaw dropped. She said, “I don’t know if you really expect us to eat with our hands or if this was just a stupid error”. She was not saying this with humor, either.
I just said sorry to the worker and tried to overlook the situation. At the end of the night, the bill was taking a long time to arrive as they were very busy, so we went to the cashier and paid there. While we were waiting to pay, my friend started to talk to the cashier. I thought to myself, “Oh no, please, not again”. I had a good reason to worry.
My friend looked at the cashier and said, “Wow, I don’t see why there are so many people here if you can’t even print a bill on time. Maybe you should hire more staff or size down”. I’d had it with her. I told her to go wait for me outside and I handled the payment. I apologized to the cashier and never talked to that friend again.
34. Not Loving It
My family Is Muslim, so we basically only eat halal food. One time, we all got hungry while we were on a road trip, so we asked my dad to pull up to a fast food restaurant. We all went inside and my dad was first to order. When he walked up to the counter, he said to the employee, “Do you have a hamburger without ham”? Like bruhhh.
35. Next Time I’m Not Coming
My uncle and aunt went through a phase. It was absolutely horrible. Whenever we’d all go out to eat, they’d find major issues with either the food or the service, and they’d demand their money back. This was long before Karens were a thing, but my aunt was the epitome of a Karen. I’ve experienced them doing this at least three times in a one-year span.
Usually, the incidents would start with the waitstaff making an honest mistake, and then my aunt would zone in and pick her time to strike. And she would strike with vengeance, always making a scene. Not getting too loud, but using a tone that definitely created tension for anyone within earshot. That alone would be embarrassing enough…
But that wasn’t all. People would start to watch our table, wanting to know what the drama was all about. I hated it. After my aunt would scold the waitstaff, she and my uncle, and the rest of us, really, would try to enjoy our meals, only to have my aunt demand to speak to the manager. This is when she’d ask for her money back.
This meant that our party would be stuck around the front area of the restaurant trying to avoid getting in everyone’s way, all while my aunt and uncle worked at getting their refund. It was always a total disaster.
36. A Roller Coaster Of Emotions
I lost my mind when I found out that a friend of mine would urinate in bottles every night because he didn’t want his parents to hear him going to the toilet. If that wasn’t bad enough, he would store all of his filled-up bottles under his bed. He’s my best friend now, but when I first found out about this, I found it incredibly funny, disgusting, and weird.
37. Glad I Don’t Live With Her
One of my housemates had ordered some masks from an Etsy shop around the beginning of the pandemic. The shop was out of stock of one color, so they sent her a replacement mask in a different color and included an apology note. Well, that mask was this housemate’s least favorite color (green). As a result, her reaction was utterly terrifying. It sent her into a tantrum that lasted all evening.
She was so upset that she kept going on about how she was going to leave a one-star review only because 0-star was not an option. We all thought it was kind of funny, at first, but then she subjected us to two hours of her singing along to Disney songs while playing a Disney-themed board game. This person was 28 and the oldest member of the household.
38. Two, Two, Two Insults In One
My mother-in-law asked me why I spent so much on my education only to become an “overpaid babysitter”. I’m a teacher.
39. Someone Needs A Jab
During the height of the pandemic, my mom would brag to anyone who would listen that she had not been vaccinated. She would say things like “Not ME! I’m not getting THAT” very loudly and in public. She also believed that “they” were forcing everyone to take it. Being near her was uncomfortable because why does the whole world need to know your feelings about the vaccine? So embarrassing.
40. So Many Levels…
One time, out of the blue, my aunt asked someone, “Aren’t you too old to be pregnant”? The woman was in her 40s and definitely NOT pregnant.
41. You Won’t Break My Soul
A few years ago, my parents were driving me and my boyfriend to a Christmas party. He and I had been together for six years at the time, so he already knew that my parents were ridiculously tactless, intolerant, and narrow-minded. They refuse to acknowledge this, though, and they get angry whenever I try to engage with them about how problematic it is.
When we first got in the car, my mom said, “I see your neighbors have a Black Lives Matter sign and a rainbow flag in their window. What do you think of that”? She tests me all the time like this, so I just said, “Yes, and…”? She said, “Well, I was just noticing”. Later on during the ride, she turned around and out of the blue said “Have you seen how big Beyonce’s butt has gotten lately”?
We had been talking about local businesses before this—a completely different topic. I was so shocked and confused. My boyfriend and I shared a look and silently agreed to never ride in the same car with my parents again. I asked my mom why she cared so much about someone else’s body, and she said, “Well, I'm just saying. It’s ridiculous”.
42. Next Time Save It As “Hidden”
We were at a restaurant and my grandfather went to show the waiter a pic of the new baby in the fam but ended up showing a pic of his wiener instead.
43. Data > Opinions
I once had a family member claim that climate change isn’t real. Sure, that might not sound that abnormal. But this family member was arguing with my brother—the same brother who holds degrees in meteorology and oceanography.
44. Oh, What A Night
About 20 years ago I was out to dinner with a friend of mine. The restaurant was in a part of town that was known as a safe haven for the LGBT+ community. Now, I should mention that this ex-friend was bipolar and possibly a narcissist. During dinner, she started talking about politics to some older dude at the table next to us who was dining alone.
At the time, I was not interested in politics, so I was getting bored because she was ignoring me. She suggested he come sit at our table and he did. The man struck me as kind of creepy, so I didn’t really participate in the conversation. At another table, on the opposite side of us, a group of about four people noticed that I was bored out of my mind.
The group consisted of three gay men and a female friend of theirs. They caught my attention and invited me to join them since my friend was ignoring me. I smiled, thanked them, and was about to move over to their table when my friend said, “OMG, yay! We can have one big dinner party! Let’s scoot our tables together”.
The girl at the other table politely, but firmly said, “No, we asked your friend to join us because you're ignoring her”. So, my brilliant friend stood up. I still cringe when I think about what she did. She loudly declared, “Well, I happen to know that my friend would never hang out with GAY people”. Girl what? My high school prom date was flaming gay and you 100% knew it.
Well, that group did not take her words kindly and the manager asked us to leave. After I dropped my friend off at her car, I circled back to the restaurant and let them know that I did not feel that way about the LGBT+ community. They understood. I peaced out of that friendship for about 10 years. I tried reconnecting with her after a decade, only to discover that she had gotten worse.
45. Wish You Were Here
My mom once took some photos with a disposable camera as we were leaving the federal prison where we had just been visiting my brother. All of a sudden, cars sped after us out of nowhere and we were pulled over before even leaving the premises. The officers took the camera and scolded her.
She’s such a doofus. Like why would my brother even care to see the scenery outside of where he is locked up? Unless she was just playing the doofus and they were actually planning an escape that I didn’t know about. Hmm. I was a teenager at the time and I’m pretty sure I just slumped down in my seat wishing I could disappear.
46. Wait For It…
My best friend’s mom is known as the town redneck, which says a lot considering we live in a mostly white town in middle-of-nowhere Indiana. This woman has even been fired from two jobs because of human resources complaints about discrimination, and, for some reason, she is the first one to tell anyone and everyone about it.
When our town’s school board had a meeting, all parents were welcome to attend virtually but only people speaking before the board could attend in person because of COVID. The speakers could either have five or 10 minutes at the stand. My whole family gasped when we were watching on TV and saw my friend’s mom take the stand.
She started out by going on a tirade about critical race theory despite the fact that the topic of the meeting was how to deal with COVID in the coming school year. Then she started complaining about how our schools were teaching students that being white is bad. It got so bad that the administrators eventually turned off her mic.
I called my friend immediately and she said, “I know” before I even got a word out. My friend’s mom pulled stunts like this CONSTANTLY. Want to know the best part? Her kids don’t even attend our schools. They drive 45 minutes to private school every day and always have. She had no idea what was going on in our schools.
Getty Images
47. Yikes!
When I was about 16, I was at a Fourth of July block party. I was wearing shorts and a bikini top because it was a) July and b) we were having water balloon battles. At one point, I was sitting at a picnic table with my dad and cousins, and my dad told me, in front of everyone, “Your funbags are hanging out”. Everyone went quiet.
I looked down in horror. He had made it sound like something had popped right out or I had a nip-slip, but it was neither of those, and I was only a B cup. I guess he was just uncomfortable with the fact that I was wearing a bikini top or maybe he saw my cousins checking me out or something. But his response was to humiliate me and I was MORTIFIED.
It happened over 20 years ago and I’m still upset about it. Especially now that I realize how wrong it was for him to say that, and how I was essentially shamed. I have since gone no contact with him for other reasons, but there are times when I feel bad that my kids no longer see him. I have a daughter who is starting to develop, though, and I feel like I made the right call.
Two of my dad’s sisters had gotten pregnant when they were teens, so he tended to be overprotective of me when it came to boys and dating. That doesn’t excuse the fact that he’d make inappropriate jokes in front of my friends. When I was in high school, he once joked about how great it would be if I had friends over for a sleepover so he could “judge the sleepwear”. Just gross.
48. Time To Move Out
My parents were lovely enough to allow my girlfriend to live with us for a bit after her parents kicked her out. That being said, my dad can also be really awful. Things had started to get tense (long story), and one day my girlfriend came home from work to find a plate of hair that my dad had fished out of the shower drain and left on her pillow. It was absolutely disgusting.
49. Bad Boys For Life?
My dad, influenced partly by Bad Boys II, decided to mess with my boyfriend on my first date by acting like some sort of tough guy. He filled a Jack Daniel’s bottle with tea, and when he answered the door he chugged the whole thing while staring down my boyfriend. That was one thing—it was what he did next that ruined it all. He tried to break the bottle over his own head (keyword: tried).
My date ended up getting canceled because we had to take my dad to the hospital, and I became known as the girl with the totally insane father. “Don’t concuss yourself this time” became our running joke once I was finally able to get a date again.
Bad Boys II, Sony Pictures Releasing
50. Time For the Nursing Home?
I was out on a walk with my grandma, parents, and sister when we came across one of my friends in a wheelchair (I use one as well). My friend had been in a hit-and-run accident a month or two prior which had left them paralyzed from the waist down. I started chatting with my friend when, suddenly, my grandma interrupted us with something so vile…
She looked right at my friend and said, “Ugh, can you believe the nerve some people have, pretending to be ill just so they can use a wheelchair? They really need to get a frigging hobby”. She then tried to push me away, despite the fact that I was in the middle of a conversation. It was mortifying. Needless to say, I never spoke to that woman ever again.
51. What A Wild Ride
I have an aunt, my dad’s sister, that I’m embarrassed to share blood with. She’s a licensed vocational nurse and last year she faked that she had been deployed to Afghanistan to help with the COVID relief there. She even went so far as to Photoshop pics from old news articles and post them on Facebook claiming she was in them.
She would also brag to the whole family that she got to go on missions because she was the only one “skinny enough” to fit in the helicopter. She was gone on this alleged deployment for two weeks before coming back. Well, we eventually found out what she was really doing. It turned out that she was actually off at a hotel cheating on her husband again.
This same aunt also went to Mexico with a cousin of mine to get a gastric bypass, but she denied she got surgery and claimed that it was just her amazing willpower that caused her weight loss—by the way, she wasn’t even overweight to begin with. The cousin she went with told us the truth about the trip and we were all concerned because she got really sick from the procedure.
It got so bad that she had to be hospitalized. When she got out, she still denied getting a gastric bypass, which we couldn’t care less about but it was still pretty bizarre. But that’s not the darkest part. She’s also faked cancer multiple times, threatened to end her life, and is currently harassing a now ex-wife of a man she was caught cheating with.
She is sending this poor woman multiple threats from different burner phones claiming to be different brothers and sisters of my dad. Her goal is to make this woman, who was a family friend, feel unwelcome and ganged up on. Turns out, my aunt doesn’t want her near our family because she’s concerned that she’ll tell us all about the affair.
Sources: Reddit,
