Sometimes an innocent comment or gesture can have a truly disastrous outcome. From mistaking a little person for a child to wishing a colleague a good day off when they're on their way to their mother's funeral. These Redditors share the worst screw-ups of their not-so-finest hour.
1. Remorseful Remark
One Halloween, I complimented an overweight co-worker on her pumpkin costume. BIG MISTAKE. It was a carrot costume.
She was an awesome person that everyone liked, and I'm pretty sure I made her cry. She eventually forgave me, but I cringe at my own lack of decorum every time I think about that.
2. Brutal Slip-Up
In high school, I worked at a place that had bowling, laser tag, arcades, and so on. In the arcade area, there was a virtual reality ride that I just so happened to have been working at when this incident took place.
So after the ride had finished, I was letting the people out. As I started walking them to the exit, I tripped as I was opening the gate. It flies open, almost hitting a guy standing directly beside it.
I looked down at the floor as I was picking myself up. What I said to him will haunt me for life: "Oh, sorry man, I almost took your arm off there!" Just as I looked up, I noticed that he was a bloody amputee from the elbow down!
Thankfully, he was able to tell that I was extremely embarrassed—not sure if it was from the uncontrollable amount of sweat that started to pour down my face, the beginnings of a nervous stuttering apology, or from my face turning redder than the devil's face that gave it away.
He then replied with, "No worries, it looks like someone already beat you to it!"
3. Hostess With The Mostest—Not!
I was the hostess at a restaurant when a child walked in with her mother. I tried to be accommodating by asking the mother if she would like some crayons and a coloring book for her daughter. It was at that moment I realized that the child was actually a little person.
Not my finest hour.
4. Upsetting Moment
My friend is Korean and was adopted by caucasian parents. During a college break, I was staying at his house because we were planning to leave on a trip together. That's when I noticed a picture in his room of him as a baby. I picked it up, walked out of the room, and said, "DUUUDE, you were an UGLY baby!" Famous last words.
It turns out his parents had adopted a child before him who perished from SIDS. I just called his deceased brother ugly. Dang.
5. That Sinking Feeling
There was a lady in her 40s or 50s who sold hot dogs downtown at night after the bars closed. The college bar crowd was often rude to her. It was Halloween season and she was wearing a clown costume. I was waiting for some friends to exit the bars, so while I was waiting for my friends I made small talk with her.
I complimented her on her clown costume. I should have stopped there. I proceeded to compliment her on how real her "missing teeth" looked: "Did you use black crayon on your teeth to make them look like they fell out?" I asked.
I was sincere and amazed at how real her missing teeth looked. I figured she'd be proud that I noticed her skills in putting on Halloween makeup. But she gave me the most horrid, upset, and angry look. I felt like garbage.
Apparently, she really was missing a few of her front teeth which were not at all part of her costume. I had that sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach.
"Oh".
Wikimedia Commons, Infrogmation of New Orleans
6. Dark Humor
I was living in an apartment building where the lights would turn on via a sensor. I was taking the trash to the garbage shoot one day and as I approached the doorway, I saw a Black woman struggling to get the lights to turn on. As soon as I walked through the doorway, the lights turned on for me.
I laughed as I said to her, "I guess the sensors couldn't see you". I dropped my trash off and I smiled as I walked away. But on my way back to my apartment, the more I thought about what I had said, the worse I felt.
7. Not My Finest Hour
A friend once told me that his grandma was probably dying, so he would be out of town for a few days without any cell reception. That's when I put my foot in my mouth. I thought it would be a nice gesture to say, "Condolences in advance". Probably not the most appropriate thing to have said at the time.
8. Embarrassing Mannerisms
I have this weird thing where I'm always accidentally mimicking people's mannerisms back at them in conversation through gestures, postures, and voice inflections.
One day I was at a Chinese restaurant with a large group of people and the server brought out a dish of pork fried rice. When he set it down in front of me, he bowed and said, "Poke flied lice".
I kindly and loudly responded, "Sankooberrymuch" in my best Chinese accent, while grinning and thinking that I was totally being polite. I can still see the horrified stares from everyone at the table.
9. This Isn't A Competition
I was once at a cheerleading competition and there was this cute dude from a nearby town on an opposing team. I saw him in the cafeteria and he started winking at me so I winked back.
At warm-ups, his team was ahead of mine. He kept winking and I kept winking back. I was trying to be cute, and was hoping to get his number.
When I saw him on the competition floor, he was still winking—throughout his entire routine. And then the truth finally dawned on me.
It turns out I had been “winking” back at a guy with Tourette's for the entire day.
10. An Important Lesson To Learn
It was the first week of classes in my junior year at college. I was really high and mucking around in a wheelchair. I was rolling aimlessly down the hall when a full-on quadriplegic turned the corner. He gave me this weak smile.
I felt like it’d be worse to suddenly stand up and walk away in front of him, so I solemnly wheeled past him. When we were side by side, we had this strange moment of recognition and camaraderie.
Later that day, I burst into a class 10 minutes late, and the mother of all gods, Hotwheels was my teacher. He looked shocked but I was mortified. I barely passed the course.
11. Not A Laughing Matter
I was sitting in math class one day and everyone just started making fun of each other's clothing. We were just poking fun. Anyway, this kid who is usually a big joker was wearing a shirt with something on the front, but I couldn't make out what it was.
It was a small, round, yellow, and brownish picture with small, black writing underneath it. He had just made a joke about my tight shirt—I'm a girl, so I asked, “What about your shirt? I can't see what's on it? Is that a lion? It looks like a lion. Why the heck do you have a lion on your shirt?"
I started laughing but he got really quiet. His friend then walks calmly over to me and says, "DO I have to mess you up?" I still think he's joking—I'm terribly near-sighted but don't wear any glasses. I laugh and say, "I just want to know why he has a lion on his shirt. Is it like, from Bush Gardens or something?"
Nobody's laughing. At this point, I am very, very confused. His friend just looks furious. Now I think he's just luring me because these guys were the biggest pranksters I've ever known. So I finally got up and said, "Just let me see the writing, it must be from the zoo or something..."
I scoot over a few seats, squint, and see it's not a lion. It's a watercolor of his cousin who has blonde hair, who was lost at sea a few months ago. It was a t-shirt from a benefit they held in her honor. At this point, the room is painfully silent, and I feel like the biggest idiot that ever lived.
I just calmly say, "Oh, it's not a lion—it's Jenny! Sorry I have terrible eyesight". That lame excuse doesn't help my case. He just goes very quiet and goes back to work. So does everybody else. I awkwardly scoot back to my seat and continue my work, feeling like I should get an idiot of the year award.
I apologized profusely and very sincerely the next day. He forgave me, but wow that was painful.
12. Let Me Get That Off You
About a week ago, I was at a party and met this girl who had a large, protruding mole sticking out of her upper lip. I told her, "Hey there's a bug on your face!" and tried to brush it off. Later, after realizing it was a mole, I apologized profusely to her. Surprisingly, she found it hilarious.
13. Cringy Compliment
I complimented my roommate for making a week's worth of lunches ahead of time. It was her supper.
14. Mangled Comment
I was once at a Halloween party and I met a guy who went as TwoFace—one side of his face had a swollen lip that was drooping down with scars. I thought, “Wow, that's excellent make-up!" and went and told the guy what a great costume he had on. Two days later, I saw the same guy—and my jaw DROPPED.
It wasn't make-up on his face.
15. Not The Brightest Comment
It was Spirit Week at school where each day there was a different themed dress day. On this day, it was "Tacky Day". My friend showed up in these loud purple jeans tucked into bright pink boots with hearts on them. I said, "Oh, I thought you said you weren't doing Tacky Day!"
She wasn't.
16. A Bungled Attempt
I worked for a pizzeria where you had to walk through the restaurant to get to the delivery car.
One time, I was walking through the place when I saw two people I knew but had never spoken to before (we were just part of the same crowd).
As I walked past them, I planned on saying, "Gidday" (I'm from New Zealand). But when I said it in my head, my brain decided to throw a spanner in the works and let me know without warning that saying, "Hey" would be a better option.
So I ended up walking past them, looked them straight in the eyes, and said, "Gay!" then waltzed out of the place.
17. A Long Day At Work
While waiting for my boyfriend to finish up work at the bar, a couple sat next to me. The girl had an annoyed-looking face. I was just trying to make conversation, and since it had been a long day, I said "I know how you feel" and made the same face.
Then I realized she had Bell's Palsy.
18. Painful Gesture
One of my buddies was meeting us at a festival and was eager to introduce us to his new girl. When we meet up, I introduce myself to his girlfriend. I put my hand out to shake hers. But when she put her hand in mine, I noticed that she was giving me the 'dead fish handshake'—where you put your thumb in your palm when you shake.
So I said, “The ol' flipper handshake, eh?" Yeah, she didn't have a thumb on that hand.
19. Clueless Beyond Clueless
One day, I decided to try being outgoing, as I am a generally soft-spoken and awkward sort of individual. So I started to wave at people I saw around our small but friendly town. It was going alright as people would wave and smile back, giving me the "How are you doing?” response.
I should point out that many people here ride bikes like it's going out of fashion. I didn't really think anything of this guy who I waved at while he was riding past. But instead of waving back, he gave me a really dirty look. It was then that I realized that he only had one arm.
ONE ARM.
20. Innocent Comment Gone Wrong
My aunt was a bank teller in a small town and knew everything about everyone. One day, a lady and a child walked into the bank. They had just moved into town. My aunt knew this because her husband (my uncle) worked with this lady's husband. My uncle had also told her that this new family had adopted a child years ago.
The girl was now 10 years old. She walked into the bank with her mom. My aunt, attempting to be really nice, says, "For you being adopted, it is such a blessing that you look so much like your mom". Little did she know, she'd just made the worst mistake possible.
The girl responds, "I'm not adopted". Her mom responds, "She is not adopted". Well, she was adopted and the parents then had to explain to their daughter the story shortly after. My aunt still feels terrible and doesn't like to talk about it.
21. Oh, C'Mon Now
My boyfriend and I were spending some time with my family. My older sister and her Mexican boyfriend were also there.
My dad likes to call my boyfriend Bob Dylan because he thinks that he looks like the singer. One time, he called my boyfriend and my sister's boyfriend over by yelling, "C'mon, Bob and Chavez".
I thought that my dad was just using any random Mexican-sounding last name to call my sister's boyfriend as a joke—he makes chauvinistic jokes sometimes. I said that that was pretty tasteless.
Everyone looked confused, then my sister's boyfriend started laughing and said that his last name really was Chavez. I felt really embarrassed after that, but everyone remembers it fondly.
22. Words Get In The Way
I had just been transferred to a new branch of the bank I worked for. My new boss was a particularly heavy-set guy. I thought nothing of it until I heard our personal banker, a Latina, refer to him as what I thought was “'the heifer”. I said something like, “That's so mean!" Well, turns out I'm the mean one.
That day I learned that though pronounced similarly to heifer, “el jefe” simply means “the boss” in Spanish. I thought I was sticking up for the guy, but instead, I was inadvertently calling him fat.
23. Oh, The Embarrassment
A few years ago, I was at a restaurant with my family. Our waitress approached our table and we all noticed that she was fairly average in terms of weight, but had a slight belly. Not knowing any better my mom asked, "When are you due?" Her reply was her shaking her head and quietly saying, "...no" Oh, the embarrassment!
24. That's Just So Sad
I once asked a customer if her birthday was coming up soon since I was delivering a handful of multi-colored envelopes over to her. The customer, an elderly woman, replied, “No, my husband just passed on. Those are sympathy cards”.
I wanted to hide but said, “Oh....I'm sorry”. She was really, really sweet about it and said that it was ok, but I still felt like a complete idiot.
25. Please Forgive Me
A rabbi I knew was attending the funeral of someone from the community—a deceased young girl in her 20s. She was going around the room speaking to the attendees. Amongst the people who were there was a husband and wife whose college-aged daughter had just won a big scholarship to a top-ranked school.
The rabbi approaches the parents and gives them a mazel tov on the news of their daughter. Well, there was a bit of a mix-up. Unfortunately, she congratulated the parents of the deceased girl. Cringe.
She sometimes still tells this story to the people she counsels. She always says, “If those parents could forgive me, and they did, then truly we all have another chance to make things right”.
26. Enlightening Lesson
Once when I was a hostess at a chain restaurant, I sat this family at a booth—I pretty much always tried to sit people at booths, because I learned that if you sat them at a table, they would normally complain and ask for a booth anyways.
So the family just stood there, and finally, the obese mother turned to me and said, "I can't fit in this booth. We'd like a table, please".
Afterward, one of my co-workers kindly pulled me aside and explained that we always sit obese people at tables unless they specifically ask for a booth. There's a lesson they won't teach you in the company training booklets.
27. Mortifying Moment
I hadn't seen a female friend of mine for about seven or eight months. The last time I saw her, she was just pregnant. So I ran into her at the supermarket checkout and she had gotten much bigger. I quickly did the math in my head and realized that she was probably a month away from giving birth.
I congratulated her and made a fuss about how she was going to be a mom in a month, etc. It turns out the baby didn't come to term and she was no longer pregnant, she had just gained a lot of weight due to medication or something. I just wanted to hide.
28. Assumptions Get You In Trouble
After I finished high school, I started to gain a lot of weight in my stomach. While working as a cashier for a major chain, I was often assumed to be pregnant ALL THE TIME.
Once, a man yelled at me for trying to lift his dog food off the conveyor belt. He couldn't believe that I could be so reckless with a life. He ripped the bag out of my hands. Eventually, when I was over my shock, I told him that I wasn't pregnant.
Even worse than that was the day that I was two hours late for lunch and my stomach started to make terrible, loud noises. The customer asked if I was hungry and I said yeah, that we were very behind on breaks, and that my lunch was two hours late. She got more upset than I thought she should have been.
After I finished her order, she made a beeline straight to my manager and SCREAMED about how she could be so horrible as to let a lady who's eating for two, go so long without food. My manager told the customer that I wasn't pregnant and she came back over to me for confirmation. Both customers apologized profusely.
I was actually asked on fourteen separate occasions as to whether I was pregnant. But the ultimate worst was when a manager asked me because they were already planning a party for me—they had already bought presents! That's when I screwed up. I said, "No, I'm not, I'm only 19. Why would I want to ruin my life?!"
What I forgot was that her 16-year-old daughter was pregnant. Awkward all around!!!
29. Why Did I Say That?
I complimented a friend's brother on his photobombing face at a Christmas party. It turns out he was autistic and he wasn't making a face. My soul hurt after that one.
30. Mistaken Identity
Just this spring, I was refereeing a high school pre-season football game. At halftime, we were asked to do a Q&A with the players to introduce the kids to the sport and to explain how we apply the rules. We're in Quebec and although football is gaining popularity here, it isn't Texas.
Anyways, I was being my usual verbose self when a long-haired player asked a question. Of course, being a French-Canadian who has been in this sport for over two decades, I realized that this was one of the female players (our culture's females are well-known to be petite but ferocious).
"Oui, mademoiselle?" I addressed her. As it turns out, the individual wasn't a female but a late-blooming pre-pubescent boy who was one of their team's best tacklers. It was all good, but I still felt horrible.
Freepik, stockking
31. Flawed Remark
My friend's aunt is an internationally-known dress designer. At a fitting for a woman who had recently had a baby, the designer told the frustrated buyer that she would eventually lose the baby weight. The buyer then informed her that she didn't give birth but that she had adopted.
32. Nothing To Laugh About
While shopping at Walmart, the Saturday Night Fever song came on over the loudspeaker. That's when I noticed a Walmart employee, from just the head up, over some dividers, strutting like John Travolta did in the movie. I laughed and started to do the same thing.
When the divider ended, my stomach dropped. It revealed that the guy had a limp leg and actually walked like that. I felt like a horrible person as I strutted away.
33. Ouch, That Hurt
A few years ago, my friend in college, who lived just a few blocks from me, decided he was going to finally learn to ride a bike. One day as I was driving home, I turned onto my street and saw him riding his new bike. As I rolled my window down to say hi, he fell off his bike.
We're good pals so I felt obligated to laugh and crack some jokes about him falling. He looked up, and instead of being my 21-year-old buddy of mine, he was a beefy 12-year-old who had an identical haircut to my friend.
I immediately drove off, but my house was only 50 feet away from the incident. The poor boy just sat on the sidewalk and glared at me as I sheepishly ran from my car to the door.
34. Well, That Was Awkward
One year, my sister was out trick-or-treating with her friends. She saw a woman walking down the street who was overweight, and wearing blue jeans and a red sweatshirt. Well, my sister yelled out, "Oh, it's Fat Albert!" at the top of her lungs. This poor woman was just walking her children and was not intending to look like Fat Albert.
35. Annoying Nickname
In college, one of my best friends had a weird habit of calling all of his friends “Fatty”. None of us were fat, so it never bothered any of us.
Fast forward two weeks and I'm in a parking lot of a shopping mall when I hear someone yelling. Then I realized that it was my friend. He's waving and yelling, "Fatty! Hey fatty!"
I look over and see him totally oblivious to the two very obese ladies who were between us. They were walking to their car. I then realize that he's equally oblivious to the huge guy who was with them walking angrily towards my friend.
Just as the furious guy was about to get to him, he finally clued into what was going on and sprinted for it. We were in tears laughing about it later. The annoying nickname finally disappeared.
exels
36. That Still Hurts
When I was maybe seven years old, I went to play at a friend's house. I tried out a new accent and said, “This is a nice lil' ole house you have here”.
The next time I went over, despite my best efforts by a seven-year-old to explain to her mother what I meant, she told my friend that we couldn't play together because I had called her house both "little" and "old".
The unfairness still hurts several decades later.
37. It's Not What You Think
It wasn't really meant to be a compliment, but it wasn't meant to be mean either.
I told one of my grade school acquaintances that I had never noticed her freckles before. They weren't freckles. She had a face full of pimples. I felt so bad.
38. That's Not Appropriate
After the movie Napoleon Dynamite came out, my friends and I started calling everyone "fat lards," a quote from the movie.
One day, I was plastered and called one of our mutual friends, who happened to be fat—a fat lard. I honestly didn't mean it like that—even all my skinny friends called each other fat lards.
She went home and I've felt really bad about it ever since.
39. Time To Hide
I worked in retail and saw a man walk into the Women's dressing room. I said, “Sir, please get out of the Women's dressing room”.
Just as I said that last word, I realized that the individual was a large woman. She turned around abruptly and yelled, “Uhm, what?"
I then quickly ran away and hid in the back of the store until the customer left.
40. I Didn't Mean That
I was in a group therapy session where the counselor asked everyone to share something that they don’t usually like to talk about with other people. People mentioned that some things that were difficult to communicate were either things that annoyed them or made them self-conscious.
When it was finally my turn, I said, “It’s annoying when people talk a lot but don’t really say anything”. I honestly wasn't referring to anyone in the room or especially anyone who is trying to communicate their thoughts and feelings in a group therapy setting. But as soon as I said it, I knew I screwed up.
A deafening silence occurred right after I said it and a couple of people scoffed and mumbled something like “wow” and “thanks a lot” and awkward laughs.
I tried to cover it with “NO, NO, NO, I DIDN'T MEAN ANYONE HERE—I JUST MEANT IN GENERAL LIKE WITH PEOPLE IN REGULAR CONVERSATIONS” but it was too late.
41. Fumbled Order
I was placing an order at a Dairy Queen drive-thru to a very masculine-sounding voice on the other end. When I finished, I said, "Thank you, sir". When I pulled up to the window, I saw a woman who was clearly embarrassed, handing me my shake.
42. Wrongful Judgment
I am an event photographer for fraternities and sororities. I was at my first party—a hazing party, where guys dressed up in costumes, got hit in the head, wore crazy chaps, and so on. I saw this one guy with no eyebrows and a completely bald head.
I said something to one of the fraternity brothers about him, and how it was so mean for them to make him do all that hazing stuff. He told me, "He has cancer," with this really disgusted look on his face. I ran away quickly.
43. My Brain Shut Down
I once told a colleague to have a "good time" on his day off. I completely forgot that he had taken it to attend his mother's funeral.
44. What A Misunderstanding
My school hosts a program called Second Step, which teaches kids how to thrive in school and in life. Anyway, there was this one guy who quit his sports team to join the jazz band. Since he was possibly one of the most ripped middle schoolers I had ever seen, I said to one of my buddies, "He does not look like someone who would play jazz”.
This comment was misinterpreted so badly that four hours later while sitting in a different class, someone asked me what I meant when I said that. I said that since he looked incredibly strong, he didn't look like someone who would play jazz. No one believed that to be the real reason.
It just so happens that he was also Black. Almost immediately, I had six different people on my back. This led me to scream at the top of my lungs, "IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH RACE!" right in the middle of class. This in turn led to a 20-minute class discussion about discrimination.
Despite having cleared up a lot of things, there are six different people who still believe that I am prejudiced.
45. It Just Keeps Getting Worse
I used to work at the box office at a movie theater. One time, a teenage girl and her little brother asked for tickets to Shrek 3. Since we offered discounts to children, I pointed to the little one and asked, "How old is he?"
The kid answered in an unmistakably female voice, "I'm 18..." Upon inspection, she clearly was a very short teenage girl with boyish features—short hair, and baggy clothes. I immediately apologized and said it had been a long day...
I felt awful.
46. I'm Such An Idiot
First of all, I'm deaf. Second, this was unintentional, but I still feel like a complete moron.
It happened in college, at the end of the spring semester, just before summer vacation was about to begin. Before leaving, I decided to stop by this girl's room because she didn't have many friends—she was a loner and also overweight. I wanted to say goodbye and wish her a good summer.
She was thrilled to have my company and was talking up a storm. It was hard to follow, but I'm not too bad at lip reading. She turned around while talking and I ‘heard’ her say, "I'm dieting for summer". So, I excitedly told her how proud I was of her for caring about her health.
She was confused and I had to repeat what she said, and she looked so uneasy and said, "No, no, I said I'm dying for the summer!" Then there was this long, horrible silence. I excused myself and went and hid.
47. You Got That Wrong
I'm engaged, so I wear a ring around my finger. I'm also a bit overweight. When I was working at a hotel, the front desk manager who was training me was pregnant at the time. Anyways, a guest walked up to the desk and after some polite chit-chat, looked at my manager, smiled then said, "Oh, you're pregnant, aren't you?"
Of course, my manager gushed and went on about how she was having twins and so on. The guest then looked at me, then at my tummy, smiled, and said, “What about you? I see you're wearing a ring". I had the most brutal response.
"Nope, just fat. Sorry".
48. Celebration Gone Wrong
After attending the funeral of the wife of a family friend, a group of us decided to go to Red Robin's with the widower. At the restaurant, there was a major misunderstanding. The waitress thought it was a birthday celebration and brought out a little cake.
49. I'm Such A Dim-Wit
It was my second day working at an amusement park when a girl in a wheelchair came through my line. The ride I was working at had a height restriction of 48". Without thinking, I said the dumbest thing ever: "Miss, you'll need to stand up so I can make sure you meet the height requirement”.
Later on, her sandal hit me in the face as she was going around the ride. She said it was an accident.
50. A Late Realization
One snowy evening, on my way back from soccer practice, I was counting change to buy myself a soda. I saw a Black man all bundled up and shaking a cup in the middle of the street. I decided I would give him the money I was going to use to buy the soda.
As I put the coins in his cup, I looked at the man's face and he looked horrified. As I walked away, I heard the coins hit the ground. I then realized that he was throwing salt on the road. It was so bad.
Sources: Reddit,
