We recently asked the members of the BuzzFeed Community to share the most deeply awkward moment they've ever had, and they seriously brought the awk:
1. "I told my boss who had been cleaning the office that she was covered in dust, and started to wipe away the dust from her hair and shirt. She stopped me and said, 'I wasn’t dusting. I just have really bad dandruff.'”
2. "I walked into my coworker’s office and saw an enormous arrangement of a dozen white roses. I said, 'What gorgeous flowers! You’re a lucky girl!' She said, 'Thanks. My dad died yesterday.'”
3. "In junior high my crush was telling me and my friends a joke when I laughed so hard that my spittle went all over him. Everyone saw and started laughing at me."
4. "When I was in middle school I fell off a ski lift. When I stood up, I got smacked in the head and knocked down by another ski lift. The operator had to pick me up and carry me back."
5. "I'd finally just started dating this guy I’d been in love with for years. My mother decided to try and Facebook stalk him and accidentally hit 'friend request.'"
6. "A male customer asked me where our store's washroom was, and I showed him. As he disappeared through the door, I automatically said the line I say all day long: 'Let me know if you need a hand with anything!'"
7. "I wanted to confess my feelings to one of my really good friends and had a whole speech memorized, but for some reason, as soon as I started talking, I just started shooting finger guns at him and couldn't stop."
8. "I made a 'your mom' joke to someone only to find out that their mom had just passed away."
9. "At a crowded buffet, I took a few huge scoops of mashed potatoes as the lady behind me looked on, confused. At the table I tasted the potatoes and realized I'd just put three huge scoops of whipped butter on my plate."
10. "In college, I ran into a recent ex at a party. I wasn't taking the breakup well, so when he lit up and said, 'Hey, how are you?!" I covered my eyes, bent over at the waist, and ran away — right into a door."
11. "I was walking across campus when I spotted my ex hanging out with friends. I was alone so I grabbed my phone to pretend I was texting and not noticing him. I stepped on a twig and rolled my ankle, collapsing to the ground in front of him."
12. "I had a new director I didn't like who emailed inspirational quotes every day. One day she sent: 'Every cloud has a silver lining,' which I tried to forward to my husband with the comment, 'Tell that to the pregnant teenager who was raped by her stepfather.' But instead of forwarding it, I hit Reply All."
13. "I confessed to my best friend that I had a crush on a mutual friend of ours. She then revealed to me that they’d just started dating a few days earlier."
14. "I was a cashier at Walmart when a male customer came to the register with two huge play balls. Without thinking I told him he could put his balls on the counter."
15. "My mother was waiting in traffic when she decided to burn a loose string off her sweater with her cigarette. The sweater went — poof! — up in flames. She frantically took it off and threw it out the window. People were pointing and laughing."
16. "On my 17th birthday a girl I didn’t really know very well at school said, 'Happy birthday!' I turned around and said, 'Aw thanks, you too!'”
17. "I passed out during my first kiss because I got so nervous that I forgot to breathe."
18. "At the end of a job interview I shook the interviewer's hand, then headed to the door. He said, 'No, not that one. That's the closet.' I didn't get the job."
19. "I was waitressing at a cantina when a man and a blind woman came in to eat. After they'd had the menu a few minutes I came back and asked, 'Anything catch your eye?'”
Submissions have been edited for length and clarity.