15 Ways to Escape Awkward Situations, According to the Movies

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As seen in: No Strings Attached (2011)

If a dream girl asks if you want to do “some stupid thing” with her, the answer is always yes, but maybe cool down on how over-eager you are. Ask questions like, What is the stupid thing? or Is there a dress code for the stupid thing? or Is this a funeral? Are you going to take me to a family funeral? Because if not, you may be unpleasantly surprised when you role up, like Adam (Ashton Kutcher), in a yellow Michigan hoodie while everyone else is rocking suits to bury your girl’s father. Upon realizing your fashion faux pas, and that you may have been a pawn to make her family uncomfortable, take a note from Kutcher’s charm books and slap on a yarmulke, give her mom a big hug, and meet the family.

As seen in: Bridesmaids (2011)

What do you do when you’re too turnt? Let Annie’s (Kristen Wiig) situation teach you: Too anxious about her flight she takes sleeping pills and alcohol to calm her down. Instead, however, she gets super belligerent—like time-to-take-your-girl-home bad. Her way of dodging the situation? Make someone else the bigger jerk. Her choice became an unassuming flight attendant just doing his job. Annie calls him a Nazi. Who’s the bad guy now? (OK, still the drunk lady on the plane.)

As seen in: Wedding Crashers (2005)

While hooking up with a girl who’s more on the wild side, like Jeremy’s (Vince Vaughn) lady love, is tempting, it’s probably best not to join her for a family dinner. If you do, make sure you’ve got a buddy to cover for you. While she’ll think it’s awesome to do some under the table fun, a buddy can lead the conversation while the rest of the family can avoid watching your O face.

As seen in: Superbad (2007)

Seth (Jonah Hill) and Evan (Michael Cera) are trying to steal alcohol from an older crowd, so their plan is to dip out of the party swiftly. That changes when a girl starts to dance with Seth, and, eventually, well, you know. What’s a guy to do when the entire party starts to notice him? There’s the foolproof plan of creating mass chaos. A fight with the drunk girl’s fiancé ensues, and the whole party gets swept in on it—that’s the point where running is not a bad choice.

As seen in: Old School (2003)

When encouraging an entire crowd of college students to go streaking, it’s important to make sure they’re following the leader and there’s not just a lone man running down the street buck-naked. A bunch of college kids streaking—cool! A middle-aged Frank (Will Ferrell) streaking on his own—awkward and kind of horrifying.

As seen in: Bridget Jones’s Diary (2001)

In girl world there’s these things called Spanx. They’re tight, but they keep everything in, they make a butt look perky and a stomach look flat. The downside is they also look like giant underpants. Bridget Jones (Renée Zellweger) rocks these bad boys when she finally gets a date with her hot boss. The night goes so well she heads back to his place, Spanx and all. This is where it gets uncomfortable. Not only is the audience subjected to the absolute horror of her granny panties, but he says it’s OK. How cute is that? He says it’s fine, it’s kind of charming. Then he mutters, “Hello, mommy.” No, no, no, no. Equal embarrassment causes an awkward moment to cross over back into the “Everything is Going Better Than Expected I Think” category.

As seen in: When Harry Met Sally (1989)

It’s obvious that Harry (Billy Crystal) and Sally (Meg Ryan) can’t just be friends, but they’re so oblivious that they set each other up on a blind date with their other best friends. Quickly, conversation between the two blind dates dies. Soon the besties are quoting each other’s articles to each other, without realizing they wrote it. It’s disgusting. It’s indecent. The best friends have more chemistry than they did with Harry and Sally. It’s important to save face, even when your date is crashing and burning and basically leaving you for another person in front of your face. Smile, turn to a friend, and let it go. You probably won’t die alone. Right? RIGHT?!

As seen in: Little Miss Sunshine (2006)

Olive (Abigail Breslin) gets on stage of the Little Miss Sunshine beauty contest—despite her family straight-up having a conversation that she’s a big ol’ loser and going to get laughed off the stage—and dedicates her performance to her recently deceased grandfather (Alan Arkin), who choreographed the routine. It’s a sweet, touching moment, which is ruined really quickly when the DJ queues “Super Freak” and Olive starts her burlesque routine. Little Miss Sunshine handles an awkward moment better than most, by having Olive’s family join her on stage and fly their own freak flags. Accept the most awkward moment of your life—it makes a better story. Also, don’t let the creepy grandpa teach your kid dance moves.

As seen in: Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982)

Everyone, every single person, even children who don’t know who Sean Penn is, remembers the scene of the most famous bikini in history, and Linda (Phoebe Cates) taking it off. What people usually don’t choose to recall is how Brad (Judge Reinhold) was caught by Linda in the bathroom with a view of the pool. This is called convenient amnesia, and it works for a lot of people who experience an awkward moment. However, the person who catches you will probably never be the same.

As seen in: Meet the Parents (2000)

Meeting your significant other’s parents is on the list of the most stressful things of your life, right under college debts but above oral surgery. Meet the Parents is nerve wracking just to watch, let alone experience. Greg (Ben Stiller) tells the intimidating father of the bride, Jack (Robert De Niro), that he had to milk a cat to help feed the runt of the litter. That is not how you win the in-laws’ hearts. You especially don’t want the father to ask, “I have nipples, Greg, could you milk me?” Cringe. Since you’re already on a downward spiral, just do every awkward thing imaginable. Don’t want to be remembered as the cat milker? Pop a bottle of champagne and take out grandma’s ashes. They’ll remember the destruction of the person they love, but not the cat milking. What is worse, who can say?

As seen in: Fargo (1996)

It’s weird when someone you know from high school hits you up, asks for drinks, and then confesses that they think you're a “super lady” or gent. With Facebook, this generation gets it all the time. In Fargo, despite Marge (Frances McDormand) being pregnant and happily married, Mike (Steve Park) still attempts to be that creep. He sits next to her, puts his arm around her, and she politely smiles and explains that she prefers he sits on the other side, just so she doesn’t have to turn her neck. He starts crying, but being polite will get you far away from an awkward situation, maybe not as fast as you’d like it.

As seen in: Swingers (1996)

Thank God humans don’t have to deal with answering machines anymore, except for moms leaving voicemails that say, “Call me back,” when you already know to call her back because you see the missed call. Swingers shows one of the scariest moments for anyone. You get someone’s number, now you actually have to call him or her to set up a date. Recently dumped Mike (Jon Favreau) has been out of the game for a while, and it shows when he leaves about 12 messages on a girl’s machine, first explaining that he thinks the machine cut him off, but then going into a monologue on why he’s so eff’d up. Sometimes trying hard to make it right is adorable, and sometimes it makes you look psychotic.

As seen in: Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010)

Word vomit is a very real disease. If you’re one of the lucky few unaware of it, it’s when a person has the inability to STFU, especially around someone they’re uncontrollably in love with. Like Scott (Michael Cera) around Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead). Scott goes into a lengthy spiel on why they changed Puck-Man’s name to Pac-Man, and, upon realizing she was unimpressed with his trivia from the ’80s, accepts defeat, saying, “I'll leave you alone forever now,” and slides away.

As seen in: Sixteen Candles (1984)

Running away is a timeless escape to an awkward situation, as well as bear attacks, but that’s besides the point. Step one: Wait until the other person is distracted, say, dancing around in a circle like The Geek (Anthony Michael Hall). Step two: Turn around and book it. It’s a method perfectly executed by Sam (Molly Ringwald) to avoid The Geek’s unwanted advances and to avoid Jake (Michael Schoeffling) seeing her at the dance with him. Always do at least 20 minutes of cardio at the gym—if someone catches up to you while you’re running away from your problems it gets even more uncomfortable.

As seen in: Napoleon Dynamite (2004)

The votes are in. High school is the literal worst thing that happens to everyone and it’s chock full of painful awkward memories you’ve tried to suppress. When Napoleon’s (Jon Heder) best friend runs for class president, the BFFs are unaware that a skit is needed after the speech. What high school even does that? It doesn’t matter, because Pedro’s soul-crushing experience of not being able to finish his campaign is no match for Napoleon’s dance skills. He accepts himself and performs a beautiful original dance in front of the school. No shame, no gain.