Have you ever been in an awkward situation where a person tells you something funny and you laugh instantly? Well, if you find out that it wasn’t something to be kidding about, that is certainly not a funny picture.
These tales of unbelievable events will make you chuckle, but not too fast because once you know the truth behind them, you might get a secondhand embarrassment instead. Come and check these stories!
1. When Reality Hits Retail
I was at work. I work in retail, and my coworkers and I heard a loud "boom.” But we didn't think anything of it, so we just ignored it and went about our day.
5 minutes later, an older lady who is in the store almost every day, maybe in her 50s or 60s, came up to me and said "I just drove into your building." I looked at her, and right before I began to laugh out loud, I realized she did.
Air2Jordan3
2. His Toe Takes A Turn
I was taking a long leg cast off a kid about 2 or 3 years old. After I get the cast split open and pull it off, Mother says, "Oh, his toe fell off.” I'm like, "Heh, nice one.”
The kid was in the cast because his small toe had been nearly amputated and reattached; the doctor was hoping what tissue was still connected would be enough to vascularize the distal portion. It wasn't and the kid's toe died and fell off.
Shdwrnr
3. Memory Lane Mishap
I met a guy, and I told him my name. He said, "I'll probably not remember it, I have memory problems." I said, "Haha yeah, I'm bad with names too."
I met him again two days later, and I remembered his name.
He, on the other hand, didn't remember meeting me at all. He acted brand new
When I realized it wasn't a joke, and was told by his mother that he actually does have memory problems, I felt like a douche. Oh well, he doesn't remember me laughing at him.
NoFapPlatypus
4. Drunken Tale Of Discovery
A man was regaling his fellow party-goers with his drunken jokes. He described being found as a newborn in a field after his teenage mother hid her pregnancy and gave birth at home.
All he knew about her was she was a waitress in a waffle diner. We sat there, enthralled, waiting for the punchline, until we realized he'd moved from "life of the party" onto the "in vino veritas" stage of drunkenness.
CodeBlackx1
5. Lost In Dino-Translation
I was talking to a girl one time. She said, “How do we even know that Dinosaurs were called Dinosaurs if they're all dead now and we've never met one in real life?”
I thought she was kidding, so I replied, “Hahaha that's funny.” But, she was serious, because she responded, “What's funny?” I just said in disbelief, "Oh honey.”
It took me literally half an hour to even get her slightly on board with the fact that things are called things because we decided on the name not because things inherently have a name we discover. I wish I was joking.
Cloud_Fish
6. Geography Lessons At A Family Dinner
My sister-in-law, who has a bachelor's degree in nursing, one time said something about driving to Alaska "because it's not that far from Texas" while our family was having a holiday dinner together.
We all laughed, and she asked what was so funny. We just stared at each other. She thought Alaska was by Mexico, because of the map inset. Guess she had never seen it on a globe.
harbinger06
7. Surprise Parenthood Over Lunch
My now boyfriend and I were on our fifth date. We were out to lunch, and some toddlers started throwing a screaming fit. My boyfriend and I looked at each other and I said something along the lines of, "Kids are the best, aren't they?"
Which is when he said, "Oh, I've been meaning to tell you, I have a daughter.” We have similar humour styles so I started giggling thinking he was teasing. He was not. So that was interesting.
dinopsych
8. Geographical Ignorance
On Wednesday, while I was working, a customer asked me why our produce section was so empty, especially in terms of stuff like lettuce.
I told him that it was because of extreme weather in Spain, where we source most of our stuff, and that’s why we don’t have other products.
He cut off my explanation with his question, "Why does it matter what's going on in Spain, we're in Scotland?"
stupidusername69
9. Roommate Math Goes Awry
My friend bought a condo and he let me move in with him. Then, his new girlfriend moved in together with us after a year. After that, he tried to charge me more because according to him, I had more space than him now.
We were splitting 50/50 of the condo fee, but he told me that I now owed 2/3 of the whole condo because he had to share his bedroom with his girlfriend and I had one for myself.
DrRocksoo
10. A Tale Of Unintended Wedding Plans
When I was 18, I went with my then-girlfriend to Las Vegas to meet her parents. We were in Florida where she lived with her aunt and uncle.
I found out that her dad and mom lived in separate houses right across the street from one another for whatever reason, which was strange but not the strangest thing that would happen during that trip.
Her dad came over to her mom's house to meet me and I couldn't help but notice he was dressed in a suit. I thought maybe he was just a fancy dresser.
He kept asking me questions about my family and how I felt about his daughter.
He seemed to like me, and we went through the trip on fairly pleasant terms, but nothing else happened of any note.
Once we got back home to Florida, my girlfriend decided to tell me that her dad thought we were coming out to Vegas to get married.
He dressed up because he was planning on taking us to get married that day. She had to tell him that we had no intention of getting married in Vegas.
thisjohnd
11. Awkward Family Inquiry
My uncle asked my brother if he thought my other brother, who's gay, bleached his behind. My brother told me the story, he said that he kept waiting for him to start laughing or smile or anything,
But, my uncle just stared at me with such a straight face. Not saying anything to him. Then my brother was like, “Oh you're serious?” He didn't know what he was going to say to him.
Reaper2256
12. Love Lost In Space Denial
I dated a girl for 4 months a few years back. One day we were chilling at my house, ask her if she wanted to watch an episode of Brian Cox's documentary Wonders of the Universe to which she told me she "doesn't believe in space."
She was 100% convinced that the sky was all there was and that space was a huge cover-up by the government or some other crap.
At first, I laughed, then we argued and I couldn't win because I hadn't been to space to prove it exists. We didn't see much of each other after that.
[deleted]
13. Awkward Apologies
Part of my job is in-processing new employees. Well, we had this one new guy that just so happened to be in a wheelchair. So he comes in early in the day and I help him with some paperwork.
Then he comes back in the afternoon and says "I think I got off on the wrong foot with you." So thinking that he is making a self-deprecating joke to kind of address the fact that he's in a wheelchair,
I laugh and say "Haha, good one." Then he just looked at me blank-faced and said "What do you mean?" The dude thought he had done something to make me angry earlier and was trying to apologize.
So I did my best to awkwardly backpedal by saying "That's funny you think I was mad." I spent a week cringing every time the phone rang because I was sure I was getting called into HR.
gogogidget
14. Strained Relations
I had a meet and greet with my new police chief. I had been in law enforcement for a few years in another part of the country.
She introduces herself and proceeds to tell us that our first goal, our highest priority in every call, every encounter, is to make her look good.
I laughed out loud and then realized that she was mad-dogging me. My quarterly evaluations for the entire first year were not encouraging.
exgiexpcv
15. Mistaken Identity
My friend started dating a new girl he met when he was in a gap year. He came back and had been dating her for months already and they decided to keep the relationship going when they both returned home from overseas.
We kept joking with him about her, what she looked like, that she wasn't real etc. and he wouldn't show us a pic. Eventually, we wore him down and he pulled out his phone to show us a picture.
It was a group shot of about 30 people in the jungle. Behind him on the right was an ugly blonde guy and next to him was a pretty brunette girl.
He points at his girlfriend in the picture and I jokingly point at the blonde guy and go "Oh this one here?" and all my friends laugh.
To which he goes "Yup." I look at him puzzled, and my brain doesn't catch up. I point again at the guy. "This one here?" He responded, "Yup, that's her.” He responds.
It sits in the air for a few seconds, everyone else has worked it out but me. "What, that's a guy" I reply. He just stares at me, then walks off. Then I realized he was serious.
Yeah, it wasn't a guy. It was a girl with short hair with a masculine jaw. We've never spoken about this nasty misunderstanding since and I feel like the biggest douchebag.
Although he did propose to her eventually and they're getting married next year so obviously I didn't put him off that badly.
sheslikebutter
16. Peculiar Feminine Request
I work in health care but just as a registration/front desk type staff. I mainly work in a walk-in clinic, so I see all sorts of stuff.
Two weeks ago, I had a man call in and demanded to get a pap smear. I had to educate a grown man on what a pap smear was.
He still didn't believe me and demanded yet again to receive one. I ended up telling him to go to the ER because we don't do those procedures at our location.
tantandeliman
17. The Case Of Misdiagnose Fracture
I broke my arm badly once. I went to a hospital. The doctor there said it was a “hairline fracture” and didn't even need a cast!
So I laughed. Considering my hand was stuck in a downward position, could barely move my fingers, and the bone was visibly pressing against the skin of my arm.
Turns out she just didn't know anything. We went to an actual orthopedist and he freaked out and had us in for surgery the very next morning. I have not been to that hospital since.
MikuMagic
18. Age Guessing Gone Wrong
I was at a steakhouse and as always, it was the birthday of a girl across the table. She was there with her mom and probably a good friend.
Anyway, once the table realized it was her birthday and we all wished her a good day, she asked me how old I thought she was.
If I were putting money on it I would have said 13, but I figured she'd feel good if I said I thought she was a bit older, so I guessed 16. She got "mad" and said "No! I'm 20!"
I laughed. She didn't. Then I realized she was serious. Now every time my friends and I go to that steakhouse, we bring it up.
And1Hornet
19. A Drama Camp Dilemma
I used to teach drama camp. I would take suggestions from the kids on Monday, write a half-hour play based on those suggestions that night, and then they would perform it on Friday.
I once had a parent come to see me after reading the script. She asked if there was a way to do a play with no conflict in it. I laughed, assuming that she was making fun of the other PC soccer moms I had to deal with.
But she meant it. She wanted us to tell a story without any obstacles or confrontations. I then carefully explained to her that a story without conflict would not be a story, but just a series of occurrences.
So it would be like a man who wants pizza. Man goes to the fridge. There is pizza in the refrigerator. Man eats pizza. Theatre!
[deleted]
20. Unearthing Dinosaur Denial
A girl I was seeing told me she didn't believe in dinosaurs. Her issue with dinosaurs wasn't so much creationist denial as much as it was a belief in a marketing scheme companies invented to sell dinosaur toys.
Also, she believed that the toy companies must've planted fossils, because she believes that’s how they get there. A couple of weeks later I got her a dinosaur plushy. She was like "That's what they want!"
WhereTheDarknessIs
21. From Jokes To Shock
I was playing a video game with some buddies at their house. One guy lost stupidly and he jokingly threw his controller away and pretended to throw a tantrum on the floor.
We were all laughing at him, but then it kept going. Then his head shifted over to the fireplace and he started banging his head on the bricks and bleeding. That's when we realized he was having a seizure and we all freaked out.
[deleted]
22. Faux Seizure Craze
When I was in middle school there was a period of a few weeks when kids would fake seizures to get a laugh. It was the hip thing to do.
So, I was at the mall toy store one day and I came around the corner of an aisle and saw a kid a little younger than me on the ground, absolutely killing it.
I delightfully shouted, "Dude, you are good!" I'll never forget his parent's faces when I looked up and figured out what was really happening.
[deleted]
23. A Viral Misunderstanding
I used to have an elderly patient I just loved because she's just a jolly, sweet old lady (and she might have brought me some food, from time to time).
She's the type of lady who just barely understands technology, so she gets a smartphone and tries to stay up to date with everything that's going on.
So she believes in most of the clickbait articles and satire news.
One day, she comes by the clinic saying she's sick. I examined her, just had mild symptoms of a common cold, nothing too serious.
I tell her that she has an infection and this type of infection is treated without antibiotics because it's not a bacterial infection but a viral infection.
She understands that part, and then she asks me, "So, I have a virus?" I answered, "Yes, ma'am. What you have is a virus infection.” She said, "So, do I have to stop using my smartphone, to prevent my smartphone from getting the virus?"
At first, I smiled because I thought it was a joke and I found it cute but she was serious. Like, she was concerned that she couldn't get her smartphone close to her mouth.
She thought her viral infection might spread to her smartphone and get hacked. I told her it was a different kind of virus, and that her smartphone was going to be fine
yosol
24. The Hard-Core Paperback Puzzle
I worked at a bookstore once. One time, I remember one customer suddenly approached me and asked why the hardcover version and paperback version of the same book didn't cost the same amount.
I chuckled at his question because I thought that he just was kidding and I said, "I guess I'll have to look into that." We parted ways but then he came back to me 5 minutes later and asked if I had found out yet.
Nwsamurai
25. Playful Punches Gone Wrong
I was at work one day with a couple of other people and we had a shift manager who liked to fake fight and punch people for fun. One day, one of our coworkers came to work and announced that she was pregnant.
He thought it was a funny joke, ran up to her, and punched her right in the stomach. She was furious! To clarify things, this guy wasn't a douche but just overly hyper and happy!
His way of congrats is to hit someone in a friendly manner (mind you, he doesn't realize how hard he hits).
The same guy was laughing about how hard a sandwich roll was once, but instead of tossing it, he goes "See?" and then smacked me across the back of my head so hard that I saw stars.
Booner999
26. A Son’s Humbling Moment
I loved my Dad. I just feel the need to say that ahead of time. My dad lived a very hard life, never learned to read, and worked with his hands his whole life to provide for my Mom and me.
One time when I was about 15, we were watching Jay Leno and he was doing Jay Walking. I was talking about how funny it was that people could be that stupid.
Then I said, "Can you believe there are people in America who don't know how many stars are on the American Flag?" My Dad kind of chuckled and then said "There are 52, right?" I cracked up, thinking it was a joke.
Then I finally stopped to see the look on his face and realized he was serious. I felt like an absolute jerk because I knew he was hurt, but I just really never imagined he was serious.
I learned a pretty important lesson that day about judging people and being careful what you say that might hurt someone.
chuckusmaximus
27. The 4th Of July Surprise
My brother and family were here on the 4th of July, celebrating together. I showed my sister-in-law the video from a television show we were watching where they asked people on the street to explain why we celebrated that holiday.
I was dying laughing at all of their answers. Then all of a sudden she says, "So why do we celebrate it?" I was floored by her question. I also felt like a total douche that time.
vonMishka
28. A Lesson In Context
One of my animal shelter buddies messaged me on my social media account. It was some text and 2 pictures. I didn't scroll up to the text.
I only saw the one pic, which was a very funny-looking dog. It was a fat chihuahua that had a very bewildered look on its face. I replied "Lmfao.”
A couple of hours later, I looked again and scrolled up and saw the text, something to the effect of a guy passing away and she was trying to rehome his 2 dogs and included 2 pictures.
To which I replied “Lmfao.” So, I'm a douche. I tried to explain and apologize but I still think she's a bit salty about that.
Footpeter
29. A Night in Nashville's Moral Maze
I was hanging out in a bar in downtown Nashville, playing wingman to my buddy and fending off the advances of a very large drunk girl who thought I was more attractive because I was married.
I make small talk with a tall, lanky younger dude who says he's in town to play bass for various bands. We talk about life in between songs, he tells me about being recently married, and we talk about our wives for a few minutes.
After a long silence, he stares off in the distance and says "Well, time to get this ring off and find somebody to fool around with, am I right?"
It was at this point that I realized how drunk the kid was and I spent the next 30 minutes explaining to him that no, being in a different zip code didn't count as a legitimate reason to cheat on your wife.
Lcoursey
30. Awkward Encounters Over Baby News
After my sister-in-law had her son she had a lot of trouble with her weight. She was big. She was always saying how hard it was to have a baby, “never again” etc.
The weight kept piling on, she must have reached nearly 18 stone (about 250 lbs). Due to holidays, work and other reasons my husband and I ended up not seeing her for quite a few months.
When we did all meet up again she said, with the most flat tone of voice, "I'm going to have another baby.” I burst out laughing because since her son was born all she would say was that she would never have another kid.
Then she said, "No, I am.” I replied, "I'll believe that when I see it!". Then I asked her, "So when are you having this baby then?" She responded, "In three months".
My mother-in-law compounded the awkwardness by saying "Well didn't you notice the bump?", basically drawing even more attention to my sister-in-law’s weight. I still cringe thinking about it, and it was four years ago.
Smantie
31. The Prom Dump
I was dating a girl in high school, and up till that year, she'd been home-schooled. I mentioned something about dinosaurs because I wanted to take her to the museum.
She covered her ears and said “Lalala” while repeating "The earth is only 8,000 years old.” I looked at her so sideways. I still took her to Prom.
She dumped herself for me the next day. She then said, "You don't like me anymore, do you?" I responded, "No, not really." Then she was like, “okay.” It was so awkward for me, my friends, and her best friend.
AlexTheLyonn
32. Embracing A Change
My best friend since kindergarten just announced that he's changing genders. When he told me, I thought he was making some elaborate joke with me like he does often.
I didn't buy it fully until he came over to my house and slept over. I woke up in the morning and he was in the bathroom. When he came out, he had full makeup and a dress on, That was when I went "Oh crap, you're serious."
Still my best friend, I don't care what she does, as long as she's happy. She has nothing but my full support and I've been helping her every day get a little bit better with her transition.
Wolfey1618
33. Humour In High School Gets Awry
It was very well known in high school that I was gay. I can't remember the details about this but my friend made a joke about it. My table of friends and I all laughed about his joke.
The teacher walking by stopped and shouted "Matthew! You can't call someone that. That's disgusting!" We all just stared at her and you could see in her face the slow realization. She never apologized.
TacoFupa
34. When Numbers And Time Zone Collide
A new co-worker came up to me one day and said, "What comes after 999?" She got offended when I laughed because I thought she was just kidding.
As it turned out, she had a learning disability. She was having a hard time and couldn't make the cognitive leap from 9 to 10.
She also wore two watches so she could know what time it was where her boyfriend worked. We were in CST and her boyfriend worked in EST.
[deleted]
35. Foot In Mouth
When I was engaged to my husband, we were talking about baby names and he said if he had a daughter he wanted to name her Whitney. I laughed at him and said, "Oh God, you mean as in Houston?"
He somberly said, "No, as in my cousin who passed away of cancer at 16." I felt really bad for joking about it because I knew about his cousin and it slipped my mind. Thankfully, we didn’t have girls, we had boys.
buggiegirl
36. Curse Of Gender Coincidences
Well, this is probably going to get buried but here we go. So I have this friend. For the entire time I've known him there have been jokes that his family is under a curse.
See his grandfather, the oldest of two boys married a lovely woman and had two boys. After the second child the wife turned around, said "I'm a lesbian" and left him.
So the two sons grow up, the oldest one marries a woman and has two children a girl and a boy this time. After the second child, his wife said "I'm a lesbian" and left him.
So obviously in the way of college kids, we always said that was going to happen to him. A few years pass he gets married to a woman and they have a couple of kids together.
This collection of friends gets together for another friend's wedding shower and he comes in a little bit late. We're all standing together in a group and he approaches us. He looks a little down so I ask him, "How's it going?"
In response, he lifts his left hand to show that his wedding band is gone. So of course we all crowd around him and ask him what's wrong. He says, trying to hold back tears, "My wife is leaving me, she's a lesbian."
Every single one of us laughed assuming that he was joking. When it became clear he wasn't we were all appropriately ashamed.
lordmax86
37. Big Surprise Turned Low-Key
On my 25th birthday, my new-ish boyfriend told me he was going to "surprise me" and do something special as a birthday dinner. He told me to get dressed up and wait for him around 7.
I was super excited to wear a dress for once, got all dolled up, and was eagerly waiting for him. When he showed up, he was wearing jeans and a T-shirt and just holding a grocery bag with store-bought sushi.
I laughed, thinking this must be a precursor to the actual “big night out.” Nope, we just ate store-bought sushi in my living room. It was a pretty nice time but he shouldn't have hyped it up so much.
Pumpkin_pasties
38. A Childhood Awkward Realization
My mum put me on the phone with my best friend at the time, we chatted for a bit and then all of a sudden, he told me “My dad passed away.” I was about 6 years old at that time, so I thought it was just a joke.
It was only after Mum gave me the devil's eyes did I know that he was not kidding about it. All I did was say “Sorry” to him and not much more I could do really. It still makes me feel like crap.
Rapagna
39. A Teacher’s Toe Tale
This happened just yesterday. I take AP World and the AP Euro teacher was walking by. I'm hanging out in the hall with some friends and they're like "Hey, how's the toe doing" and he responds "I'm gonna find out tomorrow if I keep it."
I start laughing cause he's normally a pretty funny dude and makes a lot of jokes. He just gave me this really weird look and walked back to his room.
He got bit by a brown recluse and there was the serious possibility of losing his toe. I felt terrible afterward.
Gaylien28
40. A Night Of Highs And Lows
I was working in a bar and enjoying myself one night. I was just on a roll and working better than I ever had and my coworkers kept acknowledging how I was keeping the whole team up.
Anyway, all of a sudden there was an influx of hell into the bar and the manager said to me that I needed to pull my weight, he said it with a smile because he always had a fake one and I laughed and he immediately frowned.
Not only was it awkward but I also felt like my hard work became worthless. I worked like a slug with the wind knocked out of it for the rest of the night.
ArseholeryEnthusiast
41. When Banter Backfires
This one has stuck with me for a long time. My parents own a pretty popular local restaurant in our town. Widely regarded as a very good restaurant with tasty food and fantastic service (by yours truly, mostly).
Most of our customers when asked, "How was everything?" Respond in a joking tone "Horrible! Never coming back again."
Needless to say, I had grown accustomed to this banter and always played along. Anyways, one day an older gentleman and his wife came in for dinner and I must have missed all the signals, or gotten overwhelmed during service.
As he was leaving I asked him in the good old-fashioned playful way and his response was "Awful!" I laughed in his face and said "Ha! Thanks!.” He must have thought I was crazy.
I saw his face and said, "Wait, really?" To which he proceeded to tell me about his experience all in front of my parents, coworkers, and other customers.
[deleted]
42. Humour Turns Tragic
One of the students in my class got in a minor car accident and was in the hospital just in case to be checked. He missed 2 classes so in the second class we asked the professor if he knew where he was and he replied, "He passed away."
The professor was known to make weird comments like that as a joke so about half the class thought it was a joke and laughed. Turned out the guy passed away after he got home from the hospital.
mdskllz159
43. Awkward Tale Of Misreading Situation
A couple of months after I left my last job I heard that my ex-boss's wife was divorcing him. He was a bit strict when I worked for him, not very flexible, and generally a bit mean towards me.
I didn't hate him for it or anything. It was part of the reason I left though. I ended up going for a drink with a group of my ex-colleagues and in his drunken state.
My ex-boss asked if I wanted to know what his ex-wife had written on the divorce papers. Obviously, I said yes and he told me she's filed for divorce because he was unreasonable.
I laughed in his face as he's the most unreasonable man I've met. The deadpan look he returned made me realize he was deadly serious. Felt pretty bad for that.
pazzipatty
44. From Friendly Favours To Pool Party Pranks
My friend told me today that she went to her neighbor who she was friendly with and asked the neighbor to keep an eye on her house while she was out of town for a couple of weeks.
The neighbor made a corny joke about having a pool party at her house while she was going to be out of town. My friend laughed it off as did the neighbour.
She came home to find her patio completely trashed as well as trash in the pool. Apparently, the neighbor did have a pool party and never cleaned up.
MisterOminous
45. Caught In The Chuckle
While I was working in construction, a very healthy, happy-looking dude did some sort of carpenter trick that involved moving something heavy into a weird spot.
When he'd done it, he said "Not bad for a guy with cancer." I chuckled and then felt bad so I told him that's not funny.
The chuckle was my natural reaction to what I thought was a joke rather than an acknowledgment that I found it funny. It's not nice to tell a cancer patient off. After all, they have cancer.
MyPenIsMammoth