# Do embarrassing moments in films make you squirm? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 26, 2002, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-embarrassing-moments-in-films-make-you-squirm/138919 "2002-11-26T17:55:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Skijumper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3e96dc/32.png) [@Skijumper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skijumper)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2002, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-embarrassing-moments-in-films-make-you-squirm/138919/41 "2002-11-27T16:44:34Z")
I love Cate Blanchett and I love Lord of the Rings, but that temptation scene had me scrunching up my face and shifting uneasily in my seat. “No, Cate, NOOOOO!” ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2002, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-embarrassing-moments-in-films-make-you-squirm/138919/42 "2002-11-27T17:37:47Z")
When I was a child, I would get that same response from watching Jerry Lewis making a mess of things without anyone else around. I kept thinking _“Ohhh no! He’s gonna be in so much trouble!”_ ---
**Author:** ![pepperlandgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f17d59/32.png) [@pepperlandgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pepperlandgirl)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2002, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-embarrassing-moments-in-films-make-you-squirm/138919/43 "2002-11-27T17:46:59Z")
I was watching BtVS yesterday, _Intervention_. Spike has a Buffybot built. If it was just for sex, it wouldn’t have made me squirm. I mean, I could handle them banging away at each other. But it was the way he _talked_ to her like she was real. It just made me uncomfortable to see how lonely he was… ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2002, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-embarrassing-moments-in-films-make-you-squirm/138919/44 "2002-11-27T17:56:31Z")
_Welcome to the Dollhouse_, anyone? Probably the most agonizingly funny movie I’ve ever seen. Daniel ---
**Author:** ![singular1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ba9def/32.png) [@singular1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/singular1)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2002, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-embarrassing-moments-in-films-make-you-squirm/138919/45 "2002-11-27T18:29:35Z")
Let’s not forget Albert Brooks trying to talk Gary Marshall into giving back the money his wife lost at his casino in **Lost in America** - The Desert Inn has heart. The Desert Inn has heart. Actually, anything Albert Brooks does makes me crawl over the back of my seat in embarassment. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2002, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-embarrassing-moments-in-films-make-you-squirm/138919/46 "2002-11-27T18:46:24Z")
Ditto on “Meet the Parents” being unfunny due to the mocking of a pathetic person. “Curb your enthusiasm” is also completely unwatchable for the same reason. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2002, 7:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-embarrassing-moments-in-films-make-you-squirm/138919/47 "2002-12-01T07:53:37Z")
The scene in _Edward Scissorhands_- where he’s eating with his scissor-hands for the first time, and the boy is just staring at him…Ah, I hate that. And the scene where one of Winona Ryder’s bitchy friends says at the dinner table that she can’t eat anything he’s touched and then he accidentally drops the piece of meat- it’s just so awkward…and so mean. And that scene where the father is grilling him on ethics and hypothetical situations…really mean. Good scenes, but kind of difficult to watch. ---
**Author:** ![cuauhtemoc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecb155/32.png) [@cuauhtemoc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cuauhtemoc)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2002, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-embarrassing-moments-in-films-make-you-squirm/138919/48 "2002-12-01T16:20:54Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by minor7flat5 \* > **It seems that my brain is mush recently. At least they both have “Blake” in them 😃** I’m cringing at your humiliation. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Loneraven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c0e974/32.png) [@Loneraven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loneraven)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2002, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-embarrassing-moments-in-films-make-you-squirm/138919/49 "2002-12-01T16:26:26Z")
> [@](#): > > _Originally posted by Saltire \* > \*\*Just a nitpick, but Henry Blake was Mclean Stevenson’s character on MA_S\*H. You’re thinking of Blake Edwards. > > I agree with your OP. I react much more strongly to onscreen embarassment than to say, dismemberment. \*\* Huh. I hate it when I’m all set to nitpick and someone else beats me to it. Though, Henry Blake did have a choice set of embarrassing scenes. I seem to remember most of them were funny, though - there weren’t any that made you squirm, which may be another reason the show was so popular. There was one classic scene I seem to remember - when someone booby-traps the latrine, it explodes, and it cuts to Henry standing in the wreckage with a toilet seat round his neck. A pause, and he says the single word, “Boom!” I don’t know why, but that always has me in hysterics. This was really off-topic, wasn’t it? ~Raven ---
**Author:** ![Fnoonf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f6c823/32.png) [@Fnoonf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fnoonf)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2002, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-embarrassing-moments-in-films-make-you-squirm/138919/50 "2002-12-01T17:41:39Z")
Probably the biggest squirmfest I’ve ever seen is Todd Solondz’s **Happiness**. There are no words to describe some of the moments in that movie. Exit-wound heartbreak, merciless rejection, social situations so unbelievably awkward and painful you literally can’t believe you’re watching, and physical gross-out stuff on par with a Farrelly brothers movie. All told it’s a great film, but oh, the pain. The pain, the pain. ---
**Author:** ![neofishboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/neofishboy/32/444_2.png) [@neofishboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/neofishboy)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2002, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-embarrassing-moments-in-films-make-you-squirm/138919/51 "2002-12-01T19:11:56Z")
Any scene in which a character is on stage in front of an audience and\* freezes\* … and then the uncomfortable silence … and then the quiet murmurs … that’s usually enough to send me diving behind the couch. ---
**Author:** ![Agrippina](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8797f3/32.png) [@Agrippina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agrippina)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2002, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-embarrassing-moments-in-films-make-you-squirm/138919/52 "2002-12-01T19:14:42Z")
One of the first scenes in **Magic** where Corky Withers (Anthony Hopkins) is doing his first magic performance. He’s doing his card tricks and people aren’t paying attention or they’re laughing at him. I feel so bad for him. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-embarrassing-moments-in-films-make-you-squirm/138919.md?page=2)