10 Of The Most Cringeworthy "This Isn't What It Looks Like!" Stories

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It's sorta a classic sitcom trope for characters to be in innocent-but-compromising-looking situations and have someone walk in on them - and for the only response to be "Okay, let me explain." The problem is...this happens in real life too, and it's WAY less funny and FAR more embarrassing when it happens to you. You could explain why things look so inappropriate, but the other person has probably already made up their mind before you could get the words out. Luckily, reading these stories of wrongfully embarrassed people from AskReddit makes me feel a lot better about my own cringeworthy moments. Here are a few of the best:

1. Be careful where you do the creep. (from TigLyon)

I used to take my kids to different playgrounds as they were growing up. Often times I'd be out there with them, chasing them, being the random monster/dragon/antagonist while they run away and then eventually turn around and chase me back. Inevitably since the rest of the parents were on their iPhones or doing anything but interacting with their kids, I'd end up with a collection who wanted to join in the fun.

It was all going well until they said they wanted to play "Minecraft"

So as a group of kids suddenly scatter from where I am standing yelling "Ah! Run away from the Creeper! Ahhh!" I look up to see a line of parents suddenly jostled back into consciousness with absolutely no friggin context whatsoever.

2. Probably would've been less embarrassing to actually pee your pants. (from iLLwiLLGivingThrills)

It was my third day at my new office job. When I washed my hands my pants touched the counter top which was covered with water. Naturally I now look like I pissed myself and had a giant 6 by 6 soaked area around my crotch. I couldnt walk around with that so I thought to use the hand dryer. However, the hand dryer was the type that you stick your hands in rather under. So I line up and basically mount this hand dryer like I am looking for a good time. I look at myself in the mirror and as I start thinking "this wont look good if..." and of course the CIO walks in before I could finish the thought and react. He looks at me and in deadpan voice says "Do I need to call HR?" to which I responded "No, its consensual." We had a good laugh about it and he never let me forget that moment!

3. Good guy Grandpa. (from ShadowLantern)

One time during my teens, I was using my grandparents' computer to look up video game cheat codes. I was worried they might disapprove that I was using cheats, so when my grandfather walked into the room, I quickly minimized the window and turned around to say hello and ask what he needed.

His response: "Oh nothing important, I'll just come back later." He almost seemed to be rushing out.

I turned back to the computer screen in confusion, to see that minimizing the window had revealed a pornographic pop-up ad hiding in the background. I was super embarrassed. He never mentioned it though.

4. "The stairs punched me" is not the best excuse (from PhreedomPhighter)

More of a "this isnt what it sounds like"...

A family we were close to had just moved to the US from India. They had a young daughter, like 5 years old, who was still learning English. One day she fell down the stairs while playing outside. She ran in crying and saying "The stairs hit me!"... once she calmed down her dad corrected her and said "No no. You mean to say 'I fell down the stairs'."

A few days later my dad was showing them the grocery store. In the checkout line the cashier saw the girl's bruised up legs and asked what happened. The daughter responded with "What did you tell me to say, dad? Oh right! I fell down the stairs."

He had a fun time explaining that to the police.

5. To be fair, anyone who DOESN'T walk around naked when they have the house to themselves is the weirdo in my opinion. (from King0fThorns)

I was 16 and my parents just left the house for a dinner out. I had to do laundry so I start right after they left the door to get it done as early as possible.

As I'm filling the machine I notice a stain on my shirt and so I put it with the rest of the clothes. I also look at my pants and decide to add them as well along with my socks and...fuck it my underwear as well.

So I'm butt naked and I start the machine. I rush to the stairs to get to my room and dress up and that's when the front door (which is right where the stairs are) opens and I freeze.

My dad comes in and sees me naked. We both arent moving a few second and then he laughs, grabs his wallet on the table and says : "So THAT'S what you are doing while we aren't here?". He then closes the door while giggling.

I'm there still in shock and red as a beet. I rush to dress and call my parents on my mother's cellphone to tell them it's not what they think as they are just laughing their asses off.

6. Typical guy, always checking out women's lanyards. (from RichardBachman)

I used to work security/reception at my company, so I greeted everyone when they came in the door and made sure they were wearing their security badge. You could either wear your badge on a lanyard around your neck or on a retractable belt clip.

So I've been doing this job for like 2 years when I'm outside talking to some of the girls that work on the 2nd floor. One of them just flat out asks why I always check out women when they come in to visit.

Excuse me?

Turns out, there was a lot of talk about how I was "looking women up and down" when they came through the door. Well, I was looking everyone up and down. I would look at their chest first and if there was no badge there, my eyes would move to their belt. It was kind of my job and stuff.

7. Oh, now we can't smell panties in parking lots? I THOUGHT THIS WAS AMERICA??? (from Booji-Boy)

I will preface this by saying a couple of weeks prior to this, my wife had bought some frilly underwear on clearance sale, and a couple of bananas to eat on the way to work. I was chilling in the car at the store while she went in when I smelled nasty over-ripe bananas. I reached into the backseat and pulled out the bag that had been forgotten back there. I take the underwear out of the bag and tie the old banana up dog poo style. No big deal, right?

For whatever reason, my brain goes I wonder if these brand new underwear now reek of old squishy banana? and I put them to my nose and take a big whiff- right as a sweet old lady pulls into the parking spot in front of our car. She looks at me, panties pressed into my nose inhaling deeply, her eyes go wide with shock, and visibly shaking, she pulls back out of the spot and drives away. Literally leaves. Shopping trip cancelled. I know I had to look like some kind of degenerate pervert on a public minge-binge, but it wasn't what it looked like.

TLDR: Looked like a dirty panty sniffing weirdo in the grocery store parking lot, nearly make old lady stroke out in horror

8. Chrises of the world, please remember there are SO MANY OF YOU. (from cnc1702)

My friend and I were sitting at lunch bitching about this Chris guy who was in our class and who was an absolute twat. Really not a nice human being. At one point I turned around and saw another Chris, an absolute sweetheart, sitting nearby looking absolutely crushed. Took 5 minutes to convince him that we were not talking about him. I felt so bad though.

9. I think my neighbor's stalking me - I mean, they live RIGHT NEXT to me. Crazy, right? (from Piano9717)

I went to my friend's house last night and came back around 12:30am. To set some context, my friend lives about an hour away from me on the opposite side of the city. When I was driving back home afterwards, this car cut me off on the on ramp, and I honked at them. I then turned back up the music, and pretty much drove home on autopilot, but when I got off the freeway at my exit, I realized that the same car that cut me off was in front of me. After that, I got kind of curious, because it had been about 30 minutes since the incident, and we'd changed freeways twice already. I then got a little bit worried that they'd think I was following them home, but I didn't think too much of it--until the car started going up the same side streets I did.

Eventually, I realized that my 16-year old neighbor who just learned how to drive cut me off, and she and her friends were probably now petrified that some lunatic was following them home. I guess she'd called her parents in the meantime because she pulled into her driveway and the house lights were all lit up, and her dad (a huge guy) was standing outside with a baseball bat. I then pulled into my own garage and apologized for scaring them and it was all chill after that.

10. Let's play everyone's favorite game show, "Alcoholic Or Just Lazy?" (from gollumhokie)

I put my dad in this situation when I was a kid. Probably around 10 years old or so.

For context, my dad rarely drank in front of us growing up but would occasionally have a beer. As parents often do, he would have me go get it for him if we were in the same room. I was a lazy kid and didn't want to miss whatever we were watching on TV so I often found this to be an annoyance but pretty minor in the grand scheme of things.

So one day he's chatting with a couple coworkers and I'm there. They were joking around about something and he turns to me and asks "You like me, right?" I answer back "Yeah except for when you drink beer".

Adult me face palms every time I think about that. My dad is awesome.

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