#26. Monica Is Sick – Friends
The TV Series Friends has always kept things relatively family-friendly while still touching adult themes like death, violence, and sex, but in this episode, everyone on every corner of the world felt the awkwardness steaming out of one particular scene. Monica (played by Courteney Cox) tries to seduce her boyfriend, Chandler (played by Matthew Perry) but he doesn’t want to sleep with her because she’s sick, so she comes out with a plan.
Although she can barely talk and keep herself together, Monica tries to entice Chandler in a number of ways. However, Chandler wants nothing to do with his very sick girlfriend and tries to convince her to get some sleep. Then, Monica comes up with her last plan: she gets naked and rubs VapoRub all over her chest, which somehow gets Chandler’s attention and he finally gives in. Plain awkward would be an understatement.
#25. Will’s First Time – The Inbetweeners
British comedy The Inbetweeners follows the story of four teenage friends who struggle to find girls. One of the guys, Will (played by Simon Bird) is especially awkward and had never been with a girl before. But luck comes to his aid when he actually manages to hook up with his crush, Charlotte (played by Emily Atack). But things, of course, don’t go as planned for young and inexperienced Will.
Will had absolutely no clue what he was doing, and during this chapter, the camera shows the audience how he clumsily climbs on top of her, pulls some very bizarre moves, and completely disappoints the poor girl, who has to tell him that he’s actually… not in there. Date time is over after that, but Will asks Charlotte if it still counts as losing his virginity. This scene became iconic and brought the show to fame.
#24. The Wedding – Will and Grace
Will and Grace always came up with crazy, awkward situations to make their audience laugh and never failed to do so. But there is one episode, in particular, that will either make you laugh or cringe to death. In this episode, Will (played by Eric McCormack) and Grace (played by Debra Messing) are asked to be best man and maid of honor on a friend’s wedding, but Grace has a huge secret involving the groom: she slept with him once.
When the bride, Ellen, finds out about this, she tries to seduce Will to make Grace jealous, without knowing that Will is gay and there’s nothing going on between him and Grace. But that’s not the problem here. The issue is that the crazy, jealous bride jumps on Will by screaming “get a load of these torpedoes!” after ripping off her shirt, and dances very strangely while singing Give It Over to Your Mama. What were the writers thinking?
#23. Faking It – Seinfeld
In the episode The Mango, George (played by Jason Alexander) tells Jerry (Seinfeld) that he is worried that his new girlfriend has been faking it. Jerry takes this as an opportunity to brag about how his best friend and ex-girlfriend Elaine (played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus) never faked it while they were together. But, the problem arises when Elaine tells Jerry that he isn’t exactly right.
Upon finding out that Elaine did indeed fake it while they were in a relationship, Jerry spends the whole episode trying to convince Elaine to give him another shot so that he can prove to her that he is good in bed. Many of the episode’s dialogues are pretty awkward, as Elaine says no over and over again since she believed that sleeping together would ruin their friendship. Eventually, at the end of the episode, Jerry gets his way and sleeps with Elaine, but it ends up being terrible. How awkward is that?
#22. Travis and Laurie – Cougar Town
Courteney Cox can’t have a break, can she? She’s back on our list again for another awkward love scene, this time from Cougar Town. On the show, her character Jules is best friends with Laurie (played by Busy Philipps). It’s all fun and games for the two of them until Laurie starts dating Jule’s son, Travis. But the way Jules finds out about it is one of the most awkward scenes ever made.
Jules thinks Travis is gone and left the shower faucet open, so she rushes to the bathroom to close it. But when she opens the shower curtain, she finds her son and her best friend going at it right in front of her. Not only that: as a result of the shock, she slips and falls into the shower with them. Cougar Town is all about sexual freedom, but this scene just went too far!
#21. Fiery First Time – Felicity
Felicity revolves around the lives of a group of young adults who try to figure out the whole adult thing, so it naturally touches on themes such as sexuality. When Felicity (played by Keri Russell) decides she is ready to lose her virginity, she tells her boyfriend Noel (played by Scott Foley) that they should make it happen when they’re back in school after winter break. However, things go terribly wrong.
After overthinking it and spending days getting ready for the big moment, the nervous and awkward couple decide to leave all the planning behind and just try it once and for all. Unfortunately, Noel’s friends walk in on them, startling the couple, who accidentally knock a candle over and – you guessed it! – they start a fire. The whole room fills up with smoke, and the half-naked couple has to run out of the room to get help.
#20. Thinking of Obama – Fleabag
British comedy Fleabag is named after its main character (played by Phoebe Waller-Bridge), who is an angry, confused and sexually voracious young woman living in London. The show follows her life as she undergoes one misadventure after the other in every aspect of her life. But there is one scene that is particularly hard to watch, especially if you’re not used to that kind of humor.
To put it simply, Fleabag is laying in bed watching a press conference of none other than Barack Obama while her boyfriend is sleeping next to her. Then she decides to take matters into her own hands while watching the American president speak in front of the cameras, which wakes her boyfriend up. Caught in the act, Fleabag denies doing anything inappropriate, but her angry boyfriend breaks up with her and leaves.
#19. Monica’s Parents – Friends
Courteney Cox should add “awkward sex scene expert” to her résumé for sure. This time, we’re looking at a season two episode, where Monica and Richard (Tom Selleck) are just beginning to date and are keeping their relationship secret. Why is that? you may ask. Well, Richard is actually much older than Monica and is her father’s best friend, so they must keep it secret for the sake of the family.
At a family gathering, Monica and Richard meet up in the bathroom so they can talk, but when Monica’s parents go to the bathroom, she has to hide in the shower to avoid being seen, and that’s when everything takes a turn for the worse. After Richard leaves, Monica’s parents start making out, and eventually sleep together right there on the bathroom floor, while Monica hides behind the curtains, hearing everything.
#18. Long-Distance Fail – The Big Bang Theory
One recurring theme in television shows is awkward sex scenes involving the character’s parents, which is everybody’s nightmare. And The Big Bang Theory also has one of those in its records. When Leonard (Johnny Galecki) gets into a long-distance relationship with Priya (played by Aarti Mann), who lives in India, the couple tries their best to keep the romance alive.
But when Priya suggests that they should try cybersex, Leonard has a very hard time. He’s naturally shy, and can’t help feeling and behaving awkwardly when attempting to be sexy through messages. After a couple of failed attempts, Leonard decides to throw his shyness out the window and calls his girlfriend on Skype. As soon as she picks up, he starts delivering some cringy dirty talk until Priya interrupts him to let him know her parents are listening. Her folks heard every word he said, and it didn’t do the relationship any good.
#17. The Oysters – Two and a Half Men
The basic framework for Two and a Half Men is pretty much like this: Charlie (played by Charlie Sheen) is super successful with the ladies, while his brother Alan (played by Jon Cryer) always manages to screw things up and never succeeds in love. Therefore, there are plenty of awkward sex scenes involving Alan, but this one definitely takes the cake – or should we say the oysters?
Alan tries to spice things up with his girlfriend by taking her to a romantic hotel and ordering oysters, which are known for being an aphrodisiac. But while his girlfriend is taking a long time getting ready in the bathroom, Alan decides to kill time by eating way too many oysters. This doesn’t sit well with his stomach, and he has a code No. 2 emergency as his girlfriend comes out of the bathroom. That’s a great reason why to get dumped, isn’t it?
#16. Important Questions – New Girl
If there is one character on New Girl who is known for being awkward, it is definitely Schmidt (played by Max Greenfield). He has so many cringe-worthy moments throughout the show that it’s very hard to pick one. One of them is a flashback involving him and Nick (played by Jake Johnson). When the two of them were in college, Schmidt was very awkward and didn’t know how to behave around girls, so he asked Nick for advice.
Schmidt tells Nick that he’s planning on losing his virginity with a girl that same night, and asks a bunch of extremely awkward questions to his friend. At first, the questions don’t seem so weird… at least until he asks Nick “If I pee while I’m in there, will she die?”, a question which he just can’t answer. Even more awkward questions follow, and Nick just gives up. That’s what friends are for though, right?
#15. Handiwork – Workaholics
Workaholics is known for its ludicrous plotlines involving three eternal man-children that get in all sorts of trouble, so naturally, all sex scenes on the show are extremely awkward. But there is one scene that is particularly hard to sit through. When Ders (played by Anders Holm) is shopping at a tool store, he is approached by a random pregnant woman who starts flirting with him.
But the flirting quickly turns into a very friendly handshake right in the middle of the store. As the lady is going at it, she makes some seriously cringy dirty talk, and as Ders is finishing, she decides to take a picture of him as a souvenir and runs off. Then he’s left there in the middle of the store with his pants down, where everyone can see him. We can’t decide if the scene is funny, uncomfortable, or both.
#14. Small Reveal – Family Guy
Family Guy is famous for pushing boundaries, so there’s plenty of inappropriate, uncomfortable scenes to choose from. But one of the most bizarre plotlines is shown on the season 8 episode McStroke. Stewie, who is a baby, decides to infiltrate a high school disguised as a cool kid named Zach Sawyer, and he quickly gets all the ladies’ attention. But his façade is discovered sooner than expected.
He takes the most popular girl in school, Connie, on a date, and things go sour quickly. As they’re making out in a car, Connie reaches into Stewie’s pants, only to discover that he has baby-sized privates because…well, because he’s a baby. She laughs hysterically and kicks him out of the car, and later makes fun of him in front of the entire school. So, what could Stewie do to get back at her? He ends up framing her as a pedophile. Good old Family Guy!
#13. Sex Wizard – My Mad Fat Diary
My Mad Fat Diary follows the story of Rae (played by Sharon Rooney), a 16-year-old girl and her daily struggles. In one episode, Rae finally gets some long-awaited alone time with her love interest, Finn (played by Nico Mirallegro) in her bedroom. The audience can hear Rae’s thoughts rushing through her head, as she mentally catalogs the insecurities every single girl has prior to losing their virginity.
However, her worries disappear when she finds out that Finn is actually very good at what he’s doing. So good, that she calls him a sex wizard. But their fun comes to an end when Rae’s mother walks in on them and then breaks down in tears, mainly because she can’t believe her daughter is all grown up and is already having boyfriends over. We can’t think of a worse way to kill the mood, to be honest.
#12. Anniversary Breakfast – Modern Family
Having three kids and keeping the romance alive is no easy task, as shown in this episode of Modern Family. As a surprise for Phil (played by Ty Burrell) and Claire‘s (played by Julie Bowen) anniversary, their kids decide to surprise them with breakfast in bed, an idea that sounded great in theory, but of course, goes terribly wrong on the show. As the kids bring the breakfast upstairs, they walk in on a horrifying scene.
When the children open the door, they find their parents going at it on the bed. They drop the food on the floor and run out of the room while screaming in horror. To make things even more awkward, Phil and Claire decide to sit the children down for a talk about the birds and the bees, which is absolutely awkward, but also hilarious. At least they were trying to be responsible parents!
#11. Newlyweds – The Last Man on Earth
The Last Man on Earth is built on absurd, ludicrous plotlines, so it’s no surprise that one of its scenes made it to this list. What’s interesting is that this scene belongs to the third episode of the first season, so they set the bar really high on absurdity right from the start with one of the strangest sex scenes ever broadcasted on television, which involves some weird dirty talk, and beans.
After getting married, Carol (played by Kristen Schaal) and Phil (played by Will Forte) get in bed to consummate their marriage. That is when Phil finds out that Carol is quite…unique. She proceeds to make very strange, ridiculous dirty talk, with phrases like “You better put the food in the trees before the bears get it!”, whatever that means. The scene ends with Carol rolling over to eat some beans straight out of the can. Whatever floats your boat, Carol!
#10. Dirty Laundry – Family Guy
Family Guy is back on our list again. This time, because of a scene involving Peter (played by Seth McFarlane) and Lois (played by Alex Borstein). As Peter is in the living room watching TV with the kids, Lois calls him from the laundry room. Thinking that he’s being summoned for a laundry-related issue, Peter reluctantly makes his way down to the basement, only to find Lois half-naked, waiting for him.
What goes down in the basement is not shown, but heard. The scene shows the horrified faces of Chris (Seth Green), Meg (Mila Kunis) and the dog, Brian (also played by McFarlane), as you can hear Peter and Lois going at it and saying things like “Put Meg’s brain your mouth.” The scene closes with Brian saying “Yeah, my hearing’s a lot better, so I hear, like, suction and stuff.” TMI, Brian!
#9. Alien Love – Avatar
This scene from James Cameron‘s Avatar has earned a spot in history. As the main character, played by Sam Worthington, infiltrates an alien planet to help humankind take over, he falls in love with Neytiri (Zoe Saldana), a Na’vi woman belonging to the alien race that lived on the planet. As their relationship evolves, there comes the time for the two to consummate their love, and it gets pretty weird.
The Na’vis have a sacred tree known as the Tree of Souls, and connecting with the tree is a spiritual experience. What the love birds do in one scene, is mingle their anemone-like braids in alien union beneath the tree, which is the alien version of intercourse. While it is a highly emotional, romantic moment, many people have found this scene to be very strange, and a lot of people didn’t even realize it was actually a sex scene.
#8. Caught Red-Handed – Mad Men
On Mad Men, there are more than enough love scenes, but several of them are very, very awkward. In fact, it happened more than once that the characters were caught in the act, but this one is especially uncomfortable. In one episode, Don (played by Jon Hamm) ends up sleeping with his neighbor and ex, Sylvia (played by Linda Cardellini). But who catches them?
Don’s young daughter, Sally (played by Kiernan Shipka) walks in on them, and freezes in shock, while the two keep doing it because they don’t notice her. Then, Sally drops something on the floor and runs off, alerting the couple. The very awkward scene is followed by Don angrily trying to talk to his daughter, while she doesn’t want to let him in. Who wouldn’t feel terrible after seeing their dad doing that, though?
7#. Robot Style – The Big Bang Theory
The Big Bang Theory is back on our list with an even cringier sex scene, this time involving Howard (played by Simon Helberg). The awkward and loveable Howard creates a robotic hand to help him with daily tasks at work and at home. As the robot is giving him a massage, a brilliant idea comes to his mind: making the robot… give him a hand with a different job. Needless to say, it goes terribly wrong.
Howard’s manhood gets stuck in the robot, and he is forced to call his friends for help. A quarter of the episode is spent showing how Howard’s friends try to come up with a solution, such as disassembling the robot and chopping it off, all the while Howard’s mother tries to walk in the room to bring cookies for her son and his friends. Eventually, the group ends up at the hospital to get it removed by a doctor.
#6. No Strings Attached – Louie
Louie is loosely based on the life of Louis C.K., who also plays the main character, but most of the plotlines are taken to the extreme, and there sure are many awkward moments. However, the show doesn’t really delve into sex, except for this episode. Louie brings his daughter to school and is approached by a nameless mother, who makes him a strange and spontaneous proposal.
She asks him if he is down for a steamy night together, no strings attached, to which Louie agrees. But when he shows up at her place, he is faced with some strange requests. The weird woman sends him on a scavenger hunt for certain items necessary for the deed, including blueberries. When he finally gets them, the woman sits in bed and cries while eating them. Not the ending he was waiting for, I guess!
#5. Surprising Mom and Dad – That ’70s Show
Nobody can think of a worst nightmare than catching your parents having sex, right? Well, television shows have exploited this horrifying concept many times over the years, such as The Simpsons and Friends, but That ’70s Show was no exception. On season one, Eric (played by Topher Grace) comes back early from a night out, and can’t find his parents anywhere, so he decides to look for them in their room.
As he approaches their bedroom, he hears romantic music playing inside the room and candlelight lighting up the house, which should’ve raised some red flags for Eric, but he still enters the room anyway. As he opens the door, he finds his mom Kitty and his dad Red going at it like a couple of rabbits. The audience can’t see what is going on, but they can hear it while looking at Eric’s horrified and confused face. Poor Eric!
#4. Spicin’ It Up – The Simpsons
There are plenty of awkward scenes to choose from when it comes to The Simpsons, but there’s one in particular that has been engraved in many of the viewers’ minds since the episode aired more than 20 years ago. When Marge and Homer celebrate their anniversary, their love life seems lackluster, and they try to spice things up a little to keep the marriage alive. But things just don’t go as planned.
While trying to have sex in public, Marge and Homer get on a hot air balloon. The balloon unexpectedly takes off, and he almost falls out of it, but luckily holds on to a rope. As he is dangling from it, he ends up crashing against a Church with a glass ceiling, of all places. As people pray inside, they see a naked Homer sliding from the glass ceiling, right above the Church’s cross. This scene was pretty controversial, but the producers managed to get the episode aired anyway.
#3. Noretta – How I Met Your Mother
Hit comedy How I Met Your Mother has no shortage of awkward scenes that make you crack up, but one scene is particularly unforgettable. Barney (played by Neil Patrick Harris) finally decides to commit to the girl of his dreams, Nora (played by Nazanin Boniadi), and everything seems to be going great for the two. That is until Barney’s brother points out that Nora is very similar to their mother, Loretta.
Although he initially disagrees, these thoughts get to Barney’s head and he can’t stop thinking about it. Then, when he’s cuddling with Nora on the couch, she starts singing the same song his mother used to sing to him when he was little, and he loses it. He can see and hear his mother as Nora sings, and when she tries to sleep with him, he pictures his own mother lying on top of him. We still don’t know how Barney recovered after that!
#2. Cersei & Jamie – Game of Thrones
Game of Thrones is known for not holding anything back when it comes to violence and sex. In fact, the series has shown full male and female nudity, all sorts of violence, and more. But one thing that is still very hard to watch after 8 seasons is Jamie (played by Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) and Cersei (played by Lena Headey) having sex since the two are brother and sister.
Yes, the twins have been together since they were teens, and they are shown going at it on several episodes, but it’s still very cringy. The worst of their scenes is what triggers the entire plot of the show right in the first episode. The two of them are discovered by Bran, who was just a little boy. To cover up their secret, Jamie pushes him out of the window, and the rest is history.
#1. Turkey Time – Gigli
This one is just… hard to describe. Gigli is a romantic comedy starred by then-lovebirds Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck, and the dialogue is truly priceless. The best part of it all is that the movie was originally a mob movie, but since Affleck and Lopez were dating in real life, the studio pressured the director into turning the movie into a rom-com to cash in on the stars’ relationship.
On one of its best scenes, Jennifer Lopez tries to seduce Affleck by putting on some sexy clothes, but Affleck doesn’t seem to be very interested and ignores her. Then, Lopez proceeds to let him know that she wants to sleep with him, by delivering one of the best movie quotes of all time: “It’s turkey time… Gobble gobble” while opening her legs and revealing she’s wearing nothing underneath. Wow. You definitely need some courage in order to say that line!