15 People Share Their Most Cringeworthy Party Stories So You Can Avoid Repeating Them

From Redditor u/kablooooooom:

I went to a friend's birthday party a couple of years ago and I didn't know anyone besides the birthday girl and her boyfriend, who happens to be a physics grad student.

Just to set the scene a little bit, on my way in to grab a drink, I passed a large group of people in the dining room drawing frantically on a white board and arguing about science-y things. Which is fine, you do you. Just for some context…

Anyway, someone put out a thing of cookies and this guy was just like "oh cookies, I like to get mine from the internet." I barely knew anyone at this party, so I figured why not, I might as well try to talk to this guy and very earnestly I asked, "oh where do you get your cookies? Is it like a special bakery or do you just get like chips ahoy from fresh direct?" And he just looked at me and said "I meant like cookies you get from websites…" and slinked away.

A couple of drinks and far less awkward encounters later, I wind up talking to cookies kid again. We made some small talk… meaning I asked him a bunch of questions. Eventually, I asked him how he knew the hosts of the party--he was in the juggling club with them. My follow up question was along the lines of "how'd you get into juggling, were all your friends into it or were you like the only one who could do it and they were all astounded by your skills?" He then proceeds to tell me that everyone loved his juggling, he'd walk into the cafeteria and people would scream his name until he juggled a little for him. I was just like "oh, that's awesome. That must've been so cool for you!" And he was just like "that's not true, I was actually home-schooled." Keep in mind, I've been asking him questions for a good 10 minutes and doing my best to talk to someone and keep it upbeat, and when he said that… I just didn't have anymore questions to ask. And I just said "oh that's cool." He takes a beat, pulls out his phone, flips it open (I can see the phone isn't even on) and says "Oh, I have to go." Slams the phone closed and ran straight out the front door.

From Redditor u/philophile:

The awkward horror of my high school play's aftershow party (I was stage manager). It started out great, everyone who showed up had been working on the play for months, so we had learned how to have a good time together. So we're about 20 high school kids crammed into one guy's living room, watching a shitty recording of the last performance, when the doorbell rings. Some geniuses had decided to invite the drama teacher/director of the play... and he had actually showed up. This guy was a temp on a 1 year contract, probably late thirties, and he always gave off a bit of a lonely, 'clinging to the old days' vibe, joking with the actors about other teachers, etc. Anyway, he sits down on the floor in the middle of all these students, we keep watching the performance, but most conversation besides the actors calling out their lines pretty much dies down. It was painfully obvious that he had known he was getting himself into an awkward situation, and that about 30 microseconds after he sat down, realized it was worse than he could have imagined. Came up with an excuse and left after less than half an hour. Poor guy, but we all managed to laugh about it after he'd left.

From a former Redditor: 

I went to a birthday party where I was the only one who came, and I didn't even know the girl very well. She had a ton of food, lots of decorations, and music playing, all of which lent to the horrifically awkward atmosphere. Lively dancing music while you silently eat chips on the couch is not fun. The hostess/birthday girl posted angry Facebook statuses all night about no one coming and didn't even talk to me. I left after about twenty minutes.

From Redditor u/bllewe:

Retirement Party for a guy who had served 30 years in the company. Wasn't a popular guy at all, a bit of a d*ck but he asked me to attend so I begrudgingly went along. He had rented a hall that could have easily fit 900 people in it. There was him, his wife, and me there for about 45 minutes before a group of 5 other men turned up. There was an enormous buffet, a band and he had written a speech. It was mortifying. I made my excuses after an hour or so, couldn't bear to stay there.

From a former Redditor:

My wife's aunt and uncle invited us to their campground for a 4th of July BBQ. We arrive and her cousin offers us beer from a cooler. She says "help yourself" and then, his uncle shows up from fishing about 45 minutes later, see us drinking a beer, and makes a comment about us drinking "his" beer. Now, we had asked what we needed to bring and were told nothing. They had "more than enough of everything". 10 minutes later the uncle makes another comment about us drinking the beer and says he is just kidding. I get up to walk down to the creek and overhear him talking to another guy about how he couldn't believe we wouldn't show up with anything and drink his beer. At this point, I get in the car and go to the store up the road to buy some.

When I get back the aunt says, "I hope hotdogs are good enough for you because that's all I am making".

From Redditor u/cheesycells:

An honor society beach bonfire party. No one was talking. I repeat NO ONE, except the club president who was desperately trying to save the atmosphere. The whole time people were just sitting around the bonfire with the thousand-yard stare. It was excruciatingly awkward.