Awkward Would You Rather

One hundred and thirty-five awkward questions, two answers each, and no dignified way out: this is the embarrassing edition of would you rather. The principle is simple and cruel. Read a dilemma, everyone picks their preferred shame, and the percentages instantly reveal the rest of the world's side. Wave back at someone waving at the person behind you, or wave and get nothing back? You have to choose. That's the rule.

The pack covers the whole territory of universal embarrassment: the phone that betrays you, the street and its strangers, public transport, the table, the body doing its own thing, the elevator, forgotten names, the shops, the cringe memories, the misunderstandings, school, video calls, failed gestures, politeness gone wrong, and even heroic shames, the ones you choose to own. Fifteen families of situations you have lived through. Yes, all of them.

Awkward questions that make everyone feel better

The paradox of these awkward questions is that they heal. Finding out that 78 percent of the world has answered someone talking into their earpiece rehabilitates ten years of late-night memories. Every percentage is a miniature group therapy: you thought you were the only person who ever shared the wrong screen, and here is half of humanity confessing with you.

It's also the most effective honesty detector in the catalog. The questions never ask did this happen to you, they ask which version do you prefer, and that's where everything plays out: choosing is confessing. The person who answers too quickly to asking the obvious question everyone was wondering versus nodding along and looking up the answer secretly clearly has a well-oiled system.

Some families deserve a special mention. Politeness gone wrong contains the perfect crime: giving a gift back to the very person who gave it to you, a family-party classic nobody ever admits to. School reminds us that humanity splits in two: those who dropped their entire pencil case in the silence, and those who lie about it. And the video calls prove that technology invented no new shames, it just added a mute button to the old ones.

In a group, every question triggers the same chain reaction: a silence, an oh no, then someone telling THE story of that one time. The anecdotes come out on their own, because it is infinitely easier to confess your shame when the question confessed first. It's the perfect game for turning a polite evening into a memorable one.

How to play the 135 questions without blushing

Start with the descriptive families, the street, the transport, the shops, the ones where you laugh at situations. Then climb toward the cringe memories and the misunderstandings, where you laugh at yourself. And finish with the heroic shames, where everyone reveals their true relationship with other people's eyes. Vote alone to measure your embarrassment tolerance, or in a group to find out who owns everything and who denies everything. The full list is right below: pick one, choose your shame, compare. Blushing is included in the price.

135 awkward would you rather questions

• Send a message about someone directly to that person or receive a message about you by mistake?
• Your music blasting in a silent room or your phone ringing during a minute of silence?
• Get caught snooping on someone's profile, with a like from 2014 as proof or have someone dig through your profile back to 2014 and quote your old posts to you?
• Five seconds of your search history on the big screen or five seconds of your recent photos on the big screen?
• Send a friend a four-minute voice message and find out they never listened to it or admit to a friend that you didn't listen to their four-minute voice message?
• Have everyone see how many times you rewrite each message before sending it or have every message go out as the first draft, with no chance to reread it?
• Accidentally react to a very old story or send a thumbs up in reply to bad news?
• Leave a group chat and have everyone get the notification or get removed from a group chat with no explanation at all?
• Show someone a photo and silently let them scroll through the next ones or refuse to hand over your phone to show a photo and look like you're hiding something?
• Wave back at someone waving at the person behind you or wave at someone and get nothing back?
• Keep walking in the same direction as the person you just said goodbye to or do the three-step sidewalk dance with a stranger?
• Trip and glare at the ground accusingly or turn a half-trip into a little jog?
• Say hi to a stranger who looked like a friend or ignore a real friend you didn't recognize?
• Run after the bus and miss it in front of everyone at the stop or catch the bus out of breath and hunt for your ticket for a minute while the driver stares?
• Ask for directions then walk the opposite way or refuse help and circle past the same person?
• Have a stranger ask if you're okay because you looked sad or ask a stranger if they're okay and get a curt yes, I'm fine?
• Clap alone at the end of a movie or be the only person not laughing in the theater?
• Bump into someone ten minutes after a big goodbye and have to say it all again or cross paths with the same person three times in one day and pretend not to see them?
• Fall asleep on a stranger's shoulder on the train or have a stranger fall asleep on your shoulder on the train?
• Miss your stop because you didn't dare disturb anyone or make the whole row stand up to let you through?
• Dodge the fare for the first time and get a fifty-dollar fine in front of the whole carriage or forget your pass at home and get a fifty-dollar fine in front of the whole carriage?
• Put your bag on a seat and meet a standing passenger's eyes or ask someone to move their bag off the seat?
• Have to weigh in out loud on two strangers' argument until the last stop or have a stranger weigh in out loud on your phone argument until the last stop?
• Sneeze really loudly in a packed train with no time to cover up or cough the whole ride and watch people move seats one by one?
• Be squeezed against a stranger in a packed carriage, unsure where to look, for ten stops or be in a nearly empty carriage and watch the only other passenger sit right next to you?
• Offer your seat to someone who didn't want it and stand right next to them or keep your seat while someone who needs it stands, and feel the whole carriage staring?
• Get off at the wrong stop to escape a nosy seatmate, then wait twenty minutes for a train or put up with a nosy seatmate until your real stop, answering politely the whole way?
• Find out on the way home you had spinach in your teeth all through dinner or have to tell your host at the table that they have spinach in their teeth?
• Have your stomach rumble so loudly the whole table stops and stares at you or knock your glass over on the white tablecloth and watch your host mop it up in silence?
• Speak off the cuff to twenty people at a table and lose your train of thought halfway or have a friend read aloud to twenty people a text about you, embarrassing stories included?
• Handle a burning-hot bite while keeping a smile or find a food you hate on your plate at your hosts' place?
• Eat finger food with cutlery or eat cutlery food with your fingers?
• Open a gift you hate in front of everyone and fake being thrilled or watch the person you give a gift to hesitate for three seconds before smiling?
• Start eating before everyone else or be the last one eating while everyone waits?
• The bite sliding off your fork onto your white shirt or the sauce splashing your table neighbor?
• Leave a ridiculous tip by mistake and watch the waiter count it, unable to explain or leave a huge tip by mistake and have to take it back from the still-smiling waiter?
• Your voice cracking mid important sentence or a nervous giggle at the worst possible moment?
• Blushing whenever someone says your name or sweaty palms at every handshake?
• Sneeze seven times in a row every time you meet someone new or get the hiccups every time you have something important to say?
• Yawning on loop while someone talks to you or your eyes watering for no reason mid-conversation?
• Have a voice that carries, so strangers at the next table follow all your conversations or have a voice so quiet that your friends make you repeat every sentence and miss all your punchlines?
• The word stuck on the tip of your tongue mid-sentence or replacing the missing word with a made-up one, confidently?
• Burst out laughing alone in the street while remembering a joke or smile at your phone and have a stranger think it's for them and come over to chat?
• Stare your conversation partner straight in the eyes without blinking the whole time, unable to stop or avoid the other person's gaze and stare at a spot behind them, until they turn around?
• Have a face that betrays everything you think in real time, boredom included or have a deadpan face that makes everyone think you're angry?
• Twenty floors of elevator silence or twenty floors of mandatory small talk?
• Accidentally pressing every button or getting off on the wrong floor and pretending you live there?
• Holding the door for someone so far away they have to run or letting go of the door right as someone arrives?
• Walk at exactly the same pace as a stranger down an endless hallway or speed up to pass a stranger and have to keep that pace to the end of the hallway?
• Step into an elevator where everyone knows each other and chats without you or step into an elevator and have everyone go quiet all at once?
• Thirty minutes stuck in an elevator with a vague acquaintance or thirty minutes stuck with a very chatty stranger?
• Ring someone's doorbell and hear footsteps stop behind a door that never opens or look through the peephole at someone you don't want to let in, and hear them ring three times?
• Knocking and walking in without waiting or waiting for a come in outside an empty room?
• Knock at midnight to complain in front of the neighbor's thirty guests, and become the building grump or say nothing, don't sleep, and assure the neighbor the next day that you heard nothing?
• Forgetting a name mid-introduction or calling someone the wrong name for six months, uncorrected?
• Saying nice to meet you to someone you've met three times or hearing nice to meet you from someone you've known for years?
• Be stuck for ten years with a ridiculous nickname from your first day at work or stay the new person to the whole team for ten years, with no nickname or even a name?
• Answering to a name that isn't yours or wearing a badge with your name misspelled all day?
• Introducing two people who know each other very well or forgetting to introduce the person waiting next to you?
• Mispronounce someone's name and get corrected in front of the whole table or hear your name mispronounced all night and never dare to correct anyone?
• Misspelling a name while signing a group card or asking someone's name after a whole year?
• Have a name nobody ever remembers the first time or have a name everyone comments on every time you're introduced?
• Being casual with someone who stays formal with you or being formal with someone who's already casual with you?
• The alarm gate beeping when you took nothing or your card declined in front of a full line?
• Accept a salesperson's help and leave with something you never wanted or say you're just looking and feel the salesperson follow you around the whole store?
• Return a piece of clothing and explain out loud why it doesn't suit you or keep a piece of clothing you regret and wear it once in public to justify buying it?
• Queueing ten minutes in a line that wasn't one or getting cut in line and not daring to say anything?
• Getting stuck in a too-small garment in the fitting room or asking for the next size up, out loud?
• Saying hello in the wrong shop and leaving immediately or doing three laps of the store to avoid leaving empty-handed?
• Count out your loose change for a whole minute while the line behind you sighs or pay by card for a fifty-cent item and hear the cashier sigh?
• Set off a demo toy that won't stop, right in the middle of the store or ring the service bell by mistake and have to invent a question when someone shows up?
• Run into your boss at the checkout and watch them inspect your cart or run into your boss in the frozen aisle in ripped sweatpants and messy hair?
• Relive your worst middle school embarrassment for real, just once, exactly as it happened or hear a witness retell your worst middle school embarrassment at every class reunion?
• Have your cringe memories come back every night just as you fall asleep or have your cringe memories hit you during a family dinner and show all over your face?
• A shame everyone forgot except you or a shame everyone remembers except you?
• Have your mom play the video of your fifth-grade show at every family party or have your teenage blog stay online for anyone who searches your name?
• A memory that keeps every detail of your shames or a memory that invents shames that never happened?
• Understanding an awkward remark ten years later or suddenly remembering an appointment missed ten years ago?
• Groan out loud on the bus over an old embarrassment, in front of strangers or suddenly blush in a meeting over an old embarrassment, in front of your coworkers?
• Have a stranger laugh and say they remember you, without ever explaining why or have a stranger explain in detail, in front of your friends, why they remember you?
• A yearly reminder of your worst shame or a random shame drawn every month?
• Answering someone talking into their earpiece or telling your life story to someone wearing earphones?
• Ask a fellow diner for the check because you mistook them for the waiter or have a diner hand you their coat because they think you work the coat check?
• Read a kid a story doing all the voices just as their parents walk in or read a kid a story in a flat voice and have them beg for their mom to finish?
• Nodding along and discovering it was a question or saying what and answering before they repeat?
• Standing up for a hug meant for someone else or staying seated while the whole table stands?
• Answering a question asked to someone else or having someone answer in your place?
• Taking an ironic sentence literally or having your irony taken literally?
• Waiting half an hour at the wrong meeting spot or settling in comfortably at the wrong apartment's party?
• Fall asleep during a movie at a friend's place and wake yourself up snoring or fight sleep all evening with your head drooping in front of everyone?
• Get called up to the board on the one day you weren't paying attention or raise your hand confidently, forget your question and leave the whole class waiting?
• Your love note passed around the whole class or your grade school nickname following you to high school?
• Call your teacher Mom in front of the whole class or have your mom call you by your baby nickname in front of the whole class?
• Have the teacher walk in just as you're imitating their voice for the class or have the teacher overhear you saying they're your favorite teacher?
• Have your paper read out as the best example, then get side-eye from the whole class or have your paper read out anonymously as a bad example, with the whole class guessing it's yours?
• Have your teacher tell your parents how you behave in class, with nothing softened or have your parents tell your teacher how you behave at home, with nothing softened?
• Show up late on class photo day, with everyone already lined up and watching or show up to school in costume on the wrong day, a week before the costume party?
• Get picked last for the sports team in front of the whole class or be team captain and have to pick your best friend last in front of the whole class?
• Your chair creaking at every micro-movement during a test or dropping your entire pencil case in the silence?
• Talking for two minutes on mute or discovering your camera was on the whole time?
• Being the one asking can you hear me every call or being the one frozen mid-grimace?
• Leave a voicemail, ramble for a full minute and have no way to delete it or hang up on the voicemail without a word and call back three times in a row?
• A funny filter you can't turn off in a serious call or a virtual background revealing patches of your real room?
• Be the only one on a video call with your camera on or be the only one on a video call with your camera off when everyone else has theirs on?
• Sharing the wrong screen or forgetting to stop sharing and living your life on it?
• Accidentally send your frank opinion of your boss to the whole team except your boss or accidentally send your frank opinion of your boss to your boss alone, and nobody else?
• Have someone you live with walk past in pajamas behind you during a serious video call or have someone you live with lean into your camera to wave at everyone during a serious video call?
• Cutting off the same person three times or leaving a silence so long they ask if you're still there?
• Drop a plate in a packed restaurant and hear the whole room applaud or drop a plate in a packed restaurant and have the whole room go silent to stare at you?
• Apologize on reflex to someone who just bumped into you or have someone apologize to you three times when you were the one who bumped into them?
• Reply in their language to a tourist speaking yours and stay stuck in it the whole ride or speak your own language louder and louder to a tourist who doesn't understand a word?
• Say I love you to your boss when hanging up, with the whole team listening on speaker or say I love you to your boss when hanging up, and be reminded on every call all year?
• Fake a phone call to avoid someone and have your phone ring right in front of them or say hi to someone you wanted to avoid and get stuck in ten minutes of small talk?
• Launching your phone across the room with an enthusiastic gesture or clapping and hitting the person next to you?
• Make the whole team laugh in a meeting while your boss stares at you, unsmiling or make only your boss laugh in a meeting while the whole team rolls their eyes?
• Get up to leave and find out the party was only just getting started or stay until the end and realize the hosts had been waiting for you to leave for an hour?
• Publicly congratulate a coworker on a promotion that was meant for someone else or publicly receive congratulations for a promotion you didn't get?
• Wish someone happy birthday a day early, with the cake and candles already lit or wish someone happy birthday a month late, with the exact same excitement?
• Giving a gift back to the person who gave it to you or recognizing your own gift re-gifted to someone else?
• Hug your future father-in-law as he holds out his hand, and hear him tell it at every party or shake your future mother-in-law's hand as she opens her arms, and hear her tell it at every party?
• Burst into tears on the stairs in front of a neighbor you've never spoken to or have a neighbor you've never spoken to burst into tears in front of you on the stairs?
• Complimenting an unchanged haircut or missing a real major change?
• Politely refusing a slice you really wanted or serving yourself first without being offered?
• Show up empty-handed to a dinner where everyone else brought a dish or bring a homemade dessert to a fully planned dinner and watch it go straight in the fridge?
• Arrive right on time to a party and be the only guest for forty minutes or arrive an hour late and interrupt the welcome speech?
• Making the call you sign and never calling or calling that very second from the parking lot?
• Sing an entire song in the street for a hundred dollars or dance for one minute in the subway for a hundred dollars?
• Wear an ask me why sign for a whole day or answer any question honestly for one hour?
• Reenact your worst embarrassment for your friends once, on purpose, to take the sting out or keep your worst embarrassment secret forever and replay it alone in your head?
• Take the elevator for a single floor, with people watching or stop mid-staircase to catch your breath, with people watching?
• Ask for a break during an easy hike or admit you don't know the reference everyone is quoting?
• Ask the obvious question everyone was wondering or nod along and look up the answer secretly?
• Ask a stranger to take your photo, then ask them to take it again or keep a blurry photo rather than ask the stranger who took it to try again?
• Start the happy birthday song first and too high or wait for someone else to start and sing off-beat?
• Haggle at a yard sale and get refused or pay full price to avoid negotiating?