I love Who's Line is it Anyway?, but I always feel embarrassed for poor Cathy Greenwood whenever she's on. I have nothing against her, but she's really not that funny, and Colin, Ryan, and the rest of the men (she's always the only woman, it's just not fair) don't help her out, but seem to give her grief for it when they all perform skits together. I can't think of any specific examples right now, but watch an episode and you'll see what I mean.

"Back in 1992, two show-business titans met onstage at the American Comedy Awards....Bea Arthur & Urkel"

Dear God. No wait, make that dear me. Because I ran right over here to check that out.

Makes your day, doesn't it? ;)

I'm going to pretend that I didn't even see that.

Are you kidding me? I think I can finally say that my life is complete after seeing that.

That's right up there with Bea Arthur's 'singing' on the Star Wars Holiday Special.

I just pissed myself. I'm not sure if it was from laughing or fear.

Well, I guess you should've gone before you left!

We might as well have glark close this thread because that about tops them all.

Wow, it makes you feel great when you can post something that reduces people to mixed emotions of laughter, awe, shock, and urination. ;)

I don't quite remember how I found it, just that it was one of the first things I saw when I first started going online. So, yeah...I've been pretty much tainted since then...

And shame. You cannot forget the lingering shame. In fact, I'm still cringing.

There, there. And it's your own fault - you should have been satisfied with the little snippet of info I provided in the VSE thread (how it ended up there is a mystery in itself)! But noooo...you had to come over here and witness it for yourself ;)

I can still hear the song taunting me. "Do it! Do it!"

Not sure if this is the right category, but I know I was embarrassed watching it, so here goes...

Over the weekend, I caught a program called Masters of Illusion, which featured a variety of magicians performing before an audience. I must say I found 90% of the performances very impressive. Then they brought out this guy Max Maven, whose specialty is "mind-reading" tricks. Honestly, I am still trying to figure out why people actually like this guy. I have never seen him do anything remotely impressive, but this one really took the cake.

For this "trick", he showed a triangle with 6 shapes along the edges. He asks the viewing audience to pick one of the 3 edges (remember, it's YOUR CHOICE!) and make a note of which shapes are on that edge. He then assigns a number to each of the six shapes. He then asks you to add the numbers together that correspond to the shapes you selected. He then totally amazes you by announcing that your number is TWELVE!

I'm sure the intended reaction was, "Wow! It was twelve! He did he do that?", but instead my reaction was, "Wow! They actually pay this guy big bucks to go on national TV and amaze audiences everywhere with his ability to add single digit numbers!"

Gilmore Girls: I used to like Lorelai, but now any scene she's in makes me cringed. She used to have other (positive) qualities besides her undeniable self-centeredness, but those are fading fast.

First, the guy she's dating asked her to sleep in his guest bedroom as he is an incredibly light sleeper and needs to be alone. OK, weird, but she just carried on and on instead of simply leaving if it really bothered her that much, even after he showed her the guest bedroom which was better stocked than most hotels.

Then she found out he went on a social date to a function which he can't take her because she refuses to let her parents know they're dating (parents were at function), and started pouting in manner that would be beneath the dignity of a toddler.

SHE'S forcing him to avoid telling her folks, yet she won't accept the consequences and tries to make the guy feel like dirt.
Talk about a double bind.

Any episode of Friends where Matthew Perry was in his "look what being addicted to pain killers does to your body" phase.

Those episodes of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire where the contestant is actually struggling and using lifelines on the first or second question. You know, the questions like "Which of these is not a color? a. Red b. Blue c. Green d. Cat".

Anytime the local news is jamming the camera and microphone in the face of some poor person who has just found out minutes earlier that a close relative has died, and asks them "What are you feeling right now?".

Anytime a politician is being interviewed and is asked a very straightforward question. They make no attempt to answer the question and just immediately tangent off into a five minute campaign speech.

I've been 'in training' for WWTBAM - watching it a lot and playing along to get a feel for it so next time I'm in NYC while they're having auditions I can go for it - and lately I've been feeling like such a freaking snob for cringing and looking away and finally changing the channel when that happens. So thank you for making me feel less alone, dhb!

Or better yet, when they actually get the first question wrong and they act so damn confident that they got it right. I just feel so bad for those people...

While we're on the topic, I remember one episode of WWtbaM where the contestant was studying to be a doctor (a doctor, people) and he was asked what was Ernie's favorite toy on Sesame Street and he actually used two of his lifelines!!!!!! I don't know about you, but I do not want this guy looking down my throat in the future!!

Chinky girl, about that Bea Arthur/Urkel video:
Sweet Lord!
Words fail me. Between that and seeing Richard Simmons on Who's Line is it Anyway tonight, there will be no sleep for Silversword.

*brain activity screeching to a halt* Hey, what what? Why?

Yeah ITA, and it was made even worse since he seemed to be wearing the same wardrobe as when he was bigger, making him look even more scary-skinny.

It will be a long time before anything, for me, will top the embarrassment I felt for crazy-ass Sam on The Apprentice, waiting for someone to greet him by the door and taking off his pants to do push-ups.

On a related reality-tv note, ScatGirl on Monday night's AI premiere? That wasn't funny, just really, really embarrassing. And I feel like I should be embarrassed for her, since she clearly wasn't for herself. Ouch.

Okay, I didn't catch the American Idol so I have to ask...ScatGirl?? That nickname alarms me a lot, considering the meaning of scat...explain? Even if it's traumatic?

I have a couple of college degrees and I have no idea what Ernie's favorite toy is - I never watched Sesame Street. ITA, however, with how stupid it was to use 2 lifelines on the question. Maybe he figured that if he could get past Ernie, he would get questions more within his frame of reference.

MyopiaGirl, scat as in scat-singing - jazz. Although, from what I've heard, the other meaning might be more accurate.

I just saw the end of the episode but it ended with Wayne curled up in a ball, sucking his thumb and wimpering. I think there was spooning in the form of a imaginary human bamboo raft involved.

Anytime SNL runs a rerun with that one sketch where Chris Kattan and Cheri Oteri are a horny couple who feeling each other up in public places and then freak when the host gets into it? I can't deal with it.

There's one where they're in an airplane and Will Ferrall and the host are sitting opposite them, and -- oh god, I can't watch it. I have to look away during that particular running sketch, it's so not funny to me. Just horribly mean.

ChinkyGirl, Urkel and Bea. It's like a car accident. Spattered all over my brain.

In singing, scatting is actually making up a bunch of nonsense syllables when you forget the words that come next. One time a guy in my town actually starting doing it while leading a church choir and was quickly relegated to the back row. On topic, my own pick is Heidi on Survivor Amazon and her pathetic attempts to get either Matt or Jenna to say they would rather have her with them in the final two. She just couldn't believe that even her best friend forever would choose someone else for that question, and just kept saying "Are you sure? You can't think of anyone else?" until finally Jeff had to step in and put a stop to it.

I temporarily erased that episode from my mind, but it's all coming back to me now. Oh, the shame in watching that entire episode is unbearable.

Heh. It's looks like I'm not the only one who thought so: Worst Family Shows of the Week

I am forced to quote a small portion of this article, for demonstration purposes:

My most embarrassing part of that episode was when Richard the Prop was supposed to be a lawn chair and when Ryan sat down in front of Richard's spread legs, Richard wrapped his legs around Ryan. Eek. Remembering it, now, gives me the shakes.

Except that in jazz it's a prized technique and some music schools teach classes in it (Ithaca has an excellent program). I don't watch AI so I don't know if that's what she was trying, but it's not necessarily a source of embarrassment and can highly entertaining and fun to watch. Based on the reactions here, I'm inclined to believe she was trying to do something too difficult or something she didn't understand if she really did mean to do it.

Heh. Scat Girl sounded like a dying animal regardless of what she was trying to do. But she was a plant, so I don't feel sorry or embarrassed for her at all.

I'd totally forgotten about that episode of 'Whose Line...'. With good reason, of course. That was some disturbing shit, and I felt embarrassed for all involved, especially poor Colin.

Thank you! I'm less traumatized now that I know the non-biological meaning of the word...eesh.

Was Scat Girl the one with the killer academic resume, student at Harvard, who also claimed to be from a family of professional singers? Because if that was her, calling that "scat" is, at best, kind. I think if some highly talented linguists were brought in, they would find she was attempting to sing actual lyrics in a jazzy melodic style, but with the Worst Diction Ever. Or she was attempting to prove her theory that consonants are superfluous in vocal performances. A bad, bad theory. Or, maybe, she was having a petit mal seizure. It can be so hard to tell.

No, scat girl was the one who 'scat' through Route 66 last Monday. I didn't get past the first 2.5 seconds, though, I only heard about the awfulness through the disclaimer and then the comments in the forum... I couldn't watch because that's my signature song (from high school choir... btw, based on what I've heard about, I'm confident that I could sing it 10 times better, and even I suck in the mediocre way), and it made me very nauseous and teary in the 2.5 seconds I watched (I'm constantly having to skip back and forth between the auditions and something else... anything else... they're far less balanced out than last year... oy)

I'm expecting the Golden Globes this Sunday to have at least one spectacularly embarrassing moment. It's tradition.

But will anything this Sunday come close to the sheer embarrassment of watching Elizabeth Taylor try to bestow the Best Picture Award some six years ago?

That mention of Scat-Girl reminds me of the shame I felt for Clay 2 No-Talent Boogaloo, just because I swear he was a little "special." Someone should have cared enough to talk him out of auditioning.

Bwah! Yeah, I'm still not sure.

Any mention of Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey. So embarrasing. Everytime they're on a talk show, all they talk about is all the sex they're having. I have to avert my eyes and babble incoherently in embarrassment for them. Same goes for the video Sweetest Sin. Puke.

Every single year, without fail, NBC makes me cringe in my seat when I hear the Golden Globes song. This year, they remade Outkast's "Hey Ya" so horribly, I thought I was going to cry. It featured such choice lines like this:

"She's great at finding Nemo...his Pancho is supreme-o!" (quoted from Dachelle, over at the Golden Globes thread)

I'm going to watch the encore of the show so I can hear the rest of it - I don't think I was paying attention much b/c it was so damn embarrassing.

"She looks great in her nightie... and look, there's 'Bruce Almighty'."

Yes, the Globes never fail to appall and embarrass with their opening number.

And Sharon Stone? Always seems drunk or stoned now and if she isn't, then I apologize but she needs to figure out why she comes across that way.

Most years, most awards shows, you have one or two young actresses with good figures who look as if they're going to fall out of their tops, but this year it was about 75% of them. I was honestly embarrassed for them.

Sarah Jessica Parker? You've won four of these in a row. Maybe you should try to be prepared?

I'm not even a big Will & Grace fan, but I felt embarrassed for them to miss another year of awards. It seemed odd that there was an NBC promo for the show, then they cut to a live interview at the W & G table with Dick Clark, then it was like the Kiss of Death - no awards for the rest of the night! Maybe they need to get voodoo dolls or something for next year.

I love SJP and everything, but she always acts so damn loopy at awards shows and talk shows, so she embarrasses me often as well. I thought she was having a nervous breakdown the way she was fluttering her hands like that!! It's just the Golden Globes for God's sake!

Hands down the most embarassing moment ever...past present and future is Ephram prematurely ejaculating on Everwood.

That was just painful to watch. I'm so glad I'm not a boy.

Did anyone mention Whitney Houston at the first annual BET awards? Hell, did anyone mention Whitney Houston at all?

What happened at the first BET awards?

Dood, it was the first time that she couldn't sing and her crackishness was on display. It was so bad that she handed the mic to a girl in the front row to sing for her. Gawd! I wanted to crawl under my couch.

Luke Perry nude scene in Oz. I was so embarrassed, there's just certain people we shouldn't see naked and Luke is one of them.

There was a scene last year on NYPD Blue where the actress playing Andy's girlfriend is naked and his son walks in the bathroom and she covers herself with her hands, that was pretty bad.

I just saw this recently but on Roswell when Max is rubbing Liz's and and she's has an orgasm from it.

Cheers when the gang loses a bet and has to sing "getting to know you" naked at another bar. Might not have seen anything but just the idea was embarrassing.

Liz's what? Her what?!? Please, I have to know! Hee.