Most Awkward Love Scenes In TV History

Just as television idealizes various jobs, living situations, and eras of history, it often depicts romantic and sexual encounters as magical moments where nothing can possibly go wrong. Everyone looks good from every angle. No one ever interrupts heartfelt proposals. Neighbors are never ruining the mood by blasting show tunes at full volume. Real life, as we know, is rarely so perfect. Love (and all that goes with it) is, in fact, one of the messiest parts of life. 

But today, we're not interested in impossibly perfect depictions of grand, romantic gestures and midnight encounters. We're taking a look at the moments when television didn't make things sexy and heartfelt, only really, really awkward. As awkward as your worst date, first time, and your high school prom. Some of these love scenes are uncomfortable on purpose. Some of them are utterly in earnest. All of them are horrifically, unforgettably awkward. Brace yourself and read on.

For as straight as it typically plays most sitcom tropes, How I Met Your Mother takes some really deep dives into absurdity and subversion. Few episodes showcase this attitude as well as the season seven episode "Noretta." Even though the awkward scenes are in the characters' heads, it doesn't make things any less bizarre.

The premise of the episode is that everyone starts to realize how much their partners remind them of their parents. This leads to a long series of cringe-inducing scenes in which characters get involved in various stages of intimacy with their parents. Nothing like simulated incest on a prime-time sitcom!

The whole episode serves as a way to cram older actors into strange clothing and have actor Jason Segel almost kiss actor Bill Fagerbakke. The imaginary parent swaps are well done, and you do genuinely laugh when each character realizes how much their partner acts like their parent. It's a classic sitcom setup executed to perfection: Sort of the MO for How I Met Your Mother as a whole. But that doesn't mean we'll be revisiting "Noretta" any time soon.

Fleabag is a wonderful show, and Phoebe Waller-Bridge deserves all the plaudits she receives for it: It's an unflinching look at just how messed up everyday life can be. Well, it's unflinching for the writers and actors — for the audience, it's nearly impossible not to flinch at pretty much everything Fleabag throws at you.

One of Fleabag's most infamous scenes comes very early in the show's run, when Waller-Bridge's character is lying in bed next to her sleeping boyfriend. She is watching Barack Obama give a speech and ... something about it really gets her motor running. Trying not to wake up the man lying right next to her, Fleabag decides to take care of her physical needs. Of course he wakes up, and finds his lady friend masturbating next to him while she watches Barack Obama on screen.

It's bizarre, hilarious, and awful, which could also basically serve as a tagline for the entire show. The scene was made even funnier when Obama named Fleabag one of his favorite shows of 2019. He made no mention of his cameo, to everyone's relief.

Not all of the scenes in this list directly involve sex. There is plenty of awkward nookie on television, but making a grand, romantic gesture fall flat is just as impressive a feat of acting. That sort of nightmare is the domain of Michael Scott, The Office's nightmare of a boss, who never met a girlfriend he couldn't embarrass publicly. That brings us to "Diwali."

This season three episode is a classic, and for good reason: It braids together multiple character arcs, puts The Office crew in a unique situation, and demonstrates the show's mastery of cringe comedy. Things kick off horribly when Kelly invites the entire office to a Diwali celebration. Michael, thinking that Diwali is essentially "Indian Halloween," invites then-girlfriend Carol as his date. Carol dresses up as a cheerleader.

This is humiliating on its own — but it gets worse. Michael decides to propose to Carol during the festival. He is shot down, as it is only their ninth date. Later, he tries to kiss Pam, who also shoots him down. It's a parade of embarrassment from beginning to end, in pure Office style.

Girls has never shied away from exploring some of the less-than-ideal aspects of sex. It's usually played for comedic effect, but it also genuinely explores some of the weirder and more embarrassing aspects of the act. This brings us to Adam, played by Adam Driver, and the things he likes to fantasize about.

Adam and Hannah say a lot of strange things during their sexual encounters, but Adam really takes it over the top in episode two of the first season. He begins to relay to Hannah the things he wants her to imagine: She's a young prostitute carrying a Cabbage Patch lunch box and he's going to send her home to her parents covered in ... well. You get the picture.

The fact that it's Adam Driver — now best known as Kylo Ren — saying these things makes it all the more bizarre, as is the fact that Hannah seems fine with it. It's weird as all get-out, but hey, that's kind of the point of Girls.

Game of Thrones kee[s audiences titillated with gratuitous violence and sex as it tells the story of a fictional world at war. Initially, the series sticks close to George R.R. Martin's books — which makes for some very uncomfortable scenes. In the very first episode, for example, Daenerys Targaryen gets married to Khal Drogo and consummates the union outdoors.

The show makes no mention of it, but the books certainly do: Dany is only 13 years old when she gets married. For fans of Martin's books, that makes for some really awkward viewing as the showrunners certainly didn't leave the union to the audience's imagination. Moreover, the encounter in the show is depicted as far more violent than it is in the books — though of course, Dany in the books isn't exactly making a free choice either.

Now, the show deliberately avoids getting into age specifics. Daenerys seems certainly older than 13 in this early episode. Still, it's astounding to think that one of the biggest television series of all time featured both this bit and two twins having sex (and trying to murder a child who witnessed it) in its very first episode.

Trying to pick one scene out of Sex Education as the "most awkward" is like trying to pick a "most delicious" Michelin-starred restaurant — it would be hard to argue with any of your picks. For our money, it doesn't get much more cringe than the opening moments of the show's very first episode.

A lot of movies and television (surprise!) don't depict sex the way it actually is. Sex Education makes a point to show that sex isn't always completely mind-blowing — though it's hopefully enjoyable, there's a lot of room for strange happenings. In the show's first episode, we see two inexperienced people getting to know one another. It starts strange, as the girl in the scene, Aimee, is quite obviously imitating something she's heard in porn and the guy, Adam, is... not sure about it. Apparently his performance wasn't believable, either, as Aimee ends up demanding proof.

The scene is already awkward before the (non) climax, but that detail really blows it over the top. Sex Education is the first time we can remember seeing a faked male orgasm onscreen.