30 Most Awkward Movie Dinner Scenes

Beetlejuice (1988)

The Dinner Scene: The Deetz family have dinner with psychic Otho (Glenn Shadix) and his wife, but mid-conversation, something strange starts to happen.

The usually uptight Delia (Catherine O'Hara) starts lip-synching to 'Day-o', and it's not long before everybody's jigging along, bemused by the sudden fervour that's gripped their bodies.

Most Awkward Moment:
Otho grabs a wine cooler and starts playing it like a drum…

Mean Girls (2004)

The Dinner Scene: Regina (Rachel McAdams) breaks one of the most important Mean Girls rules by wearing sweatpants on the wrong day to lunch, mostly because she's piled on the weight.

Result? She's told she can't sit with the other girls today…

Most Awkward Moment:
Gretchen erupts, shrieking: "You can't sit with us!" Which prompts Regina to shamefully admit, "These sweatpants are all that fits me right now."

Mrs Doubtfire (1993)

The Dinner Scene: Daniel (Robin Williams) is torn between dinner with his family (while dressed as Mrs Doubtfire) and a meal with his boss that could lead to a brilliant new job.

Luckily, both meals are at the same restaurant (Bridges, fancy eh?), meaning all Daniel has to do is repeatedly go to the toilet to change in and out of his Mrs Doubtfire costume for his different parties…

Most Awkward Moment: Stu (Pierce Brosnan) starts to choke and Daniel (as Mrs Doubtfire) rushes to his rescue.

While administering the Heimlich manoeuvre, though, his prosthetic face comes unpeeled and the secret's out…

Close Encounters Of The Third Kind (1977)

The Dinner Scene: Having a close encounter with an ET will put anybody on edge, so we sort of sympathise with Roy (Richard Dreyfuss), who's not exactly himself at dinner with his wife and kids.

A mute, morose mess, he helps himself to lashings of potato mash that he doesn't even intend to eat. Meanwhile, junior babbles on…

Most Awkward Moment: Roy starts crying. Which, naturally, sets the kids off…

Splash (1984)

The Dinner Scene: Allen Bauer (Tom Hanks) takes his new live-in girlfriend, the ravishing Madison (Daryl Hannah), out for a posh dinner, where he intends to propose to her.

Thing is, Allen's unaware that Madison's actually a mermaid who can only stay on shore for six "fun-filled days when the moon is full". And things get somewhat embarrassing when lobster's served for dinner.

Most Awkward Moment:
Madison ignores her cutlery and rips into her lobster like a true savage as startled diners look on in horror.

Edward Scissorhands (1990)

The Dinner Scene : "Don't stare!"

Edward (Johnny Depp) joins the Boggs family for dinner, which proves to be something of an interesting experience, to say the least.

Most Awkward Moment:
Edward struggles to eat his dinner with those giant scissor-hands. He does manage to spear a pea, though…

Curse Of Chucky (2013)

The Dinner Scene: Unaware that a certain doll-sized serial killer is in the house, Nica (Fiona Dourif) sits down for dinner with her sister Barb (Danielle Bisutti) and her family, alongside visiting priest Father Frank.

This lot are also unaware that Chucky's poisoned one of their bowls, meaning somebody's in for a nasty surprise.

Most Awkward Moment: The entire scene is tension-crankingly awkward as we wait to find out who's been poisoned and how they're going to die…

Deadfall (2012)

The Dinner Scene: Bad guy Addison (Eric Bana) gatecrashes a Thanksgiving dinner thrown by June (Sissy Spacek) and Chet (Kris Kristofferson), who are expecting their son Jay (Charlie Hunnam) back after he's released from prison.

When Jay finally arrives with Addison's sister Liza (Olivia Wilde), things start to get really awkward.

Most Awkward Moment: Addison realises that Liza and Jay have a thing going on and gets just a little jealous.

Step Brothers (2008)

The Dinner Scene : Dale Doback (John C. Reilly) hogs the ketchup ("I like it!") at dinner with Nancy (Mary Steenburgen) and Robert (Richard Jenkins), which then segues into a fight over Fancy Sauce.

"Can I have Fancy Sauce?" asks Dale. "I'm using it right now," drawls Brennan (Will Ferrell), spooning the stuff slowly onto his plate.

Most Awkward Moment: Dale makes up an obscene song, which impresses exactly nobody.

Legally Blonde (2001)

The Dinner Scene: Elle Woods (Reese Witherspoon) goes on a dinner date with her boyfriend, Warner Huntington III (Matthew Davis), where she's fully expecting him to propose to her.

Instead, he politely insists that the time has come for them to break up. GAH.

Most Awkward Moment
: "If I want to be a Senator, I need to marry a Jackie, not a Marilyn," Warner says, sticking the knife in even deeper.

Meanwhile, Elle starts crying like a Chihuahua.

Josh Winning has worn a lot of hats over the years. Contributing Editor at Total Film, writer for SFX, and senior film writer at the Radio Times. Josh has also penned a novel about mysteries and monsters, is the co-host of a movie podcast, and has a library of pretty phenomenal stories from visiting some of the biggest TV and film sets in the world. He would also like you to know that he "lives for cat videos..." Don't we all, Josh. Don't we all.  

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