30 Most Awkward Movie Dinner Scenes

Pineapple Express (2008)

The Dinner Scene: Dale Denton (Seth Rogen) turns up late to a dinner with the parents of his high-school girlfriend.

Main problem? He's high as a kite, smells "like shit" and looks like a sweaty mess. Then he decides to come clean about witnessing a murder…

Most Awkward Moment: "We gotta get the eff outta here!" Dale yells. "We've got to begin to prematurely evacuate!" To which Dad demands to know if he's high. And rightly so.

The Birdcage (1996)

The Dinner Scene: Armand (Robin Williams) and Albert (Nathan Lane) play host to their son's future in-laws, but attempt to conform to type with Albert dressing up in drag as Armand's 'wife'.

Most Awkward Moment: "What interesting china," notes Louise (Dianne Wiest). "Why, it looks like young men playing leap frog!"

Fist in mouth…

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988)

The Dinner Scene: American hustler Freddy Benson (Steve Martin) plays a convincing idiot at dinner, wearing an eye patch and attempting to eat using a fork with a cork on it.

Oh, and he's also gripping a trident while eating and keeps referring to Diana (Frances Conroy) as his mother…

Most Awkward Moment:
Freddy asks if he can go to the bathroom, and then does. Right where he's sitting.

American Beauty (1999)

The Dinner Scene: "Janie, today I quit my job," says Lester (Kevin Spacey) when his daughter sits down to dinner. "And then I told my boss to go fuck himself, and then I blackmailed him for almost 60,000 dollars. Pass the asparagus."

Meanwhile, his wife Carolyn (Annette Bening) is in some sort of mad delirium over it all, and the pair start slinging passive-aggressive barbs at each across the dinner table.

Most Awkward Moment: As Carolyn shrills on, Lester calmly stands up and hurls a plate of asparagus at the wall…

Braindead (1992)

The Dinner Scene: Despite having been infected by a rat monkey's poisonous bite, Vera Cosgrove (Elizabeth Moody) insists on hosting the head of the WLWL and her husband.

She's not exactly the greatest host, though - she can barely string a sentence together and, frankly, she's not looking her best.

Most Awkward Moment:
Vera's infected arm bursts puss into the custard…

The Heat (2013)

The Dinner Scene: FBI agent Sarah Ashburn (Sandra Bullock) perches at the dinner table with Shannon Mullins' (Melissa McCarthy) family, a place she clearly feels out of her depth.

First she comments on the fine "Jesus sports-themed" paintings hanging in the dining room, then she finds it difficult to understand the family's Boston accent.

Most Awkward Moment: "Are you a boy or a girl?" asks one of the dinner guests. "Uh, I'm female," confirms Sarah.

Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991)

The Dinner Scene: The crew of the Starship Enterprise has dinner with, of all people, the Klingons.

What's meant to be a peace offering between two races, though, quickly escalates into something darker and more miserable as the liquor piles up. Then the Klingons take all the credit for Shakespeare…

Most Awkward Moment: Kirk (William Shatner) compares the Klingons to Hitler. Which, needless to say, doesn't go down very well.

Raging Bull (1980)

The Dinner Scene: By this point in Martin Scorsese's boxing epic, one-time star Jake LaMotta (Robert De Niro) is now 60 lbs heavier than usual and sort of looks like a giant, greasy dumpling.

To make matters worse, he's a giant, greasy dumping with a MOUTH, and he isn't going to be quiet about how his food's cooked.

Most Awkward Moment: Jake loses his temper over the way that his steak's been cooked. In case you're wondering, he DOESN'T like it well done.

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989)

The Dinner Scene: Clark Griswold (Chevy Chase) attempts to host a gorgeous Christmas dinner for his family, but it's not entirely as perfect as he'd hoped.

Despite things starting out well, things get tense when grandma can't understand a word anybody's saying ("Grace! She died 30 years ago!"), and it's only going to get worse.

Most Awkward Moment: "It's just a little dry, it's fine," insists Clark, having cut into a turkey that turns out to be full of hot, stinky air and not much else…

Talladega Nights (2006)

The Dinner Scene: Ricky Bobby (Will Ferrel) hosts maybe the most indecent dinner scene EVER as he serves up a gluttonous spread of KFC and Domino's pizza while delivering a sermon like no other.

If that wasn't enough, he sits by while his disgusting kids heckle their old granddad like he isn't their own flesh and blood.

Most Awkward Moment: Ricky decides the time has come to get busy with his lady-friend. Yes, right there on the table…

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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