The internet is full of folks who want to act like smarty-pants. Online, anyone can be a know-it-all with a simple visit to Google and even their opinions. Granted, there are times when others get humbled by someone better informed and versed in one topic or another.

There’s a group that collects such interactions, titled r/Don’tYouKnowWhoIAm. Medical, science, and other experts lurk on the internet too, waiting for their chance to put jerks in their place. So, here we present to you the newest collection of cases when folks didn’t quite know they were talking with a person they were talking about. Get ready to feel some mild second-hand embarrassment!

More info: Reddit

#1 Regarding Oppenheimer

Image credits: kevinrogers94

#2 Rip

Image credits: EmmaTolkin

#3 Guy Talking About The Military Is Actually A Vet 🤯

Image credits: Tasty111

Embarrassment is a funny thing; some people would be mortified if they were on the receiving end of these interactions. Others, however, probably wouldn’t even flinch even if they were as wrong as the people on this list.

Experts say that, in general, we humans are a pretty easy species to embarrass. True, it’s an emotion most of us feel on an almost daily basis. But is there any point to embarrassment? We’d probably not feel it at all if we could, but there is a purpose that being embarrassed serves in our social interactions.

#4 Facebook User Encounters A Genetics Expert

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#5 Same

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#6 Twitter User Tells Known Anthropologist To Study Anthropology

Image credits: Semi-Empathetic

We’re social animals; we’ve lived in groups for as long as we’ve been around as a species. Embarrassment is nature’s way to correct our course when we transgress in a social situation.

“Group living has been important to us for a long time, and even if you don’t intentionally want to violate a social norm, you sometimes do. Embarrassment serves the function of immediately and strongly displaying, ‘Oops, I didn’t mean to do that,'” psychologist Christine Harris, PhD explains.

#7 He Practically Is The Spiderman

Image credits: beerbellybegone

#8 What A Joker

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#9 Director Chimes In

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Surprisingly, being more prone to embarrassment makes people like you more. In 2012, researchers at the University of California, Berkeley found that people who are more embarrassable tend to be more prosocial. What’s more, they behaved more generously than those who didn’t get embarrassed as easily.

#10 Too Bad

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#11 It Really Did Work Too Well

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#12 Twitter Never Stops Giving

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It’s hard to tell whether a person online gets embarrassed. In real life, a red face and avoiding eye contact are pretty telling signs that a person is feeling embarrassment. Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at Duke University Mark R. Leary explained to The BBC that blushing is how bodies show we’re uncomfortable with unwanted attention.

#13 Martin Scorsese Is Not A Real Cinephile

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#14 Simple Answer To A Simple Question

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#15 Explain To The Author Of “The Handmaid’s Tale” Her Inspiration For Her Own Book

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People’s trust for easily embarrassed people translates into romantic relationships as well. Researcher Matthew Feinberg, the co-author of the Berkeley study, says that people find embarrassable people more attractive. “If they are looking for a long-term partner, it could show that you are prosocial, cooperative – someone who isn’t going to cheat.”

#16 Commenter Doesn’t Recognize Top Female Chess Talent

Image credits: DrestinBlack

#17 To Not Know Who Made Wurm

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#18 Do You Think A Founder Of Twitch Wants To Sell His Twitch Account For $500?

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Still, many of us hate feeling embarrassed. So much so, that there’s apparently even a case of lethal embarrassment. There’s a case, published in the British Medical Journal of 1860, of a housemaid reportedly giving up the ghost after getting caught stealing food. However, today doctors think that it was a sudden rush of adrenaline that made her leave this mortal coil, not embarrassment per se.

#19 “He’s Stealing Content!” It’s My Content

Image credits: ChickenNuggetLord74

#20 Guy Doesn’t Realize He’s Talking To Andy Weir, The Author Of The Book

Image credits: TerrainRecords

#21 Musk Challenges Yann Lecun

Image credits: SiliconValleyIdiot

This all sounds great, you might think, but what should you do after experiencing an embarrassing moment? Leadership Rachel Beohm suggests developing a ritual to regain composure after embarrassing yourself in public. It can be an index finger miniature bow, flicking the embarrassment away as a piece of lint, or some other gesture. A physical act, according to her, acknowledges the mistake and makes it easier to move past it.

#22 This Guy Is Creator Of Buckshot Roulette Btw

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#23 Might Want To Freshen Up On The Bible

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#24 Yakuta Not Kimono

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You might’ve heard about the starfish power pose that people recommend for public-speaking jitters. When you’re recovering from an embarrassing faux pas, something similar works too.

Take deep breaths;
Lift your head up high;
Straighten your posture;
And speak in a loud and confident voice.

#25 A Comedian Gets Called Out For Stealing His Own Joke, But It Ends Nicely

Image credits: dawtroo

#26 Ask Women Who Writes Superman Comics If She Knows He’s Not Real

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#27 I Love AI ‘Artist’ Tears

Image credits: Aware_Cockroach_1923

What if your embarrassing moment happens online? Then your best bet is trying to cope with self-compassion. Marissa Moore, MA, LPC, writes that it’s better to confront the situation and admit your faux pas. You might even feel better if you’re able to find the humor in it. It doesn’t have to be self-deprecating, but it can be an exercise is taking yourself less seriously.

#28 Candidate For Jersey City Mayor Just Embarrassed Some Dude 😭

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#29 Women Can Only Be Of Models

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#30 Does This Go Here?

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How many of these screenshots were satisfying moments where someone had to eat a nice portion of humble pie, Pandas? Let us know your favorites by upvoting them so they make it to the very top. And if you want to see more people embarrassing themselves by not knowing who they’re talking to, check out these posts here and here!