10 Most Awkward Dinner Scenes in Movies

In celebration of the new comedy 'Dinner for Schmucks' -- where guests compete to see whose plus-one is the most pathetic -- we cordially invite you to join us as we chew over some of the most uncomfortable cinematic dinners ever.

We're serving up bad jokes, bitchy relatives, intimidating future fathers-in-law, slippery snails and the worst menus ever. (Brains!)

Awkward movie dinners don't get any more painful than the 1998 Danish film 'The Celebration,' where, at his father's lavish 60th birthday party, a son's toast includes a shocking accusation of rape and incest. (We couldn't find a subtitled clip online, so it didn't make our list.) And how can we politely segue from there to another clip that didn't make the cut, the handjob-under-the-table from 'Wedding Crashers?' We can't. And we also can't embed that particular NSFW clip, but we did link.

Unscripted: Watch Steve Carell and Paul Rudd interview each other


1. 'Annie Hall' (1977)
A classic scene from a classic comedy: Alvy Singer (Woody Allen) spends Easter with girlfriend Annie's (Diane Keaton) wealthy white-bread family. His joke about being in therapy falls completely flat and he's sure that her grandmother is a "classic Jew hater," and that she's picturing him decked out like an Orthodox rabbi. Alvy turns to address the audience, contrasting the polite, genteel Halls with a typical dinner with his own noisy clan. Upping the awkwardness, Alvy is treated to a bizarre after-dinner confession from her brother Duane (Christopher Walken, in an early, and unforgettable, cameo).

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2. 'Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom' (1984)
Normally, we love Indian food, but clearly cults that specialize in ripping people's hearts out go for something a little more ... unusual at meal time. This far-out fare easily wins the title of "Worst Movie Menu Ever." While an oblivious Indy (Harrison Ford) chats about the local folklore, Willie Scott (Kate Capshaw) is faced with these horrific appetizers: Baby snakes! Giant beetles! Eyeball soup! By the time the monkey brains are served, we're ready to pass out in horror along with poor Willie. This clip is dubbed in French but the "ick" translates perfectly.

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3. 'Pretty Woman' (1990)
Working girl Vivian (Julia Roberts) is in over her head in this classy restaurant. Which fork do you use? How do you handle snails? (Careful, they're slippery little suckers.) And what's wrong with bringing your own ketchup?

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4. 'Mr. Baseball' (1992)
Athlete Tom Selleck is horrified by his Japanese hosts' soup-slurping in this comedy, until he's informed it's the polite way to eat your noodles. Too bad his enthusiastic attempt to copy them is way, way over the top. Which reminds us of another fish-out-of-water story (literally), 'Splash,' where mermaid Daryl Hannah demonstrates how they eat lobster where she comes from. "She's really hungry," Tom Hanks explains to their horrified fellow diners in the movie's trailer.

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5. 'The House of Yes' (1997)
When wealthy Marty (Josh Hamilton) brings his new girlfriend Lesly (Tori Spelling) home to meet the family, his too-close-for-comfort twin sis Jackie (a never-better Parker Posey) goes on the attack. Poor Lesly -- who doesn't know that Liebfraumilch is wine or that it's German, not French -- seems almost too sweet to realize she's being insulted, but Jackie keeps it up until her bitchy point is crystal clear.

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6.'Rushmore' (1998)
Object lesson on why you shouldn't let teens drink and dine: Lovestruck Max (Jason Schwartzman) unwisely swigs a whiskey and soda and badgers his teacher's (Olivia Williams) date (Luke Wilson) until she tells him point-blank, "You're being rude." "No, I'm not," he insists, and then declares that he's in love with her. Bill Murray says nothing, but his pained expression is textbook for "awkward silence."

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7. 'American Beauty' (1999)
Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey) delivers one of the most quotable lines of all time from this Best Picture Oscar winner: "Janie, today I quit my job. And then I told my boss to go f--k himself, and then I blackmailed him for almost $60,000. Pass the asparagus."

Watch the dinner scene here. The language is R-rated.

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8. 'Meet the Parents' (2000)
It's the mother -- or rather, the father -- of all in-law nightmares: Having your first meeting with the parents of the girl you want to marry go disastrously wrong. How wrong? Oh, you know the exchange where Greg (Ben Stiller) boasts about milking a cat: "I had no idea you could milk a cat," says a stunned Blythe Danner. "Oh, you can milk anything with nipples," Greg says, to which Robert De Niro coolly replies, "I've got nipples, Greg. Could you milk me?" Everything just gets much, much worse from there. (Dinner scene starts at :49 in the trailer.)

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9. 'Hannibal' (2001)
Brains again? We just had them for lunch. Okay, seriously, is this the most disturbing dinner ever dreamed up? Cannibal connoisseur Hannibal Lecter displays his morbid culinary taste by feeding poor agent Paul (Ray Liotta) pieces of his own brain, sautéed. Pardon us if we don't ask for seconds!

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10. 'Little Miss Sunshine' (2006)
The trailer for this indie flick showcased the dinner scene where Grandpa (Alan Arkin) complains about having chicken yet again and mom Sheryl (Toni Collette) decides that Frank's (Steve Carell) suicide attempt is an appropriate conversation to have in front of daughter Olive (Abigail Breslin). Why, what do you talk about over supper?