Cringe alert! We're diving into the most awkward, controversial, and downright awful moments from beloved sitcoms. From uncomfortable kisses to bizarre plot twists, these scenes had viewers reaching for the remote. Join us as we count down the moments that made us question our favorite shows!
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00:00My writing is really what got me through the last year after Dan died.
00:03Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the most
00:06widely disliked scenes from popular sitcoms.
00:08The point of the story is that-
00:10Is that you totally, totally, totally have the hots for Aunt Robin.
00:13Number 20, George Michael punches Michael, Arrested Development.
00:17Fans were already annoyed by the fourth season finale,
00:20as the revival did not live up to their expectations.
00:22And then, George Michael punched his father in the face.
00:26So instead, he doubled down on this.
00:28It's like we're identical twins.
00:30And what little goodwill was left was instantly evaporated.
00:33The punch felt out of character and totally off compared to the show's earlier seasons,
00:38when George Michael adored his father with every ounce of his being.
00:41A physical altercation between them was not only unfunny and uncomfortable,
00:44it was also wildly inconsistent with their relationship,
00:47even accounting for the tension that had been building throughout the season.
00:50It was a weirdly dark note to end the season on, and fans were not having it.
00:54Did I not tell you that we were alike, exactly alike?
00:59This is just horrifying.
01:01Too funny.
01:02Number 19, the Home Alone parody, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
01:06Burglars.
01:09This is my bar.
01:12I have to defend it.
01:13It's amazing that two Charlie-centric episodes
01:16are at total opposite ends of the quality spectrum.
01:19Charlie Work is regarded as a masterpiece,
01:21a brilliant blend of frenetic comedy and creative filmmaking.
01:24And then there's Charlie's Home Alone,
01:27which even the show's diehard fans admit is one of the weakest installments.
01:31The episode begins well enough,
01:32but things take a turn for the worse once the Home Alone parody begins.
01:36Many fans find these scenes awkward and unfunny,
01:39with unwanted cameos and dated jokes that have been made for the last 30 years.
01:43Plus, things get incredibly gross once that bear trap gets involved.
01:52Number 18, Robbie and Jess are cousins, New Girl.
01:55Robbie, I think we're related.
01:59Robbie McFerrin appeared in the second and fifth seasons of New Girl,
02:02but his role really expanded in season six when he began dating Jess.
02:06And then we find out they're cousins.
02:09They already weren't a great couple,
02:11but making them cousins was a bold move by the creative team.
02:14The twist retroactively adds an uncomfortable element to their romance,
02:17ruining any sense of rewatchability.
02:19And it seemed a bit tonally out of place,
02:21despite the show's best efforts to keep it comedic.
02:24Plus, many fans saw it as a way to conveniently end their relationship
02:27to make room for Jess and Nick's inevitable rekindling,
02:30rather than serving as a natural progression of the storyline.
02:43Number 17, Don is a coward, Third Rock from the Sun.
02:50Some people would call Third Rock from the Sun an underrated sitcom,
02:53but it nevertheless contains a rather awkward ending for one of the main characters.
02:57Wayne Knight plays Don Orville, a sometimes incompetent police officer,
03:01and the main love interest of Sally.
03:03In the series finale, Sally finds Don hiding from a robbery,
03:06and he admits that he is a coward who only joined the police force
03:09to find safety in his fellow officers.
03:20This doesn't make a lick of sense,
03:22and it contradicts many of his earlier heroic actions.
03:25Yes, he was bumbling, but he was always well-intentioned.
03:28Plus, Don is made sergeant later in the series,
03:30so he's obviously not a coward.
03:32Not enough to earn himself a promotion, at least.
03:43Number 16, Sam likes Freddie, iCarly.
03:50No, I haven't.
03:51For such a funny and light-hearted show,
03:53iCarly contains a weirdly toxic relationship.
03:56That is, SETI, the often controversial pairing of Sam and Freddie.
04:00The relationship blossoms in the fourth season episode, IOMG,
04:03after Sam randomly kisses Freddie.
04:06This smooch comes completely out of left field,
04:08as viewers were given zero hints throughout the show
04:10that Sam had any romantic affection towards her supposed crush.
04:14In fact, it's so out of character that others make reference
04:16to how out of character she is acting.
04:18Um, meta?
04:19It was a cliffhanger for the sake of having a cliffhanger,
04:22and it brought about what many fans consider
04:23to be a toxic and unhealthy relationship.
04:31Number 15, Lois denies Malcolm a job.
04:34Malcolm in the middle.
04:35Fans of this show are split down the middle when it comes to Lois.
04:38Some think she's a strict but ultimately well-meaning mother.
04:41Others think she's a shrew.
04:43Their opinion is reinforced in the series finale,
04:46when Lois forces Malcolm to turn down a great job.
04:49Malcolm is offered a fantastic job straight out of high school,
04:51but Lois turns it down, arguing that he should go to college
04:54and work his way through in order to get some perspective on life.
05:07Some saw this as the ultimate example
05:09of Lois's overbearing and controlling nature,
05:12forcing her own vision on her grown child,
05:14disregarding what he might truly want,
05:16and ordering him to sacrifice prosperity and gratification for hard work.
05:37Many fans of Community don't enjoy season four,
05:39which is largely due to the absence of showrunner Dan Harmon,
05:42and it ended in spectacularly poor fashion with Advanced Introduction to Finality,
05:47a series finale which was completely bungled
05:49thanks to an over-reliance on gimmicks, metahumor, and fanservice.
05:54This is best represented by The Darkest Timeline,
05:56a fun idea from season three that was brought back for no reason whatsoever.
06:00It didn't make any sense, felt forced, and lacked the clever execution of the original.
06:05It was also a bit tone-deaf, with alternate timelines and evil doppelgangers
06:08ruining what should have been an introspective episode about taking new steps.
06:12It tried to replicate the show's trademark high-concept storytelling,
06:16but fell short without Harmon's guiding vision.
06:37It's amazing that Two Broke Girls aired in the 2010s
06:40because it had the cultural sensitivity of a show from the 1950s.
06:43While it ran for six seasons, the sitcom faced intense scrutiny throughout its run
06:48owing to its casual racism.
06:49Many characters embodied racial stereotypes like the sleazy Eastern European Oleg,
06:54but perhaps the worst offender was Han Lee,
06:57a Korean-American character that often reinforced negative stereotypes about Asian men.
07:01We cringed any time he was on screen, bracing for the next casually racist remark or joke.
07:07Oftentimes, these jokes are that Han Lee is short, geeky, and speaks in an accent.
07:13How hilarious.
07:28It took the world all of five seconds to realize
07:30Heil Honey I'm Home was a bad idea.
07:33A spoof of the traditional 50s sitcom, it stars Hitler and Ava Braun
07:37as they fail to get along with their Jewish neighbors.
07:39Sometimes, you just have to pause and ask yourself,
07:42no, seriously, what were they thinking?
07:45The concept was deliberately tasteless.
07:47Its offensive premise is part of the joke,
07:49but there are some jokes that should just never be tried,
07:52and this show was over the second Hitler walked through the door
07:55and did a poorly disguised Nazi salute.
07:57Eight episodes were filmed, but the show was cancelled
08:00after the pilot owing to the public's palpable outrage.
08:04I don't want those putschists to know about Chamberlain.
08:06You saw the way they were when the Mussolini's were over here?
08:09I snuck by the apartment every five minutes.
08:14No, that's not it.
08:15Let me help you see this from a different perspective.
08:18You're a whore, Jenny.
08:19Sometimes, parody veers into mean-spiritedness,
08:22and that's certainly the case with Dr. Nora.
08:24This is an episode from the sixth season of Frasier
08:26in which an abrasive and deeply unlikable psychiatrist
08:29becomes a popular radio personality.
08:31The character of Dr. Nora is bad enough.
08:34She's a horrible person,
08:36and while her confrontation with Frasier drives the plot of the episode,
08:39her vitriolic behavior makes for deeply unpleasant viewing.
08:42But the character is also a spoof of Laura Schlesinger,
08:45better known as Dr. Laura,
08:46and the show got in some big trouble for going after her mother.
08:49Schlesinger chastised the writers for getting personal
08:52and involving her mother when she was not a public figure,
08:55and the episode was pulled from syndication.
08:57Because I have been there,
08:58and I know how hard it is to look at your own mother's face
09:00and say bye-bye, you toxic harpy.
09:03You are not hurting me again.
09:12Like many shows, The Office runs out of steam by the end,
09:16and fans find the ninth season particularly hard to watch.
09:18It's marred by numerous problems,
09:20including the absence of Steve Carell
09:22and Andy's infamous boating subplot,
09:24which many people did not enjoy.
09:26Andy leaves on a trip with his brother, Walter Jr.,
09:29leaving Aaron behind and deeply hurt.
09:31Many fans found this to be a self-centered moment
09:33that was widely out of character for Andy,
09:35especially considering the positive development
09:37he had undergone since season three.
09:39It also removed Andy from the main ensemble's dynamic,
09:42an awkward balance that was largely attributed
09:44to Ed Helms' burgeoning movie career
09:46rather than a natural progression of his arc.
09:48Would I have gone with him if he'd asked me?
09:51On his sailboat cruise to the Caribbean?
09:53Yes, I think that would have been really fun and romantic.
10:02Speak for yourself.
10:03By 2011, Charlie Sheen was causing some major problems,
10:07so executives decided that he had to go.
10:09Fans did not like the idea of a Charlie-less Two and a Half Men,
10:12and they really didn't like how the show decided to write him off.
10:15He supposedly killed off-screen between seasons eight and nine,
10:19with Rose telling everyone that he was hit by a train
10:21while they were honeymooning in Paris.
10:23The explanation was unceremonious, almost insultingly so.
10:26His death was also painfully rushed,
10:28lacking any sense of proper closure
10:30and almost serving as a middle finger to the audience.
10:33We later learn that he was actually locked
10:35in Rose's dungeon the whole time,
10:36but the damage had already been done.
10:38Okay, I understand that some of you have mixed feelings.
10:47And sometimes you let go of the control you do have
10:50in a brief moment of weakness.
10:55All right, look future showrunners,
10:58your main characters don't all need to like each other.
11:01Drunk or not, there was absolutely no reason
11:04to have JD and Carla share a kiss.
11:06It was nothing but a plot device
11:08to create unnecessary drama and tension,
11:10and the fans saw right through it.
11:12The characters never had any romantic chemistry to speak of.
11:15The kiss came completely out of nowhere,
11:17and worst of all, it portrayed both of their personalities.
11:20Carla has always been deeply committed to Turk,
11:22and JD would never do anything to hurt his good buddy,
11:25especially kiss his wife on the lips.
11:28The kiss does nothing but disrupt beloved character dynamics
11:31and cause massive inconsistencies with the show's tone.
11:34When we got to work, not a whole lot had changed.
11:36The silence was killing me.
11:37You kissed my wife.
11:39I miss the silence.
11:40Number seven, Alf Gets Captured, Alf.
11:49If you want one of the darkest endings in sitcom history,
11:52may we present Alf.
11:54This show was popular in the late 80s,
11:56essentially a sitcom version of E.T.,
11:58with an alien living amongst a suburban family.
12:01In the series finale,
12:02Alf is about to rendezvous with some other aliens
12:04when he's surrounded and captured by government agents.
12:07And, yep, that's it.
12:09The cliffhanger was meant to be resolved in the next season,
12:12but NBC canceled the show, leaving Alf's fate ambiguous.
12:15The cliffhanger was unsatisfying,
12:17not to mention tonally jarring,
12:19as the dark ending clashed with the otherwise fun
12:22and lighthearted sitcom.
12:23Luckily, fans finally got closure six years later
12:26in the form of ABC's Project Alf.
12:28Pay no attention.
12:28That sign shouldn't even be there.
12:32I'll remove it if it bothers you.
12:35Number 6.
12:36Ross Hits On His Cousin, Friends
12:46Ross kissing Monica was bad enough,
12:47but at least that was a mistake.
12:49Ross hitting on his own cousin was completely intentional.
12:53Cassie Geller comes to visit,
12:54and because she looks like Denise Richards,
12:56everyone is instantly smitten with her.
12:58That's understandable.
12:59Denise Richards is a gorgeous woman,
13:01but when we say everyone is smitten with her,
13:04we mean everyone, including Ross.
13:07Not only does Ross become infatuated
13:09and obsessed with his own cousin,
13:10he catapults over a very gross line
13:13when he tries to have sex with her on the couch.
13:22For many fans,
13:22this was a low point in Ross' character arc,
13:25a move that had many raising their eyebrows
13:27and scratching their heads in disgust.
13:29Number 5.
13:30It Was All A Story, Roseanne
13:34You could almost hear the country collectively groan
13:43on the night of May 20, 1997,
13:46when Roseanne pulled the
13:47It Was All A Dream card.
13:48The entire ninth season was divisive.
13:50As the Connors had won the lottery,
13:52the show took on a more surreal style,
13:54and John Goodman was absent through most of it.
13:56But ending on that weird note
13:58would have been better than what we got.
13:59The finale reveals that the entire season
14:01was a what-if scenario concocted by Roseanne,
14:04who was coping with some major traumas
14:06by writing a fictional story.
14:07Unsurprisingly, viewers hated this twist,
14:10not only because it betrayed their trust,
14:12but also because it ended the show
14:13on a bizarrely dark and depressing note.
14:21Number 4.
14:22Ted Loves Robin, How I Met Your Mother
14:24This is a story about how you're
14:25totally in love with Aunt Robin.
14:28And you're thinking about asking her out,
14:29and you want to know if we're okay with it.
14:30How do you go nine seasons and 208 episodes
14:33building up a story,
14:35only to completely dismantle it in five minutes?
14:37We don't know,
14:38but How I Met Your Mother managed to do it.
14:40For nearly ten years,
14:42viewers watched Ted recount the complex story
14:44of how he met Tracy.
14:45And by some miracle,
14:46despite the wild anticipation,
14:48the show nailed her character
14:49with some strong writing
14:50and pitch-perfect casting.
14:52And then they ruined everything
14:53by killing her off
14:54and having Ted get back together with Robin,
14:56as if that was the point all along.
14:58It was a blunder of epic proportions,
15:00and it's universally regarded
15:02as one of the worst endings in television history.
15:13Number 3.
15:14Douglas is Disgust, The IT Crowd
15:18Graham Linehan wrote the speech
15:20and lost his marriage because of it.
15:22In this wildly controversial episode,
15:25Douglas Ryanholm discovers
15:26that the woman he has been dating is transgender,
15:29and he reacts with both disgust and violence.
15:32His reaction,
15:33and the show's handling of the sensitive subject,
15:35was widely seen as offensive,
15:36and critics argue that the episode
15:38depicted trans identities in a derogatory
15:40and insensitive manner.
15:42Douglas' vitriol was deemed transphobic,
15:44and Channel 4 pulled the episode from streaming.
15:47In response to the outrage,
15:48Linehan became a vocal anti-trans activist,
15:51a campaign that resulted in a Twitter ban
15:53and a divorce from his wife.
15:59Number 2.
16:00Jumping the Shark, Happy Days
16:07The term Jumping the Shark was created in 1985
16:10and has since entered the public lexicon,
16:12referring to a specific scene
16:13that tanked the quality of a show,
16:15or more generally,
16:16that a show has exhausted its creativity
16:18and lost the spark that made it popular.
16:20You can thank Happy Days for it.
16:28In this infamous episode,
16:29Fonzie literally jumps a shark while on water skis,
16:32a moment that was absurdly out of place
16:34in an otherwise grounded comedy
16:35rooted in 50s nostalgia.
16:37It leaned too far into the larger-than-life qualities
16:40of Fonzie,
16:40and the shift in tone was widely derided,
16:42with the wacky scene sparking a massive decline
16:44in the show's quality and popularity.
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17:07Number 1.
17:08Going to Prison, Seinfeld
17:18Even if it's not the worst series finale
17:20in TV history,
17:21it's probably the most notorious.
17:22We're talking about the finale,
17:24which has lived in infamy since May 14, 1998.
17:27There are various reasons why fans don't enjoy it,
17:30including its cheap clip-show nature,
17:32but perhaps the biggest criticism
17:34is the ending itself,
17:35with all four characters being thrown in prison.
17:38Facing punishment for their typical antics
17:40felt jarring and out of sync
17:41with the rest of the series,
17:42and some didn't like how the show
17:44suddenly introduced a moral compass
17:45after nearly 10 years.
17:47Others thought it was too dark or anticlimactic.
17:49The controversial ending was later parodied
17:51in Curb Your Enthusiasm,
17:53suggesting that even the people who made it
17:54didn't really like it.
18:01Did you enjoy any of these scenes?
18:02Let us know in the comments below.