10 Things From The American Pie Franchise That Make Us Cringe

The American Pie franchise is a classic one that helped establish the teenage coming of age genre. It is all about sex, pulling girls, and the jokes between a group of friends as they grow up. Throughout that journey, there are tons of embarrassing moments that lead to laughter.

However, most of American Pie’s funniest moments are designed to make an audience cringe. Whether it is through the fact that the audience will have likely experienced something similar, or because the situation is so ridiculous.

However, there are also now a few moments that cause newer audiences to cringe, simply because certain things haven’t aged all that well over time. Within this list, we will be taking a look at a mix of them, ranking the 10 American Pie moments that make us cringe the most.

10 A Pale Ale

Everything about this moment sums up American Pie and how it grips the audience with moments where they are just stunned that something is happening. Here, Steve Stiffler thinks he is about to score with a girl at his party until he takes a drink of a pint that has been tampered with.

The substance added to the drink was from a previous couple who were in the room, specifically his friend Kevin. It leads to Stiffler being sick in the toilet, but it is the moment where he takes a big gulp of beer that leaves audiences shocked.

9 Oz Smooth Talking

Unlike most moments in the American Pie franchise, this particular situation doesn’t involve intimacy. While it does feature Oz trying to impress a college girl, this is something that is intentionally meant to make the audience cringe due to how corny it is.

While he might be a hit in High School with girls the same age, his attempt to impress an older lady lands him in an awkward spot. It’s something everyone has been through where you try to be romantic and it just doesn’t quite work, as Oz finds out when the girl just laughs in his face.

8 Caught In The Act

There is nothing worse than the idea of being caught doing something intimately by your own parents, but that is something that happens to Jim continuously throughout the franchise. Right from the start that much is clear when Jim ends up being caught with a sock in his bedroom.

As he desperately tries to make the adult channel work, both his mom and dad end up barging into his room, causing him to throw a pillow over his self. Jim tries to make the most of the situation by claiming that he was watching a nature show, which nobody ended up buying.

7 Caught In The Act Part 2

As if that first instance wasn’t awkward enough, in the sequel fans were made to cringe even more when Jim was caught yet again. Having gone away to college, Jim has managed to pull a young lady and the two of them are about to get down to business.

However, Jim makes the fateful mistake of not locking the door. Of course, his father is there and opens the door, catching them in the act. However, to make this moment even worse, her parents then end up entering the room as well, having a double caught in the act moment taking place.

6 Discussing The Human Body

Jim’s father is an incredible character who just creates tons of moments that make people cringe as they watch along, which is why he’s so funny. One of those moments comes when he decides to discuss some adult magazines with his son in a real man-to-man moment.

After addressing the fact that some of the pages are stuck together, creating the first embarrassing moment, he then goes on to discuss the woman’s body. Going through different parts and highlighting them while Jim is forced to simply sit and listen to it all.

5 Stiffler’s Mom & Finch

One moment that hasn’t particularly aged well from American Pie is the situation between Paul Finch and Stiffler’s mom. While the joke of having a crush on a friends mom is something that is commonplace amongst many friendship groups, the fact that the mother takes advantage of that is not.

Nowadays, this is a situation that would certainly cause a few questions and raised eyebrows, and when you watch it back it certainly is an odd one to see. Stiffler’s mom is just happy enough to go along with everything, which in reality, is a strange situation.

4 The Kids Are About

Jim being caught in the act is something that pops up quite frequently throughout the franchise, and American Pie: Reunion made sure to pay tribute to that fact in the opening scene. Once again, Jim has the sock out and some videos on the laptop, but this time he isn’t caught by his dad.

Here, he is the dad and instead he is caught by his child! They walk in, which leads to him slamming the laptop shut, cutting himself in the process. The situation only gets more embarrassing as he heads into the bathroom to find Michelle doing exactly the same thing with the showerhead.

3 Phone Sex

In American Pie 2, we are treated to some phone sex between Oz and Heather, and if watching the two of them indulge over a phone conversation doesn’t make you cringe, then nothing will. While it thankfully does get broken up by a moment of comedy from Stiffler, that doesn’t stop this being an awkward watch.

If you see this with family, things might just get even more intense in the embarrassing department. Things are made more awkward by the fact that the pair of them are touching themselves while the moment happens, with this being more embarrassing than funny.

2 The Webcam Scene

Not every single moment from the American Pie franchise is a moment that makes you cringe on purpose. Unfortunately, as with many old movies and television shows, certain things simply haven’t aged well and the classic webcam segment is one of those.

While seeing Jim dance around is still funny, the fact he is set to exploit a woman, bare to people on the internet isn’t acceptable. While it is something that Jim has to be talked into, it is still something that he does, and even though it’s him that gets embarrassed in the end, it’s still not cool.

1 The Pie

When it comes to moments in the American Pie franchise that make us cringe, there is nothing that tops the unforgettable pie moment. Jim taking advantage of a home-cooked pie to test things out, he ends up undressing and fully going for things, defacing the pie in the process.

Of course, once again his father steps in and ends up catching him right in the middle of the situation. While this isn’t the only time Jim is caught doing something by his father, at least the other occasions are with a girl, not a pie, which is what makes this so much worse.

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