What is "Awkward"? 3 Characteristics of Awkwardness

Awkward is a term that comes up often in contemporary speech. Indeed, a great spectrum of things, situations, and images are frequently labeled as being awkward. But what qualifies something as being awkward, and how is it different from, say, words like funny or embarrassing? Not being a lexicographer myself, I will not attempt to answer this questions in full, but I will deign to say that awkwardness is something difficult to define, yet painfully obvious when present.

Because this website deals with images, I thought I would narrow my focus to discuss awkwardness in photographs. As you click through the various images that you see on this website, you'll see a wide variety of images, depicting an entire gamut of employment situations. One cannot say for certain that each and every image on this site is as awkward as the other (indeed, our awkwardness rating meter will quickly illustrate that point), but there exists in each image at least some aspect of "The Awkward".

With that, I give you 3 characteristics of "awkwardness":

1. Something that is awkward can be uncomfortable!

Awkward photographs, such as this popular one entitled "wrestling wrap-up", oftentimes are images that capture a particular uncomfortable moment. An athlete is caught in a compromising situation in which there is possibly no clear winner; a woman trips and her skirt flies up over her head. You get the idea. The point is that many instances of awkwardness depict situations in which the individual in question is left in an embarrassing or uncomfortable situation from which it might be difficult to immediately escape.

2. Awkward Defies Social Norms

An awkward work photo might very well depict a situation that sharply contrasts with stereotypes, or even over-accentuates them. An overweight gymnast, a rail-thin sumo wrestler, an extremely tall jockey. Simply picturing a 7'6" jockey on a horse, his feet dragging along the ground as he rides, draws a hearty chuckle. On the other end of the spectrum, a photo of a jockey who is SO small, SO light-weight, that he can barely hold on for dear life, similarly conjures up a certain amount of awkwardness. Such situations are awkward, because they play on conventional norms, either by challenging them humorously or by pushing them beyond their acceptable level.

3. Awkward Appears to be Something It's Not

When dealing with images in particular, one of our favorite characteristics of awkward photos is the idea that an awkward image oftentimes depicts a situation that at first (or perhaps NOT at first glance) appears to be something completely inappropriate. Take, for example, this favorite picture from our site of a puppeteer, practicing his craft. In order for the puppet show to be most effective and believable, the actress needs to have both her hands free in order to properly interact with the puppet. The puppeteer, then, must deftly position himself in order to properly do his job. There is no other way to describe it - it's AWKWARD!

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