40 Hilariously Awkward Fan Photos That Celebrities Probably Want Deleted For Good

Every so often a fan pulls a great prank on a celebrity. This Redditor, who goes by the username “ad0rkablelol” decided to use the comedic Hugh Jackman-Ryan Reynolds social media feud as fodder for a hilarious photo. She showed up to a Hugh Jackman meet-and-greet wearing a dress covered in Ryans. Hugh’s reaction was priceless.

A now-deleted Reddit user posted this memeworthy picture back in October 2012. They wrote, “My friend posted this pic from her plane ride on her Facebook. Nic Cage looks pretty rough...” Maybe he was just trying to get some sleep after a long hard day of, well, being Nicolas Cage.

This pic shows the legendary Jack Nicholson getting his photo taken with a fan at a basketball game in 2014. But what is his face doing? Is he trying to pull off the much-hated “duck face” pose once popular with teenage girls? Was he asked to do that, or is it is his preferred selfie pose? So many questions.

In 2017 a Reddit user named peanutismint posed on the Pics forum, “Daniel Radcliffe just took a pretty great photo with my friend.” They seemed to have encountered each other in the foyer of a theater. And Daniel Radcliffe’s expression of gaping-mouth terror actually rather showcases his acting chops.

This photo features two people who have on the most unfortunate facial expressions possible. Neither Gerard Butler nor the fan look happy to be there, but what on Earth happened to the unfortunate Gerard in this instant? You’d never guess this was the same movie star who’s considered to be one of the sexiest men alive.

Can you imagine meeting Tom Hanks and bursting into tears? Well, that’s what happened to this small child when he — presumably with parents present — met the famous movie star outside the Ed Sullivan Theater in 2009. But to be fair Hanks looks like he’s pretty near to having a meltdown himself.

Here’s a picture of a picture — actor Jake Gyllenhaal taking a photo with a fan at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival. But the difference between their facial expressions makes this shot kind of awkward. Did the camera go off just before Jake smiled or did he not smile at all? Alas, we’ll never know.

Kanye West looks pretty annoyed in this image, but some would say he’s got good reason to be. He was with his wife Kim Kardashian watching the Super Bowl when fan Ben Piatsky took his selfie with him. And on social media he captioned it, “Kanye loves the Hawks and being bothered,” which sort of says it all.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe star met this Black Widow cosplayer at a convention in 2015. According to the fan he told her, “Okay, look upset at me and I’ll look like I can’t remember you.” She was thrilled, as evidenced by the fact she wrote her post in all caps. Awkward, sure, but super nice.

Remember the Sad Keanu meme? The lucky person in this picture got to witness it first-hand. A Reddit user posted the photograph in 2011 with the caption, “My brother just met Keanu Reeves. He’s still looking kind of sad...” But flash-forward to the present and Keanu’s one of the most beloved celebrities around.

It’s always fun when awkward photographs of celebrities in their pre-fame days surface. And it’s even better when another, older celebrity happens to be in the picture. This picture from 1986 shows Elvis Costello standing around with a pair of young fans. Does the girl look familiar? She should — because it’s the young Tina Fey.

One thing you have to watch out when taking pics with celebrities is that oft-overlooked issue of height difference. This photo of Russell Crowe and a fan radiates awkwardness simply because the 5′9″ actor appears to be struggling to fit in the fame. Also he doesn’t look entirely sure that he knows what exactly a camera is.

The fan in this photograph looks super excited, while George Clooney might just be wondering if he’s left the stove on. Still, points to him for agreeing to a selfie in the first place, since he’s not a fan of social media. He told Variety magazine in 2014 that he doesn’t use Twitter and has no plans to ever join.

People apparently brought their best celebrity-bothering game at the Super Bowl XLIX Sunday back in 2015. Not only did fans grab pics with an unhappy Kanye West, this picture of Rihanna indicates she wasn’t delighted about the presence of so many selfie snappers either. She looks downright horrified in fact.

A Redditor posted this picture in the Pics forum in 2013 along with the caption, “GF said I ruined her pic with Nathan Fillion at Comic Con.” And well, it’s hard not to agree with the girlfriend there. Luckily, fans in the comments section were on hand to make the picture even funnier via Photoshop.

There are some situations where it’s just not appropriate to grab a quick selfie. Take “on the middle of a football field” for example. This spectacularly awkward incident took place in 2003, before the dawn of digital cameras, so maybe some fan out there still has a hard copy of this photo of them accosting a bewildered David Beckham.

According to the caption to this hilarious image, Beyoncé told the fan who took this photo, “Whatever face you make, I’ll make.” Beyoncé and her team have been known to try and scourge the internet of unflattering photographs of her — but just let’s hope they never come for this one.

In 2020 a Twitter user, Tyler, posted: “One time I saw Samuel L. Jackson at an airport and he saw me and my cousin hovering around trying to gain the courage to ask him for a photo.” How did that story end? With the actor offering them what they wanted via the words, “Y’all mother***ers want a photo?”

These two children look so hilariously disappointed in this picture with Lou Ferrigno. And one of them explained why when he posted the photo to Reddit: “My brother and I met our favorite super hero (The Hulk) when we were 4. We were ****ed off because Lou Ferrigno wasn’t green.” Awww!

Tom Holland, being a celebrity himself, has obviously mastered the art of remaining poker-faced around famous people. His father, Dominic, on the other hand… hasn’t. As this photograph proves, he’s clearly a big Emma Watson fan. And never before has a pic given off such major “Dad, you’re embarrassing me” vibes.

This picture of Shaq “levitating” a fan is a pretty odd one. How was it done? Some people think Shaq’s fan jumped up into the air at just the right second, some others think it’s a magic trick done using metal rods… but we may never know. The fact that it’s all taking place in a bag shop with unconcerned passers-by does make it especially funny though.

Nicolas Cage is the go-to guy if you want pictures of celebrities looking awkward. This one from Reddit was captioned, “Look who my friend ran into in Las Vegas... coming out of a liquor store... at 9AM.” But as folks pointed out in the comments, for the picture to happen the fan would have had to also be around a liquor store at 9AM…

According to the Redditor who posted the image, this little boy is crying “because Iron Man isn’t in his costume.” Probably safe to say the child will either be very amused or very embarrassed by this picture in later life. And based on his expression, perhaps the same is also true of Robert Downey Jr.

When this guy met Fabio he did what anyone would do, and had him literally sweep him off his feet in the middle of a store aisle. It’s so awkward, but at least they look like they’re having fun. And bonus points go to both Fabio’s fabulous open shirt and the woman in the background who appears to be clapping.

Every so often, a camera takes a photo at exactly the wrong moment. When this slightly blurry pic of actor Luke Wilson was posted on Reddit it was with the caption, “Ran into Luke Wilson at a bar last night, got a picture of him looking at my boobs.” Uh, well he might be looking at her beer?

You shouldn’t try and take selfies with the Queen, she simply doesn’t hold with that sort of modern nonsense. And yet people have been known to disregard that rule every so often. This picture of one reckless youth grabbing a picture is hilarious not just because of the Queen’s expression, but for the horrified faces of everyone around her.

Sometimes a picture paints a thousand words. This one looks very much like someone saw Hugh Grant in an airport, stopped him and very quickly took a photograph, hence the blurriness and Hugh’s rather begrudging look. Let’s hope he was able to get on his flight without too much delay.

Sometimes celebrities have a “no touching” rule, and it seems Britney Spears is one of these. That’s how come you get photos like this, where it just looks awkward. Apparently fans who pay thousands of dollars to meet Britney at events like this are often left disappointed. They get mere seconds with her.

This looks like a picture of three glum men in a corridor, but look closely and you might recognize one of them. A Redditor posted this pic along with the words, “My Dad runs into Jon Lovitz at the airport on the way to Vegas for a business convention. Asked to take a picture to make it look like they were bummed to go to send back to my mom. Lovitz loved the idea.” Hopefully the mom did too.

Is it still a fan photo if both people involved are celebrities? Yep, Game of Thrones’ Sophie Turner would probably say so after snapping this sneaky picture of herself and Ryan Gosling at the 2016 SAG Awards. Let’s hope one day they’ll be cast in a movie together purely so she can bring up this photo again.

You’re really not supposed to take selfies with the royals, but sometimes they’ll agree to do so if you’re lucky. That’s just what happened when the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge visited Sydney Opera House in April 2014. However, one of the results was this very awkward, not exactly flattering photo of Kate.

There are some things you would end up getting used to if you were mega-famous. The crowds of people, the constant cameras in your face, and so on. But even having lived that lifestyle for a while, it still must be pretty weird seeing people with huge tattoos of you on their back. And Katy Perry’s face sums that feeling up so well.

Remember when Emma Stone and Andrew Garfield were Hollywood’s hottest young couple? This picture from 2015 is captioned, “My friend tried to secretly snap a pic [of] Emma Stone and Andrew Garfield eating dinner — here’s the result.” Emma looks super excited to be photographed but Andrew seems much less concerned.

This fan clearly really likes Paris Hilton. He turned up to her shoe collection launch in style, bearing not only some Paris merch but a fabulous pair of the shoes as well. But though Paris is wearing a big smile on her face, her body language strongly suggests the words: “nope, no touching.”

What on earth is going on here? Beloved actor Jeff Goldblum is in what seems to be a nightclub and he has two attractive young blondes hanging off him. One of them is holding on tight, and the other one, uh, he has his arm around the neck of. While wearing — as people have pointed out in comments — what looks very much like a wedding ring…

What in the world in going on here? It looks like Tom Hanks found a random drunk guy and immediately took some embarrassing pictures with him. But no, Tom is much too nice for that — the passed-out guy in the photos was in fact fully conscious and just trying to get a funny pic. Asking Tom Hanks “how about I pretend to be drunk around you?” must have been kinda awkward, though.

In December 2015 the fan in this photo posted it to Reddit along with the caption, “In honor of Star Wars coming out today, here is a picture of Carrie Fisher holding my boob.” And no, it’s not camera trickery, she really is. The original poster described it as, “I got a light cupping.”

Back in March 2015 Modern Family star Ed O’Neil took a fan photo with a nice young lady at LAX airport. Then, yep, turned out he probably should have recognized her. After the picture went viral in 2016 O’Neill said on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, “Do I look like I’m sitting with Britney Spears?!” But that’s exactly what he’d been unwittingly doing.

According to the woman who posted this supremely awkward image, “As I was walking up to take a picture of Elijah Wood, I said ‘You have gorgeous eyes! We would make great babies!’ He immediately started blushing and laughing so hard that he faceplanted my boobs!” And of course, for extra funny factor, it happened under a sign telling fans not to touch the celebs.

This was a fan photo so cringeworthy it caused a minor scandal at the time. Look at Robin Thicke’s hand reflected in the mirror there — yep, he’s doing exactly what you think. It was all consenting, but it was also very dubious since the singer was married at the time. And despite insisting the photo was no big deal, it just so happens that he’s not married anymore.