Top 10 Shark Tank Moments That Were Just Too Awkward

Because what the world really needs is another energy drink... especially one with such a small – and kinda derogatory – target market. Not to mention, women between the ages of 35 and 55 hardly seem like the prime demographic of energy drink consumers. Also, how many women can there possibly be out there who self-identify as cougars? Okay, in case you’re unclear on the concept: this is an energy drink for women of a certain age who like to date younger men. The inventor, Ryan Custer, claims this is “the industry’s first gender specific functional beverage” but even that doesn’t seem to be true. This product pretty much has nothing going for it. And it really doesn’t help that according to Barbara Corcoran, the drink tastes like chalk.

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Didn’t Michael Scott have this one covered? When you want to wake up to freshly made bacon you just set up a George Foreman grill at the foot of your bed...right? Clearly this inventor isn’t a fan of “The Office” because he came up with a pig-shaped device with the exclusive purpose of bedside bacon making. This is the first idea on our list that actually seems kind of appealing...until you think about the logistics of it. You have to put the bacon in before you go to sleep, and leaving raw meat unrefrigerated overnight seems like a recipe for disaster. Not to mention the whole thing seems like a serious fire hazard. But those problems notwithstanding, Matty Sallin should keep working on this one… We ARE intrigued.


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Aren’t doctors supposed to be smart? Well, brothers and doctors Albert and Richard Amini manage to give a bad name to a well-respected profession – at least in the eyes of Mark Cuban. Their idea for a mobile app that connects doctors and patients isn’t fundamentally stupid in theory, but their pitch was so bad that there’s no way anyone would trust their business sense. They keep throwing in buzzwords like “social media” without an actual plan to back any of it up. It sounds like what they want to do is create a LinkedIn for physicians, but they have no idea how to get doctors to use their app or how to monetize it. The Sharks are understandably a bit harsh with their criticism.


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For every problem, there is a solution. But when it comes to the problem of needing to pee while on the golf course, there MUST be a better solution out there. Presented by urologist Dr. Floyd Seskin, the uroclub is a hollow golf club that you urinate into. In Seskin’s defense, he does a lot right in his presentation. He’s professional, has a good sense of humor and has put in the work. And against the odds, he actually secures an offer - albeit a small investment for a majority share. But that doesn’t make this any less silly. This is a novelty product through and through. Plus, leak-proof or not, the idea of carrying a tube full of fresh urine around with you is seriously off-putting. Or is that off-putting?


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“Let’s address the elephant in the room”. Hey, we can appreciate the initial hook here, but apart from co-opting a popular saying, this business model just doesn’t have that much going for it. Acknowledging that you’re having issues in your relationship is difficult enough as is, but bringing a stuffed animal in to help… Well, it’s not hard to imagine many partners being very put off by the idea. It’s undeniably cute, but its application elicits eyerolls from a number of the sharks almost immediately. And we’re pretty sure that most viewers at home had a similar reaction. Communication is the key to a good relationship, we’re just not convinced this elephant needs to be part of it.







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There’s a market for everything. Or so Amanda Schlechter hoped. She brought in the Ledge Pillow, a small memory foam pillow meant for women with large breasts. This small cushion is placed underneath the woman’s stomach, allowing her to comfortably sleep on a bed. The presentation gets off to a bad start, with snickering through the demonstration and sarcastically calling out the “big problem.” They also joke and laugh their way frequently through the whole thing, even while trying to talk business with Schlechter. It’s clearly not going well, and that’s before Mark calls her a “wantrepreneur” and declines the offer. Was this sexism in action?


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As the old saying goes, “beauty is in the eye of the beholder”. This product, pitched in season 7, takes that to a more literal conclusion by offering to trick your eyes into seeing yourself as being more slim than you actually are. Voila! The, uh, Skinny Mirror, even if it’s a not-so-skinny you. Entrepreneur Belinda Jasmine pitches her invention as a tool to help boost self-confidence, but Kevin O'Leary isn’t having any of it. Not only does he take issue with her lack of patent and blind faith in her brand identity, but he also appears to be offended by the concept. Jasmine, for her part, tries to keep the momentum going and a smile on her face, but the pitch quickly falls apart, and the tension in the room is palpable.

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Pitching a feature length film to the Sharks seems ambitious to begin with, but when it sounded as bad as this, the creators were bound to get eaten alive. Making up the pitch team are a former stuntman, a writer and a producer. When they made their pitch, they had no script, no actors and no financial backing. The guys made sure to stress that this is not a movie about the popular sport of motocross, since they were told there’s no viable U.S. market for a motocross movie. No, this is a film about MotoGP, a lesser-known sport given little to no attention in the United States. They also mention that there’s never been a movie made about the sport but... maybe there’s a reason for that.

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Who doesn’t cringe in embarrassment when a presentation goes horribly wrong? Enter Clay Banks and Alex Bertelli of Haven, a special lock that is meant to secure doors better than a standard deadbolt. It’s a fair idea, but the presentation is an iconic disaster. Bertelli hopes to prove the flimsy nature of a deadbolt by kicking down a prop door. It does not go well. He continuously kicks the door to no success and even grabs a nearby stand to ram it, still to no success. Meanwhile, the Sharks howl with laughter, drowning out Banks’s desperate attempt to continue the presentation. Mark calls it the “best pitch ever” and later called it the funniest pitch in the show’s history. We can’t argue with that.

One of the all-time worst pitches comes from “Shark Tank”’s very first episode all the way back in 2009. Apparently, back in the old days, Bluetooth earpieces were the must-have tech gadget, but this guy took it one step further so that you and your Bluetooth would never have to be apart. Pitching a surgically implanted Bluetooth device that’s inserted into the wearer’s ear canal, Darrin Johnson manages to creep the Sharks out and get some of the fastest “I’m outs” in the show’s history. The fact that the device has to be charged nightly by inserting a large needle into one’s ear definitely doesn’t help his cause. And neither does the fact that he didn’t actually get any doctors to approve his product. Surprise surprise, this product never took off.


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Do you have any crazy product ideas you would like to pitch to the sharks? Let us know in the comments below!


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