Uncomfortable Elevator Moment



"Homer: Whew! I made it the whole day without seeing her again.

(the elevator arrives and Homer gets in; the door closes and he notices he's crammed in with Mindy)

Homer: HAAAAAH! I mean, HAllo!

Mindy: Heh... I guess we'll be going down together -- I mean getting off togeth-- I mean--

Homer: That's OK. I'll just push the button for the stimulator -- I mean elevator!"

- The Simpsons, "The Last Temptation of Homer"

(For the proper experience, run the music from this video while reading this page.)

So, you want to have some sort of scene in an elevator. You don't want anything as crass as the Elevator Going Down, your film is too serious to require an Elevator Gag, and you don't have an Elevator Action Sequence in mind. Does this mean you have to dispose of your scene?

Not at all, because you can always resort to an Uncomfortable Elevator Moment! This trope relates to how transit in an elevator is often used in films as a break in tension or for outright humor.

In many western cultures there is an unspoken code of behavior that applies inside elevators: when someone enters an elevator, the custom is to face the front and stand in silence whilst absently watching the floor numbers change. If there is any conversation, it amounts only to small talk. An individual who breaks with this custom, for example facing the other passengers, is often a source of considerable unease to the other individuals in the lift. The protocol does vary a lot between cultures, even between neighbouring countries; for example, England has the elevator protocol, while almost none of Europe does. Depending on where you are, you might be expected to greet the other people in the elevator and/or make light conversation, or to completely ignore them. This is apparently a part of basic animal behaviour, too: primates in small enclosed spaces instinctively avoid drawing attention to themselves. The cultural differences in elevator protocol reflect differences in what behaviour is inconspicuous. And yes, primates -- monkeys go quiet too, but rats tend to fight.

Particularly in visual fiction, the Western "protocol" is often milked to generate ironic, uncomfortable silences from characters inside the elevator, when some other reaction might well be expected or justified. In short: an Uncomfortable Elevator Moment.

Uncomfortable Elevator Moments traditionally take place inside The Elevator From Ipanema. The elevator "music" itself often forms part of the humor and/or tension in the scene, but will get cut off abruptly when the scene ends. It can also take the form of a Mid Battle Tea Break in a fight.

For added discomfort, cue the fart, with an elevator filled with many, many people.

If it becomes overly long, it may overlap with Leave the Camera Running.

Advertising

 * This McDonald's commercial.

Anime & Manga

 * Neon Genesis Evangelion had several of these, the most famous of which was stretched out just about as far as it could be (about a minute). Then to show it wasn't just Stock Footage they re-animated a shortened-but-equally-awkward version scene in The Movie (or rather the second movie... it's complicated). Wanna bet it's in the Third of the new movies?
 * Mirage of Blaze: More so for Kagetora than Naoe.
 * Futari Ecchi features an Uncomfortable Elevator Moment that is crossing the limit with Elevator Going Down. It happens when Makoto is sharing a ride with the Kubotas, a young couple of Insatiable Newlyweds whom recently moved in the building. As they start getting fresh right in the elevator, not minding their neighbor at all, Makoto is nearly dying of embarrasment.

Comedy

 * Dara O'Briain built a whole bit about the phenomenon into one of his shows. The video is sadly no longer available online, but he suggests not walking into your usual spot at the back, but instead standing with your back to the doors, just staring into the lift at everyone else in it. He also recommends the handrails as a means of indulging your Olympic-Gymnast daydreams.

Comic Books

 * There was one of these in a Superman comic: a small, nebbishy kind of fellow gets onto the elevator complaining audibly about his lot in life. Darkseid is impassively standing inside. The civilian rambles on for a few more seconds until he realises who he's actually in the lift with, at which point an Uncomfortable Elevator Moment comes about.
 * Never get on an elevator with The Tick. For one, he takes half the elevator due to sheer size. He also hums along with the elevator music.

Films -- Animation

 * The moment in Spirited Away when Chihiro is on the elevator with the Radish Spirit. Awkward.
 * WALL-E has one between the title character and Eve. They happened to be on the run at the time and the two saw a "wanted" picture of them while in the Elevator. WALL•E was amused. Eve wasn't.
 * In Megamind, Roxanne and Megamind (disguised as Bernard) share an elevator in the Metro Man Museum... just before it's going to blow up, thanks to actions by the latter of the pair.

Films -- Live-Action
"Loki: Last four days on Earth. If I had a dick I'd go get laid.
 * Spider-Man 2, where Peter Parker is forced to use an elevator whilst in full costume when another individual is present. Small talk follows, culminating in some observations about the way the suit tends to ride up, since it's assumed he's just a guy in a Spider-Man costume.
 * An alternate take occurs in the extended cut, where the individual does think that he is the real thing, and starts suggesting ways he could improve his public image.
 * Die Hard, where Hans Gruber compliments his hostage's choice of suit whilst they are riding up in an elevator together.
 * Averted awesomely in Die Hard: With a Vengeance. McLane gets into an elevator with three security officers, and just as the uncomfortable silence begins, he figures out that the officers are actually bad guys in disguise. John makes some petty small talk, and then....
 * In Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas, Doctor Gonzo threatens someone with a nine-inch blade in an elevator, in a haze of drug-fuelled paranoia. (Everyone else tries to ignore him.) Comes complete with the doors opening, a horrified couple staring at the knife-wielding Gonzo, and the doors closing again.
 * The Blues Brothers, where Jake and Elwood stand silently in the lift whilst outside SWAT team and National Guard members are swarming the building.
 * From Dogma, as Bartleby and Loki enter an elevator:

(no response from other elevator passengers, bar a silent, irritated look from a woman holding a coffee)

Loki: We can do the next best thing.

Bartleby: What's that?

Loki: (as doors of elevator close) Let's kill people.

(the woman sprays her coffee everywhere)

Loki: (cheerily) No, not you!"

""You gentlemen aren't really trying to kill my son, are you?""
 * Bridget Jones' Diary contains one of these... although Daniel Cleever takes advantage of the protocol to deliver what is implied as a less than Uncomfortable Elevator Moment to Bridget Jones.
 * Liar Liar
 * The main character has an awkward moment where he farts in the elevator and can't lie about it. Which is itself part of the protocol.
 * And the scene earlier in the film where he manages to tell a new tenant that she's only popular because of her cup size. (Well, it's Krista Allen.)
 * Averted in The Matrix Reloaded: Trinity, Neo, and Morpheus have entered an elevator, and another civilian is about to get into the lift. Morpheus gives the individual a meaningful shake of the head, which dissuades him from getting aboard. On the other hand, while they're in the elevator, the three characters still don't face each other when speaking, and they all follow the protocol despite the seriousness of the conversation.
 * Parodied for all it is worth in the movie Asterix & Obelix: Mission Cleopatra. Otis has conceived a primitive lift (powered by the enslaved Pirates) for the new Palace, and when Caesar, Cleopatra and Edifis try it for the first time, they instinctively follow the modern protocol despite the complete anachronism of it.
 * "Otis" is the brand of a rather prominent present-day elevator manufacturer. Look around the lift next time you're having an Uncomfortable Elevator Moment. Even more than that, Elisha Otis made lifts carrying people possible.
 * In the movie version of Being There, a Running Gag takes place in the elevator at the Rand mansion. Chance, wheelchair-bound at the time due to a minor leg injury, has never been in an elevator, and his attendant is at first confused by his comments/questions about it ("Does it have a television?"). Following the Rule of Three, the third time around the attendant just breaks out laughing during the ride, explaining that he expected Chance to make another joke about the elevator. Beyond the gag, later in the film, Chance and Eve are going to their respective rooms after a party and Eve tries to explain how she feels about him, while both face the door; as he responds, they turn to each other.
 * In the beginning of Ghost, Carl and Sam pull what's clearly an often-practised joke where they discuss what communicable diseases they've picked up, whilst in a crowded elevator.
 * X-Men Origins: Wolverine has this at the very beginning. Deadpan Snarker Wade Wilson makes a comment about it, of course.
 * The Australian crime drama Phoenix has so many of these. People wrote in asking if the Major Crime Squad was doing an add for Otis elevators.
 * Borat plays this trope to a tee when Borat discovers Azamat masturbating to his picture of Pamela Anderson and chases Azamat around the hotel naked -- while threatening him with an enormous dildo and shouting in foreign-sounding gibberish Hebrew. Both men, still naked, one of whom is still holding a large rubber penis, enter an elevator. Cue the elevator music as Borat and Azamat stare directly ahead in perfect silence, until the elevator stops -- then it's back to running and screaming.
 * In Dead or Alive The Movie, Christie gets into an elevator wearing nothing except a bra, panties, and high heels, unsettling the poor old guy already in the elevator. Then the moment is interrupted when she ties him up, stuffs him into his own briefcase, and steals his trenchcoat.
 * The Departed has a hilariously awkward elevator ride with Costigan and Sullivan as the former is bringing the latter in at the end of the movie. Of course,.
 * Ghostbusters; although their dialogue was completely ordinary. Their Proton Packs -- backpack-mounted nuclear accelerators -- did the job for them.
 * The elevator scene in New Moon.
 * In Killers, Jen is flustered because Spencer is shirtless.
 * North By Northwest. Roger and his mother are on a crowded elevator with two guys who are trying to kill him. Awkward...

"C.J.: Hey, i like this song."
 * Mercury Rising takes the trope Up to Eleven with an Uncomfortable Elevator Mexican Standoff.
 * Played for serious Nightmare Fuel in Blade. Karen Jensen gets into a lift with two sinister-looking types. When she averts the protocol, turning to look directly at one of the two, his response is a chilling but polite "How ya doin'."
 * in the 2004 remake of Dawn of the Dead 2004, the survivors are stuck in one of these on the way to the garage. Not helped by C.J.


 * A threefer in True Lies. Tasker (on a horse) chases a terrorist (on a dirtbike) into the lobby of a hotel. The terrorist rides right into a glass-walled elevator and takes a hostage. Tasker rides into the next elevator, with a well-to-do couple who wind up pressed against the glass with the horse's butt in their face. And the whole ride up, Tasker and the bad guy are glaring daggers at each other.
 * Revenge Of The Pink Panther does this when Clouseau is under cover with The Mob and they're all sizing each other up in the lift. And then the director decided that somebody should break wind. It apparently took 58 takes to get it right.

Literature

 * In the book version of American Psycho, Patrick Bateman makes small talk with Tom Cruise in an elevator. It even reads awkwardly in the novel.
 * There's a whole chapter in The Pale King devoted to three IRS employees that are stuck in an elevator. Their resulting debates include the future of American society, presidential politics, democracy, tax law, psychology, film, and existential dread.
 * In Catching Fire, the uninhibited Johanna Mason complains of the heat, strips naked, and gets on an elevator with Peeta and Katniss. It turns out later that she was deliberately invoking this trope to make Katniss uncomfortable.

Live-Action TV
"Londo: I hate my life.
 * Heroes
 * Sylar is riding in a lift with another individual. Sylar is utterly casual and generally following the elevator protocol; his fellow passenger also does so, but is doing so out of fear more than anything else -- Sylar's clothes are drenched in blood. Sylar asks the other man if there's something wrong, and when he stammers out "No, of course not," his newly obtained Living Lie Detector ability goes off. "Heh, it really does tingle..."
 * There's also the scene near the end of the first season where Matt, Bennet, Jessica, and D.L. are riding the elevator together. After some awkward silence, Jessica says, casually, "Hey, didn't I throw you out a window one time?"
 * Sex and The City: Miranda and Steve share an incredibly awkward elevator ride with Miranda's ex Robert who is also a fellow tenant. Seeing as Steve just moved in, they discuss afterward who gets "custody" of the elevator.
 * A gag in Trigger Happy TV is to fill an elevator with people in animal suits, taking up all of the room except for the unsuspecting person either already in the elevator, or trying to enter.
 * How I Met Your Mother: Ted meets one of his dates this way. They have several awkward elevator rides due to working in the same building unti he finally breaks the ice - by spilling his guts about how horrible he still feels after having been left at the altar several months ago.
 * NCIS
 * Gibbs holds a lot of private conversations in the elevator, often hitting the emergency stop switch in order to better use it as an impromptu private conference room. Needless to say, many of these little conferences get distinctly uncomfortable. You'd think building security would, at some point, tell Gibbs to stop setting off alarms just so he can talk to people, but if you're really thinking that, you haven't met Gibbs. Turns out Gibbs learned it from Franks. It is also a subversion; his elevator talks with Fornell are rather cordial.
 * Other characters also have their own Uncomfortable Elevator Moments. A humorous example appears in the Season 4 episode "Cover Story" with Tony and Ziva discussing their counterparts in McGee's novel: "Totally unrealistic." "Would never happen." With both of them looking hilariously awkward the entire time.
 * Not to mention the episode where we see Ziva put a particularly irritating suspect into the elevator, the doors close... then the doors open on the next floor and he's dead. Bet that was awkward as Hell.
 * Referenced in an episode of Roseanne, in which Roseanne is disguised as a man to get into Dan's lodge. She starts chatting with the guy next to her in the urinals, and when he doesn't respond says, "Oh I get it! It's like when you're in an elevator!"
 * Lampshaded in Kyle XY by the protagonist, when he enters an elevator for the first time and notes that all the people face forward in silence and evade his gaze when he looks at them. It promptly becomes even more awkward when Stephen tells a colleague to lie to a client over the phone, causing Kyle to question him over it and prompting looks from the other elevator patrons.
 * In a skit on Chappelles Show parodying the film What Women Want, a woman enters an elevator full of horny middle-aged men. They don't say anything to her, but she knows exactly what's on their mind (and almost every lewd detail within, since she can read their thoughts). She manages to get away from the situation when the elevator arrives at her floor when a young boy in the elevator thinks to himself, "I'd put a hurtin' on that bitch!"
 * Babylon Five
 * Slight variation in one episode: Londo and G'Kar, ambassadors of two warring alien powers, find themselves waiting for the same lift and begin trading insults in the meantime, to the great discomfort of the small, human extra caught in between them.
 * In "Convictions", Londo and G'Kar decide not to share an elevator... untill a nearby explosion forces Londo to jump in. The elevator becomes disabled. G'Kar is firmly opposed to acting in any way that would get them rescued, as he wants to watch Londo die. Awkward.

G'Kar: As do I."

"Lennier:Woo hoo?"
 * Babylon 5 loves this trope. Throughout the first season there were several between Talia and Garibaldi, and later one where Sheridan gets on the lift with Lennier after the latter had observed the pleasure ritual between the Captain and Delenn, in a purely religious capacity, of course.

"Janeway: And then?
 * The moments with Talia and Garibaldi get more ridiculous when halfway through the season Talia realizes that every single time she takes the elevator, Garibaldi is already in it. Sinclair thinks that this is just coincidence, until the elevator arrives and Garibaldi is inside. Talia takes the stairs.
 * Star Trek Voyager
 * After an Aliens Made Them Do It episode (which fortunately was not consummated), the officers concerned (Half Human Hybrid B'Elanna Torres and Handsome Lech Tom Paris) run into each other in the turbolift. Awkward small talk ensues, until an annoyed Tom stops the lift to give a heartfelt speech on how they have to face up to what happened... plus he wasn't that scared by seeing her aggressive Klingon side, and wouldn't mind seeing more of it some day. They go the rest of the way in silence, but as B'Elanna exits at her floor, she says, "Be careful what you wish for, Lieutenant."
 * In "Waking Moments", all of the crew have had strange nightmares which end with a strange alien watching them. After waking up they all share their dreams, but Tuvok is notably reluctant to share as his dream, shown at the beginning of the episode, was that he went to the bridge, only to realize when the entire crew begin to laugh hysterically that he had neglected to put on any form of clothing. Janeway takes a turbolift with Tuvok and takes the opportunity to enquire further. Clearly uncomfortable, Tuvok admits he dreamt he was in the turbolift and the alien seemed to be "scrutinising his appearance" before following him back to his quarters. His short, evasive answers seem to pique Janeway's interest further.

Tuvok: He watched me.

Janeway: Doing what?

Tuvok: ... Getting dressed.

Janeway: Getting dressed? (pause) I don't suppose I should ask why you were undressed.

Tuvok: I would prefer that you didn't.

(there follows a very awkward silence and when they leave the turbolift, Janeway sneaks a glance at Tuvok with a barely smothered grin)"

"Wesley: Come on, come on, come on...
 * Star Trek Deep Space Nine also has such a moment in "Trials and Tribble-ations". Time-travelers Bashir and O'Brien try to take a turbolift in TOS's Enterprise, but them being unused to 23rd century technology, it doesn't react to their verbal commands. They're about to tamper with the mechanism when a woman steps in and starts the turbolift properly, by holding one of the handles before giving her command. Bashir then whispers to O'Brien, "I won't tell anyone if you won't."
 * The Sarah Connor Chronicles episode "The Tower Is Tall But The Fall Is Short" has an Elevator Action Sequence between Cameron and an unnamed female Terminator that turns into an Uncomfortable Elevator Moment when a family steps onto the elevator in the middle of their duel. As soon as the family steps off, they resume beating the crap out of each other.
 * An episode of Only Fools and Horses has Del and Rodney stuck in a lift for several hours.
 * Toyed with in an episode of Frasier; Daphne and Martin whisper urgently to each other about how no one could recognise her after the plastic surgery, "the woodchuck and his ways" and the best way to get "stuff" through customs, just for the delight of the awkward response from other tenants. Played straight in a few other episodes.
 * Twice in a recent episode of Dexter had recently hooked up Angel and Laguerta about to use the elevator alone together when Masuka joins them.
 * Hilariously played with on Angel, as (the very drunk) Fred and Wesley need to catch an elevator quickly.

Fred: Did you press--

Wesley: Oh. (presses call button)

(uncomfortable waiting)

Wesley: Come on, come on, come on..."

"Madison: God, longest elevator ride ever.
 * Greys Anatomy has several elevator scenes, but the one that deserves mention is when Addison, Mer and Derek are riding the elevator together and you could cut the sexual tension with a fucking knife. It's so obvious that Addison later asks Meredith if she's still sleeping with Derek.
 * In the pilot of The Mentalist, Patrick Jane takes the liberty of creating one between Van Pelt and Rigsby by mercilessly lampshading their Unresolved Sexual Tension beforehand.
 * Leverage manages to combine several elevator tropes into one incident, in which Nate, Nate's ex-wife Maggie, and her boyfriend are handcuffed to one wall of an elevator going down while a ticking bomb is just beyond their reach. While Maggie's boyfriend breaks down crying, Maggie and Nate have a Now or Never Kiss as he watches. Then, out of nowhere, Parker drops down from the ceiling, says hi, grabs the bomb, and climbs back up out of the elevator. Cue an Incredibly Uncomfortable Elevator Moment.
 * Veronica Mars: In season two, in the episode best known for its Epic Love moment, Veronica, Mac, Vincent, Corny, Dick, Madison, Jackie, Wallace and others take a long uncomfortable ride up to the Alterna Prom thrown by Logan.

Butters: Wait for the Space Elevator. They're designing it now. A huge elevator on a hundred-mile carbon polymer cable that goes all the way to space. That'll be a long elevator ride.

Mac: Still not as long as this one."


 * These are sometimes used as office-sexism-scene-setting moments on Mad Men.
 * In one of them, Don is on the elevator with a couple of younger guys who start talking in fairly graphic detail about a sexual conquest. The elevator stops and an older woman, presumably a secretary, gets on... and the guys don't stop. Don, ever the Chivalrous Pervert, gives them a few sideways glares and finally intervenes by telling the one guy to take his hat off, before reaching over and physically removing it for him, with the obvious overtone of "pay attention to your surroundings, you little prick."
 * Bizarrely subverted by the scene in which Pete Campbell goes about expressing what he (in his upper-crust WASPy ignorance) thinks are more or less enlightened views on race to the elevator operator (who is of course black in this Politically Incorrect History) while actually having rather condescending Unfortunate Implications. Neither he nor most white people--including a lot of white supporters of civil rights--would have recognized it at the time, but the viewers at home were certainly meant to be wincing at least as much as the operator.
 * House usually has at least one per episode. The standard is: House having conversation/catfight with person; *ding* lift arrives; doors open; House finishes with a witty/cutting/entirely innapropriate remark and steps into lift -- doors close, with last glimpse of the other passengers eyeing him in alarm. (Because they are now trapped with a raving lunatic.)
 * A truly uncomfortable elevator scene took place in a later episode of Moonlighting. Maddie had just suffered a miscarriage and chose to bury her emotions and get back to work, until she and Dave end up stuck in an elevator together. After several minutes of elevator music, Dave rips out the elevator's speaker while Maddie finally breaks down crying. Dave ends up comforting Maddie and by the time the elevator door opens again, they exit singing, "Oh What a Friend We Have in Jesus".
 * The Big Bang Theory: The elevator's been broken for the entire series. This causes an uncomfortably long silence between Penny (who previously dated Leonard, and still lives across the hall from him) and Raj's sister Priya (who is currently dating Leonard, and on her way to see him) once in Season 4.
 * In one episode of Boy Meets World, Adult Child Eric makes his former mentor Mr. Feeny his Imaginary Friend to help him with his college work. At one point in the episode he gets in an elevator with a stranger and starts talking to the imaginary Feeny. The other guy is, understandibly, very creeped out.
 * In an episode of Mad About You, as Paul goes to visit Jamie at her office, they end up on the elevator with her handsome co-worker Doug. . .who Jamie just confessed to kissing the night before. During the ride, Paul lampshades his this trope by explicitly stating, "Could anything be more awkward?". The tension genuinely ratchets up when Paul asks Jamie to leave him and Doug alone, then proceeds to tell him off, finishing by asking him, "Did you think I was going to hit you?" When Doug confirms that this was indeed his fear, Paul snaps, "Good."
 * On ER, Doug chases after Carol to apologize for showing up drunk at her apartment the previous night, uninvited and unannounced and disrupting her evening with her boyfriend. Carol slyly manipulates things so that he ends up on the elevator with her boyfriend. . .who proceeds to pleasantly tell him that he understands that he isn't over Carol. Doug, who was clearly expecting to be verbally, if not physically eviscerated, is left looking completely gobsmacked by this turn of events.
 * The 2010 Hawaii Five-O has an example when a couple of tourists with a little boy find themselves in the same elevator as the 5-0 police officers, fully geared in bulletproof vests and guns out, as they are pursuing a wounded suspect hidding in a grand hotel. Complete with Hawaiian elevator music.

Video Games
"Cortez: So... Been in the agency long?
 * In Silent Hill 2, James' pocket radio randomly turns on and plays a demonic quiz show while he travels in an elevator with Maria. Moreover, it turns out the contestant is James himself. It ends with Maria commenting, "What was that?" and James shrugging. Then the elevator doors finally open.
 * Mass Effect
 * Used during assorted loading screens in. Most of the time the main character and sidekicks just stand there with news playing over the PA system, but from time to time one of the characters starts making commentary on things that are going on in the game.
 * This gets perhaps the single greatest Shout Out in a video game ever though, when in the second game, having Tali and Garrus in your team while running up and down stairs in the Citadel Wards causes Garrus to comment on how he misses the conversations they used to have in the elevators. Tali threatens him with a shotgun.
 * Got lampshaded by another character.
 * Most conversations other characters have with Wrex in the elevator end with an awkward silence.
 * Happens in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, where you're attemping a biking mission. You have to drive through an office and then take the elevator up to one of the top floors. Keep in mind you have to take your motercycle with you.
 * The first map in Left 4 Dead 2 has a quiet elevator sequence, as does Mercy Hospital in 1 and the Sugar Mill in 2. The first map in L4D2 is notable and particularly awkward as the survivors have just met and need to introduce themselves. The Mercy Hospital sequence can also get awkward if the Survivors decide to debate on how to classify their foes.
 * In Ghostbusters: The Video Game, there is a scene where Ray and the Rookie are in an elevator with a couple of businessmen arguing about staying in for lunch, though rightfully so since the building is being attacked by the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.
 * Time Splitters: Future Perfect features an Uncomfortable Waiting for the Elevator Moment as Cortez and his partner from the time period involved in one of the missions have to wait for the elevator to a corporation's secret lab.

Partner: Uh... Yeah... Three years in May.

(beat)

Cortez: You get dental?

Partner: Yeah... Yeah...

Cortez: That's good..."

"Roy Earle: Well... Isn't this just awkward."
 * The elevators in Halo's Library. "But I Don't Want to Ride the Elevator!"
 * World of Warcraft, where there is one elevator that NPCs know how to use. If the target they want to attack is on a different floor, they will wait for the elevator, step on it, wait for it to get to the top/bottom and then continue chasing their target. If another player, who they don't like, is also on the elevator they will simply ignore them unless their primary target leaves the dungeon, in which case they will punch your face in.
 * LA Noire has one in "The Naked City" DLC, where you and your partner are riding up with a woman who's fiancee you just accused of burglary. Your partner lampshades it:

Web Comics

 * Order of the Stick subverts and lampshades its usual practice of having large plot-altering events every hundredth strip by throwing in one of these for #600.
 * Boy Meets Boy features a moment where Harley and Mik are about to get intimate, only for the frame to pan out, revealing they're in the middle of an elevator with a group of uncomfortable passengers.
 * Everyday Heroes has a couple of superheroes riding the elevator up to the office, while the Muzak is playing
 * Subnormality illustrates the effect here.

Web Original

 * In the "Brawl" anniversary battle between the The Nostalgia Critic and The Angry Video Game Nerd, the two keep fighting throughout a hotel, even while the are waiting for an elevator to arrive. When it does they simply stand inside, apparently ignoring each other. The fight continues once they reach their intended floor.

Western Animation
"Homer: See you tomorrow!"
 * Animaniacs: The protagonists and generic villains tend to get into elevators together and then just stand there as the elevator descends.
 * In Code Lyoko, since reaching the lab room and scanners by elevator is at least an Once Per Episode event, a few Uncomfortable Elevator Moments are unavoidable. Usually, when two of the heroes are having a dissension and are pointedly ignoring each other. (That is, when it doesn't turn into an Elevator Action Sequence sequence because of XANA's attack.)
 * Such a tense moment happens in episode "Image Problem", when Ulrich and Odd ride with a Yumi impostor, the first clone created by XANA.
 * A gag on an early episode of Family Guy has Peter step into an elevator with one other occupant. The other guy starts sniffing with a disgusted look on his face. Peter stammers, "Ummm... you did it."
 * In The Spectacular Spider Man, the humongous supervillain Rhino steps into an elevator where a meek-looking man is already inside, and tells the man to take him to the top floor. After a moment of awkward silence, Rhino explains that his fingers are too big to push the buttons.
 * The page quote is from an episode of The Simpsons where Homer is stuck in an elevator with Mindy Simmons, a co-worker he finds himself attracted to. He ends the awkwardness by stopping the elevator between floors and getting out... into thin air, sliding down one of the power plant's smokestacks.


 * A rather inspired one in Jackie Chan Adventures: Jackie and his Evil Twin get into an elevator, and the "Theme from A Summer Place" starts playing. Good!Jackie smiles and enjoys the music. Evil!Jackie scowls and waits. Better Than It Sounds.
 * Wakfu manages to have such a moment with a Magitek elevator in season 2 episode 4 -- complete with an elevator music remix of the opening theme.

Real Life

 * There's a story about how when Paul Wolfowitz was president of the World Bank, he found himself in an elevator with a woman wearing a blue ribbon and asked her what it meant. She told him it was being worn by World Bank employees petitioning for his resignation.
 * Jonah Hill tells a story on the Jimmy Kimmel show of partying with P Diddy in Vegas and being in a crowded elevator with his entourage and Jermaine Dupree. Jonah while drunk decided to make a joke.
 * In mid 2011 Rebecca Watson, known for writing on the popular science blog Skepchick, had one at an atheist conference in Dublin. A man asked her if she'd like to have coffee with her... in his bedroom. It was four in the morning and they'd never met before.
 * She made a video about it, and how uncomfortable she felt. Various people suggested that she was overreacting, and she responded to one of these responders (arguably putting her on the spot). When the outcry about that got attention from the very widely read blog Pharyngula, the whole thing grew into a fracas dubbed "elevatorgate" and "Rebeccapocalypse". Arguments were had over whether or not the moment in question was completely acceptable (given modern norms of flirting), or awkward, or creepy, or outright threatening (given that an elevator is a place lacking opportunity for immediate escape). Things got aggravated when famous atheist Richard Dawkins, in deep Sarcasm Mode, said -- oppressed muslim women shouldn't complain, western women are asked out in elevators! The shitstorm lasted several months, and raised questions over whether the "new atheist" community would experience a schism (which might be perceived as ironic in the same spirit as the Rebellious Rebel).