The very uncomfortable sympathetic feeling experienced while you watch someone else embarrassing themselves. This feeling is often intensified when the person embarrassing themself is not aware of how embarrassing their behavior is. In this case it is more like you are feeling the embarrassment on their behalf.
George: OMG, dude...this talent show is killing me. The fat girl dancing to 'Ice, Ice, Baby'...
Dude: I know man, I know...all the wrong things are jiggling--
George: --And her dancing! Everyone is laughing and she just keeps going. It's like a trainwreck right now. I don't even want to watch!
Dude: Total vicarious embarrassment right now, man.
George: Ugh. Let me know when it's over.
The Latin phrase "incidit in scyllam, cupiens vitare charybdim" comes from Greek mythology in the story of Odysseus known also as Ulysses. Scylla and Charybdis were rocks on either side of a narrow inlet. The phrase means trying to avoid Charybdis one founders on Scylla. It represents the idea of having to choose between two evils and has the force of being "on the horns of a dilemma," "between the devil and the deep blue sea."