Why does our culture have an obsession with puke?

I never noticed it but I believe you.

It’s an easy non-judgmental way of finding something laughable. No judgments abut the person, just visuals of them puking.

@Judi I probably only notice it because of my own fear of it. I wish I didn’t :/ I’m posting this after I tried to watch “Pitch Perfect” but had to stop because of puking five minutes into the movie, then walking into the next room flip to a show on comedy central where EVERYONE WAS PUKING. like wtf

I could not agree more with you. I complain about it all the time to my husband. It really pisses me off.

I’ve sort of been desensitized due to my partying in college; I saw so much chundering…can’t escape that. I hate it when I have to throw up, but seeing other people doesn’t really bother me. I don’t understand things like “milk challenge” and “raw egg challenge” and other things that just inevitably end up in puking, but I guess some people find it funny.

I disagree that it does.

There are many reasons. I could think of several, but it’s a toss-up.

I’ve noticed the vomit thing, and I blame the general dumbing-down of this culture and what now passes for funny.

Same thing about a man getting hit/kicked in the crotch. This shows up all over popular culture, and it’s supposedly hilarious. Not that I’d know from experience, but I’ve been told that a crotch injury is one of the most painful things a man can experience.

They do these challenges for fun, for others to think they’re cool, because they are pressured, or they simply have no videos to make. Don’t judge them. They have their reasons. I did it for fun, actually. I saw a lot of people do it so I thought, “Hey, I want to see how it feels like. I should try.” And the challenge was The Cinnamon Challenge. I didn’t throw up, but a lot of other people do. And that’s okay! It’s their choice, and you really shouldn’t be complaining about them. Just skip the video, simple as that.

^^^ It’s fine to skip a YouTube video. The problem is, these vomiting and crotch-kick scenes appear in movies, TV shows, and other forms of entertainment.

@cutiepi92 I went to see “Pitch Perfect” with a friend. After the first vomit scene, you stopped watching. I was stuck seeing the entire film (which was dreadful, by the way). I won’t sicken you by describing the vomit scene at the end of the movie. Let’s just say that it was about 100X worse than what you saw.

@kimchi like @SadieMartinPaul said, I mean, it’s not like I watch those youtube videos. The issue I have is when it randomly shows up in tv and movies that I’m actually interested in seeing NOT for random puking :( And with me, it’s even worse because vomit gives me anxiety attacks so it’s really an issue to me. Yes, I think the challenges are stupid but it’s more about the saturation of media in general with unavoidable vomit for laughs…....it’s disgusting

I agree with @marinelife. I disagree that Western media in general or US media in particular have “an obsession” with vomit. It’s obvious and unfortunate that you do, but you shouldn’t consider your own phobia a condemnation of “all media” just because of your own particular neurosis.

That would be like a European jelly thinking that “all of the US is stupid and bad” because of the well publicized stupidity of a few. Oh, wait, we already have that. Well, never mind, then.

no…..it’s not really the same. Do I have a fear? Of course I do and yes that means when I notice it, it strikes a chord with me. But that doesn’t mean that I haven’t seen it an increased number of times in film. It just means it affects me differently than it affects you.

Clearly I don’t condemn all media if I want to work in entertainment myself and still try to watch movies and tv…...... I’m just saying there is an increase of it.

I am going to continue to support the OP. in the last 5–7 years this has drastically changed. Previous if someone felt nauseas (a character on a show) they might have run to the bathroom and we knew what they were doing. Now, they show puke come out of the persons mouth, we hear the noises, it is significantly more explicit. Aside from the graphic nature of how they depict these scenes, people feeling like they need to vomit happens more often in general in my opinion.

I too notice it more because I have a phobia about throwing up, which is less intense as I get older thank goodness (hopefully it will happen that way for you also @cutiepi92) so I am much much more aware of people being stomach sick on TV and movies, because it freaks me out, if you are unnaffected it is just another scene in the movie.

I didn’t go to spring breaks with my high school or college friends, because of the possibility of people drinking an puking. I am kind of fanatical about food safety for fear of stomach illness. When I had surgery my biggest concer was getting nauseas from being put under.

@JLeslie same for me :/ I’m still trying to figure out how I’ll ever get pregnant because I’m too afraid of morning sickness…..And it’s also the reason why I don’t hang out around people who drink.

@cutiepi92 I used to worry about that with pregnancy also. It was a much much bigger fear for me than labor and delivery. The idea of chemo cancer treatment seemed worse than death to me literally. But, as I got older I was able to be more rational about it. I’m more able to accept that it will be tempriary suffering and there is an end to it. Eventually the baby is born, or the treatment ends, etc.

Ugh! I agree…disgusting. Seems EVERY movie has to have the requisite puke scene these days. The puking of america. lol

OK, I have a question – if your dog does the deed on the living room rug, do you let him eat it, or chase him away and clean it up?

well I don’t have a dog and if I did he’d be an outdoor dog so I wouldn’t hopefully have to clean stuff off my floor lol. Tbh I really don’t know how I would react in a puking situation where I am responsible for whoever does it. In the past I have hyperventilated and panicked.

I had emetophobia ever since I was very small. Very small.

It wasn’t until about half a year ago that I could say that it doesn’t affect me that much.

I spent my whole 4 years in college not going to any parties or bars because I was afraid of puke. I missed out on movies. I still don’t want children for many reasons but that was one of the reasons. I felt if I got treatable cancer, maybe hospice would be better than chemo because of the puke. Crazy right?

My dream is to work in health care. I got my science degree. I was not about to let some stupid phobia ruin it for me. So I started working full time at a hospital and yes, that involved puke. I had to mentally train myself. I googled emetophobia and found desensitization exercises that helped so much. I suggest you do the same. I did them right online for free.

These days, I can see any movie I want. I get a twinge of fear in my spine when I see a puke scene. My hands get a little sweaty. But I still enjoy the movie.

I now can be there for sick patients. I have helped my sick boyfriend too.

You can overcome this!

-believe that you can do this.

-send me a private message and I’ll give you a special parental review site that will tell you anything objectionable in any film that is released… Including vomit in any capacity. You can either rule out vomit being in a film or you can prepare yourself. This helped me to enjoy movies again!

-find desensitization exercises free on the Web and get to working on that. They start off so small. I think the first step is a picture of the word “V”. Then v*. Then v****. Then vo***. You get my drift.

This is biology, not culture. Disgust is a universal primary emotion. It protects humans from dangers.

Simply another iteration of “toilet humor,” which has been around forever, though admittedly, a disgusting one.

as Jleslie said though, it seems like it’s more graphic now on television. They used to not show everything and now they show people in the act of throwing up, no cover or filter or censor. I don’t get why; to me it’s the same level of completely showing someone in the act of pooping….

I don’t get why either. It’s unneeded in my opinion. It’s for shock value. If they had awesome acting and better storylines they wouldn’t need that shock value. So I blame the writers. I really enjoy older episodes of Law and Order. No vomit in those and still quite engrossing. Wish we could go back to that.

Unfortunately, when you outlaw a lot of sexy content and language, America tends to make up for it with gore and excessive violence. I’ve been to Europe and European TV is the opposite of ours.

I’d take some curse words and some bare breasts any day on TV over this sensationalized gore.

I feel the same way as you do. I also have emetophobia and though it affects me now far less than it did in the past (when I was younger, even reading that a character in a book was sick or nauseous would give me a panic attack) I still cringe when I see graphic vomiting scenes in movies or on TV. When I know it could be coming or a close friend/family member warns me, I close my eyes so that I won’t have to actually see the person vomiting. I will still watch shows or movies even if I know there is a possibility of a vomiting scene (I did enjoy Pitch Perfect, after my best friend warned me to close my eyes at that specific part. I also quite enjoyed Date Night a few years back when I saw it in theaters, even though it surprised me with a vomiting scene which caused a moment of anxiety) but I still would definitely rather not be in that situation in the first place. I’ve definitely noticed an increase in vomiting being shown. As @JLeslie mentioned, a character used to just run out of the room, or we’d hear vomiting sounds. Lately, movies/TV shows have felt the need to actually show the vomiting fully and make it as graphic as possible. I probably notice this more because I have emetophobia, but just in general I think it is often unnecessary and I can’t really understand why people think that type of humor is funny.

@JLeslie I’m also the same way about food safety! I’m often apprehensive of eating certain foods (a lot of seafood in particular) or foods that look a little different than usual because I’m scared of getting food poisoning. You’d definitely never catch me eating anything past the expiration date, whether it seems like it has gone bad or not!