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22 February 2006

On a squick scale, what's your nine? →[More:]
What just really creeps/grosses you out (particularly those idiosyncratic yicks)?
post by: Specklet at: 12:06 | 83 comments
Surgeries on TV.
posted by mike9322 22 February | 12:09
people eating bugs? yeah that's probably it!
posted by Mrs.Pants 22 February | 12:14
Life without Specklet.
posted by sciurus 22 February | 12:14
Not nearly so much as used to. I can touch a dead animal, pick it up and bury it, even investigate its wounds and try to figure out what killed it, all with no "stigma" anymore. This is good for someone who fancies himself an amateur "naturalist" and eventual wildlife biology/environmentalism student.

Ticks still creep me out. Leeches not so much, though. They REALLY used to creep me out.
posted by shane 22 February | 12:15
Maggots crawling from a piece of chicken like what happened after that guy dropped it when he was eating it in Poltergeist and the other piece of meat he was looking at started kind of vomitting guts. That's always skeeved me out.
posted by omiewise 22 February | 12:16
Aww, who's the sweetest squirrel boy in the whole world?

For me, it's stepping on drowned worms on the sidewalk. I don't mind worms per se, and I don't mind stepping them on the grass even half as much. But on the sidewalk, all leached and puffy and limp? Gah!
posted by Specklet 22 February | 12:16
Parasites.
posted by Capn 22 February | 12:19
Visible thongs.

(no offense)
posted by selfnoise 22 February | 12:20
Anything wrong with someone's eyes, whether it be actual or a special effect in a movie. I can't even watch the Total Eclipse of the Heart video because of the glowing eyes.
posted by jrossi4r 22 February | 12:21
Daddylonglegs.

Oh, and phlegm, when people clear it out of their throats and hawk it on the ground.
posted by essexjan 22 February | 12:24
jrossi: further confirmation that you and I are the same people. Eyes freak me the hell out big time. If I ever get shortsighted you can guarantee that I will not have contacts.

Also: watching people get injections or having blood taken from them on television. In real life is fine. Who knows why.

Also: stepping on snails. CRUNCH + SQUISH = GAAAHHHH!

also the thought of tapeworms and all other stuff like that.
posted by gaspode 22 February | 12:26
I once held a job as an exterminator's assistant, heaving and holding septic system caps up while he sprayed roach killer on the thousands of cockroaches crawling all over in the pipe, on the cap, and all over my arms, chest, neck, and legs. So yeah, the feeling of thousands of cockroaches all over my arms, chest, neck, and legs, the smell of roach killer being sprayed on me, and the fear of crushing my boss' arms if I dropped the cap in revulsion, all those things together pretty much suck.

And "squick" doesn't mean bondage plus scat/showers anymore? Geez, when did I grow up?
posted by Hugh Janus 22 February | 12:27
Oh shit! What did I know? Now it seems squicking is trepanning someone and fucking the hole. Wild and crazy, guys!
posted by Hugh Janus 22 February | 12:30
Patterns in microbiology and electronmicroscopy. Particularly holes/recesses.
posted by Eideteker 22 February | 12:33
Pregnancy and childbirth and someone's post in an earlier thread about suctioning snot out of their offspring. I just... no.
posted by occhiblu 22 February | 12:33
That's interesting essexjan, I never knew folks called crane flies daddylonglegs. That's what I've always called a harvester.
posted by Specklet 22 February | 12:34
On the other hand, I love spiders, and have several of the cellar spider "daddylonglegs" in my (half-basement) apartment to keep it free of bugs. My childhood nickname was "spider" after the daddylonglegs, because at my first growth spurt, my legs grew first.
posted by Eideteker 22 February | 12:37
(Here's the DLL disambiguation page. I used to know of a page that showed all three with pictures, but can't find it.)
posted by Eideteker 22 February | 12:42
I'm with surgery on TV and daddylonglegs (harvester kind) people. Cephalopods both squick and fascinate, especially their beaks. Shit.

Eyes freak me the hell out ... also the thought of tapeworms

I guess both are right out then.
posted by danostuporstar 22 February | 12:43
That photoshopped picture of a woman's nipple and those seeds is still is grossest thing I've ever seen, real or imagined. I know at least one other person who agrees.
posted by danostuporstar 22 February | 12:46
Anything where teeth are broken/knocked out
posted by King of Prontopia 22 February | 12:47
Surgery on television I can handle. Prostate surgery on TV, though, makes me run screaming from the room. Why do they have to show that shit?

Anytime I hear, see or think about anything having to do with the recent French face transplant... gaaaaaaaaaaaaaack.
posted by killdevil 22 February | 12:49
A fingernail dragging across fabric, esp. coarse fabric where you can hear a little "zzzzzt!" sound. That makes my eyes water just thinking about it.

Fingernails on blackboards, styrofoam, NONE of that stuff bugs me, but the fabric thing goes right through me.
posted by BoringPostcards 22 February | 12:50
I don't mind the harvester kind of daddylonglegs - we call them harvestmen in the UK (even the females, which aren't harvestwomen but female harvestmen, go figure).

Spiders and crawly things of all kinds used to freak me out until I got cats. Nowadays, if something comes within cat range, it's a snack. If it climbs up the wall and out of their and my way, it doesn't bother me.

Oh, but those daddylonglegs flying around, jeez, they are the grossest things evah!
posted by essexjan 22 February | 12:51
Cephalopods both squick and fascinate, especially their beaks. Shit.


WTF is that??!! A squid beak??!! Bleeeaaaggghhh!
posted by essexjan 22 February | 12:55
Occhiblu, I referred to my pregnancy as "the infestation" and absolutely HATE hearing people's birth stories. Especially if they come with photos. The whole thing is pretty icky.

And I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one with the eye thing, gaspode. I've been wearing contacts since I was a kid, so that doesn't bother me, but anything else...*shiver*.
posted by jrossi4r 22 February | 12:56
It's a good thing you haven't seen fivecomix then. No, really. (I'm thinking of the "a necessary evil" episode, for any aficionados. *shudder*)

Eyes don't freak me out, but eye trauma does. The idea of someone's eye popped out of its socket and hanging by the optic nerve? Eww. I was reading up on home-made first aid kits and someone suggested you carry a cup and a rubber band for just such an occurance. I had no idea it was so common in MVAs. There was an episode of House (which a friend just gave me rips of) where they stuck a needle into a guy's eye. No no no no. No.

Surgery on TV (or the net, now that I don't have a TV) doesn't bother me so much except for the unexpectedness. But I'm not going to sit there and watch it, either.
posted by Eideteker 22 February | 12:57
There's so many tv shows now with plastic surgery on them and I just don't like seeing peoples faces being cut open, pulled about, having strange coloured strands of god-knows-what being pulled out them. Surgery on other bits of the body are fine, but the face... bleagh!
posted by dodgygeezer 22 February | 12:58
insects, dolls, creepy music, and white people at work who make chirpy, high-pitched meaningless elevator talk/stupid jokes.
posted by Lipstick Thespian 22 February | 12:58
I agree with you on that last one, lipstick thespian, but is it really only the crackers?
posted by Hugh Janus 22 February | 13:04
Burns, really bad sure-fatal burns where is the victim is still conscious and not in much pain because all the nerves have been destroyed.

That and convulsions with lots of blood flying around.

I'm not real good around life-threatening trauma.
posted by warbaby 22 February | 13:05
Oooh oooh that whole sticking a needle into your eye thing. Who did that first? Newton? Some wackjob.

*runs screaming from room*
posted by gaspode 22 February | 13:05
Eyes don't freak me out, but eye trauma does.
posted by Eideteker 22 February | 12:57


Heh... I've been on a Lucio Fulci kick lately, Eide. C'mon over and bring the popcorn.

≡ Click to see image ≡
posted by BoringPostcards 22 February | 13:06
Giving blood. Here's where it gets weird: I went to school for biomedical engineering. I have no issue with needles (used to get allergy shots), surgery (loved watching "Operation"), or blood (Roller Derby!) per se. Hell, I've even taken blood from people (as a college student). What I absolutely can not stand is the thought of giving blood. I'm completely squicked out thinking about it right now, so much so that it's hard to type, as the mere concept makes my fingertips tingle. GAH!
posted by eamondaly 22 February | 13:14
Oh god, eideteker and BPC are MAKING ME QUEASY!!!! DUUUUUUUDES!!

Back when I worked full time, I used to have to cover a lot of medical-type conferences. ED docs were popular speakers and they always came with very graphic slide shows. I knew to look away whenever the word "ocular" was uttered, but frequently wasn't fast enough. The burn pics were pretty bad, too. And the skin diseases........oh man, I'm getting woozy.
posted by jrossi4r 22 February | 13:18
BP: I still haven't seen Un Chien Andalou, though it's probably three clicks away on the Internet somewhere.

That photoshopped picture of a woman's nipple and those seeds is still is grossest thing I've ever seen, real or imagined.

Since I intentionally seek out non-violent squick-y things (like compelling images you want to but can't look away from; see my above e-m links), does anyone have a link to this image?
posted by Eideteker 22 February | 13:23
Yup, I was right.
posted by Eideteker 22 February | 13:24
(Eide)
posted by danostuporstar 22 February | 13:34
I get squicked out by discussions about things that squick other people out.
posted by mosch 22 February | 13:46
I just came across this. Thank God there isn't a picture.

posted by essexjan 22 February | 13:53
Okay, urban legend or not, that totally fucked me up. I swear, I'm starting to sweat. Of course, like mosch, reading about all your gross shit isn't help...I gotta close this tab...

/thud
posted by richat 22 February | 14:00
Ugh, that breast picture makes me want to throw up.
posted by sciurus 22 February | 14:00
Dano: That's in line with the electronmicroscopy pictures that make me inexplicably jittery. Thanks!
Anything with deep recesses or superhuge pores, yup.
posted by Eideteker 22 February | 14:01
Where's the breast picture?

Things I absolutely cannot tolerate:

Centipedes. I will kill you with my bare hands if you try to put a centipede on me, you bastard.

Someone opening dough in one of those cans that pop open...O MI GOD. I refuse to do it myself.

Eye things.

Hey remember that photograph that I posted a few months ago of the man who had pulled his eyeballs down to his cheeks? I'm pretty damn sure it's photoshopped, right? It has to be photoshopped, right? RIGHT?
posted by iconomy 22 February | 14:15
Click on dano's (eide) link for the boobie pic, ico.
posted by sciurus 22 February | 14:17
Oh I just found the breast picture...shit.
posted by iconomy 22 February | 14:18
Hey remember that photograph that I posted a few months ago of the man who had pulled his eyeballs down to his cheeks?

In the last series of ER there was a scene where some guy sneezed and his eyeball fell out onto his cheek. How the hell they did the special effect I don't know, but I almost upchucked.
posted by essexjan 22 February | 14:18
Urgh. Has anyone seen Saw 2? I heard that one of the victims has the key to a lock on the door implanted in or behind their eye, and the only way to get to it is to gouge out their own eyeball. So I won't be seeing Saw 2, thank you very much.
posted by iconomy 22 February | 14:24
I don't find that breast picture that disturbing. Then again, I've sat through autopsies without a whimper (apart from the eye bits).
posted by gaspode 22 February | 14:27
Speaking of worms in eyes...

Doesn't show any photos, but links to a page that does. Very gross photos of a worm being pulled out of eye tissue. You have been warned.
posted by iconomy 22 February | 14:32
I really don't think that stretchy eye thing was photoshopped.

Oooh oooh that whole sticking a needle into your eye thing. Who did that first? Newton? Some wackjob.

I don't know why, but this made me laugh really hard.
posted by Specklet 22 February | 14:33
The prospect of breaking bones gives me the willies.
posted by me3dia 22 February | 14:47
I was just looking at it again, Specklet, and you can see where the skin of the forehead was cloned onto the skin covering the place where the eyes are supposed to be.
posted by iconomy 22 February | 14:48
Oh thank god, ico.
posted by Specklet 22 February | 14:49
I am pretty much squickless.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson 22 February | 14:50
My friend and I were watching a plastic surgery show and they just sliced this woman's stomach and lifted it away like it was the page in a newspaper ...

That was pretty high up there. For both of us.
posted by stilicho 22 February | 14:58
I can handle gore for the most part, I did deer processing for a while.

I have a hard time with poo, though.
And bugs.
posted by krix 22 February | 15:05
The combination of melted cheese and most other foods. I can eat cheeseburgers, and some pizza is okay, but things like potatoes au gratin, cheese-heaped nachos and cheesy soups make me cry.
posted by deadcowdan 22 February | 15:28
Maggots, hands down.
posted by tr33hggr 22 February | 15:31
That photoshopped picture of a woman's nipple and those seeds is still is grossest thing I've ever seen, real or imagined. I know at least one other person who agrees.


YES. It just gives me the ickies.

Other things: Medical shows, childbirth (Thank G_d someone else said it!), spitters. Yuck!

Oh, and I can't touch fish. At all. I like to look at them, but if one so much as brushed against me...eeeeek!
posted by sisterhavana 22 February | 15:33
The combination of melted cheese and most other foods. I can eat cheeseburgers, and some pizza is okay, but things like potatoes au gratin, cheese-heaped nachos and cheesy soups make me cry.


I'm the opposite. I love the three things that make you cry. I like cheese. I like burgers...but I do not like cheeseburgers.
posted by sisterhavana 22 February | 15:34
People who chew with their mouth open, and the feel of layers of polyester rubbing together.
posted by goatdog 22 February | 15:46
Whoa, I read goatdog's comment all wonky and got some very strange mental images.
posted by Specklet 22 February | 16:20
OH DEAR CHRIST!! (not safe for work. or anyone. gah. from the breast larvae snopes page.)

That was an 11. Gah. Ack. Pthrthgf.

I don't like seeing surgery or childbirth on TV, that's pretty squicky.

But what really skeezes me out is phlegm and snot. Spitting is fucking gross. I don't want to swap spit with random people, whether it's on the ground in in their mouth. Yuck.
posted by loquacious 22 February | 16:23
Holy Mother of Squick - did any of you see the REAL video that was referenced in the Snopes Rash from above?! Thirty times worse than the picture. And sadly true.
posted by Feisty 22 February | 16:31
Oh, Okay. loquacious did. We'll be huddled in the corner with our blankies.
posted by Feisty 22 February | 16:32
I forgot about dissections. I could (barely) deal with the frog in biology...but the anatomy class dissected fetal pigs. Thank goodness that was an elective so I could skip that!
posted by sisterhavana 22 February | 16:45
Good spit story: the people I lived with in Peru believe that any time you cough, sneeze, even clear your throat, you should follow up with a big hoick and spit. Lots of phlegm all over the place there. Also, the women chew up boiled manioc and spit it out into a big pot where it ferments, and then it's served at parties. Delicious.

I think my worst squick is spiders with fat bodies, just the thought of them getting squashed and all the internal spidery grossness spurting out. It's not pretty.
posted by nomis 22 February | 16:46
You know the part on American Idol where they have just picked the final twelve of each sex to go on to the part of the show where we, the audience, vote and Seacrest says here are your twelve women (men) and then they have to do these awful fucking awkward dances solo in front of the camera?

That squicks me so bad I almost need to poke my eye out with a spider.

posted by Divine_Wino 22 February | 16:57
When I click the OH DEAR CHRIST link, all I see is a green frowny face.
posted by Specklet 22 February | 16:58
Or maybe that's loq's reaction to the breat thingy...
posted by Specklet 22 February | 17:07
baby flies.... HATE baby flies.
posted by moonbird 22 February | 17:49
That photoshopped picture of a woman's nipple and those seeds is still is grossest thing I've ever seen, real or imagined. I know at least one other person who agrees.


Oh god... oh god... no sleep for me tonight.
posted by kellydamnit 22 February | 18:49
I have an absolute aversion to seeing holes in bodies. Not the ones you're born with, mind you, but the sight of cavities and perforations just give me the heebie-jeebies. *Especially* if they're small, numerous and ubiquitous. Bugs me the heck out, even typing this.
posted by ooga_booga 22 February | 19:02
And of course, I heartily second the sentiment about that photoshopped breast picture. Good fucking god - my skin just crawled off and is hiding in the corner. From the same snopes page about that breast picture, there's a link to pictures of a man who was living with his brain exposed to the elements and in which maggots had hatched. I think it's the first time I've felt nauseous while looking at a picture.
posted by ooga_booga 22 February | 19:44
Specklet: The "OH DEAR CHRIST" link goes to the video linked to in this previously mentioned Snopes thread. I guess they don't like direct links.

Really, I'm glad. That means people who go to find the video I'm all squicked out about have to click more than once to get to it, and are thus at least a second or two more of their lives are squick free.

It all adds up.

Me? Y'know that dream where you go to work/school naked? Well, I'm skinless. At work. But not dreaming. I'm assuming my skin is hiding in a corner at home somewhere.
posted by loquacious 22 February | 21:20
loquacious, my skinless brother!
posted by ooga_booga 22 February | 21:33
I have an absolute aversion to seeing holes in bodies. Not the ones you're born with, mind you, but the sight of cavities and perforations just give me the heebie-jeebies. *Especially* if they're small, numerous and ubiquitous. Bugs me the heck out, even typing this.

That's exactly what I'm getting at. The sight of someone's skin honeycombed like insects were living in it. Don't know why, but the thought of such a thing is both repulsive and compelling to me.

And loquacious has swung over the bar and become... INSIDE-OUT BOY!
posted by Eideteker 22 February | 21:51
Word up, Eideteker. Although I'll admit that for me the holes do not need to appear insectoid in origin in order to be repugnant. That being said, that breast picture... gaaaaah!

I wonder if Inside-Out Boy has a belly button?
posted by ooga_booga 22 February | 22:04
ooga, I'd be curious to know if you were bothered at all by the electron microscope pictures I linked earlier.

And ooh ooh, while not squick, surely someone here remembers the machine on the Muppet Show that changed people's faces. That thing creeped me the HELL out. With the giant eyeball on it, and the hands? (Can anyone find it on google or youtube etc. and link me to a clip?)
posted by Eideteker 22 February | 22:24
The combination of melted cheese and most other foods. I can eat cheeseburgers, and some pizza is okay, but things like potatoes au gratin, cheese-heaped nachos and cheesy soups make me cry.


Oh man, nachos are my favoritest snack in the world... though mine aren't cheese-heaped... more cheese sprinkled.
posted by mosch 22 February | 23:01
Eide, of the ones you linked the second picture you linked bothers me the most because it's the one which looks the most organic. For me, the more it looks like the holes are perforations in living tissue, the higher the squick factor. It's the worst when the holes are in a recognizably human body part, with faces ranking the highest on the scale.
posted by ooga_booga 23 February | 02:27
The Doodle Bops inspire in me the combination of revulsion and terror which I presume Lovecraft was trying to achieve in his stories.
posted by DevilsAdvocate 23 February | 12:44
← Damn ... || Cold Turkey →

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