Recently, I’ve seen a TV series (The Queen’s Gambit) and a movie (Run) which both featured scenes of someone “cheeking” their medication. Cheeking, I learned, is the name for hiding a pill in your cheek or under your tongue to avoid swallowing it while still appearing to do so.
I know this is a pretty common trope in movies & TV shows (I vaguely remember it from Cuckoo’s Nest), but I can’t for the life of me come up with any other specific examples. Can anyone think of any?
Happens in “House” during the season he’s in a mental hospital (I think)
Also in “The Practice” (as I recall)
In the Sopronos Uncle Junior cheecked his meds in the nursing home in the final season.
Did not know it was called ‘cheeking’. Have to verify individual episodes of shows to see if it’s actually done. There’s an episode of It’s Always Sunny that has Danny DeVito in an institution, replaying his part from Cuckoo’s Nest. Not sure if he’s ‘cheeking’ drugs though, his character Frank would usually take any drugs he could find. On New Radio there’s an episode where the late great Phil Hartman’s character ends up in an institution with a character played by Jon Lovitz who would sadly replace his Bill McNeal character on the show. Would have to see any of these episodes to make sure it was done, but the idea is prevalent.
James Caan’s character in Misery.
Great examples, y’all. I was able to find the Misery reference in an online copy of the screenplay, so I used that one to fill out my required 3 examples. I’m trying to launch this as a new trope over at TVTropes (in case you hadn’t guessed).
I checked - not “The Practice” but Boston Legal in “Still Crazy after all These Years”
Boston Legal - Still Crazy After All These Years / Season one, Episode two - starring James Spader, Mark Valley, William Shatner, Candice Bergen, Rene Auberjonois, Julie Bowen, Justin Mentell, Ryan Michelle Bathe; by ABC TV and David E. Kelley Productions . At a hearing Alan Shore argues that Christine Pauley is now sane, and her doctors say its only because of the drugs she’s been forced to take at the hospital. Pauley then produces a pile of pills, which she had clearly not been taking - because she was “cheeking” them.
Pretty sure Murdock was seen cheeking at least once in “The A-Team”.
I don’t recall if she was seen cheeking specifically but Sarah Connor was rather creative with avoiding medication in Judgement Day.
I found a script online. She wasn’t successful.
Probably Arnold in the first version of Total Recall. He pretends to take a pill (which is supposed to be a “symbolic” way of recognizing that his “reality” is an implanted delusion), but spits it out when he sees the Rekall executive starting to sweat.
Although I don’t know where he hid the pill – cheek or tongue or whatever
IIRC the main character in Legion did it in one of the early episodes.
Bradley Cooper’s character in Silver Linings Playbook. Can’t find a clip but it’s discussed here: Ask a Psychiatrist: How Does Silver Linings Playbook Handle Mental Illness?
I just dropped in to say: EWWWW! 
In the 2nd to last episode of Undone, the main character Alma does it to convince her mom that she’s taking her bipolar meds.
That link isn’t working for me (takes me to a login page, which doesn’t help me since I don’t have a Tvtropes account). When you get your new trope up, send the link, please!
TVTropes likes their anime and comic book examples too, so here’s a comic book one: Joseph Irons in the 2012 reboot of Harbinger.
Will do. I’ve actually just proposed a new name for the trope after getting some feedback. Now looking to call it “Contesting a Pill.”
Also, to a lot of the responders here, I have to provide very specific examples to get the trope launched (my very first response to the proposal was basically “you can’t just say ‘so and so does this trope,’”) so I can’t add those yet. If it is successful, they can be added later.
I think my “Boston Legal” description is pretty detailed. For House, further details. In “Broken” while House in a psychiatric hospital, House avoids taking Haldol by cheeking both because he doesn’t think he needs it and because he wants to trade the pills to another patient. House also manages to fake a urine test so it looks like he has been taking his meds (Broken | House Wiki | Fandom)
Right you are, Andy_L. I certainly didn’t mean that to apply to everyone.
Understood.
