I’ve recently discovered that Youtube offers a tremendous number of vids depicting pimples, cysts and boils being either popped by non-medical amateurs or else lanced and drained by physicians. There is a pimple-popping fan community on the site, and fans leave reviews in the comments rating pimple poppers on their technique and results (results = how much pus is squeezed out.)
Two American dermatologists, Dr. Sandra Lee and Dr. John Gilmore, have become superstars on Youtube because of the quality of the pimple-popping vids they post. Dr. Lee can be heard remarking that viewers find pimple footage relaxing and many watch at bedtime before going to sleep.
I’m neither repulsed by nor attracted to these vids, but I find this phenomenon interesting. If you share this fascination with popping pimples, can you explain the psychology behind it? If you’d like links to some of the vids, just ask and I’ll supply a few.
We know about pimple-popping videos around here, never fear.
I take the fascination back to Kristeva’s essay on The Abject. That which was once part of us, and has now fallen away and become repulsive. It’s satisfying to shed dead parts of ourselves. It feels like progress. In the case of pimples, cysts, and boils, there isn’t even a moral gray area. They are unquestionably bad. Getting rid of them is unquestionably good.
Also, if you’ve ever had a big one lanced, you know it feels niiiiice.
I can’t answer you because I find the idea repulsive, but I discovered yesterday that there’s apparently a similar fascination with videos about pets having mangoworms removed, at least judging by some links I encountered after reading about a puppy who was infested with them. The one video I watched was more than enough to last me a lifetime. poor puppy!
I must admit, I’ve clicked on some of the ones that people have linked to here, with comments about them being gross and nasty. I haven’t gone in search of them though, and never will. Some are pretty fascinating. There was one that I watched that had been festering on some lady’s back for decades. Man, that was just … indescribable. It left a hole on her back!
Just people enjoying the relief vicariously, I think.
I’ve sometimes thought that if one could market a way to allow a person to safely and quickly grow large pimples which could then be popped to great effect and relief, there would be a mint to be made.
It never fails to amaze me what weapons people use when they perform amateur boil lancing. Nut picks, razor blades, box cutters, steak knives, even a screwdriver! :eek: The first time I saw one of these, in the early days of You Tube, it had a title along the lines of “MRSA WARNING!” and I replied, “If he didn’t have MRSA before, he probably does now!”
The homemade videos usually seem to have a lot of beer around, too, and it’s also not unusual for people to smoke a cigarette while having a back cyst lanced (not so good for healing) and pets running around too.
One of the grossest things I’ve ever seen online was
A woman was having a sebaceous cyst lanced, and a guy who was witnessing this commented that it looked like cottage cheese, and then he ate some of it to see if it tasted like it too. :eek: He ran to the bathroom and threw up, and the woman who was performing it ran to the sink and it did the same thing. There’s also one where some of the gunk fell on the floor, and a dog tried to eat it but it got wiped up too soon.
I’m in health care. A couple of years ago, I had a patient with an abscess in her labia majora. She’d had an incision and drainage, and part of my job was to remove the dressing twice a shift, squeeze and drain what I could, clean it with a betadine swab, and redress it. The hole went about an inch deep, and if you pushed upwards just behind it, a flood of puss would pour out. The thing was, every time you did, this woman would absolutely groan in relief. I’m dead serious when I say I enjoyed it. It was disgusting, but sooo satisfying.
Now you guys have got me watching blackhead videos on youtube. They gross me out because of the cottage cheese texture of the puss, but damnit, I can’t look away.
I don’t know anyone who would argue it’s not gross. But I’m a vet tech and believe me, we race to be first when we know there’s an abscess waiting to be seen. Always will be gross, but immensely satisfying to get bad stuff out, and fascinating to watch as none are the same.
One of my friends had a labial abscess a few years ago (probably bartholinitis). She said it was EXTREMELY painful, and she couldn’t believe how much pus came out of it when she had it drained.
Surgeons will say almost to a person that the.grossest.thing they can possibly work on is a perirectal abscess. Those can have a liter or more of pus in them before they even cause any symptoms, and in addition to stinking to high heaven, when they are lanced, it’s not uncommon for the pus to shoot across the room and hit the opposite wall. From what I’ve seen, those are almost always found in men.
:eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:
There are probably as many animal abscess draining videos on You Tube as there are for human abscesses.
There’s a married couple named Ethan and Hila (hee-la; she’s Israeli) who have a channel where they parody and otherwise ridicule assorted viral videos. I haven’t seen any pimple-popping parodies, but I have seen a few from them that are almost as bizarre.
I had wondered what their employer, etc. thought about this, and it turns out this IS their job. They have enough followers that they get paid for their videos.
Ok. I just wandered thru a few mangoworm and jigger removal vids over on YouTube. Ugh. Not for the faint if heart. But, I guess there is a fan base for all this stuff.
I have an odd interest in tooth extraction videos. Really enjoyed the process of losing teeth as a kid (once I understood it wouldn’t hurt).
I would imagine that the mechanism is the same with pimple videos. “This thing needs to be removed - watch it get removed - enjoy the dopamine!”
Side note I have learned watching tooth extraction vids: Some dental surgeons are careful about extractions, taking the time to use pressure and forceps correctly. Others are butchers who hack up gums in what appears to be an effort to make the extraction as quick as possible.
But if you’ve ever had a boil, you know how relieving it is to have it taken care of. I had an ingrown hair on my bum (almost at the perineum) awhile back. The thing went into cellulitis and was swollen in a patch maybe 1"x 4". I got an emergency appt at the dermatologist, who wouldn’t touch it but gave me some antibiotics. By that evening I was crying and my husband (who is an MD but hasn’t done this stuff for ages–psychiatrist) said “to hell with it” and lanced it for me with our available equipment and the best sterile technique possible. It hurt but felt SO good to have the pressure gone. Afterward, I kind of wished I could have watched the proceedings. (Sidenote: I think I will never shave the bits and pieces again. Not worth it!)
I liken it to people riding roller coasters, going to see scary movies, etc.
It’s something that you know ahead of time is going to get your pulse racing and other hyped-up effects. Some people like that feeling and seek it out. Others don’t.
I sit and watched blackheads, boils and maggot removal for about 30 min last night. It took about 15 min for me to clear the visions out of my head and get my stomach back to normal. There was something kind of facinating but disgusting about it.
(Sidenote: I think I will never shave the bits and pieces again. Not worth it!)