# Pimple-popping vids: explain their fascination **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 21, 2016, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pimple-popping-vids-explain-their-fascination/749803 "2016-03-21T22:45:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![pool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pool/32/4152_2.png) [@pool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pool)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2016, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pimple-popping-vids-explain-their-fascination/749803/21 "2016-03-23T04:22:15Z")
I don’t feel like looking up the link at the moment but there’s this absolutely awful video on youtube tha appears to take place in India where the dermatologist removes blackheads from the nose of an old man that has never had them removed his entire life apparently it’s so much fluid and pus and dried out just shit coming out of every pore it’s disgusting to think of all that crud just sitting in there all those years, I’m surprised the nose didn’t deflate from everything that came out, but it’s the same phenomenon where I can’t look away. When I was a teenager going through adolescence my Mom loved to pop any zits I had and scratch all the dandruff out of my scalp both these issues are long resolved, but my Mom seriously enjoyed doing these things, don’t ask me why. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2016, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pimple-popping-vids-explain-their-fascination/749803/22 "2016-03-23T04:24:30Z")
> [@Small\_Hen](#): > > 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. Ooh, that’s awesome! I had a patient once with a huge cyst on her abdomen. We squeezed well over 100ccs out before the doctor I was working with (this was at a campground first aid) decided we should send her to the ER to finish, because we just could not reach bottom. Over the next week she came back to me for thrice daily dressing changes and more squeezing. I never got less than 50ccs out. She must have gone home 10 pounds lighter. ---
**Author:** ![Sodalite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/34f0e0/32.png) [@Sodalite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sodalite)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2016, 8:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pimple-popping-vids-explain-their-fascination/749803/23 "2016-03-24T08:38:24Z")
> [@snowthx](#): > > 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 curse you. I curse myself for my curiosity, but I curse you, too. Until today I did not know that jiggers existed, what they were, or what they did to the human body. You came along and roused curiosity, my old mental frenemy, from a long nap. I thought jigger was just another word for a chigger, the mite that causes an annoying, itchy rash. I looked it up. Not the same, not the same AT ALLL. So yeah, curses for you and all that. ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2016, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pimple-popping-vids-explain-their-fascination/749803/24 "2016-03-24T18:12:39Z")
> [@snowthx](#): > > I am gonna share this gem with my budding nurse daughter. > > I suppose the ingrown hair removal vids are also a thing. Goes to show you anything your heart desires is on the internet now. Oh, yes. Absolutely. There’s one of a man pulling out an ingrown hair that he’d had growing for about a year; apparently, he’d thought it was just a mark on his skin. That sucker had to be about six inches long. I’ve watched that video seven times.It’s incredibly satisfying. ---
**Author:** ![chronometer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c2a13f/32.png) [@chronometer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chronometer)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2016, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pimple-popping-vids-explain-their-fascination/749803/25 "2016-03-25T04:02:27Z")
The video with the hungry dog? If it’s the same as the one I saw, the person doing the extracting was ungloved and using a plastic shopping bag in lieu of a mask. He used a box-cutter or other art-knife and may have been partially unclothed. Children and pets were running about and other adults were commenting on the spectacle. And I think the dog was successful. There was an article in the Guardian last year about the popping phenomenon: [Explosive! Behind the internet’s fascination with pimple popping, zit zapping and squeezing cysts](http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/apr/30/cyst-popping-explosion-pimple-popping-extraction-behind-community). Why yes, I am a popaholic. ---
**Author:** ![Waltzes\_with\_Cacti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/90ced4/32.png) [@Waltzes\_with\_Cacti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Waltzes_with_Cacti)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2016, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pimple-popping-vids-explain-their-fascination/749803/26 "2016-03-25T12:59:11Z")
> [@chronometer](#): > > There was an article in the Guardian last year about the popping phenomenon: > [Explosive! Behind the internet’s fascination with pimple popping, zit zapping and squeezing cysts](http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/apr/30/cyst-popping-explosion-pimple-popping-extraction-behind-community).[/SIZE] OP here. **Chronometer** , thank you _very_ much for the link to the Guardian story! It contained the best explanation yet as to why people are drawn to this phenomenon. “Kill George,” which I hadn’t seen before, is a masterpiece. And thanks also to all the other posters who shared anecdotes and theories. ---
**Author:** ![Jennshark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Jennshark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jennshark)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2016, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pimple-popping-vids-explain-their-fascination/749803/27 "2016-03-25T14:54:10Z")
Lifelong cystic acne sufferer here (it’s sooo lovely to be almost 50 and still be zitty :)) Popping my own beasts and watching Zit Porn is relaxing – even cathartic – for me. Sometimes when I can’t sleep I reflect fondly on the mega-beasts I’ve had over the years and that incredible moment of _POP_ This re-living of Great Moments in Giant Pimple Eradication relaxes me into sleep. ---
**Author:** ![Jennshark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Jennshark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jennshark)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2016, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pimple-popping-vids-explain-their-fascination/749803/28 "2016-03-25T14:57:25Z")
> [@Sattua](#): > > 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. Nice! Kristeva certainly does work well as . Can we look forward to your article in _Social Text_ soon? 😃 THE ERUPTION OF THE REAL! Take that, Lacan! ---
**Author:** ![Lancia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lancia/32/17174_2.png) [@Lancia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lancia)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2019, 7:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pimple-popping-vids-explain-their-fascination/749803/30 "2019-02-19T07:09:38Z")
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