# What Creeps You Out? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 30, 2005, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-creeps-you-out/287351 "2005-01-30T01:13:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Little\_Wing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/51bf81/32.png) [@Little\_Wing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Wing)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2005, 8:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-creeps-you-out/287351/61 "2005-01-31T08:06:13Z")
Having to wash in a strange shower/bathtub (like a hotel room). I don’t know why but it just gives me the major heebie jeebies. I end up standing in the shower on the outsides of my feet (unless I remember to bring along my old pair of flip-flops and shower wearing them). To stand completely flat-footed in a strange shower? Ugh. No way. Come to think of it, I even do it at home sometimes, even though I know the shower is clean. Very, very strange shower aversion. And I’ve never run across anyone else that has this reaction. Oh, and put me down for the spiders thing. _shudder_ I hate spiders of all shapes and sizes, but especially those ones with the wee little heads and the massive abdomens! GAH! ---
**Author:** ![cornflakes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@cornflakes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cornflakes)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2005, 8:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-creeps-you-out/287351/62 "2005-01-31T08:49:09Z")
I wanted to become an orthopedic surgeon when I was younger. The idea of setting bones doesn’t bother me, but the thought of setting a dislocated joint freaks me out. Between the cartilage, sinovial fluid and the pull of ligaments, I just have this idea that it would feel like a rubbery, oily pull and then maybe a muted pop, and the idea that someone would have to do that to a human body seems like a violation of all that is right in the world. ---
**Author:** ![cornflakes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@cornflakes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cornflakes)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2005, 9:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-creeps-you-out/287351/63 "2005-01-31T09:13:30Z")
> [@Mirror Image egamI rorriM](#): > > I heard that they do appendectomies through an incision in the belly button sometimes, to hide the scar. I’d rather have a scar, thank you very much. > > Also, when they use power tools on bones in operations. We watch a lot of medical shows at my house, and nothing creeps me out except watching them use a drill, or a chisel and hammer, or electric saw on someone’s tibia or something. The worst is when they stick a rod up inside the bone, to support the whole thing. Ugh. I’ve had laparoscopic surgery and was walking within a day or two. IANAD but trust me, as creepy as it sounds you want the hole in the navel, not the scar. Oh, and I have a rod in my thigh. I was off crutches in four month, as opposed to nine months if they used metal plates. What is creepy is the friend who had rods put in both femurs (cows and motorcycles don’t mix.) He claimed that they tried to pull one rod out, but it became obvious that it was lodged in the bone, so they decided to just leave it, sticking a little over an inch out of the top of the bone. It’s a heckuva story, isn’t it? ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2005, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-creeps-you-out/287351/64 "2005-01-31T11:47:03Z")
Clowns, crabs, spiders, and scorpions. I got the clown thing from Poltergeist, of course, and the others obviously out of general creepiness. True story… last month I was walking barefoot down a very very dark dirt road on an island off the coast of Vietnam, taking in the night scenery. Next night I rode it on a motorcycle with a headlight… I saw several 2-inch black scorpions scuttling across the road. :eek: I wore shoes everywhere after that. Can’t believe nobody else mentioned scorpions. :shudder: ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2005, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-creeps-you-out/287351/65 "2005-01-31T12:42:59Z")
> [@Aesiron](#): > > And I’ve seen that before, **DarkSideoftheFloyd**. I was nauseous for a week and am more than a little queasy right now just thinking about it. Me too. I’m trying to think happy thoughts today, to wipe that godawful image out of my head. When I was a child, I saw a picture in an encyclopdia of a frog that carries its eggs in little holes on its back. I made sure I never touched that particular volume again. :eek: (Happy place happy place happy place) ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2005, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-creeps-you-out/287351/66 "2005-01-31T12:44:30Z")
I need to stop reading this thread. ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2005, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-creeps-you-out/287351/67 "2005-01-31T12:46:34Z")
> [@Aesiron](#): > > A lotus pod? It was what was photoshopped on that breast to make it look like that. My guess is it’s something primordial… in our “reptile brain”, so to speak. That’s it. I googled and found that hideous thing. My head hurts, my hands are numb…I’m joining **Aesiron** and bowing out of this thread. I was hoping for some insight into my honeycombophobia, but I need to get away for a bit. Let’s go start another thread…a happy thread. Except I can’t think of one right now. ---
**Author:** ![papergirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/aca169/32.png) [@papergirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/papergirl)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2005, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-creeps-you-out/287351/68 "2005-01-31T13:08:50Z")
Most creepy-crawlies don’t bother me, except for centipedes. Those suckers are mean. Large machinery (like boilers and furnaces and weird spooky loud grey noisy things) in dark or shadowy enclosed spaces. Deep oceanography stuff. The very idea of abyssal plains and deep ocean trenches just nauseates me. The fact that there are thermal vents down there, and things that LIVE there, in the heat and the poison…gah. And continental plates! Where the continents just…end. I have to go lie down now. ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2005, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-creeps-you-out/287351/69 "2005-01-31T19:39:16Z")
1. Clowns. 2. Ventriloquists’ dummies ::shudder:: 3. I’m simultaneously creeped out and intrigued by stereotypical 1950’s culture/furniture/architecture/etc. You know–aqua appliances, kidney-shaped tables, rocket fins on everything–the “Populuxe” era. I have no idea why. It’s part of why I love James Lileks’ [Institute of Official Cheer](http://www.lileks.com/institute/index.html) so much–the images are so cool but make me feel vaguely crawly at the same time. Weird, huh? ---
**Author:** ![Velma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/85e7bf/32.png) [@Velma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velma)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2005, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-creeps-you-out/287351/70 "2005-01-31T20:35:57Z")
I hate the holes too. I never had a problem with actual honeycombs though, but that snopes picture is horrible, I get a sick feeling looking at it. I would say generally this creepy vibe is a mild one, but that photo provoked an immediate, strong repulsion, I had to walk around a bit and breathe slowly to calm myself down. I don’t know when the aversion started, but I also have that creepy vibe when I see something with lots of little clustered holes, like pinpricks, and something seeping through the holes. So it must have something to do with things coming _out_ of the holes? I honestly have to stop thinking about that photo, it makes me feel like I am going to pass out. I don’t understand the concept behind this one, other creepy things at least make sense why they are creepy. ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2005, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-creeps-you-out/287351/71 "2005-01-31T23:06:19Z")
Imagine taking a hard piece of coral or lava rock, something with a rough texture and lots of little holes, and rubbing it, hard, against another rock. You’d get a fingers-on-chalkboard kind of horrible grinding screech. Now imagine CHEWING on that rock. Those two images together totally give me the willies. ---
**Author:** ![Agrippina](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8797f3/32.png) [@Agrippina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agrippina)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2005, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-creeps-you-out/287351/72 "2005-01-31T23:10:23Z")
Renissance Festivals ---
**Author:** ![Susie\_Derkins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e47774/32.png) [@Susie\_Derkins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Susie_Derkins)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2005, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-creeps-you-out/287351/73 "2005-01-31T23:27:13Z")
I have the aversion to clusters of holes as well. Have you ever made Kraft Easy Mac? Well, you put water and the noodles together in a bowl and then nuke them in the microwave. Something about this process makes all the noodles stand up on end. It skeeves me out so badly that I can’t make it for my daughter anymore. I also get totally freaked out by optical illusions. I can’t stand the part where you “get it” and the illusion pops out at you, if that makes any sense. I also can’t bring myself to click on any link to a picture of real life weirdness (for example, the fish with a human face that someone posted about a few days ago). Just can’t do it. Even the Jesus prayer mat I got in the mail a few days ago (with the eyes that are closed and yet…open) went straight into the garbage. ---
**Author:** ![MsPrufrock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb9ed0/32.png) [@MsPrufrock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsPrufrock)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2005, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-creeps-you-out/287351/74 "2005-02-01T00:07:52Z")
Gah! Now I’m going to have nightmares. That Snopes pic is AWFUL! I have a problem with the holes thing - things coming out of them - _shudders_ My roommate in college felt the same way. We had some sunflowers in our room and one day in the middle of the brown part of the flower some of the nubs had become petals - so there were these weird clusters of longer nubs and mini petals. _gags_ We threw the flowers out SO FAST. Moray eels also creep me out. I think because they’re basically a movie picture of the holes thing. They have those burrows they live in and kind of slide in and out. I also can’t stand mirrors in the dark. Too many stories of Bloody Mary always made me wonder what would happen if I looked in the mirror and I wasn’t the person looking back; or there was someone else there; or there wasn’t ANYONE there. I will turn on the lights before I even step foot in the bathroom. Okay, now I’m going to have to read some happy book so I can calm down. :eek: :eek: :eek: ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2005, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-creeps-you-out/287351/75 "2005-02-01T00:17:10Z")
> [@Velma](#): > > I hate the holes too. I never had a problem with actual honeycombs though, but that snopes picture is horrible… > I honestly have to stop thinking about that photo, it makes me feel like I am going to pass out. . Is it deja vu, or was there another thread here recently that mentioned the same photo, and drew the same strong reactions from everyone? I haven’t seen the picture, and I’m torn between my curiosity and my fear of anything disgusting. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-creeps-you-out/287351.md?page=3)