# What do you find creepy that others don't? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 15, 2008, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-find-creepy-that-others-dont/472874 "2008-11-15T17:03:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![lee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lee/32/7455_2.png) [@lee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lee)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2008, 6:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-find-creepy-that-others-dont/472874/81 "2008-11-17T06:37:20Z")
Tall buildings, especially ones that rise straight up instead of stepping back after a bit. I remember on a trip in 1988 coming out of the subway in NYC and walking near the World trade Center buildings and feeling so overwhelmed and oppressed it was difficult to walk or even breathe. It felt like they were going to fall over me. My mother made fun of me saying the those buildings would be standing long after both she and I were dead. I now work in the Loop and there are some places I just avoid looking up because they have the same effect. It also doesn’t help that every so often [bits of the tall buildings fall off and decapitate people.](http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/specials/chi-danger-1-story,0,3777143.story) ---
**Author:** ![Hippy\_Hollow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hippy_hollow/32/4841_2.png) [@Hippy\_Hollow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hippy_Hollow)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2008, 7:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-find-creepy-that-others-dont/472874/82 "2008-11-17T07:05:12Z")
I’m also creeped out by tall buildings, but more so by unusually large, old buildings. But I enjoy the creeped out feeling. I think I’d be freaked out but enjoy Rome. I was in London and walked up to St. Paul’s Cathedral around midnight. There was no-one around and the lights showed all of the discolored bricks and stains. I almost filled my pants out of sheer terror. I guess people are more freaked out by abandoned buildings, but disused hospitals and asylums make me scream. Last ones for me? Really big coins (I find the walking Liberty half-dollars and the barber-heads creepy as hell) and STINGING NETTLES. I can’t even look at a picture of one. ---
**Author:** ![Sleel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/73ab20/32.png) [@Sleel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sleel)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2008, 7:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-find-creepy-that-others-dont/472874/83 "2008-11-17T07:05:46Z")
Church. My family used to go to a Pentecostal church. I quit going at about age 15 or 16 when I couldn’t in good conscience pretend that I was a believer anymore. I look back and realize how deeply disturbing the charismatic churches are, with members having fits, dancing around while being possessed by the holy spirit, speaking in tongues, prophesying. Bloody freak show. More mainstream churches are less disturbing on the surface, but still have aspects that creep me out now. ---
**Author:** ![Hazle\_Weatherfield](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Hazle\_Weatherfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hazle_Weatherfield)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2008, 8:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-find-creepy-that-others-dont/472874/84 "2008-11-17T08:21:13Z")
When the basketball players on the sidelines put their towels in their mouths, I can’t even look. ---
**Author:** ![Spectralist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Spectralist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectralist)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2008, 8:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-find-creepy-that-others-dont/472874/85 "2008-11-17T08:21:31Z")
Animated animal movies where all the animals have human eyes. Why can’t they just have normal animal eyes? The Bolt commercials are driving me nuts. ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2008, 8:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-find-creepy-that-others-dont/472874/86 "2008-11-17T08:32:00Z")
Some of you people didn’t read the thread title: What do you find creepy **that others don’t?** I am speaking specifically here of the people who have come into this thread to say “spiders.” Come on, folks, spiders are the number-one creepy thing. More people find spiders creepy than not. There are a lot of truly creepy things people have mentioned, and some very vaguely creepy. Now, wooden ice cream paddles? That’s more like it. Most people don’t find those creepy. Here’s mine: I find weddings creepy. I would like to be late. I can enjoy the reception, or most of it, but the part where the bride walks down the aisle and gets handed off from one man to another–really creepy. Extra bonus creepy points for using the wedding march from _Lohengrin._ (I’ve only been to one actual wedding where that was used, though, because the bride didn’t know any better.) Also, those weird signs of fabric stretched around a base that is not really oval and not really round, kind of comma-shaped, that businesses stick beside the roads to advertise. They are not as creepy as the inflatable pulsing man-thing, but they are pretty creepy and give me the shudders when I pass. ---
**Author:** ![Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sleeps_With_Butterflies)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2008, 8:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-find-creepy-that-others-dont/472874/87 "2008-11-17T08:32:10Z")
> [@spoike](#): > > [Lotus pods.](http://images.google.com/images?q=lotus+pods&ie=UTF-8&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&resnum=4&ct=title) Anything with holes stuck together like that makes me think of insect eggs and nests. Even just glancing at Google Images long enough to copy the link was enough to make me queasy. I’m glad I’m not the only one. Those things are hideous. Creepy is a little too strong for my this one. I’ll say it makes me uncomfortable how **some** men will have a tiny interaction with a woman in a random place (not a bar where one might think about meeting someone) and imagine it to be almost an event. Example: one of my guy friends met a woman at a department store the other day and spoke with her about furniture. After a few minutes they parted ways. He’d been almost obsessing about her (what she looked like, smelled like, wore, etc) for two days and kicking himself over not asking her out. It’s as if he’d invented some kind of future for them that wasn’t even there. It makes me often wonder if most men just walk around looking for potential dates. Just odd to me. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2008, 10:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-find-creepy-that-others-dont/472874/88 "2008-11-17T10:00:46Z")
> [@Hazle\_Weatherfield](#): > > When the basketball players on the sidelines put their towels in their mouths, I can’t even look. I dare you to do an image search on Jerry Tarkanian. I triple dog dare you. ---
**Author:** ![Hazle\_Weatherfield](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Hazle\_Weatherfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hazle_Weatherfield)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2008, 10:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-find-creepy-that-others-dont/472874/89 "2008-11-17T10:24:00Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > I dare you to do an image search on Jerry Tarkanian. I triple dog dare you. Have mercy! My teeth are itching and I’m shivering just thinking about it! Why, oh why, oh why did I do that? I couldn’t even get through the first whole sentence of his Wikipedia listing. What is WRONG with me? ---
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2008, 10:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-find-creepy-that-others-dont/472874/90 "2008-11-17T10:37:18Z")
> [@Alice the Goon](#): > > William Petersen from CSI: Las Vegas. I can’t even stand to look at him, he creeps me out so bad, for some reason. I thought I was the only one! > [@SHAKES](#): > > Remember that old song; I think Sinatra used to sing it a lot: > > “Oh, thank heaven for little girls” > > (shudder) Similarly, a lot of 1950s rock that focuses on underage girls in ways that just don’t seem totally clean. I guess the singers were pretending they were teenagers to appeal to their core audience, but still, creeps me right the fuck out. And it really bothers me that, while Chuck Berry, a guitar god, lost his career for daring to hang out with a woman of another race once and getting arrested for it, all of these sappy pop singers got away with singing about how hot their 16-year-old girlfriends were. Don’t seem right to me. > [@Der Trihs](#): > > Worship. The idea of worshipping anything, real or not makes my skin crawl. Yeah, obsessiveness in general is pretty creepy to me. For this reason, I like sports but I tend to avoid sports discussions with people I don’t know. There’s a sort of faked adulation that creeps me out. > [@pepperlandgirl](#): > > And sandwiches that are frozen? Make me want to vomit. I hope you don’t make a habit of eating sandwiches from Starbucks or Seattle’s Best Coffee. > [@SurrenderDorothy](#): > > Little kids spouting political opinions. Either on political commercials all “aren’t you worried about my healthcare?” or at protests or in whatever setting. Even if it’s stuff that I agree with, it weirds me out. Seconded. When I was working for the DNC, a lot of mothers would give to the campaign and then ask their little kids “Who are you voting for?” and the kid would say “Obama!” It weirded me out that they actually trained their kids to do that for the entertainment of other Democrats. It just seems like treating the kid like a dog. BTW, I’ve watched some basketball in my time, and played it for three years in high school, but this towel-in-mouth thing is totally new to me. Have I just completely missed this phenomenon somehow? ---
**Author:** ![Hazle\_Weatherfield](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Hazle\_Weatherfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hazle_Weatherfield)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2008, 10:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-find-creepy-that-others-dont/472874/91 "2008-11-17T10:47:26Z")
> [@Hostile\_Dialect](#): > > BTW, I’ve watched some basketball in my time, and played it for three years in high school, but this towel-in-mouth thing is totally new to me. Have I just completely missed this phenomenon somehow? Oh, luckily, you must have! It’s a common phenomenon that occurs during the final tense (or any tense) moment of the game. The seated players, with arms entwined, have THEIR TOWELS IN THE MOUTHS! GAH!!! I only watch Illinois B-ball and the NCAA championship, but I’ve seen it a lot. I can’t take this anymore. Do a search like I did… ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2008, 10:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-find-creepy-that-others-dont/472874/92 "2008-11-17T10:47:40Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > Antique furniture, tools, etc. I don’t have a problem with. But glassware (those things that everyone bought half a century or more ago and nobody buys now), clothes, knick-knacks, and so on, make me think ‘Dead people’s stuff.’ Furniture and tools are OK, but I take pause at things like broken-in shoes where you can see the shape of the departed owner’s feet. It’s like the shoes are sitting there ready for the owner to slip them on, something that’s never going to happen again. Also a deceased person’s prescription eyeglasses. Those are just pause inducing, though. What I find hard to look at are antique children’s toys and especially antique (brrr) baby clothes. ---
**Author:** ![chela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chela/32/21582_2.png) [@chela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chela)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2008, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-find-creepy-that-others-dont/472874/93 "2008-11-17T12:47:11Z")
> [@SurrenderDorothy](#): > > So I play webkinz. Shut up. I know I’m too old. It’s fun and my best friend does it too. > > Webkinz is a kids’ computer game. You buy a stuffed animal and you get a virtual pet version of that animal. And you play games, chat with friends, decorate their little rooms, etc. > > They have webkinz, the normal ones, and li’l kinz. Some of the li’l kinz are small animals, like a mouse or a hummingbird, but some are just small versions of the regular ones. The stuffed toys are smaller and the virtual pets are smaller. > > I find some of the li’l kinz really creepy. Particularly because the proportions don’t change. So some of them (like the puppies) just look like baby versions and are okay. But some of them (like the cow) just look like… creepy little shrunken animals. The ones that creep me out most are the tiny versions of the gorilla. For some reason it makes me think of like… an army of miniature gorillas invading my room or something. And I really really like gorillas. I have one on my desktop right now, in fact. But the idea of tiny little munchkin gorillas freaks me out. Glad you mentioned that, :dubious: I find webkinz, or any other online game for kids has huge potential for creepiness. Because I suspect that some adults are also online and manipulating their pets into strange behaviors. Ok not you and your friend SD. But my kid showed me one webkinz that was humping the couch while she was on. EWWW. Just the idea that there may be less than honorable adults infiltrating a kids playsite is creepy. OF course there are! Why would the operators insist their site is safe because they have protocols and restrictions on play etc. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2008, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-find-creepy-that-others-dont/472874/94 "2008-11-17T14:09:18Z")
> [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](#): > > Now, wooden ice cream paddles? That’s more like it. Most people don’t find those creepy. I have posted about wooden ice cream paddles in several threads. I cannot use them. If I see someone else using them, I have to stop what I am doing and get them a real spoon, or leave the area. Those things just fucking creep me out! ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2008, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-find-creepy-that-others-dont/472874/95 "2008-11-17T14:13:48Z")
> [@Hazle\_Weatherfield](#): > > Have mercy! My teeth are itching and I’m shivering just thinking about it! > > Why, oh why, oh why did I do that? I couldn’t even get through the first whole sentence of his Wikipedia listing. What is WRONG with me? 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![Foxy40](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a9a28c/32.png) [@Foxy40](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Foxy40)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2008, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-find-creepy-that-others-dont/472874/96 "2008-11-17T14:39:03Z")
Any public swimming pool or jacuzzi grosses me out beyond belief. I can’t believe people actually will dunk themselves in other people’s filth. Just writing this creeped me out. There isn’t enough clorine in the world… ---
**Author:** ![spoike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/da6949/32.png) [@spoike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spoike)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2008, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-find-creepy-that-others-dont/472874/97 "2008-11-17T15:00:33Z")
The basketball towel issue reminded me me of something that has been creeping me out for 20 years. In 1989, my H.S. went to Texas for a basketball tournament. The host school had this back-up group of girls for the Senior Boys team. During games, the girls would stand in a row behind the bench, and whenever their assigned player came off the floor, the girl would put a warm-up jacket over the player’s shoulders, mop his brow with with a towel and hold his water bottle while he drank. The girls wore cheerleader-type uniforms while they performed their duties. I don’t know how common back-up groups like that were then, or are now, but I’d never seen anything like it before. My 16 year old self could not even begin to fathom the appeal of waiting on anyone hand and foot like that. I wonder what it was like for the boys who went on to play ball in university and had to get their own damn water. It’s long past time to get over it, but whenever I think of that city in Texas, I shudder, just a little. In regards to lotus pods, if you agree that they’re creepy, I present [this photo](http://i421.photobucket.com/albums/pp296/yycsan/lotusseeds.jpg) of a lotus pod with the seeds still in it. You didn’t think it could get worse, but it can. ---
**Author:** ![Licentious\_Ectomorph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/5e9695/32.png) [@Licentious\_Ectomorph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Licentious_Ectomorph)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2008, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-find-creepy-that-others-dont/472874/98 "2008-11-17T15:18:02Z")
Vent fans in bathrooms. Ever since I was a little kid, that loud, whirring, humming noise has freaked me out. I can’t turn it on when I’m _in_ the bathroom, I have to wait 'til I leave, and close the door behind me. ---
**Author:** ![Black\_Sunshine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ce73a5/32.png) [@Black\_Sunshine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Black_Sunshine)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2008, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-find-creepy-that-others-dont/472874/99 "2008-11-17T18:21:20Z")
> [@spoike](#): > > [Lotus pods.](http://images.google.com/images?q=lotus+pods&ie=UTF-8&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&resnum=4&ct=title) Anything with holes stuck together like that makes me think of insect eggs and nests. Urgh. I had a dream once that my fingernails peeled off and it looked like that underneath. Don’t know why that would ever happen, but if it did, I’d cut my hands off in a second. Things that creep me out? Really large things. When I was a child, I used to have nightmares about BIG. Not a big thing, just BIG. I can’t describe them, but if I think about it too hard, that terrifying feeling comes up on me again. That and large casts. I can handle a broken arm. If someone I knew had to be in a full body cast, I’d send them a card, but I’d never visit. ---
**Author:** ![phouka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c5a1d2/32.png) [@phouka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phouka)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2008, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-find-creepy-that-others-dont/472874/100 "2008-11-17T18:56:42Z")
Coleslaw. The kind made, I guess, with mayonaise, like what KFC sells. I just . . . it’s all gloppy and leaky and the wrong color . . . _shudder_ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-find-creepy-that-others-dont/472874.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-find-creepy-that-others-dont/472874.md?page=6)