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Phobias That wreck your enjoyment of Films, Television and Video Games.

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My mother has a phobia about the song "Danny Boy".

When we were kids if the song came on the television or radio she would scream and turn the volume down and we'd have to comfort her (we have never got to the bottom of it but it seems she associates it with a death in the family).

The effect of this is that I have inherited the phobia.

It has been in so many great films and television shows but I instinctively put my fingers in my ears as soon as I hear the first few bars or lines.

The most recent iteration being the previous episode of Ashes To Ashes.

A friend of mine (a big scary looking chap) is genuinely scared of spiders and loved the Resident Evil games but made his now ex-wife complete the sections with the giant spiders while he hid his eyes.

Anyone else find their enjoyment of stuff wrecked by an irrational fear.

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Ziggy comes to mind, but that's a different situation entirely.

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Rats. I hate rats more than Sean Connery in Last Crusade. Luckily, they're so few in that movie that I can stomach it.

A Goon in a Gaggle of 'em

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Fart jokes.  Ruins a film for me every time.  Nothing says "I've run out of ideas" quite like a fart joke.

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TV's Frink said:

Are you actually afraid of them?

 I'd like to find out what the Fear Factor rating they would have on Horror Top Trumps.

I know what he means though, the only people who ever got fart jokes to work for me were Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer and then it was more of a send up of French comedy shorts (the type you might see in a cinema not the worn variety).

Though I must admit this made me laugh when I first saw it :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8c5aOz2Fjc

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The only fart joke that I thought was funny was the one in True Stories, but the focus of the joke wasn't the fart.

I am afraid of farts when they happen in movies as it usually means I have wasted 8 bucks.

I am also afraid of triffids.

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I love triffids!

I am with Sluggo on the fart jokes things, not that I am afraid of them, but seriously? Fart jokes? Ech!

As far as a phobia of something that when it appears in a movie ruins my enjoyment of it... I can't think of anything at the moment.

"Every time Warb sighs, an angel falls into a vat of mapel syrup." - Gaffer Tape

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C3PX said:

I love triffids!

I am with Sluggo on the fart jokes things, not that I am afraid of them, but seriously? Fart jokes? Ech!

 

peeeeeeeyoooooosaaaaaaaa

"The other versions will disappear. Even the 35 million tapes of Star Wars out there won’t last more than 30 or 40 years. A hundred years from now, the only version of the movie that anyone will remember will be the DVD version [of the Special Edition], and you’ll be able to project it on a 20’ by 40’ screen with perfect quality. I think it’s the director’s prerogative, not the studio’s to go back and reinvent a movie." - George Lucas

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I do have this fear of deranged, possibly undead people in hockey masks who systematicly murder teenagers at Crystal Lake.

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So pretty much any movie out of Hollywood would then be terrifying?

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Sluggo said:

Fart jokes.  Ruins a film for me every time.  Nothing says "I've run out of ideas" quite like a fart joke.

 I am skeptical as to the educational merits of this app but the story of older people learning new skills was inspirational.

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I suffer from horrible anxiety and panic attacks that totally prevent me from seeing any movie in theaters, does that count?

Actually my ability to even watch movies period has become somewhat questionable.  I've gotten to where sitting and doing nothing and watching something makes me extremely nervous.  If I watch a movie I must also be noodling on a guitar absentmindedly or I just can't take it.

I made myself watch Fellowship of the Ring the other day without doing anything and just watching.  It was extremely enjoyable and gratifying and awesome, but there were times I didn't think I was going to be able to take it. 

I should probably see a doctor.

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Possessed said:

I suffer from horrible anxiety and panic attacks that totally prevent me from seeing any movie in theaters, does that count?

I'd say!

I went through a period of having anxiety attacks and there is no sensation like it.

The first time it happened my ex was driving me in the car and I begged him to stop the car and I collapsed against a fence. I couldn't breath, everything was spinning around, passers-by thought I was having a heart attack and offered to call an ambulance. I was on beta-blockers for months.

You have my sympathy there.

Weirdly (and I'm not suggesting this as a cure) my one and only illegal drugs experience stopped it dead (probably because it was more horrific than anything in the real world).

You heard it here kids do not ever,ever, ever eat 15 space cakes in one sitting.

You may be peckish but the results are like H.P. Lovecraft really pushing the boat out.

Got rid of the anxiety attacks though, nearly lost my mind in the process.

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This specific alarm sound...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FoX7vd30zq8

...spoils and takes me out of any movie or videogame it's in.

I worked really long nightshifts for a few years so I needed something loud and unpleasant on my iPhone to wake me up and make me go switch it off (Setting nice sounds only meant I'd sleep through them). The iPhone uses that exact sound ^, it was only later that I discovered that a few movies also used that sound and I'd developed a 'Pavlov's Dog' like response to it... of feeling almost physically sick at the dread of getting up and going to work exhausted.

An entire level of Wolfenstein on the PS3 (Which I had been enjoying) has that alarm on full blast all the way through. I eventually had to play that level with the sound off so I could get on to the rest of the game LOL

VIZ TOP TIPS! - PARENTS. Impress your children by showing them a floppy disk and telling them it’s a 3D model of a save icon.

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Bingowings said:

Possessed said:

I suffer from horrible anxiety and panic attacks that totally prevent me from seeing any movie in theaters, does that count?

I'd say!

I went through a period of having anxiety attacks and there is no sensation like it.

The first time it happened my ex was driving me in the car and I begged him to stop the car and I collapsed against a fence. I couldn't breath, everything was spinning around, passers-by thought I was having a heart attack and offered to call an ambulance. I was on beta-blockers for months.

You have my sympathy there.

Weirdly (and I'm not suggesting this as a cure) my one and only illegal drugs experience stopped it dead (probably because it was more horrific than anything in the real world).

You heard it here kids do not ever,ever, ever eat 15 space cakes in one sitting.

You may be peckish but the results are like H.P. Lovecraft really pushing the boat out.

Got rid of the anxiety attacks though, nearly lost my mind in the process.

 You are right, there is nothing like that.  I never had the world spin, but my chest gets really tight, not painful, but tight, and my heart will beat really fast and I'll just get really weird.

And hahaha I know it's not funny to you, but someone who suffers from anxiety deciding to eat 15 space cakes in and of itself is kindof funny, sorry to be insensitive, and I appreciate that.

I do smoke weed, which is a mixed bag as it often helps but on occasion makes it far worse.  I would probably be better off on the anxiety front overall if I gave it up for good, but the times when it makes it  better are so blissful and worry free it seems worth it to have the odd bad trip now and again.  (strong stuff around here)

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Bingowings said:

Possessed said:

I suffer from horrible anxiety and panic attacks that totally prevent me from seeing any movie in theaters, does that count?

I'd say!

I went through a period of having anxiety attacks and there is no sensation like it.

The first time it happened my ex was driving me in the car and I begged him to stop the car and I collapsed against a fence.

ex?  I hope you haven't had breakup with the one you are are always talking about.

Bingowings said:

You heard it here kids do not ever,ever, ever eat 15 space cakes in one sitting.

space cakes?  never heard of them, I'll have to look them up.

edit: ok I've done some searching . . . Do you mean to say you've eaten cakes with marijuana in them?????    

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I fortunately have not experienced any of this problems watching movies.   Although I really detest fart jokes.   After all, I am not 2 years old anymore.

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Ryan McAvoy said:

This specific alarm sound...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FoX7vd30zq8

...spoils and takes me out of any movie or videogame it's in.

I worked really long nightshifts for a few years so I needed something loud and unpleasant on my iPhone to wake me up and make me go switch it off (Setting nice sounds only meant I'd sleep through them). The iPhone uses that exact sound ^, it was only later that I discovered that a few movies also used that sound and I'd developed a 'Pavlov's Dog' like response to it... of feeling almost physically sick at the dread of getting up and going to work exhausted.

 Yesyesyesyesyes. This has been my alarm clock for a few years now and I absolutely hate it more than any other sound in the world.

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With seemingly everybody using the same darn sound effects library, it can be hard to avoid certain things. Watch old Universal tv shows and movies, and the exact same loud shrill telephone sound effect pops up every time. (It was used even in  the 90's.) I think even Ben Burtt once mentioned how much he hated it.

If you're listening to a specific song or bit of music when you get bad news, that can set up an unfortunate association in the mind that triggers an emotional response whenever you hear it again. I have one or two of those. :/

Everybody probably has a tune that's like nails on a chalkboard whenever you hear it, but why that is I have no idea. There was one summer where a Paul McCartney song was on the radio about 100 times a day, and I couldn't stand hearing it again for decades afterward. I'm cool with it now, but there are others in my personal audio torture chamber I can't write off to overexposure.

Forum Moderator

Where were you in '77?

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Well.... I guess it isn't a phobia as much as an extreme distaste, but whenever the protagonist of a film gets wrongfully blamed for something he didn't do - and you have to watch the repercussions play out - I get incredibly uncomfortable.  If it's some sort of exposition that happened before the film takes place, however, I'm okay with it.

A Goon in a Gaggle of 'em

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SilverWook said:

With seemingly everybody using the same darn sound effects library, it can be hard to avoid certain things. Watch old Universal tv shows and movies, and the exact same loud shrill telephone sound effect pops up every time. (It was used even in  the 90's.) I think even Ben Burtt once mentioned how much he hated it.

If you're listening to a specific song or bit of music when you get bad news, that can set up an unfortunate association in the mind that triggers an emotional response whenever you hear it again. I have one or two of those. :/

Everybody probably has a tune that's like nails on a chalkboard whenever you hear it, but why that is I have no idea. There was one summer where a Paul McCartney song was on the radio about 100 times a day, and I couldn't stand hearing it again for decades afterward. I'm cool with it now, but there are others in my personal audio torture chamber I can't write off to overexposure.

 "Muuull of kintyyyyre!! Ooooh mist rolling innn from the sea... my desiiiire..."

(^ If it's that one, it's not a phobia it's good taste)

Maybe slightly off-topic but if it's "wierd things that wreck movies for people?"

For me it would be characters we are supposed to like, ignoring waiters in restaurants. Kinda makes me instantly think they are actually rude pr*cks. Even in a scene like 'Jack Rabbit Slims' from 'Pulp Fiction' where the waiter isn't just an extra (He's played by Steve Buscemi), our two heroes just sit in uncomfortable silence while he serves them their drinks, no please, no thanks, no cheers, not even a smile or a nod... I'd have p*ssed in their 5 Dollar shake and Vanilla Coke! ;-)

VIZ TOP TIPS! - PARENTS. Impress your children by showing them a floppy disk and telling them it’s a 3D model of a save icon.