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PigeonSpotter
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27 Oct 2014, 12:29 pm

I'm wondering if anyone on this forum has ever had any unexplicable fears related to something seen on a movie or TV. I'm also curious as to whether these types of fears are common among people with Asperger Syndrome.

For me, the biggest TV-related phobia I ever had was with an old Saturday Night Live commercial parody called "Swill." In case any of you haven't seen it before, here it is:

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/5378456/b ... ommercial/

I first saw this sketch when I taped a special called Saturday Night Live Goes Commercial back in 1991, when I was 13 years old. When I viewed this special the following day, there was something about this sketch that mesmerized me, especially the scene at the end where Bill Murray pours the sludge into his glass. I can remember constantly watching this scene over and over, pressing rewind on the VCR remote and playing it repeatedly in various modes -- slow motion, fast motion and frame-by-frame.

After I went to bed that night, I woke up in the morning at 1:30 A.M., and as soon as the memory of the sketch entered by brain, something snapped. My whole body went into a strange feeling of terror...I started shaking, my heart rate doubled, and I was tossing and turning all night because I couldn't get that image of the sludge being poured into the glass out of my head. The song "Anticipation" by Carly Simon -- which was also featured during this scene -- was also playing repeatedly in my head. I eventually went into my parents' room and slept in their bed (something I hadn't done since I was a child) because the memory of the sketch was scaring me so much.

After that night, I immediately rewound the tape and erased the entire special with some random show. I don't know what it was, but I didn't care -- all I knew was that I couldn't stand living in the same house where that sketch was still viewable.

Nevertheless, the memory of the fear I felt that night still stuck with me for several years, and occasionally revisited me on some nights. It wasn't until nine years later -- when I was college -- that I finally worked up the nerve to look up the "Swill" sketch online and watch it again without feeling scared.

Anyway, has anyone else on this forum ever had any phobias such as this one related to something you saw on TV, or maybe a movie? I'm wondering if this is something related to my AS condition, or if this is common among NT people as well.


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lostonearth35
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27 Oct 2014, 5:11 pm

As a kid I had strange fears of some of those old logos that appeared at the end of prime-time TV shows, but then I found out on Youtube many other people were, too. This was somewhat relieving. There's even a website that reviews all kinds of logos from TV, movies and video games and rates their creepiness.

As a teen I would get very uncomfortable when seen watching cartoons by other people, even if they had no problem with me doing so. I always had to watch them alone, and if someone came into the room I'd jump up and either turn the TV off or turn the volume way down so they couldn't hear. If they started talking about what I was Watching or sat down to watch with me I would get even more extremely uneasy. Once I impulsively shut the TV off and the person who had just sat down to watch got really upset and said I was very rude and selfish. I later apologized but explained, as best as I could, I did it only because I felt really weird and embarrassed when she noticed I was watching a kid's cartoon and started watching with me, but this was years before my diagnosis and she really didn't understand.

I've had unpleasant experiences watching stuff with other people in the past. One time I was watching The Simpsons and it was the episode where Bart sells his sould to Milhouse, and then he has a nightmare where all the kids have their souls except him and he typically wakes up screaming. Maybe it was mildly funny when the man sitting next to me imitated Bart's "BWAAAAAHAAAAAAHHHH!! !" the first time, but he wouldn't stop doing it. He was very puzzled when I yelled at him in and went to my bedroom to watch the rest of the show.

Also my older brother hated almost EVERYTHING I watched, he had very low opinions of TV in general and he would barge into my room constantly to make annoying remarks about whatever I watched. One time it was Sesame Street and he wouldn't shut up about how everyone on it was high on drugs, and another time I was watching 101 Dalmations and he started watching and said I acted like I was "sitting on thorn". I told him that I simply did not enjoy it when I couldn't watch a cartoon alone and in peace.

I live alone now and hardly ever watch TV so this isn't as much of a problem. Except when I visit my parents and not only do they watch a lot of movies and shows that make me uncomfortable but they have the volume up really high because my dad is hard of hearing. Sometimes at meals my dad leaves the TV on still blaring and one time I ended up covering my ears and begging him to turn it off because there were disgusting or creepy noises that I do not enjoy hearing, especially while eating. :(

Sometimes it's video games. The other day on TV Tropes I read how the Sonic The Hedgehog franchise has its own page dedicated to Nightmare Fuel, and it said how the game over music in Sonic Spinball for the Genesis sounds like OHMYGODOMYGODOHMTGOD NONONONONO. I haven't played that game in years so I couldn't remember but a link to the tune helped jog my memory. Now I can't get that music out of my head and at night it really kind of creeps me out. In fact a lot of stuff that didn't creep me out too much while playing the actual games made me more aware how creepy some of the music in non-horror games is when hearing it again on video. After listening to the North American Sonic CD game over a few times I decided never to play the game again late at night. 8O



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03 Nov 2014, 8:57 pm

As a kid, upon watching The Wolfman, I lived in abject terror of a furry faced Lon Chaney Jr. coming to get me at night.


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03 Nov 2014, 8:58 pm

Sorry, don't know why everything's double posting on me.


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Last edited by Kraichgauer on 04 Nov 2014, 1:11 pm, edited 1 time in total.

DaughterOfGallifrey
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04 Nov 2014, 9:14 am

Angel statues. I cannot blink when I'm around them. Also salt shakers, having an extra shadow, and diet pills. Yep, I'm a whovian.



DeuceKaboose
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04 Nov 2014, 4:18 pm

I'm an emataphobe so naturally I have learned to turn my head away whenever someone is close to puking on tv, I also tend to get on edge whenever there is something in an episode that may lead up to vomiting (binge drinking alcohol or binge eating, food poisoning,stomach flu etc)



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04 Nov 2014, 5:07 pm

DeuceKaboose wrote:
I'm an emataphobe so naturally I have learned to turn my head away whenever someone is close to puking on tv, I also tend to get on edge whenever there is something in an episode that may lead up to vomiting (binge drinking alcohol or binge eating, food poisoning,stomach flu etc)


Yep, I've had that too :( Things are better for me these days though.

When I was a kid there was a show in the UK called 'Get your own back' which was pretty good, but in one of the series the children had to bring their favourite cuddly toy and if they lost it would get chucked in a furnace! That REALLY disturbed me!


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Kraichgauer
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04 Nov 2014, 7:06 pm

DeuceKaboose wrote:
I'm an emataphobe so naturally I have learned to turn my head away whenever someone is close to puking on tv, I also tend to get on edge whenever there is something in an episode that may lead up to vomiting (binge drinking alcohol or binge eating, food poisoning,stomach flu etc)


Me sort of, too, especially if a movie scene involves someone vomiting blood such as Giovani Ribbisi's death scene in Basic.


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29 Jan 2015, 5:11 am

Bumping this up: when I was four years old, a 26-year-old former Utah sportscaster by the name of Jim Nantz became the studio host of a CBS college football halftime segment known as The Prudential College Football Report. He had Pat Haden as his co-anchor for that first season. What scared me about it is that, the first time I saw it, I thought that the opening music of the same (the part that was mixed with Don Robertson's billboard) sounded somewhat scary, like a derivative cut of the College Football theme song of the time. It wasn't until one or two years ago (don't recall which) that I had the opportunity to relive that segment; I got that chance from a video of the Nov. 30 Miami/Notre Dame broadcast. I then discovered that the music cut used for Don's billboard was based on the theme song of The NCAA Today, a college gridiron studio show that Brent Musburger was on for the 1982 and '83 seasons (Brent did that before becoming CBS' lead college football game announcer). That discovery melted the fear away, and in fact, I think that the way that Jim and Pat did that College Football Report then stood (and still stands) head-and-shoulders above college football coverage today (and I think that this upcoming September will mark the 30th anniversary of the premiere of this segment, and consequently, Jim's debut on CBS). I think also that Don Robertson had a very memorable billboard:

"CBS Sports presents...The Prudential College Football Report, sponsored by The Prudential...offering a full range of insurance and financial services. The Prudential: the Rock...it's strong, it's on the move, it's bigger than life."

Here's a video of a 1985 broadcast of #8 Miami at Maryland (played in Baltimore); the College Football Report is at the 1:37:18 mark:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdSsbNsRj5I



conundrum
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12 Feb 2015, 7:14 pm

lostonearth35 wrote:
As a kid I had strange fears of some of those old logos that appeared at the end of prime-time TV shows, but then I found out on Youtube many other people were, too. This was somewhat relieving. There's even a website that reviews all kinds of logos from TV, movies and video games and rates their creepiness.


http://www.closinglogos.com/


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