This post-World Cup (it’s over when England are out) rain getting you down? Are you stuck for options in the misery of your own home? Look no further than ‘Pimple Pete’, the new pimple-popping board game you never thought you needed.
Dr. Pimple Popper herself, Sandra Lee, has teamed up with Spin Master to release her own game in which, you guessed it, players get to blow up pimples.
Dr. Lee is a board certified dermatologist that specialises in general and cosmetic dermatology in Southern California. Since her videos gained traction in 2015, she become a global YouTube and social media sensation.
Today she has nearly 2 million followers on Instagram and has over 1.6 million subscribers on YouTube where her videos have been viewed over 750 million times.
Similar to board game classic Operation, the challenge of Pimple Pete is to extract pimples from Pete’s face without rocking him backward or forward. If you do, the ‘mega-zit’ on his nose explodes spraying the loser with pus water.
Some of you might think this is weird. And you’re right, it is. But that’s exactly why we like it.
Nina Strohminger, a psychologist who wrote a dissertation on it titled ‘The Hedonics of Disgust’, said:
I don’t think there’s anything straightforwardly masochistic about it. Rather, negative sensations are interesting, particularly when you’re in a context where they can’t hurt you. You’re probably not going to step in dog shit just for the experience, but maybe you’d click on a link to watch someone else doing it.
She added:
Disgust fuels many of our most negative judgments. The emotion is unleashed by rotting food and open wounds, traitors and pedophiles. In such cases, disgust sends a powerful signal to avoid the offending stimulus, a physical if not moral contaminant.
Curiously though, disgust is also present in many enjoyable cultural phenomena.
Dirty jokes, modern art, even gross-out television programming, all seem to derive some of their power from their ability to disgust us.
Dr. Lee herself thinks it’s about a strong reaction either way. ‘Usually, people are either really obsessed with it like you are,’ she said. ‘It captivates you. And then there’s the opposite, people who cannot even stand it.’
She told Mental Floss:
I really think that people like this because, in general, it makes them happy, for multiple reasons. Either it relaxes you, decreases your anxiety as you feel a sense of completeness. It gets rid of your compulsions. It’s like something is not there anymore that isn’t supposed to be there. It’s this ASMR [autonomous sensory meridian response] You got me addicted to these videos, so now I watch you and several others. And some of these people use needles instead of a come done extractor to extract blackheads.
I find it hard to watch them but love to pop my own, that is, on the extremely rare occasion I get spots. My skin, and these are the dermatologist’s words not mine, is ‘so uniquely and effortlessly clean it would make me cry if I gave it any more thought.’
Sue me!
If you have a story you want to tell send it to UNILAD via stories@unilad.co.uk
