In Her Christmas Special, Dr. Pimple Popper Gave Us Sickos What We Really Want
Photo Courtesy of TLC
Halfway through the hour-long Christmas special Dr. Pimple Popper: A Pimple Carol, internet-sensation dermatologist Sandra Lee, (more commonly known as Dr. Pimple Popper), sliced open a giant orb on a patient’s forehead that was bursting with spongy fat. “It does look like a snowball under there,” said Sandra in a lighthearted tone as if she was unwrapping a present, not slashing open someone’s face.
This moment more or less encapsulates the general contradictory temperament of A Pimple Carol. The special, which exhibited a succession of pimple-adjacent medical procedures leading up to Christmas, followed the playful, benign format of the TLC medical reality TV show, seen in fan-favorites like My Feet Are Killing Me or My 600 Pound Life. Scenes under the knife were heavily padded with heartwarming backstories that assumed we need the emotional motivation behind why one might want to remove a malignant carcinoma from their face. Quirky side-characters playfully engaged in office hijinx. And, of course, nearly every interview and conversation was careful to aggressively emphasize the importance of Christmas.
And while the whole thing did feel a little contrived (if I have to hear Sandra call past medical procedures “the ghosts of pimples past” one more time I swear to God), A Pimple Carol’s format was actually kind of… dare I say… brilliant? Allow me to explain.
In order to fully comprehend this brilliance, it is important to first dissect one of this millenia’s most confounding internet mega-phenomenons: The pimple popping video. In the past couple years, watching pus be launched out of blemishes has become one of our favorite societal pastimes, creating a generation of so-called popaholics. Tik Tok and Instagram accounts dedicated only to extractions of bulging cysts, blackheads, and whiteheads easily rack up millions of followers.
But… why? As someone who has dedicated hours upon hours of my life to watching these nasty little videos, I feel comfortable stating that it is a very weird trend. But we humans are predictable creatures, and so, of course, there is a psychological reason behind it. In large part, pimple-popping videos tap into our primal draw toward ASMR (autonomous sensory meridian response). People often characterize these videos as “satisfying,” and, well, that’s the basis of ASMR, baby.
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