The “Brain Bleach” trope refers to a situation when a character or group of characters see something either disgusting, unsettling, or just downright abusive to the eye. Said characters will exaggerate on how abhorrent the target of disgust is in a highly comedic fashion and will often throw in a retort (sometimes other characters just rally behind them and toss in their own disgusted 2 cents on the matter). My favorite version of this trope is usually after a character is unsure of whether to reveal something they hide (most times it’s something physical about them), another character/characters encourage them that it can’t be that bad, in which they instantly switch up as soon as said thing is revealed.

Here are the examples used:

•Adventure Time: The scene that inspired this post. Finn is giving a motivational speech to all the forest animals and encourages the cow to reveal her udder from the bag and let her beauty out. All the animals cheer before the bag is pulled down and… whatever that thing is shows up. The fox then retorts, “Yo put that bag back on!”. This scene had me crying of laughter as a kid 😭 

•Spongebob: Another iconic example where King Neptune takes off his crown and reveals his baldness to the world after Spongebob gives some encouragement. Everyone reacts in palpable fear, some even having their eyes scorched by the image. 

•Golden Kamuy: This one had me floored as well when this guy I forgot the name of takes off his shirt and reveals his hairy nipples. The four members of the current main party each express their disapproval. Asirpa’s face says it all honestly 😭 

•Ooh La La: Earlier in the story, it’s revealed that Tarot (the brown-haired guy) loves the smell of Panda’s (the girl and also Tarot’s girlfriend) scalp and hair. Later on in the story, having knowledge of this, Panda gives him scented paper with the smell of her scalp on it for a gift and he clearly enjoys it… however the friends present just find it reasonably gross. This was too funny and I promise you that this romance story is very healthy and wholesome 😭 