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{{trope}}
{{quote|'''Announcer''': Law and Order: Elevator Inspectors Unit.
'''Inspector 1''': See here's the thing, inspector, the button for 5 doesn't light up.
'''Inspector 2''': I think I'm gonna be sick.
|''[[The Simpsons]]'', "Helter Shelter"}}
{{quote|
|'''
A trope specific to murder mysteries, invoked to suggest that the crime is so gruesome (sight and/or smell) that it turns the stomachs of hardened investigators. Alternately, the Vomiting Cop is a rookie on his or her first case, or it is used to show how seasoned and jaded the veteran cop is.
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Sometimes a [[Vomit Indiscretion Shot]], but usually a [[Vomit Discretion Shot]]. Very often used as a variant on [[Gory Discretion Shot]], where the gory stuff has been done but the evidence remains. See also [[Selective Squeamishness Suppression]], [[Take Our Word for It]]. Contrast [[Autopsy Snack Time]].
{{examples}}
== Anime and Manga ==
* Ciel Phantomhive of ''[[
* Detective Suk in ''[[Monster (
* During the "Jungle Cruise" episode of ''[[Ghost in
** Not just seeing. He was using a direct cyber-link to the investigator on the scene, experiencing everything, including the smell in perfect clarity. The experienced members of the squad just watch the video feed. Ofcourse most of the experienced members could also turn off their sense of smell if they wanted to.
* Mentioned but not seen in ''[[Ghost in
== Comic Books ==
* George Godly, upon finding the corpse of [[Jack the Ripper]]'s final victim, who had been subjected to then unheard of levels of mutilation in ''[[From Hell]]''. Whether or not the real Godly left his breakfast at Miller's Court or if this was simply an invention for dramatic purposes is one of the few subjects that [[Alan Moore]]'s [[Shown Their Work|lengthy annotations]] to the book is silent on.
* In the Italian horror comic ''[
* Occurs in the ''[[Lucifer (
* [[Garth Ennis]] loves this trope.
* In ''[[Johnny the Homicidal Maniac]]'' {{spoiler|When Johnny dies and visits heaven an angel starts vomiting after reading the list of things Johnny did.}}
* ''[[Fell]]'': Somewhat subverted, in that it's not at a crime scene. Fell threw up when the insane [[The Coroner|Medical Examiner]] dropped a piece of tomato into a victim during the autopsy, took it out and ate it despite Fell's repeated assertions that he would shoot him if he did so.
** In the coroner's defense, it was organic tomato. He had to go all the way to the city to get it fresh.
* Thunder from the [[Judd Winick]] run on ''[[Batman and
* Albrecht in ''[[The Crow]]'', after seeing Gideon's corpse.
* The police officers who found [[The Joker]]'s early experiments in ''[[Batman]]: The Man who Laughs''.
* [[Global Frequency|The police officer who arrived on the scene still wets himself whenever he sees cutlery.]]
* In ''[[X
* In the [[Batman]] spinoff ''Streets of Gotham,'' Robin calls the police for backup after finding that the orphans Humpty Dumpty had taken were actually corpses he'd found and was trying to heal. The boy barely gets half way through the call before handing the communicator over to Batman to go throw up. Mind you this is ''Damian Wayne,'' the resident stab-happy assassin of the Bat clan we're talking about here.
== Film ==
* In the first ''[[A Nightmare
** Although not shown, dialogue between two on-scene cops reveals that the ''coroner'' is also puking in the bathroom.
* In ''Dead Right'', an amateur movie that Edgar Wright made when he was younger that features on the ''[[Hot Fuzz]]'' DVD, Barry Stern's newbie partner vomits slightly into his hand when they find the body of a woman who had recently been murdered. On the [[Alternate DVD Commentary]] (slightly different from the usual examples in that it is included on the DVD itself) with Simon Pegg and Nick Frost essentially lambasting the movie at every step of the way, Pegg mocks the vomit effect as looking as though the actor simply spat out "a chewed up Texan bar".
* ''[[Dead Bang]]'' (1989). The alcoholic cop played by Don Johnson runs down an outlaw biker and is immediately sick on him. The biker is so grossed out he agrees to spill the beans as long as Johnson doesn't spill his a second time.
* In the 2006 version of ''[[
* Parodied in ''[[Ace Ventura]]: Pet Detective'', wherein every cop on the force <s> throws up</s> spits when they learn that Lois Einhorn is a man. Couple that with the facts that Ace himself threw up when he found out, and that he had a...tryst with Einhorn, and you can connect the dots.
** And the dolphin!
* In ''[[Jaws (
* Done constantly in ''[[Suicide Club]]'', almost every time dead flesh is exposed, often by multiple cops.
* Averted in ''[[Fargo]]'', where the sheriff bends over and (almost) pukes mainly because she's pregnant, not just because the crime scene is gruesome.
* Probably not deliberate, but the boy who throws up repeatedly in ''Super 8'' just happens to be the one who plays the police detective in "The Case".
* Done in ''[[Demolition Man]]'' by a cop watching his colleagues (on a screen) getting killed by Simon Phoenix.
== Literature ==
* At her first crime scene, [[Anita Blake]] threw up ''on'' the corpse.
* In [[Stephen King]]'s ''[[The Dark Half]]'', when a body of a brutally murdered man was found by Norris Ridgewick, a deputy of a small-town sheriff, he threw up, but managed to avoid the corpse.
** In the later novel ''Gerald's Game'', Norris again throws up, when he finds what is in the truck of Raymond Andrew Joubert, a {{spoiler|necrophiliac cannibal (for example, a sandwich with a human tongue)}}. A character says that "the State Police would have torn him a new asshole if he'd puked on the evidence. On the other hand, I'd have wanted him removed from his job for psychological reasons if he hadn't thrown up."
* The trope also appears in [[Stephen King]]'s ''[[From a Buick 8]]'', but there it's due to the cops meeting [[Eldritch Abomination
*** A hospital variation occurs in ''[[Pet Sematary]]'', with a candy striper being the one who vomits.
* [[Erast Fandorin]], on his first crime scene (in his defense, it was an exceptionally gruesome murder).
* ''[[
** Also, Cheery Littlebottom puked in ''[[Feet
* Not a murder mystery, but in the [[X Wing Series]], Gavin Darklighter throws up when he sees and smells someone in the worst throes of the [[The Plague|Krytos Plague]]. He's not a cop, but an extremely green pilot who, during the crisis, was sent to try and help the sufferers. He'd seen some bad ones before, but this was the worst. Gavin ''was'' able to pull himself together and do his job after, and later he told his love interest that he'll be all right, and that scares him.
{{quote|
* The main character of Rob Grant's ''[[Incompetence]]'' notes that coroners often try to make detectives sick while inspecting corpses. He also notes that while they have yet to succeed with him, it's not a game he enjoys. This is just before he speaks to a coroner who stitches faces from one corpse to the buttocks of another. As a hobby.
* Subverting the "happens to a rookie" requirement, [[Inspector Morse]] himself has had this happen in the novels, and even on good days is pretty squeamish about crime scenes.
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* Happens occasionally in Peter Robinson's Inspector Alan Banks novels, usually to a young police officer who isn't used to seeing dead bodies (at the beginning of ''A Dedicated Man'' for example). Happens to Banks himself in the short story "Like A Virgin", though this is partly due to a hangover.
* In [[The Sword of Truth]], there was a serial murderer whose style made a ''hardened combat general'' throw up.
* In [[Mercedes Lackey]]'s ''[[Heralds of Valdemar|Changes]]'', four spies are [[You Have Failed Me...|murdered by their replacements]] and left to decompose in a sealed room for a couple days in summer. The result makes several of "the most experienced and hardened Guardsmen ... violently ill." The crime scene investigators aren't fazed at all, though.
▲== Live Action TV ==
* Subverted in one episode of ''[[Taggart]]'' when on seeing a guy with the back of his head bashed in, experienced detective DCI Burke suddenly gags, but doesn't vomit. DS Reid says he's seen worse. Burke's reply is that it's indigestion from the falafels he ate- he's on a [[Health Kick]].
* In one episode of ''[[
* In the 5th season finale of ''[[CSI]]'', Nick happily examined the intestines at the scene while the experienced cop threw up.
** Nick did have to leave a scene in the first season to throw up, though it is implied that this was due to smell of the blood in the air, not the gruesomeness and Nick ignoring Grissom's advice to "Breathe through your mouth".
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* The opening titles of ''[[Quincy|Quincy M.E.]]'' included a variation in which five police observers are watching an (off-screen) autopsy performed by the title character; as the titles progress they turn away from it one by one, each with an obvious need to vomit and/or faint (again, off screen).
** In the show that shot comes from, it turns out Quincy is doing it to these observers ''on purpose'' so he can get out of doing the demonstration and get back to his cases.
* Parodied in an infamous ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'' sketch: the sight of a murder victim provoked a rookie cop to throw up; the sight of the
** One of the cops was 8 months pregnant, and at the end Chris Farley, who was running the spinning newspaper gag, started to puke after watching it spin too much.
* The 'Crunchy Frog' sketch from ''[[Monty Python's Flying Circus]]'', where mentions of chocolates such as Cockroach Cluster, Anthrax Ripple, and Rams Bladder Cup causes one of the Hygiene Squad (who actually ate some of the candies in question) to throw up.
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** In an audio recording of a live performance, an announcer notes that the constable's reaction is "the longest continuous vomit on stage since John Barrymore puked over the corpse of Laertes during a performance of ''[[Hamlet]]'' in 1941."
* Somewhat lampshaded in the ''[[Dexter]]'' novels. Almost every crime scene Dexter arrives has a vomiting cop nearby. Dexter is so used to the sight that he doesn't see anything out of the ordinary with it. He simply snarks about the mess and noise.
** Slight variation in the television show: Harry walks in on Dexter and, realizing what he's created, is violently sick.
** There is one occasion in the TV show where Dexter loses his composure upon seeing a crime scene covered in blood, but that is more of a [[Heroic BSOD]] because {{spoiler|the crime scene was made to remind Dexter of his [[Dark and Troubled Past]]}}.
* Done on ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'' as the fourth member of a hit squad describes how the other three were killed to Danko. {{spoiler|The man a shapeshifter and is actually the killer. Though whether he's vomiting as part of his act or out of guilt is never made clear.}}
* Happened to an off-screen investigator in the pilot of ''[[Fringe]]'' upon inspecting a plane whose passengers fell victim to a flesh-rotting something-or-other.
* Parodied in a sketch of ''[[Kids in The Hall]]'', where a cop vomits at the sight of a corpse and then at an expired parking meter.
* In an episode of ''[[Smallville]]'', Clark impersonates a coroner's assistant and it is assumed he leaves the area to vomit when he goes in search of his own clues.
* Played dead straight early in ''[[John Le Carre|Smiley's People]]'' after a Russian defector's head is blown to pieces.
* In the episode of ''[[
* Connor on ''[[
* DS Dan Twentyman in ''[[Moses Jones]]'' does this - [[Vomit Indiscretion Shot|visibly]] - upon discovering a mutilated corpse.
* ''[[Stargate SG
* In the first episode of the series, ''[[Law and Order SVU]]'' had Benson vomiting in the bushes after interviewing a particularly brutalized rape victim.
* A whole roomfull of cops nearly succumbed to this trope on ''[[The Closer]]'', when an ice cooler containing a folded-up human corpse was opened in the middle of Chief Brenda's office. Justified even for the most hardened veterans, given how long the body had been decomposing in a tiny airtight space.
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* A variation is seen in an episode of ''[[Law and Order UK]]'' with a vomiting firefighter at a fatal arson scene.
* ''[[Bones]]'': TV Scientist Dr. Bunsen Jude, "the Science Dude" acts as Brennan's Squintern-of-the-week to convince her to come on his show to talk about how fun science is. After looking at a corpse for a few minutes and giving his expert opinion, he grabs a bucket.
{{quote|
* This happens to the [[Cop Of The Week]] a few times on ''[[Criminal Minds]]''. At one particularly brutal scene, a character remarks that the vomiter had driven eight hours to get to the crime scene, threw up in the bushes, and was about to be sent home.
* Parodied on ''[[Seinfeld]]'', when Jerry's car is stolen and a similar model turns up torn apart in a garage.
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* In the first season finale of ''City Homicide'', Matt throws up upon learning the corpse they dug up was his mother, who disappeared when he was a teenager.
▲== Real Life ==
* Art Schley, one of the cops who investigated and subsequently arrested Ed Gein. Though he didn't vomit, he did assault Gein and died of a heart attack after Gein's trial due to the intense trauma of what he bore witness to.▼
* Supposedly one of the police who discovered Jack the Ripper's mutilated final victim took a moment to vomit in a corner.▼
* Practically a rite of passage for [[Real Life]] homicide investigators. Also for EMTs, hospital interns, mortuary personnel, sanitation engineers, sewer workers, those highway crews who collect and dispose of roadkill...▼
* Miller in ''[[Still Life]]'' is found vomiting upon locating one of the Ripper's victims. It's stated that it isn't the first time he's reacted as such.
* The "rookie cop" variation is used in the RPG ''[[Persona 4]]'' near the beginning. {{spoiler|It's more or less his handiwork he is vomiting at.}}
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* In ''[[Deadly Premonition]]'', after you find {{spoiler|Becky}}, [[Ambiguously Gay|Thomas]] heads over to the toilet and barfs. [[Crowning Moment of Funny|This same scene is used for the results screen]].
== Web Comics ==
* Parodied in '''[[
▲* Parodied in '''[[Schlock Mercenary (Webcomic)|Schlock Mercenary]]'' (as part of a larger ''[[CSI]]'' parody), where one of the investigators vomits at nearly anything.
** It's also semi-implied that the investigator in question may be bulimic, since he mentions that he's lost a ''lot'' of weight from all that puking.
** [http://www.schlockmercenary.com/d/20031022.html Some characters are immune], though.
* Seen in [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0339.html this] ''[[The Order of the Stick
== Web Original ==
* Both Sanchez and an unnamed cop become this upon discovering the titular character's crimes in [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpTsUsPSSdo&feature=video_response episode 2] of Waverly Films' ''Puppet Rapist''.
* Used in the Season One finale of ''[[Shadow Unit]]'', in which the ever-impeturbable Nikki Lau vomits outside the old Villette house after {{spoiler|Chaz is evacuated}}. Subverted somewhat as her reaction is not just about the awfulness of what's been done in the house (and the mess it's made), but the fact that it was done to {{spoiler|and by}} a colleague and friend.
== Western Animation ==
* Danny, the Safety Patrol photographer and [[Plucky Comic Relief]] in ''[[Fillmore!]]'', is often subject to this trope, often after seeing minor acts of vandalism.
* Spoofed a couple of times in ''[[South Park]]'' in one Officer Yates vomits after uncovering some toilet paper used on a house, and again after finding out Michael "Jefferson" isn't black.
* ''[[The Simpsons (
* In one ''[[Robot Chicken]]'' sketch, [[The Smurfs|Brainy]] throws up after seeing Baker Smurf [[
== Real Life ==
▲* Art Schley, one of the cops who investigated and subsequently arrested Ed Gein. Though he didn't vomit, he did assault Gein and died of a heart attack after Gein's trial due to the intense trauma of what he bore witness to.
▲* Supposedly one of the police who discovered Jack the Ripper's mutilated final victim took a moment to vomit in a corner.
▲* Practically a rite of passage for [[Real Life]] homicide investigators. Also for EMTs, hospital interns, mortuary personnel, sanitation engineers, sewer workers, those highway crews who collect and dispose of roadkill...
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Crime and Punishment Tropes]]
▲[[Category:Vomiting Cop]]
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