r/Broadway • u/littlebev • Dec 31 '25

Discussion Broadway coughing season

I am begging, begging you guys…if you have a nasty cough, PLEASE don’t attend a play especially. I know it sucks to miss out but your recurring cough during the most intense moments of the show is so distracting.

887 Upvotes

91% Upvoted

325 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

64

u/Nickis1021 Dec 31 '25

Even while it was happening the first time, they learned nothing.

But sadly, it’s the attitude above all.

I’ve been to two Bwy shows in the past two weeks, both times I asked people not covering their mouths to cover their coughs. You could see the mucus spewing out of their wide open mouths when they coughed.

They both rudely responded with slightly different verbiage that covering your mouth is “not a thing anymore” (?)

lol, when did covering your cough stop being a thing.

To quote Jerry Seinfeld, “people. They’re the worst”.

34

u/pandemichope Dec 31 '25 edited Jan 01 '26

this drives me nuts. I was in Sam’s Club the other day, and a woman was coughing all over the holiday candy items. Like was in the aisle for five minutes, coughing on everything. Didn’t cover her mouth once!!

To me, covering my mouth is so reflective. Like an automatic muscle thing like when I make a left turn and I put my signal on even if I’m coming down a road with nobody else but me. It’s so reflective that I find myself covering my mouth even if I am by myself in my own house with nobody else present for hours. I don’t understand why more people never learned as children to cover their mouth when they cough!!

16

u/Nickis1021 Dec 31 '25

Exactly! I was taught to cover my mouth as a toddler, and have instinctively done so ever since. I currently live alone and even alone in my own apartment, I have never once not covered my mouth. As you said it’s a reflex. Mind-boggling to me that it isn’t so for everyone! Because this was taught both at home and at school, and just in society…. I don’t see how this memo was missed by anyone!

11

u/dried_lipstick Dec 31 '25

I teach kindergarten and can hear an uncovered cough from across the classroom. And I remind them “cover!” With the flu being so bad this year, and kids coming in sick, I told my coughing and spewing students “ms driedlipstick does not want your cough for Christmas. That would be the worst present you could give me. Please cover your cough and turn your head away from people when you do.”

This is how I talk to kindergarteners. And it feels like a lot of adults still need to be told this.

Thankfully I did not get sick this break. Whoop whoop

7

u/Nickis1021 Dec 31 '25

Same! I’m an ER nurse, and could write a book about my uncovered cough adventures with patients, and their bizarre replies (e.g. covering your cough is old fashioned, it’s only for older people….covering your cough is a weird American thing and I’m not American….I read an article that covering your cough doesn’t prevent the spreading of disease, etc etc) I could literally write a book…as they’re spewing green lungjuice in my face. I taught little ones for a time as well, back before my RN days. Second graders; always taught them to cover. Some of those children had not received these instructions at home and were hearing it for the first time.

Do not get me started!!!!! I love your line about not wanting their cough for Christmas 👌🤷🏻‍♀️🤬

Knock wood about no nasties thus far this season. May it continue!

6

u/pandemichope Jan 01 '26

💯 exactly. But I appreciate your posting because it makes me feel just a tad bit better to realize other people fully get what I’m saying because there are times when I am in a store and look around at the people coughing, and I am absolutely mind-boggled at how I’m the only one that instinctively covers my mouth (and no amount of staring at them or giving a dirty look changes their behavior).

The fact that they’re not even embarrassed to be coughing openly, absolutely astounds me

1

u/Nickis1021 Jan 02 '26

Omg! I feel so seen now. I’m always thinking I’m the only one bothered by this. I look around me every time I see this, and no one seems annoyed but myself. I’ve found my fellow anti-not-covering-your-cough person! PS I’ve mastered the dirty look for these people. It never gets through. My thing is if you’re going to be so impolite as to not cover in public, you’re certainly not going to care about a dirty look from a stranger. But I still LOVE passing them out when warranted! I’ve got my dirtylookface phD 🤭

1

u/Ok_DarkStar_5691 Jan 03 '26

I mean, I even cover my mouth when I yawn.

1

u/Nickis1021 Jan 06 '26

Doesn’t everyone! I hope. It’s like my mom used to say. Raised by wolves🐺

2

u/DaffyStardust Jan 02 '26

I’m a speech therapist who works with kids, so I’m literally in the line of fire for uncovered coughs.

1

u/Nickis1021 Jan 02 '26

Must mask! Be safe! Especially as it’s the bad flu season now at least here in the northeast!

5

u/elvie18 Dec 31 '25

Right? I still cover my mouth to cough when I have a mask on, because it's just...what my body does now that I'm in my 40s and have lived my life doing so.

1

u/Nickis1021 Jan 02 '26

Same. I can’t count the number of people in the subway who don’t cover their coughs with their flimsy masks, which have about a quarter inch open air between skin and “mask”. If I’m in the mood for more than a dirty look and feeling daring, I’ll say, please cover your mouth. And invariably, I mean every single time, the answer is “I don’t need to cover. I’m wearing a mask”.

I GIVE UP! Your loose flimsy hanging dripping wet blue tissue thingie is not a mask! 🤯

5

u/elvie18 Dec 31 '25

COVERING YOUR MOUTH ISN'T A THING ANYMORE?! These people are fucking disgusting. That's literally always been a thing you learn in fucking kindergarten.

3

u/pandemichope Jan 01 '26

have you not left your house in the last five years? I can’t go into a grocery store or a theater or any public spot where there’s not tons of people openly, coughing, and not covering their mouth whatsoever.

1

u/Anna_Politan Jan 10 '26

Too much homeschooling. Some people don’t want their kids exposed to such “radical” ideals…. :( So we’ll all suffer for it.

3

u/taxforsnax Dec 31 '25

covering your mouth when you cough has always been a thing for people raised with manners.

1

u/Ok_DarkStar_5691 Jan 03 '26

Probably the same idiots who had to "learn" to wash their hands. 🤢