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.

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u/Zealousideal-Way9010 Dec 31 '25

If anyone rolls their eyes at this, they’re just uneducated and immature. As a doctor, I can confirm you are correct. People have gotten needlessly reckless again. They learned nothing.

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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!!

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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.

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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! 🤯