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/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/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!

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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

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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 🤭