Brain Bleach

The poor dear. She was just doing perfectly innocent research on old eroge.

"I've many a time tried to the impossible task of washing away the memory of a sight that should never been seen. And let me tell you this: Febreeze in the eyes only brings more pain."

— Red Mage, 8-Bit Theater

A character has just witnessed something so icky, so unsettling, so horrific, so weird, that they must express their strong disapproval. This Is Wrong on So Many Levels! that a simple "That's gross" won't suffice — only Brain Bleach can make things right.

The character informs the world that the continued knowledge of this subject is an unbearable affront to their sanity. They will not be at peace until they can remove their brain from their skull, scrub the offending mental image out with steel wool and mental floss, then disinfect the entire area with bleach (disinfecting their eyes or ears with fire is optional).

In the sporking/MST/mocking community, there exists a derivative named Bleeprin which is a mixture of industrial-strength Brain Bleach and Aspirin — Aspirin against the headache, Brain Bleach against the Badfic. Also Bleepka, which combines Brain Bleach and vodka. Its application is obvious.

Will probably be necessary after seeing No Yay, Glurge, Fetish Retardant, a Gainax Ending, a Shock Site, Rule 34, Squick, or Fan Disservice (among many other things), or hearing Too Much Information. Often the result of Schmuck Bait, so always remember that You Do Not Want To Know can be a helpful warning.

A Super-Trope to Screaming at Squick. Sometimes goes hand-in-hand with Nausea Fuel and Lost My Appetite. (Or going to lose it, if the victim has already eaten.)

Compare with Scrubbing Off the Trauma (characters try to scrub away their guilt, disgust, or trauma), I Need a Freaking Drink (when characters want to get too blitzed to remember what they've seen), Kill It with Fire, These Are Things Man Was Not Meant to Know, Too Much Information, Schmuck Bait, or even its auditory cousin (Ear Worm).

For a literal application of this trope ("scrubbing" memories from the mind), see Laser-Guided Amnesia (although that trope usually isn't applied as a remedy for Squick). Despite the similar name, not to be confused with Brainwashed and related tropes.

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In-Universe Examples Only

Advertising

• Ragu commercial featured a kid walking in on his parents, learning a valuable lesson about knocking.
• Clorox: For life's bleachable moments.
• In this Folgers commercial, a woman opens the shower curtain with her bathrobe open to surprise her husband. When she finds her father-in-law with an unidentified man washing his back instead, she goes downstairs to "take a minute to clear [her] head" with Folgers coffee.

Anime & Manga

• A Certain Magical Index:
  • During the "Freaky Friday" Flip incident, this is Touma's reaction to his mother in Index's body and wearing Barely-There Swimwear and Index in Aogami Pierce's body.
  • In the manga version, when Touma's class is told there will be a new student, Touma tries to imagine who it will be. He inexplicably imagines Accelerator in a dress and freaks out.
• A more serious example from Berserk: the last thing Guts saw with his right eye before it was gouged out during the Eclipse was his lover Casca being raped at the hands of his former best friend Griffith, now a powerful godlike demon named Femto. The image is burned into his memory.
• Bleach:
  • Chad throws up in his mouth a little after imagining Ichigo and Karin mashed together.
  • Yumichika reacts to Charlotte Cuulhorne as if Cuulhorne's appearance is this. When trying to close his eyes to block out the horror fails, he decides the only solution is to wipe Charlotte out of existence.
• Buso Renkin: Seeing Papillon wearing a mankini on the beach was enough to make Angel Gozen fall apart in shock and cause Ouka to scream in horror so loud that her nurses became concerned.
  Ouka: Somehow, I feel unbelievably frightened...
• In the Daily Lives of High School Boys skit "High School Boys and Panties", Motoharu pretty much cried out for brain bleach after peeping Ringo-chan's panties — not that her panties were any special, but out of Heel Realization about doing something that can't be undone. Specifically, he (and the rest of student council) tricked Ringo into flaunting her panties. There was so much Heroic BSoD that he skipped school for three days.
• In The Devil is a Part-Timer!, the fat and Gonk landlady Miki-T mails a picture of herself in a bikini from her vacation in Hawaii to the main characters. It induces vomiting, fainting, Go Mad from the Revelation, etc.
• Kleene Rutherford of EDENS ZERO witnessed a godawful and traumatic experience as a child when the bastard lunatic scientist Dr. Mueller killed her parents all because her dad cut his research funding after learning of his crimes and he wanted revenge. Mueller then tied up Kleene and forced her to watch him dissect her brother with a chainsaw until she emotionally broke. Kleene needed emotional inhibitors installed because any strong feeling would trigger PTSD. Sister Ivry had to digitize Kleene's memories and then do a deep dive to overwrite her suffering with comfort and delete her bad memories, curing her illness. As for Mueller, he got a very overdue beatdown.
• Fairy Tail:
  • Mirajane decides to imagine what Elfman and Evergreen's child would look like, then is traumatized.
  • In the first OVA, Natsu, Gray, and Gajeel accidentally see Makarov naked, with accompanying horror, disgust, and destruction. "My eyes!"
  • Ohba Babasaama in a swimsuit gets this quote:
    Chapati: With that single strike, all the excitement in this arena has gone down the drain.
    Jason: Cool down...
  • Ichiya's fight in the Magic Games cause people to throw up.
  • In the new series, Elfman gets a face full of Ichiya's "manhood". The poor guy resorts to beating his head on a rock just to get the awful image out.
    Elfman (Japanese): Dammit! I can't unsee his manhood!
    Elfman (English): Maybe I can beat the horrible image out of my head! Get out NOW!!!
• In Gate, this is Tomita's reaction when he is ordered to help Princess Piña and Bozes find yaoi manga.
• JoJo's Bizarre Adventure:
  • In Battle Tendency, Joseph had an interest in his Sexy Mentor Lisa Lisa, even peeping on her at one point. Near the end, Lisa Lisa told Joseph that she's actually his mother, which resulted in Joseph having a disgusted look and Thousand-Yard Stare throughout the whole credits.
  • In Stardust Crusaders, Polnareff is bewildered to learn that a local Indian restaurant's bathroom had a pig pin built directly beneath the bathroom and the pigs come up from the toilet for food. The implications were not lost on him, and it gets worse when one of the staff tells Polnareff that their manager actually likes having his butt licked by the pigs.
• Azusa of K-On! reacts this way to a video of an unfortunate Panty Shot incident at the band's previous performance; in the English dub, she actually says "I can't unsee it!"
• In Love Lab, this is nearly everyone's reaction to Maki's father (who owns a lingerie company) singing a song about how much he loves lingerie. However, Sayori thinks the song is amusing and also sings it, to the other's further displeasure.
• In My Bride is a Mermaid, Lunar's dad, Sun's dad, and Masa cross-dress, freaking out everybody. Lunar's dad continues to do it in later episodes.
• In My Dad's the Queen of All VTubers?!, Takashi finds out the Awful Truth that Kizuke Yai, the Virtual Celebrity he's been fawning over is actually his own father. He desperately wishes that he can go back to the time when ignorance is bliss, since every time he sees Kizuke Yai, all he can see now is his father's face.
• In My Monster Secret, Youko's father asks Asahi what he'd do if, hypothetically, he came home one day and saw his father dressed like a woman; Asahi's response is "WHAT ARE YOU MAKING ME IMAGINE?!", which is coupled with an Imagine Spot of him and his sister Mei looking on in abject horror as Mr. Kuromine reads the newspaper while wearing a sundress and pigtails.
• One Piece:
  • Most of the male crewmembers suppressed their memories of seeing Kokoro in her mermaid form, which is later acknowledged when Zoro claims Camie was the first mermaid he met. This is lampshaded by Chopper, who notices that Zoro's memories about Kokoro disappear when he meet Camie.
  • Sanji gets a two years long one when he discovers himself in the Okama Island.
  • A serious example is implied with Admiral Fujitora's blindness, which was apparently self-inflicted because he didn't want to see any more of the world's evils. Whatever sent him over that particular edge must've been quite awful.
• Rebuild World:
  • Alpha floats a hypothetical situation where a hunter discovers the ruins an Old World fashion designer's workshop. Should they find a lot of maid uniforms there, they might sell the uniforms for cheap, not knowing that they're even more effective than the latest hunter armor. Akira then has the Imagine Spot of huge, brawny guys marching into a ruin in maid uniforms and asks her to not destroy his common sense.
  • In a later Call-Back to this conversation, Shirakabe pleads with Nojima to get high quality maid armor for Drankam from the company the Ninja Maid sisters Shiori and Kanae do, since it's better than their current armor. This leads to the idea of The Big Guy Old Soldier Kurosawa wearing such an outfit, to Nojima's horror.
• In the New Year's chapter of Sgt. Frog, Fuyuki reads a New Year's postcard for his mom;
  Fuyuki: "Dear Aki-San, here's hoping that next year's panties will be snake skin. (Pant pant)" I wish I hadn't read that.
• In Shakugan no Shana, Shana is disgusted when Sorath and Tiriel make out in front of her, ranting that it is not the kind of kissing Chigusa taught her about.
• In an episode of Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, the old and fat Ms. Dorothy/Tomoe-san cosplays as Dark Magician Girl. Nobody is pleased. Except Hayato/Chumly — it was his idea for her to cosplay the character, though she's confused as to why she's doing that. It also causes her to get stuck in the costume because it's too tight.

Card Games

• This card from Magic: The Gathering is a creature which acts as Brain Bleach for its master.

Comic Books

• Amelia Rules!: Amelia is kind enough to offer the readers time to apply Brain Bleach to erase what images Ninja Joan's story about how she caught her fellow ninjas skinny dipping might have conjured in their minds:
  Ninja Joan: They were N-U-D-E naked, and swimming in this pond. So I get an eyeful of this scene, and like, totally freak. Aaagh! My eyes! My eyes! So they all go running behind this shrub, screaming Get out of here! Get out!
  Amelia: Wait a second, if they were in the water and then behind a shrub, you didn't really see anything, right?
  Ninja Joan: Weeell... it was a very small shrub.
  [beat]
  Amelia: [voice over] Why don't I give you a minute to erase that horrible image... Okay, ready?
• Astonishing X-Men has a few during Joss Whedon's run, the most specifically invoking this trope being:
  Emma Frost: J. Jonah Jameson'll be tongue-kissing Spider-Man before the X-Men catch a little public favor.
  Shadowcat: Why do you insist on saying things I can never unhear?
• In one issue of Marvel's Captain Marvel that took place when Genis-Val was the current title bearer, the Kree Supreme Intelligence (a giant, disembodied head in a jar) boasted that it could do anything. Genis challenged it to pick its nose. One Beat Panel later, everyone in the room said that they were now permanently mentally scarred.
• Deadpool:
  • Deadpool wearing Marvel Girl's leggy costume. Considering he's horribly disfigured....
    Cyclops: He'll change his mind, right, Hank?
    Beast: Give it six seconds, Scott.
    Cyclops: That's an eternity right now.
  • In Deadpool #0 (a Wizard giveaway), Wade stumbles upon a plot by Arnim Zola where he's cloned several dead heroes and villains (all of them C-List Fodder) and had actually been enjoying himself... up to the point when he uncovered the proto-husks of Aunt May and Uncle Ben. Who were old. And naked. After pumping the "unholy liver spots" full of lead, he proceeds to go on this rant:
    Deadpool: It's one thing to bring back a bunch of wannabe wiseguys to life and hurl them in my direction... but when I get snookered into grabbing an eyeful of two... naked... old... old... people... someone's gonna DIE!
• Empowered: After having her suit stolen by an (ahem) a less-than-attractive guy, Empowered's thought bubbles read as follows:
  Emp: Image... scarred into... forebrain... Scarred...
• Victor from Runaways can actually do this to himself, being a Ridiculously Human Robot. He's damn lucky. Specifically, after a super-powered game of truth or dare leads to the team fighting a giant snake monster, he asks Karolina if she'd really never consider being with a guy, even for "...the perks". Karolina replies "No", and that he picked the worst time to ask that. One Beat Panel later...
  Chase: AAAAGH! WHY? Why would you make me picture that?
  Victor: [Are you sure you want to delete selected memory?]
• Sam & Max: Freelance Police: Max, in the previous panel having been unarmed, is suddenly waving around a rather large firearm. Sam asks, "Where did you have that thing hidden, li'l buddy?" Max's response exemplifies this trope: "None of your damn business."
• The Simpsons Futurama Crossover Crisis: The heroes try to distract the giant Homer by using a giant TV that shows Marge holding pork chops:
  Leela: It's working! He's hugging the TV. [looking disgusted] Now he's kissing the TV.
  Bender: Now he's...Ew! [covering his eyes] Well that's one building I'm never going into again!
• Spider-Man:
  • In The Amazing Spider-Man (J. Michael Straczynski), Peter visits L.A and accidentally sees a man (a rather heavy-set man, no less) cross-dressed in lingerie. He thinks to himself:
    Peter: Just keep going, Peter, it's nothing that gouging out your eyes and washing them in sulphuric acid won't fix...
  • Peter goes to shower after seeing J. Jonah Jameson Sr. in bed with his Aunt May in The Amazing Spider-Man (1999) #592.
    Peter: Must... wash... brain...!◊
• A truly horrific example: Alan Moore's "Love and Death" arc of Swamp Thing starts with Abby Arcane Cable ripping off her clothes, trying unsuccessfully to burn them ("She had become a little crazy by this time.") showering heavily and then scrubbing herself bloody with a wire brush after she learns that her husband Matt is really an animated corpse containing the spirit of her evil uncle Anton Arcane. Unintended necrophilia and incest? Yeah, all the brain bleach in the world won't wash that away.
  And she thinks, "How long have I been married to...?" And she thinks, "How many times did...?" And she knows what the bad thing is, and where the stench is coming from.
  • To give people ample warning on that spoiler: scrubbing her flesh until she passes out with horror and blood loss is so far removed from what's under the spoiler, that people reading the comic frequently forget that poor Abby likely mutilated herself in an unsuccessful attempt to get clean after her realization. You have been warned.
• A minor example with Wonder Man in Uncanny Avengers: he gets released from Rogue when she kisses Deadpool and absorbs his Healing Factor. Beast explains how the process works, says that the skin-to-skin contact made it possible and is surprised that it took Rogue so long to finally slap Deadpool. Wonder Man then says that he'd give every dollar for his brain to remember it like that.
• West Coast Avengers (2018): In issue #2, Quentin Quire and Gwenpool's argument over Weekend at Bernie's devolves into the two of them making out. America Chavez and Fuse are utterly horrified.
  America: I... have seen Quentin Quire making out with someone... That's my reality now. I can never go back.
  Fuse: It's like the image is burned into my retinas. No matter how much I blink... there it is.
• In the Wolverine story arc in which he goes to Hell, there is a scene in which Emma Frost enters his mind and walks through a door marked "My Sexual Fantasies"; apparently, Logan's fantasy is a six-way involving Emma, Mystique, Psylocke, Spiral, and Squirrel Girl. Emma's reaction is: "Where... Where are those demons when you need them? I must die this instant."
• In Action Comics #1051, Jon, trying to find more board games for Otho-Ra and Osul-Ra to play with, discovers Superman's Warzoon outfit hanging in the closet. When he calls out for his mom to figure out what's going on, Lois races in and shuts the closet door and directs Jon to where the games are. It takes Jon a brief moment to realize what that outfit is used for now and he turns away, hiding his embarrassed and horrified face.
  Jon: Ohhhhhhh, my God.

Comic Strips

• Dilbert: This strip.
  "Only death can release me!"
• Doonesbury: The July 24, 2016 Sunday strip shows the entire ensemble struck dumb with horror at the outcome of the Republican National Convention,^note At which Donald Trump was nominated as the Republican candidate for President of the United States until:
  Kim: How do we unwatch that?
  Mike: We can't. We take it to our graves.
• The August 17, 2023 strip of Garfield has Garfield watch a movie titled Santa's Summer Vacation.
  Garfield: That man should not wear a swimsuit!
• In the first annual of Hack/Slash: The Series, Chris notes that the idea of the Suicide Girls is giving him a Raging Stiffie. Cassie notes that after their call, she is going to see if anyone has invented "mind bleach".
• In Scary Gary, Leopold is quite dismayed when he finds out his memory eraser cannot make him forget the details of Gary’s underwear problems.
  Leopold: (To Owen) IT’S NOT POWERFUL ENOUGH!
• Zits:
  • There's a moment like this in one strip where a bored Jeremy complains that "nothing ever happens around here," which prompts his dad to take his shirt off and dance around (all 300-some pounds of him) singing, "Shake your bon-bon!" Afterward, Jeremy goes to wash his eyeballs out.
  • In another example, Jeremy peeks around the corner only to catch his mother in a leotard practicing for her Zumba dance class (with her boobs jiggling in the air). He promptly asks his dad if there's a way to erase an image burned into his retina.
  • And the time his mother commented on Stairway to Heaven, which he was strumming on his guitar: his parents had that song playing when he was conceived. Cue Jeremy with his head under the tap, running hot water into his ear.
  • This happened to his mom too in one strip. After she commented that a song he was listening to was "catchy", he showed her the lyrics. In the final panel, he told his dad, "I'm grounded for buying a CD and Mom is at church for liking it."

Fan Works

• In chapter 1 of A Complete Turnabout, Phoenix gets a mental image of himself in Franziska von Karma's clothes. He almost choked himself from that idea.
  Phoenix: (Yikes! Somebody, pass the Brain Bleach, please!)
• The infamous invisible clothes in Adoption Nightmare have Danny wishing he had some.
• This alternate-universe drabble for the TRON universe.
  Sam: Your parents... well, our parents...are all upstairs.
  Jet: "Upstairs"? But there's nothing you've got upstairs but... [fridge horror as Jet realizes what their parents are doing...] Get over here, Sam. You fucking owe me vodka.
• Invoked in chapter 18 of the semi-self-insert Touhou Project Fanfic Average Joe In Bullet Hell, though the image in Ryan's mind was not really all that icky, unsettling, or horrific — merely of questionable healthiness.
  Utsuho: [referring to Nitori] She's really shy! It's so cute! You have to see it sometime!
  Ryan: [thoughts] Well, now you have a whole bunch of images of shy lolis running through my mind. Oh, that can not be healthy. Brain bleach, gooooooo!
  [THWACK!]
  Utsuho: Ah! Y-you just punched yourself!
  Ryan: [thoughts] Yep. Brain bleach tastes suspiciously like copper, by the way.
• In A Very Kara Christmas, Jimmy Olsen accidentally drops his cup of coffee right on co-worker Frank Potts' groin. Aghast, Jimmy takes some blank pages and attempts to wipe Frank's crotch off, but Frank angrily tells him to stay away, adding that "[he's] going to devote the rest of [his] life to wiping [Jimmy's] image from [his] brain".
• Becoming a True Invader: Zim and Dib both demand to have acid poured into their brains in response to hearing about the alternate Keef's relationships with their counterparts in his universe.
• In Ben 10: Omniharem 10, Rook runs off to help Ben with some trouble with Isosceles "Sceles" Vreedle chasing after him. She starts begging Rook not to leave her her alone, because then she'll start stress-eating and end up gaining over 1000 pounds, and then none of her (rather revealing) clothes will fit her. Kevin, horrified at the vivid imagery, begs Rook to slow down and let Sceles catch up with him.
• Crazy Irken and ? (Invader Zim-based crossover fic anthology by D_rissing and nightmaster000. ^note Unable to link due to violating Content Policy, but it can be found on their Archive of Our Own pages.): At the climax of the The Proud Family chapter, Zim calls the Tallest to give a mission update. To their disgust, he’s doing this while having Penny perform oral sex on him, which continues through the call. Purple in particular starts rolling around screaming about the sight hurting his eyes, and throws up repeatedly.
• The Darwin Chronicles:
  • In "Great Scott", Logan making disparaging comments about Scott causes Jean to rave about her fulfilling sex life, which makes her audience demand a mind-wipe or lobotomy.
    Jean: "You know, I don't think there's a room in this mansion where we haven't done it."
    Hank: Jean, please.
    Jean: His office, my office, the lab, the kitchen, the music room. The den, the classrooms, the stables, the hangar – now that was exceptional. Scott really does love that jet.
    Bobby: Do you think the Professor would wipe out my memory? I mean, if I asked him nicely? Or begged really, really hard?
  • In "What lies beneath", Logan hates the fact that his healing factor won't let him kill himself when Rogue and Jubilee start discussing Scott's underwear.
    There were times, Logan reflected, when having a healing factor was a bitch.
    When flu swept through the mansion, leaving people puking everywhere, who got to play nursemaid? When a mission went awry, who did Jean race past without a second glance as she went to fuss over the Boy Wonder?
    Worst of all, when Rogue and Jubilee got caught stealing Cyclops' underwear, who was unable to slit his wrists to avoid hearing why?
  • In "Osmosis", Logan's healing factor will not save him from Jubilee's ramblings.
    Jubilee: And then Lola was all pissed, I dunno, I think it gave her a headache or something, and she blamed Dr. Grey and pissed somewhere – like, that cat is so, whattyacall it, literal – and Dr. Grey was all pissed and at least she's not all literal because God, wouldn't that be gross if she started –
    Logan: You know, the healing factor don't mean I can't get headaches, kid.
• In Death Note: The Abridged Series (kpts4tv), Light would really like some after Ryuk decided to "bunk" with him.
  Ryuk: But if you give up the notebook you'll forget all about me.
  Light: GOOD!
• Doing It Right This Time: When the cast discovers Kaworu has also returned… gender-swapped, Asuka casually states — after the initial shock:
  Asuka: Although it was sweet of you to think of a gift like that for the two of us. [long, awkward silence] What? [Shinji] always enjoys the show when Rei and I-
  Gendo and Ritsuko: Too much information!
  [another long, awkward silence]
  Ritsuko: I think that's the first thing we've agreed on since I found out you did my mom.
• When the Madrigals are in combat with Stoick's party in The Dragon and the Butterfly, a heavily armed Tuffnut gangs up on Bruno. At that moment, Bruno has a vision, telling him that his sister will get together with Fishlegs. Tuffnut is so horrified by this revelation, he faints.
• Dragon Ball Z Abridged:
  • The Solar Flare induces nauseating images for both its victims and the audience.
    Vegeta: This is like walking in on Freeza in the shower — Wait he's always naked.... [Vegeta screams in disgust at the mental image]
  • Vegeta gags when he finds out that Dodoria is a woman. Her explaining how she was the most beautiful and fertile woman on her home planet and offering Vegeta to team up against Freeza and rule the universe as husband and wife makes it worse.
  • Bulma asks for a glass when she sees Zarbon transform.
    Bulma: We'll live in a penthouse suite... and he'll drive a Corvette... and we'll make love every single— [Zarbon finishes transforming] KILL IT WITH FIRE!!
  • Piccolo audibly shudders when, in an attempt to telepathically contact Gohan, he ends up picking up Vegeta wanting to strip down naked in front of a mirror and go Super Saiyan.
• Played for Drama rather than laughs in Dungeon Keeper Ami. After seeing centuries of horrific deeds in another Keeper's memories, Ami is tormented by them, until the Light gods intervene, retaining the facts of the memories but blunting their effects on her conscious mind.
• Empath: The Luckiest Smurf:
  • In the story "Smurfette's Inner Beauty", when Empath, Brainy, and Duncan McSmurf follow Hogatha to a Wizard's Ball after her magical makeover:
    Empath: It seems that Hogatha wants Harlequin to spend a night with her in her castle.
    Duncan: That's certainly a picture that I don't want smurfing in my head, laddie.
  • Sassette says she'd have this if Tapper was serving it in his tavern to make her forget about ever hearing about Empath and Polaris "sharing dreams" with each other in "Flowerbell's Love Triangle."
• Evangelion 303: In chapter 15, Mari and Kelly are taunting each other about their sex lives as having some drinks in Pancho's. Quickly their conversation enters "I did NOT want to know about it" territory, and the barman thinks: "Boy - If I had a dollar for every bit of info I had to "forget" around here...".
• In the fanfiction The Evillous Chronicles of the fandom of the same name, Elluka says she definitely needs a memory-wiping spell when Venomania has sex with Lukana.
• In Fate Genesis, this is the reaction Matou Shinji, Orbot and Cubot have when they see a video of Sakura's Magecraft "training". It's especially worse for Shinji, who in canon took certain liberties with his step-sister. Being robots, Orbot and Cubot just delete the memory from their minds, but Shinji isn't so lucky, leading the two villains wondering why Shinji is throwing up in the bathroom and showering excessively.
• Fates Collide: Ushiwakamaru confides to Ruby Rose that she is Mercury Black's sister, but he doesn't know and she asks Ruby not to tell him. Later, Mercury says he thinks Ushiwakamaru is hot. Ruby struggles not to throw up.
• A minor example in the Doctor Who fic “Fear and Freedom”; after Evelyn Smythe has been enjoying the company of the elderly but distinguished ‘Doctor John Smith’ while his granddaughter and the Doctor are locked in a prison camp, after the camps are released, Evelyn is disturbed when the Doctor reveals that ‘John Smith’ was his own first incarnation, considering her more platonic relationship with the Sixth Doctor.
• On this page of the Homestuck fanfic The Finer Details of Gay Cluckbeast, Rose gives Dave some unneeded information about her sex life, resulting in this:
  TG: what
  TG: rose
  TG: what the fuck
  TG: why did you say that
  TG: why cant i unread it
  TG: holy shit hand me the bleach and the steel wool gonna scrub my brain right to the stem
  TG: too bad kim and aggie are telling me that shits never coming off
  TG: thats a permanent black mark on my hippocampus i hope youre happy
• Futures Freak Me Out: At 4.00 a.m., Toji is awakened by the ringing of his telephone. When he picks up the phone, it is Shinji screaming he is in Germany, he is drunk and he is having sex with Asuka. Touji turns off his phone and goes back to bed so he can wipe from his mind that phone call.
• Hanging Ten Saga: Best need a lot when Lo and Ben walked into the Oenhouse to talk to her parents, only to find them in the kitchen... naked. If it wasn’t bad enough, Lo discovered a very embarrassing secret about the kitchen table and preferred not to find out where else her parents have been doing It in their home.
• Harry Potter fanfics:
  • In Altered Histories while attending the Quidditch World Cup Harry spots an extremely fat man wearing a hot pink miniskirt, lime green tube top and leopard-print stilettos.
    Harry: Curse my perfect memory and immunity to obliviation!
  • In Blue Steel Dumbledore asks Fawkes to bring Sirius to a meeting; the latter is wearing only a Speedo at the time.
    Mad-Eye Moody: I'm going to have to wash my [artificial] eye in bleach now. One of the benefits of it is that I can literally do that.
  • In Daphne Greengrass and the Boy Who Lived:
    • Harry and Daphne are left uncomfortable when Moody uses his eye to comment on Harry's socks, since that means he's basically using his eye to look under teenagers' robes.
    • While Ron is relatively understanding of Harry, Ginny and Daphne dating each other once they begin their three-person relationship, he explicitly asks that the girls not discuss what they might do when they're alone together over the holidays as he doesn't want to picture his sister doing such things. He's particularly vehement about this request when Daphne and Ginny talk about their first sexual encounter with each other in the Room of Requirement in Harry's sixth year.
  • In Dear Order Harry mentions in a letter that he could use the robes Dumbledore sent him for his birthday as a defense against Death Eaters someday because "no one can see electric blue robes with pineapples and bananas on them and remain unscarred," prompting Ron to reply "I can't even imagine them and remain unscarred."
  • In The Fabulous Eccentricities of Bertie Botts McGonagall is overheard asking Madame Pomfrey to obliviate her memory of a banner bearing the caption "Taste the rainbow!" and a naked picture of Dumbledore.
  • In The Girl Who Loved, Harry falls into a Jusenkyō spring shortly after Sailor Moon drowned in it. Her spirit comes out of the pool and after spotting girl-Harry and briefly thinking how hot her body looks on someone else, she equates it to perving on your twin and wonders if ghosts can use brain bleach.
  • In Growing Up Kneazle Harry happens to see Crookshanks getting...amorous...with Mrs. Norris and leaves "in an attempt to find caustic chemicals to cleanse his eyes." In the sequel, Teenage Mutant Ninja Kneazles, a repeat performance "afforded Harry the opportunity to avoid Filch and gave him another good reason to poke his eyes out with a blunted letter opener."
  • In Harry the Draagyr the Gryffindor sixth-year boys' dorm is treated to Dean and Seamus talking dirty to each other and then running for the showers while clad in a sheet.
    Ron: I think I'm going to go cast some Cleaning Charms on my eyeballs now.
  • In Harry Potter and the Fate We Make Harry has a vision of one of Voldemort's attacks and then wonders if there's such a thing as a shower for your brain.
  • In Harry Potter and the Marriage Contracts the disclaimer for X-ray glasses on special offer by the Quibbler states in part:
    Using Quibbler Technology X-Ray Specs around certain individuals may lead to nausea, loss of sexual desire and a general need to scrub out your braincase with bleach.
  • In Harry Potter and the Wizard's Oath after a naked Dumbledore is spontaneously transported to the hospital wing, Hermione asks Madame Pomfrey if the wizarding world has an equivalent to psychotherapy because she "felt she had seen something that may scar her for life."
  • Having a Moste Potente Valentine's Day:
  Harry: We might need to see about getting a therapist for Winky. Alpaca girl dressed in a see-through negligee bound to a desk chair? That's got to leave an image.
  Hermione: We might need to get her a bottle of brain bleach from Poppy.
  • In Like a Phoenix from the Ashes Ginny accidentally walks in on Ron and Hermione having sex and comments to Harry afterwards that she "was going to scrub her eyeballs after seeing her brother naked."
  • Nightmare:
    Seamus: I just walked in on Hermione and Ron having sex.
    Harry: Oh that's just revolting.
    Seamus: Yeah just be warned it sounded like they have some pranks that they wanted to try out on you. Now if you'll excuse me I have to take a scouring pad to my eyeballs and if I can manage my brain.
  • In Of Lies and Deceit and Hidden Personas Harry begs Voldemort to obliviate him after seeing a Daily Prophet photo of Aberforth Dumbledore having sex with his brother Albus while the latter is in his goat Animagus form.
  • In One Wizard Too Many Harry and Hermione discuss a suitable location to submerge the golden egg. When she mentions she's heard that the "price of admission" to Dumbledore's private Jacuzzi is "a bit steep" Harry replies "Ugh, need some brain bleach here!" In a later chapter, after Harry says he'll be sending her his psychologist's bill and she comments that a hug from a load-bearing column she transfigured into a likeness of Molly Weasley will "make it all better" he replies "Okay, now that's the psychologist's bill and an invoice for some brain bleach you'll owe me."
  • In The Problem With Purity Fawkes suggests poisoning Ron in his sleep after he makes a particularly crass remark to Hermione.
    Hermione: But sadly, if we poisoned everyone who annoyed me, the wizarding population would be decimated in no time. You don't want to be responsible for the destruction of the wizarding world, do you?
    Harry: From poisoning Ron to the death of the wizarding world. I know the Weasleys are prolific, but that's a scary leap.
    Hermione: Harry, I positively refuse to think of him as the father of the wizarding world and may have to go wash my brain out with soap at the thought.
  • In Reboot Severus has an idea for a new invention after reading Umbridge's mind.
    Severus: I was tempted to go out and invent brain bleach afterwards. Dolores Umbridge's mind is not a pretty place to be.
  • In simplicity Madame Pomfrey has to treat a specialized freezing spell cast on Draco's genitals.
    Madame Pomfrey: Dear lord! I hope that is just the cold making it shrink. Otherwise, I need to go burn out my eyes and then obliviate myself!
  • In Soulsong Pansy walks into the Slytherin common room after accidentally seeing Ron and Hermione having sex and spots Draco flirting with Charlie over the Floo.
    Pansy: I am going to pretend I am not seeing this because I already need eye bleach.
  • In Surrender many students find themselves wanting an obliviate after Harry and Tom dose the Hogwarts staff with veritaserum:
    Professor Snape: Thank you, Mr. Malfoy. That's odd... Why is it that I can no longer read your thoughts, Mr. Malfoy? Have you been practicing occlumency over the summer? I wouldn't have thought someone of your normally paltry intellect capable of such a thing. Not that I'm complaining, mind you; it is rather a relief not to risk accidentally picking up on your ridiculous fantasies about certain of your classmates in the middle of my class. I do wish the rest of you would practice occlumency as well, but I suppose that is too much to hope for. I cannot help sensing your perverted daydreams when you are supposed to be paying attention in class. Being a legilimens is really more of a curse than a blessing when one is teaching teenagers. I must admit that some of your fantasies are mildly entertaining and good for a laugh, but several of them are rather disturbing. My detentions are not nearly as interesting as some of you seem to imagine. I am also growing terribly weary of centaur fantasies - that goes for you, Miss Patil, Miss Brown, Miss Parkinson, and Mr. Goyle. As for you, Mr. Longbottom, nobody should do that with a plant. And Mr. Weasley... Oh, that's just preposterous! Obliviate!
    Ron: Thank you, sir. I feel a lot better now. Wait - what happened?
  • In Tripping Through Time a time-traveling Iris Potter decides to adopt a then six-year-old Tom Riddle. She has some interesting thoughts while shopping for a training wand in a children's store.
    Creepy.
    Extremely creepy.
    So creepy and disturbing that I want to Obliviate myself.
  • In Veela heart Sirius, Remus, Arthur and Snape accidentally witness Harry and Lucius making out and Snape mutters about "getting Albus to erase the memory, and perhaps some brain bleach."
    • A chapter earlier, after it comes out that Charlie Weasley is Draco's mate, this exchange occurs:
      Sirius: What is with all these weird pairings? Next you will be telling me McGonagall and Trelawney are together!
      [Beat]
      Harry: Oh ew! I can't get that image out of my head now!
      Sirius: I think I just scarred myself.
      Albus: For Merlin's sake, no one mention this to Minerva! We will all suffer!
      Lucius: It was an image I could have done without.
  • In Water Aerobics for the Aquaphobic, Voldemort witnesses Umbridge and Filch passionately getting at it. Meanwhile, Harry has a Department of Mysteries dream, and the crystal balls are crying and saying: "My eyes! My eyes!"
  • In Wicked Serendipity Harry accidentally sees a naked Lucius.
    Harry: I fucking need bleach. Merlin, my poor innocent eyes
  • In Wizards of the Caribbean after a house elf informs Draco that his Aunt Bellatrix and Voldemort are having sex on his bed, he desparately wishes someone would burn the memory from his brain - and then burn the bed while they're at it.
• Hellsing Ultimate Abridged has a case when Alucard and the Queen of England have an incredibly filthy conversation that contains many Crosses the Line Twice moments in front of a council of her advisers and allies. Sir Penwood screams "I can never have sex again!" in horror at their conversation, and we can't blame him.
  "Betty": Well, well, well if it isn't Ally. Your skin is still as smooth as the days I felt it against my own.
  Alucard: You know it. Reminds me of when I'd keep your bed warm during the Blitz.
  "Betty": Ah, those were better days. I was younger, beautiful...
  Alucard: Shut up you old hag, I'd still wreck you like Dianna!
  "Betty": (Slight dark chuckle) Oh, you always know just what to say to moisten me up...
  Penwood: AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! I can never have sex again!
• Here There Be Monsters: Since Dr. Sivana's scheme to destroy the Marvels and conquer the world is apparently going to succeed this time, the Acrobat suggests that the Monster Society of Evil do something nice for their boss... like getting him laid. Illyria retorts she did not need that mental image.
  The Acrobat: "All things considered, I think we should show our appreciation to the boss. Name a country after him. Maybe give him a federal treasury–you know, not a big one, just maybe one from some little island somewhere. Get him laid. He'd appreciate that."
  Illyria: (wrinkling her nose) "There are some things even too sickening for me to contemplate, and that, Acrobat, is one of them. No, thank you."
• In The Hill of Swords, Louise has this reaction after seeing her sister acting out a sexual fantasy while calling Shirou's name.
• In Hotspring Souls!, the guys are all traumatized when they see Solaire's swimsuit— an excruciatingly tight and eye-searingly bright yellow speedo with a red sun logo smack dab in the crotch area.
  Hunter: "Oh man... Maybe Father Gascoigne had the right idea to gouge his own eyes out..."
• In Imaginary Seas, this is Percy's reaction to realizing that cannibalism is a recurring thing in Greek mythology after Chiron reveals his plan to absorb his Lostbelt counterpart for power and information.
  Percy: Cannibalism kind of ran in the family, anyway. —Oh gods. I didn’t need that thought. I did not need that thought.
• In Kitsune no Ken: Fist of the Fox, this is Kakuzu's reaction when he finds out that Hidan, who's been stalking his ex-girlfriend relentlessly, has actually gone inside the woman's house when she's not there and has had masturbated on her bed.
  Kakuzu: Damn it, now I'll have to drink drain cleaner to get that imagery out of my head.
• Just The Three Of Us has Anne's reaction to her and her girlfriends accidentally opening an envelope of what they thought were love poems written between her parents and instead being sexy photos of her mother for her father, some of which were pretty recent. Anne was very quickly left on the floor, screaming about her eyes never being clean again, not helped by Sasha and Marcy joking about how her mom was still pretty hot after twenty-five years of marriage.
• In Entwined Destinies: The Last Son And The Slayer, The Scoobies walk in on Buffy Summers and Clark Kent in bed together and are horrified, except for Faith.
  Faith: Oh my god! Did you see that guy? All those muscles?
  Giles: Yes and I would like to purge that memory as quickly as possible, thank you Faith.
• In The Legend of Total Drama Island, the following invocations (from separate incidents) are typical:
  Bridgette: [H]ow about keeping us in suspense on that, okay? That’s a mental image I so don’t need right now.
  Leshawna: If I even see one, I feel like I need a shower.
• In Life Ore Death Artemis needs this after she's in the library and overhears Superboy being given The Talk from their older teammate. She stumbles out pale, finds Wally, and he Zeta Tubes them to Vietnam, which has no drinking age, so Intoxication Ensues.
• Often invoked to no avail in the "Sailor Horus" continuity of Lovehammer Inc.
• From the Gag Sub of Mahou Sentai Magiranger: The Movie
  "That's the second time today that I've heard WAY MORE THAN I NEEDED TO KNOW!!"
• In the RWBY fic Massages, Jaune tries to ask Professor Port for advice on how to deal with his Unwanted Harem problem, only for Port to instead tell him tales of his previous sexual encounters. Jaune is soon begging to die, because he can't get Port to shut up, until he is rescued by Glynda Goodwitch's arrival.
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fanfics:
  • Due to its infamous nature, Cupcakes (Sergeant Sprinkles) tends to appear in other fanfics as a story In-Universe, a nightmare of one of the characters, or a horror movie. Most of the time, it'll get this reaction from the characters who witnessed it in some way, shape, or form.
  • In a meta example, The Light in the Darkness has gained a reputation among the fandom for being used as effective Brain Bleach if one is still suffering psychological trauma from reading Cupcakes.
  • Another example in Once Bitten, Twice Shy. After Applejack learns…through experiment… the significance of a unicorn's horn, she sprints away from Rarity planning to scrub clean her hoof and her brain. It takes the poor girl several pages before she can look a unicorn in the face without flinching.
  • After exposure to several dozen gigabytes of the most depraved forms of clopfic imaginable, Arthur Arcturus is relieved beyond description to find a CD labeled Brain Bleach and full of pictures of flowers and fuzzy kittens.
  • In Estrus, Rarity finds out that Twilight doesn't know what being "in heat" means, and gathers Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie and Applejack in the Carousel Boutique to discuss how to break it to her. The resulting conversation covers how each of them learned about the birds and bees, their first times in heat, and how each chooses to deal with the symptoms. Rarity has this to say about it:
    Rarity: Step lively now! The sooner we get to Twilight's and teach her about the facts of life, the sooner we can all go our separate ways and clop or stab ourselves in the eyes or whatever it is we need to do.
  • In Address Unknown (Remedy), Rainbow Dash comes by the library and learns that Twilight fell asleep while studying and left a mess on the floor, which Spike is now cleaning up. She recognizes the smell for what it is, and then she learns that Twilight's been spending time with Derpy the last few days...
    Derpy plus Twilight should NOT equal that mess on the floor, but yet there it was — if they had been spending a lot of time together, then this… Her brain forced an image into her head that made her wish that heads came with an "un-see" button.
  • In Filly Willies, Twilight unearths a collection of books, one of which is a "spicy sugar story" written by Mrs. Cake. Twilight asks what something means, and Spike whispers his answer to her.
    Twilight: What? Are you sure? That's. . . Just wrong. Okay, this obviously isn't part of the set. Can you put that away somewhere out of sight? Actually, just go ahead and burn it. And remind me to look up an amnesia spell in the morning.
  • A non-squicky version appears in Turnabout Storm. Before the trial starts, Phoenix wonders what his Friendly Rival Edgeworth would do if he was in his shoes (that is, stuck in Equestria). Cue a mental image of Edgeworth gleefully playing with the ponies:
    Edgeworth: This is just like that one episode of the Steel Samurai where he meets the Pink Princess! WHEEEEEEE!!!!
    [Back to the real world]
    Phoenix: (Doctor, I'd like the part of my brain responsible for that image lobotomized, please...)
  • Pony POV Series:
    • The Dark World!Mane Six release Celestia and Luna from their prison only for them both having been reduced to fillies and Celestia having lost her memory and thinks she just came back from Paradise Estate where Discord was actually good. After she's told that the heroes woke her up from a long sleep, she has the following response:
      Filly Celestia: Did they have Dissy kiss me?
      Luna: WHAT?! NO!
      Filly Celestia: Well... The prince always wakes up his princess with a kiss, and they're calling us princesses, or I think they are, so—
      Twilight: [narrating] I needed a memory erasure spell.
    • Another example from Shining Armor's story: Private Ranger is asking around for advice for his next date with Sunset. He gets some good advice from Shining and Ellis, but when he asks The Lord Flashheart... well, he ends up getting permission to have the conversation erased from his memory.
      Private Ranger: Why a flying helmet... And wet celery... And how can you even do that with an egg whisk? I... I don't think she'd like it....
    • Shining Armor needs this when it is suggested that his enemy Makarov, who has the power to alter the timeline, altered things so that they share the same mother. He needs this again when he sees a vision of the night his parents conceived him.
    • Spike is utterly horrified when Silver Spoon tells him what a bachelor party is about.
    • During the Wedding Arc, Pinkie Pie takes down a Changeling by using her 4th wall breaking powers to produce a piece of fan art of Queen Chrysalis and Discord together. The Changeling screams and collapses, clutching his eyes.
    • While Princess Luna is teaching Applejack about the Centaur race, this is Applejack's reaction when Luna describes a Centaur orgy. Given this story involves Lord Tirek, one of the most brutal, evil, monstrous Evil Overlords to have ever lived, this is not the only time Applejack ends up feeling like this.
  • Mirror's Image: Whatever it is that Twilight Sparkle learns about Changeling reproduction, it's bad enough to make her wipe her own memory, twice. It didn't help that after the first time she asked what the Changeling Queen had been talking about.
  • The Flash Sentry Chronicles: Springer actually wants this to happen to him after he spies on Rainbow's house and sees her and Soarin do something together.
    Springer: Memory, please fail me now.
• Naru-Hina Chronicles Mini-sodes:
  • This is Sakura's reaction when she comes to the conclusion that Naruto might enjoy it a little too much whenever she physically hurts him.
  • Naruto and Hinata decide to check up on Tsunade given that she's been focused on trying to help the still unconscious Jiraiya so much. When Naruto opens the door, he and his girlfriend see Tsunade sitting on top of Jiraiya, with her vest revealing her bare right shoulder as if like she was about to have sex with him. She notices the presence of the young ninjas before saying "I'm... checking his vitals..." The Uzumaki then closes the door without entering the room. Both he and Hinata are stunned while he, after saying earlier on that he doesn't want to see Tsunade sad, comments that he didn't want to see that either.
• Naruto: The Abridged Series: Gaara's response to Rock Lee and Guy's student-teacher bonding: "Wow. I think I'm gonna need mind soap."
• Lobotomies, mindwipes and the like are on high demand at The Official Fanfiction University Of Middle-earth due to the staff's "learning through mental scarring" teaching methods.
  Legolas: I was chased by Elvea and Sauronette when one opened just in front of them, and they fell down into the Uruk-hai breeding caverns.
  Elrond: Oh, so that was the loud-pitched scream I heard about 'need acid to remove my eyes'?
• A Running Gag (and theme) in Of Love and Bunnies is that Kira and her teammates find it very hard to see their mentor, Tommy, as a person, much less a person with a sex life. As such, they frequently try to unsee things they have seen. Including the entire original Power Rangers team (It Makes Sense in Context) doing the Tootsie Roll in the middle of the sidewalk.
• In Opening Dangerous Gates, everybody is disgusted whenever Gray strips.
• In the Transformers multi-canon fic Riding a Sunset, the Autobots are confused by what Charlie means when she says she's going to the restroom, and why she got defensive when Jazz asked if she wanted him to come with her. Ratchet then gives an impromptu lecture to the Autobots on the functions of the human body. They are all left embarrassed and horrified. Even Optimus Prime.
• Done twice in Episode 4 of Rise of the Galeforces. The second time, in which the Big Bad dies horribly in front of the entire cast and in fact, the entirety of human civilization, requires everyone with the exception of Adam and Violet to get their memories wiped. Kim and Chell weren't kidding when they pointed out that in the aftermath, memory stations became a very big business.
• There Was Once an Avenger From Krypton: In Changing of the Guard, Ben finds himself wishing for some brain bleach after Krabb mistakes Gwen for Ben's mate even after being told that they're cousins.
• The Second Try: In chapter 3, Misato gets up to her old tricks and asks Shinji, Asuka, and Rei if they went for a threesome in the bushes during their hike. Asuka promptly screams that she needs a shower to get those disgusting images out of her head.
• Shadows over Meridian: When Amelia asks Ymir if Phobos has gone so far as to propose to Kage to forge their alliance, Ymir has to make an effort not to feel sick at the idea. Lord Kur is similarly disgusted by the implications of such a scenario in Chapter 36.
• One really funny FanFiction involves Batman, Barbara Gordon, Alfred, and Robin discovering someone had posted disturbing Joker×Batman slashfic online for everyone to read. Barbara and Dick react very badly to reading it.
• In Stronger Together, when Buffy returns from her vision quest and hears her friends talk about how they saw Spike having sex with 'Buffy' (currently unaware that Spike was having sex with Buffy's robot double), Buffy claims that the image is so revolting that she threw up in her mouth a little, and explicitly states that even if she was split in two like Xander once was "than the other [Buffy] would want brain bleach as badly as [she does] right now".
• This comes up in the One Piece Self-Insert Fic This Bites! a number of times.
  • After witnessing Nami on a dinner date with her gold, Robin desperately wishes for a way to wipe her memory.
  • Turns out, Chopper has developed a prototype Brain Bleach. He offers to dump it in everyone's dinner after they encounter a transvestite Magical Girl.
  • The Barto Club wish for some when their attack on a Celestial Dragon ship brings out said Celestial Dragon dressed only in his tighty-whitey briefs and one of his slaves.
  • Everyone who sees Kokoro's mermaid body wants some.
• In the Marvel Cinematic Universe fic "Tingle", Clint requests brain bleach when Kate Bishop mentions that her current polyamorous relationship with Yelena Belova and Peter Parker includes "Lots and lots of sex".
• The three main leads from To Hell and Back (Arrowverse) have this reaction every time someone mistakes the nature of their sibling-like reaction for romance.
  The detective felt his hopes plummet. "So, you two aren't…"
  "No. The thought of dating Barry – or Oliver for that matter – makes me want to lobotomize myself with a rusty spoon." Kara settled the matter instantly. Oliver sobered up at that, and he too shuddered. Kal tried to get his laughter under control, though there were still tears in his eyes.
  "Yeah. These two are like my siblings. Never happening – ever." Barry added in for good measure.
• Total Drama All-Stars Rewrite: Noah sees a painting of Chris au naturale in the winners' mansion and can't get it out of his head during episode 2. Dawn uses her abilities to help him get over it, and also steals the painting from the mansion and burns it.
• In Vim & Vigor, a Bioshock / Worm Crossover, Greg says he needs this after using X-Ray Vision to find Squealer and Skidmark doing... stuff.
  Greg: There was sex and then there was… whatever that was. Who does that sort of thing in a drug house?
• In Vision of Escaflowne Abridged, when Hitomi and her Wrong Guy First crush Allen Shezar discover they're a case of Surprise Incest because his father hooked up with her grandmother years ago (thanks to magical time travel), her reaction is this. His reaction?
  Hitomi: [internally] Oh, God! Mental soap, mental soap, mental soap!
  Allen: [internally] Still legal, aaaall right!''

Films — Animated

• Hotel Transylvania has Dracula see what's the most disgusting thing to him ever: someone putting their fingers on their eyes. This happens when Johnny tries to remove his contact lenses after suggesting that they could have made him immune to Dracula's hypnosis.

Films — Live-Action

• One of most famous, and oft-referenced, examples is from Hardcore, when Jake VanDorn (George C. Scott) sees his own daughter doing porn on the screen in front of him.
  Jake: Turn it off, TURN IT OFF, TURN IT OFF!
• True Stories: Perhaps the nicest, most idealistic example of the Trope, in which the Narrator says near the end of the film that he wants to forget everything he saw - because it's so nice to experience Virgil again as if for the first time.
• Richard Roeper wrote this in his review of Movie 43:
  Since 1999 I've been carrying a blue pill in my pocket, holding onto it for the moment when I'd truly need it. The pill, I was told, would instantly erase the memory of any movie — but just the one movie, just the one time. I was tempted to take that pill after Freddy Got Fingered. I had the pill in hand as I walked out of every other Adam Sandler movie of the last decade. But I hung on to it, knowing something even worse was going to come my way one day. Midway through Movie 43, I knew the day had come. As the credits rolled with the inevitable blooper scenes of actors breaking character and inexplicably laughing when nothing funny is going on, I swallowed that pill, hoping to erase instantly all mental images of what had just transpired. It didn't work. The !&$@*! thing didn't work!
• Get Carter: Jack Carter accidentally discovers that his niece — who is quite possibly his daughter — was cajoled into porn when he idly turns on a projector in the house of a local gangster's moll. As the film runs, tears well in his eyes; he takes his mind off this by embarking on an orgy of revenge.
• Ace Ventura: Pet Detective:
  • Ace reacts to the realization that Lois Einhorn, the police lieutenant who recently tongue-kissed him is actually Ray Finkle, the Miami Dolphins kicker who lost his mind following the disastrous kick that cost the Dolphins the Super Bowl by vomiting his entire stomach's contents into the toilet (using a plunger on his face), burning his clothes, and then sobbing in the shower. That scene was a Parody of The Crying Game. And even came with the song (as sung by Boy George) in the background. The next scene, he's in his car, chewing a whole package of Big Red gum.
  • When Ace strips her down to her underwear but she still appears to lack the evidence, Dan Marino calls his attention to reveal one more detail. Ace strolls back to her and turns her around, revealing that she still has her equipment...tucked behind her ass. Cue the SWATs doing the retching routine — as well as the dolphin! And they even put in the same music as when he had his own revelation!
• Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is about what it would be like if Brain Bleach really existed. Note that Jim Carrey, responsible for the Ace Ventura example above, plays it painfully straight here.
• Taken to its Cronenbergian conclusion by Darryl Revok in Scanners, who drilled a hole in his forehead to let out all the voices. The scar becomes his Red Right Hand. This is homaged in X2: X-Men United, where William Stryker reveals that his wife drilled a hole in her temple to let out some different voices. Unlike Revok, she died.
• The neuralyzers in Men in Black, while normally used to brain-bleach others, can also be used on yourself.
  K: I've just been down the gullet of an interstellar cockroach. That's one of a hundred memories I don't want.
• Quick Change. After witnessing a faux-medieval event in a poor Hispanic neighborhood with two men jousting on bicycles with rakes, Loomis sums up the mood perfectly.
  Loomis: It's bad luck just seeing something like that!
• 8mm:
  • A private detective is hired to find out if an apparent Snuff Film is real or not. He gets to see a lot of extreme pornography.
    Max California: There are some things that you see, and you can't unsee them. Know what I mean?
  • After being told that the snuff tape is real, Mrs. Christian commits suicide.
• In Whip It, Pash is incredibly drunk and about to puke, but it won't come out. Bliss tells her to imagine her dad naked. It works.
• Johnny's reaction to his sister Sue suddenly stripping down in Fantastic Four (2005): "I'm gonna need therapy."
• Oldboy (2003): Near the end, Oh Dae-su learns the horrific extent to which he has been manipulated throughout the story. He undergoes hypnosis in order to forget it.
• Serenity: He doesn't witness it, but Mal is nonetheless horrified by Kaylee's description of her, um, dry spell:
  Kaylee: Goin' on a year now I ain't had nothin' twixt my nethers weren't run on batteries!
  Mal: Oh, God! I can't know that!
  Jayne: I could stand to hear a little more.
• Jason's reaction to Greg putting milk up his butt in Mystery Team. Charlie had a similar reaction.
• In Thor: Ragnarok, Thor sees the Hulk naked. Horrified, he turns around, then mutters the image is still in his mind.
• Two happen in Santa Hunters. First happened with Zoey. While hiding in the shower in order not to be seen by her grandfather, she was forced to hear him stink up the bathroom. She later mentions she would never be able to hug him again. Later, Santa's description of a Noodle Incident of a previous Christmas when one of the reindeer came back with the runs.
  Santa: You can't unsee something like that.
• In Norbit, Rasputia's appearance and personality often causes this in the film.
  • All the guests in the church make no effort to hide their disgust as they see Norbit and Rasputia kissing at the wedding.
  • The look of disgust and horror on Norbit's face when he sees Rasputia wearing a lingerie on their honeymoon night...
  • Kate doesn't know what to say when she sees the physical appearance of Norbit's wife for the first time.
  • Several employees and customers at the water park are horrified to see Rasputia in a bikini (especially because her belly is so large that it completely covers her hips, making her look naked).
  • At one point, Rasputia, clearly wanting to provoke jealousy, tells Kate that she and Norbit have sex all the time and in a wild way. Kate, who was drinking, chokes immediately and makes an expression of horror and disgust as Rasputia continues talking about her sex life with Norbit.
• Deck the Halls: Before their skating contest, Steve and Buddy are watching together a spectacle with three pretty girls in Sexy Santa Dress doing a dance and are getting quite excited by them... until they realize that it's their respective daughters on the scene, to their horror. Cut to the both of them in church washing their eyes with holy water.
• Crush (2022): Dillon says he has to get that image out of his head after Angie says she masturbates with her toothbrush.

Literature

• Chrysalis (RinoZ): With the amount of brutal combat that goes on in the Dungeon, both for food and Level Grinding, and with Anthony inheriting human sensibilities, it's not surprising that there's things Anthony would like to un-see.
  I mean, was that strictly necessary, Tiny? You could have just punched it in the face, but no, pulling it inside out from its mouth. That's an image I have to live with now, thanks.
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Double Down: Greg remembers scaring his father after his father just got out of the shower. He writes that he would pay money to get rid of that memory.
• In The Silmarillion, the dragon Glaurung seems to possess very effective brain bleach, especially applied on Niënor.
• In Breaking Dawn after Jacob sees Bella apparently dead after giving birth, he contemplates literally bleaching his brain to remove the image from his mind, deciding the potential for brain damage didn't outweigh his desire to forget everything.
• In a Star Trek: New Frontier novel, after Calhoun and the bridge crew have been informed by a sentient computer that a level 3 diagnostic is like a head to toe gynecological exam, Soleta raises her hand and asks the captain for permission to forget she just heard that.
• Done heartbreakingly in the Revenge of the Sith Novelization when Obi-Wan wishes he could tear his eyes out after seeing Anakin's Face–Heel Turn (particularly, his murder of the younglings).
• In Paths Not Taken, John Taylor intuits what disturbing source the Time Tower draws its power from. Having learned this, he says that he's seriously considering scrubbing out his frontal lobes with steel wool.
• In the Magic: The Gathering novel Planeswalker, Phyrexian newt Xantcha tells something-close-to-omnipotent Planeswalker Urza that knowing the name of the Ineffable (Yawgmoth) is something so terrible he ought to have it burnt out of his mind. So he does. Literally. With fire. In his mind.
• A Song of Ice and Fire: Theon Greyjoy/Asha Greyjoy. Groping, near-sex. Poor Theon needs some Brain Bleach, stat!
• Discworld:
  • In Unseen Academicals, Glenda views a stored memory of Ax-Crazy orcs in battle at the Department of Post-Mortem Communications. The memory is three seconds long, and she spends the several seconds to follow trying to excise the previous three seconds from her own.
  • Played with in The Truth, when a Personal Dis-Organizer imp asks if it should erase its memory of events recorded for its previous owner. While holding a cotton-tipped swab to its ear.
• The protagonist of Algernon Blackwood's "The Man Who Found Out" learned something so repellent from an ancient tablet that he didn't just rhetorically wish for brain bleach, he had a hypnotist eliminate the abhorrent knowledge via Laser-Guided Amnesia.
• Charles Dickens wrote The Haunted Man And The Ghosts Bargain, telling the story of Mr Redlaw, who makes a bargain with his "ghost", effectively brain bleaching him of all the memories that haunt him. The story makes a jarring statement, that Brain Bleach is a very bad idea.
• The Dresden Files the description of Shagnasty the Naagloshii. Unfortunately for Harry, he saw it while using his Wizard's Sight; anything seen that way can never be forgotten, and he would keep flashing back to that horror for a while afterward.
• Silver John: In "The Desrick on Yandro", there's a creature called a Behinder. Nobody knows what it looks like, for it always attacks its victims from behind. John happens to be looking at Yandro when one makes its move:
  "The Behinder flung itself on his shoulders. Then I knew why nobody's supposed to see one. I wish I hadn't. To this day I can see it, as plain as a fence at noon, and forever will I be able to see it. But talking about it's another matter. Thank you, I won't try."
• In the Takeshi Kovacs novel Altered Carbon, Brain Bleach is mentioned as a possible explanation for why a person with an external Body Backup Drive would shoot himself in the Heart Drive, as all memories following the last update of the external backup would be lost. This turns out to be the right answer.
• In Relativity, one story has Ravenswood becoming mentally linked with a powerful telepath. When the telepath begins murdering people, Ravenswood is incapable of not seeing the murders in grisly detail.
• In Wolf Hall, Lady Rochford tells Thomas Cromwell that her husband, George Boleyn, would mount a terrier if it wagged its tail at him. Cromwell's first thought is that he'll never be able to get that image out of his head.
• In Help! My Story Has the Mary-Sue Disease, readers are advised to take brain bleach after the section on the problems with Interspecies Romance and on another occasion are advised against bleaching their brains because grey is a nice color.
• In Hammered, Atticus and the Thor Revenge Squad are in need of brain bleach shortly after they go to speak with Hyrm, chief of the frost giants, to enlist their help... and find Hyrm and his partner humping in "a monstrous fuckpuddle" on Hyrm's table. They settle for "a vastly irritating, mind-numbing song" to sing to prevent them from reliving what they just witnessed, the song from "it's a small world".
• Family Skeleton Mysteries:
  • It's noted in book 1 that Sid occasionally wipes down with hydrogen peroxide to keep himself clean. In book 3, he applies this to the same function as Brain Bleach, asking for a skull bath because he's just gone through six months worth of posts from the "Devil's Divas" group (dedicated to their cyberbullying plans) and it made him feel dirty.
  • In the fourth book, Sid is disturbed beyond reason while investigating the files of a snotty art student in connection to the art thefts, and discovers her only crime is creating horrifically sexual, disgusting, anatomically correct crossover fan art from nearly every fandom out there. The only thing more horrifying than that is learning said art student has thousands of followers. As in book 3, he requests a skull bath to deal with the memories.
• Harrow the Ninth: Harrowhark and Ianthe beat a hasty retreat from a wine-heavy dinner party when their God-Emperor and his two most senior Saints start Kissing Under the Influence. Conditioned to Accept Horror or not, they need to take a moment to regain their composure.
  Harrowhark: I feel unwell.
• Primal Wizardry: Kole isn't interested in fully pursuing alchemy, but he has some exposure to it as part of a general preparation course for adventurers — which focuses on hammering home the gruesome consequences of getting alchemy wrong (to discourage adventurers from doing stupid experimental things in the field).
  By the end of the hour, Kole’s mind was occupied with dozens of pictures he’d rather not remember, and he made a note to read up on mental vault exercises. Many people developed mental vaults to help preserve mundane memories. It stood to reason one could use the same effects to muddy the details of an unpleasant one, or maybe even seal it away.

Live-Action TV

• Happy!: The second season premier has the titular Winged Unicorn grab a bottle of bleach and splash it onto his eyes, exclaiming "Oh, I will never unsee it...!" after he ducks under the water of Nick Sax's bath and gets a direct view of the man's genitals.
• Mystery Science Theater 3000 is rife with aghast reactions to events on the screen. Examples include:
  • While watching the final scene of "Attack of the The Eye Creatures" with the Covert Pervert Scrappy military officers:
    Tom: Joel, I demand you take my head off.
  • "Monster a-Go Go":
    Crow: [mocking the narration] There was no dignity for anyone who worked on this film!
  • "Manos: The Hands of Fate":
    Crow: How can we make a sketch when we have to watch [distressed sobbing] MANOS: THE HANDS OF FATE?!
  • "Eegah!":
    Tom: I'm being punished for something, I know it. What did I do? I DIDN'T ASK TO SEE THIS MOVIE!
  • During the sex scene between Linda Evans (yay!) and Joe Don Baker (oh sweet merciful Bahamut) in "Mitchell". The sequence begins with a bizarre shot of a bulge slowly sliding down the inside of Joe Don Baker's trouser leg. It turns out to be his snub-nosed Colt revolver, but for a second... Even worse, the implication in context is that it was dislodged by Joe Don Baker's...no.
    Joel: BABY OIL?! AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!
    Hoyt Axton: [singing the background music] My, my, my, my, Mitchell...
    Crow: My, my, my, my GOD no!
  • When watching the scene in "The Sinister Urge" wherin porn director Johnny Ride gives mannish porn mogul Gloria Henderson a long kiss:
    Servo: Please, Mike, cover my eyes.
    Crow: That's it. I'm gonna be a monk.
    [Crow and Servo make gagging noises as they kiss]
  • In "The Undead", Servo sadistically shares something about Crusty Gravedigger Smolkin.
    Servo: Smolkin's naked sometimes, Mike.
    Mike: [cringing] Damn you, Servo!
  • "I Was a Teenage Werewolf":
    Crow: Mike, I'm going to ask you to kill me now... Mike, please kill me.
  • "The Giant Spider Invasion":
    • The cast screams upon seeing filthy Wisconsin hick Dan Kester in his stained pajamas.
      Servo: I don't know how, but I just became sterile!
      Mike: [utterly defeated] Oh my, what a... what a handsome man.
    • Making matters worse, Dan then chases his nubile niece around a table threatening to spank her.
      Mike: Aaaaand the movie ramps up the repulsion.
      Crow: Yeah. This movie hates us, doesn't it?
  • "Parts: The Clonus Horror": Old Richard's son getting out of the pool and walking his wet, speedo-ed batch right in front of the waist-high camera doesn't do Mike and the Bots any favors.
    Mike: No... no, don-OH! We found it — this is the horror!
    Servo: Gah, stop it! What've we ever done to you?
  • Mike and the Bots' cry in horror when the camera pans down during "Prince of Space", revealing that the Chicken-Men of Krankor are Going Commando.
    Mike: [disgusted] What gets into some civilizations?!
  • "Invasion of the Neptune Men":
    Crow: To be dead... To be nothing... To watch Neptune Men no more...
  • "Space Mutiny": Leah's seduction of pudgy, balding middle-aged guard Murray, screaming when he takes off his pants.
    Crow: This is supposed to be an epicac, right?
  • "Hobgoblins":
    Tom: Mike, if I run out of vomit, can I have some of yours?
  • "The Screaming Skull": After the Bots see a robot's head hung on a wall while watching "Robot Rumpus":
    Crow: Now I need years of powerful Adlerian therapy.
    Tom: They hung his head! This is worse than Se7en.
  • "Soultaker": Robert Z'Dar's crotch is thrust in Crow's face.
    Crow: Wh-wha-WHOA! That took my soul, right there!
  • "Boggy Creek 2: And the Legend Continues": The farmer's... stained trousers elicit wordless, hysterical retching, ending with Tom's panting.
  • "It Lives by Night":
    • This comes into play at the end of the movie along with a healthy heaping of Fridge Horror:
      Crow: Now, wait a minute — how did she turn into a bat? The only contact she had with him was in the hotel, and... [long, awkward pause] ...Oh my God.
      Tom: Gahh!
      Crow: Oh my God! I get the shower first!
      Tom: No, me first!
      Mike: Urgh.
    • In the rough cut, Kevin Murphy moans: "Fluids! They exchanged fluids!"
  • Not all of the examples come from the experiments.
    • The prologue of "Bride of the Monster" features Tom Servo dressed in a Candy Striper outfit while Joel uses an invention to see what Crow is dreaming of: a sexual fantasy with Tom dressed in the same nurse's outfit. Tom's reaction is identical to VanDorn's in Hardcore. ("Turn it off! Turn it off! Turn it off!") Immediately after, Crow promptly wakes at Servo's panicked reaction and does a double-take at Servo before realizing what he just glanced at... and the both of them scream in horror.
    • In "Beginning of the End", Mike decides to contact the Mads without permission, resulting in them stumbling into a disturbingly domestic, borderline-Ho Yay scene that leaves Mike, Crow, and Servo with their mouths widely agape.
      Mike: So we can call the Mads, huh... You know what? I don't think I'm going to do that again for a while.
    • In "The Leech Woman", a diaper-wearing Dr. Peanut grabs a whole bunch of baby wipes, saying that he knows he'll need a lot of them. Mike and the bots audibly shudder.
    • "The Horror of Party Beach": The bots' reaction to Mike dancing in tiny bikini briefs.
      Tom: Folks, we'll be right back...
      Crow: Part of me will never be back. Part of me is gone forever.
      Tom: Oh, honey.
    • In "Girl in Gold Boots", Mike has quite the "ick" reaction to Crow's stripper dance.
      Mike: He's shaking all his various things, and he has a gold bikini on!
  • Special mention goes to Child Bride. When watching this movie, the producers decided that they would never use it in their show. There's a hilarious moment in one interview.
    Kevin: I remember now that hillbilly... teenage...
    Mike: Oh, no!
    Kevin: I don't want to tell the name, because some of you freaks out there will try to find that film. And that's just wrong! I don't remember how we got it, but we got it out of the place as fast as possible. It was about child brides, and it was...
    Mike: That should give you a clue about the title.
    Kevin: Stop! Psshh! Psshh!
    Kevin: And it was all said in crackerville, like they actually hired people who lived there rather than actors. And I had a good cry after that one. And then a shower.
    Mike: You should take a shower right after that.
  • And then came the convention appearances. One notable exchange involving Dr Forrester's skunk-striped hair:
    Trace Beaulieu: There was another white mark.
    Kevin Murphy: ...AAAAAAAAAAAAGH! [claws at eyes]
• Game of Thrones: The look on Theon's face when he realizes the woman he attempted to seduce, and even groped, was his big sister Yara!
• Smallville: A small example in the episode "Fanatic" when Clark tells Chloe that he is afraid that he would hurt Lana when they have sex. Her expression is priceless.
• Frasier:
  • The page header used to be a quote, from Frasier's reaction to his brother mentioning he's only packing sunscreen for his honeymoon.
    Frasier: Pardon me — I'm just going to go poke out my mind's eye!
  • Frasier makes many statements like this in the series. Another example:
    Roz: Gosh, mine was this lifeguard. He had long blond hair and the bluest eyes. He used to get so sunburned, I'd spend hours just peeling the skin off his back. What was his name? Rick? Nick! I know there was an "ick" sound.
    Frasier: I was about to make one of those myself.
  • "Roz's Turn":
    Roz: Big news. Gertie Oldson is leaving the station.
    Daphne: What, from "Gertie's Grab Bag"? I love that show.
    Frasier: Oh please, that homily-spouting Hausfrau? It's the most embarrassing thing on the air. So, she finally got canned, eh?
    Roz: No, she got a million-dollar TV deal.
    Frasier: [chokes on his sherry, then mock-calmly mutters] Well, good news for Gertie and for the many atheists who will welcome this new proof of their theory!
  • "The Wizard and Roz":
    Frasier: [after seeing his mentor Dr. Tewksbury wearing only Roz's robe] I've gone blind. And ten seconds too late.
  • "Slow Tango in South Seattle":
    Frasier: [reading the opening of Roz's new favorite romance novel] There are tangos that come flowing from the wine-colored seas, from the rust of a hundred sunken ships. This is one of those dances.
    Roz: Well?
    Frasier: There are books that make your stomach lurch, and rumble, and thrust your lunch ever upwards. This is one of those books!
  • In "Lilith Needs A Favor", Niles demands the Cafe Nervosa waiter use Brain Bleach to forget about what Niles thinks is a picture of Daphne's nipple.
    Waiter: Hey, where'd you get the nipple shot?
    Frasier: Good lord!
    Niles: [frantic] You are to erase that from your mind!
    Frasier: Is it Daphne?
    Waiter: [smiling broadly] Nice.
    Niles: [to waiter] You're not erasing! ERASE!
  • Later, Niles finds out that it's a pic of Martin's nipple. Niles' horror is hysterical as he tries to forget ever seeing the pic. Martin's poor choice of words doesn't help.
    Martin: Oh, I can't wait to get to Bogart's. I know just what I'm going to get: the barbecue chicken breast. [Niles reacts in horror] They have the juiciest one in town. Or, or the lamb. They serve an enormous rack. [Niles cringes again]
    Niles: [flustered] Great.
    Martin: You might want to get an overcoat of Frasier's out of there. It's supposed to be pretty nippy tonight. [Niles cringes yet again]
  • The episode "Momma Mia" when Frasier finally realises that his girlfriend is identical to his late mother, and Niles thinks that he's suffering from an Oedipus complex.
    Niles: [running for his bug spray] Frasier, you didn't do anything wrong, your feelings for Mia stem from perfectly natural Oedipal desires.
    Frasier: Yes, but Oedipal desires are supposed to resolve themselves by the age of six!
    [Niles starts with the bug spray]
    Frasier: Oh for God's sake, give me that, you idiot!
    [Frasier takes the spray and "blinds" himself with it accidentally]
    Frasier: [screams] I've blinded myself!
    [Martin enters with water and sees the commotion]
    Martin: I leave you alone with him for two seconds!
• iCarly: In the episode "iDate a Bad Boy":
  Sam: Check out this new video I found called Neck Infection.
  Carly: Okay.
  Freddie: Whatever.
  Freddie and Carly: AAAAAAAAAH!
  Carly: EWW EWW EWW EWW! [runs away screaming]
  Sam: Wait, Freddie, I want to show you this next part. It's really funny.
  Freddie: [screams] NO! [runs away]
• Cheers: Diane reacts to Coach's daughter Lisa's fiancé's ideal sport: "full-contact female karate":
  Diane: Excuse me, I have to go jump-start my brain....
• Invoked In-Universe on Friends.
  • The Central Perk manager hates Phoebe's singing so much it makes him want to "push my finger through my eye, into my brain, and swirl it around."
  • In the episode "The One with the Butt" where Joey gets a gig as Al Pacino's butt double, he goes into Monica's bathroom to put lotion on his rear end in preparation for the "part". Chandler comes in with the phone in his hand:
    Chandler: Where's Joey? His mom's on the phone.
    Monica: In the bathroom. I don't think you wanna go in there right now!
    Chandler: Oh come on, we're roommates. [enters bathroom, runs out screaming] GAAAAAAH! MY EYES! MY EYES!
  • In "The One Where Everyone Finds Out", Phoebe sees Chandler and Monica having sex, and screams the exact same line.
  • In "The One with the Prom Video", Monica accidentally stumbles upon a tape of her parents having sex. In the later episode "The One Where Joey Moves Out", she unfortunately catches the live show.
  • In a later season, Monica's dad walks in on Monica and Chandler.
  • "The One With The Jellyfish" has everyone traumatized when Chandler had to pee on Monica after she got stung.
  • In "The One with the Cake," Chandler uses the bathroom while Joey is trying to keep everyone from leaving the birthday party. When Phoebe realizes there is a window in the bathroom that he could escape from, she and Joey run into the bathroom and are disturbed when they see Chandler actually using the bathroom.
• The Class (2006): Kat shows them pictures taken of body parts from a cadaver.
  Ethan: Dear God, what is this?!
  Kat: It's a tongue!
  Ethan: It's not in a mouth!
• In Supernatural, Sam catches Dean having a threesome in a motel room, with implied kinky acts. Back in the Impala, he asks Dean for his knife. "...So I can gouge out my eyes!"
• CSI:
  • A rather chilling instance of this occurs in season 3, episode 2 ("The Accused Is Entitled"), in which the killer is so disgusted by the fact that the "woman" he slept with was a man that he kills him in a violent rage.
  • There is another episode, "Two and a Half Deaths", wherein a man accidentally sees a man and a woman get down to business in front of him (he was hiding in a closet with wooden-slat doors).
    "Some things, once you see 'em, you can't unsee."
• NCIS: In Season 4's "Dead and Unburied", Tony asks to see the body of a deceased Casanova who was juggling at least two women, wondering if he had "something extra" for them. Ducky obliges - waiting until after Tony has had a good look before telling him that maggots and bacteria always attack the softest tissues first. Tony, fighting nausea, makes a hasty exit from Autopsy:
  Tony: Ducky, is there a way to psychologically un-see something?
• Monk: There aren't enough hand-wipes in the world to clean Monk's brain after reading the innuendo-filled memoirs of an actress from the only TV show that he ever watched as a kid. A certain page is so disgusting that his assistant rips it out before he can read it and at the end, Monk returns the book, the page replaced with a page from Charles Dickens.
• Law & Order: In episode C.O.D., Briscoe needs some after checking a suspect's alibi:
  "Her alibi checks out, she was getting a bikini wax. It was called a Sphinx—don't ask. I wish I hadn't."
• Married... with Children:
  • Al is rendered temporarily blind after going into the bathroom while Peg's mother is taking a bath. One of Peg's cousins tells him this actually happens all the time; it happened to her doctor once. Fat jokes about Peg's mother are a Running Gag on the show.
  • Another episode sees Al after a seeing a fat woman's underwear at the shoe store.
  Al: First thing they teach you when you're a rookie salesman is never look up. I looked up, Peg. I saw underwear. It said Saturday.
  Peg: So what?
  Al: TODAY'S WEDNESDAY!
• Noah's Arc: Some of Ricky's descriptions of his sexual escapades illicit this reaction from his friends.
• In Hannah Montana, after finding out that the reason Oliver calls Lily "Lilypop" is because he liked her even when she had a pimple, Miley replies, "I could have lived my whole life without knowing that."
• A 2004 episode of Saturday Night Live featured Lindsay Lohan in a Harry Potter sketch. Lohan plays Hermione, who had obviously "blossomed" over the summer away from Hogwarts, which Hagrid notices, to his chagrin:
  Hagrid: [to Hermione] Hello, who are you?
  Hermione: Hagrid, it's Hermione.
  Hagrid: [eyes widen] Yikes. What happened? Take it out of my brain, take it out! Doot-doot-doot-doot-doot! Okay, well, all right, I'd better go out to the woods and tame my dragon.
  Harry: Ah, you got a new pet?
  Hagrid: [pause] Nope.
• Web Soup offers a "Palate Cleanser" clip (usually cute animals acting cute) to serve as much-needed Brain Bleach following the disturbing "Things You Can't Unsee" segment.
• Whose Line Is It Anyway? occasionally featured calls for the brain bleach:
  Greg has just performed a song about vacuum cleaners as a German cabaret girl
  Drew: $1,000 to whoever can find me a brain scrubber, so that I can get the image of that tongue-wagging out of my head so I can sleep tonight...
• The Office (US): Michael, after having walked in on the hospital room where Pam is giving birth.
  Michael: Gotta go wash my eyes...
• True Blood: Tara, faced with watching a doctor aspirate Jason to treat acute priapism (i.e. stick a big needle into his swollen pee-pee), informs the world at large that "I ain't never gonna be the same after this."
• Tensou Sentai Goseiger has the Mind Wash card, exclusive to the Blue Ranger, which functions in the same context as neuralysers in Men in Black (both are uniformed groups who must keep large-scale activities secret from the public). One difference, though — a small boy named Nozomu is immune to it, which kicks off the series proper.
• Wizards of Waverly Place: Everyone's reaction when they find out that Shakira is really a man.
  Max: Our dad kisses your poster!
• The Doctor Who episode "The Beast Below" has the characters receiving horrified messages from themselves, recorded just before they applied Brain Bleach to themselves. The ship they were on could only keep its inhabitants alive by torturing the last surviving Star Whale, and anyone who got in trouble in sight of the Monster Clowns, not including children, was fed to the whale to keep on a perpetual motion device of suffering.
• On The Daily Show, during a January 2011 segment on how all the zodiac signs have changed, Jason Jones reveals a rather... um... revealing tattoo. Jon Stewart replied that he'd probably have to get the image burned from his brain by laser.
• In an episode of Being Human (UK), upon visiting a vampire party, full of humans willingly offering themselves as food sources to rather underdressed vampires, George turns to Nina and requests that when they get home, she remind him to "gouge out his brain, with a spoon".
• Everybody Loves Raymond: Upon hearing about how his mother used to pose naked for their father's paintings, Ray says, "I'm gonna gouge out my eyes." Which in turn prompts Robert to reply, "But you can't gouge out your mind's eye."
• Quoth Sean of Hustle, after seeing Eddie pretending to be a stripper: "I'm gonna wash my eyes out, with mouthwash."
• Community: Annie wishes she had some after questioning a lawyer about which room his office is in.
  Annie: First, he said it was 69. I wanna rub Purell on my brain.
• Dollhouse: The Rossum Corporation recruits its doll volunteers from people who are desperate to forget something.
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer: In "Something Blue", Willow's offhand statements start coming true, so Giles is struck blind, and Spike and Buffy start making wedding plans. Xander sees the two all lovey-dovey and asks "Can I be blind too?"
• Scrubs: This dialogue between Dr. Cox and Carla:
  Dr. Cox: Just the organs, Bob, don't need the visual of old men with erections.
  Carla: And now it's in my head forever.
  • Also the reaction of anybody picturing Ted having sex...including Ted.
• That '70s Show: Eric Forman walks onto his parents having sex, and spends the rest of the episode acting like a zombie.
• The L Word: Final Season. All the brain bleach on earth...
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: As revealed in "Looking for par'Mach in All the Wrong Places", when Klingons get loved up, injuries tend to happen. Doctor Bashir has a very, very bad day at the infirmary when he discovers this interesting little facet about Klingon love-making.
  Bashir: Compound fracture of the left radius, two fractured ribs, torn ligaments, strained tendons, numerous bruises, contusions and scratches... what have you been doing?
  Quark: [exchanges lecherous grin with Grilka] You mean, what have we been doing? [both start laughing]
  Bashir: Never mind. I don't need that particular image running around in my head. I'll... just treat you.
  [as a badly-injured Worf and Dax arrive]
  Bashir: What happened to you two?
  Worf: We... uh...
  Dax: Well, if you must know...
  Bashir: No, no! I don't need that image either! In fact, I'm going to stop asking that question all together! People can come in. I'll treat them. And that's all!
• In the Haven episode "The Hand You're Dealt", Audrey and Duke try to interview an elderly and obese man, but then the apparently senile man starts stripping in front of them. Audrey and Duke are absolutely disgusted and beat a hasty retreat.
• In the fourth series third episode of Misfits, Finn rejects the possibility that his stepmother was flirting with him because she has had sex with his father. Jess asks him if he would reject Jess if Jess had sex with Finn's father. Finn then finds himself picturing Jess having sex with his father and complains to her about it. She asks him if they were in a specific position, which makes him picture that as well.
• In the Modern Family episode "Caught in the Act", the kids attempt to surprise Claire and Phil with breakfast in bed on their anniversary, only to catch them in the middle of sex. Most distraught was clearly Alex, who was at the kitchen sink frantically scrubbing her eyes while sobbing "I can still see it!"
• Doc Martin: Martin invokes this when he walks in on Joan having sex with a man, 50 years her junior, on the kitchen table.
• Garcia of Criminal Minds likes to use pictures of cute baby animals to help her relax after dealing with the horrors of catching serial killers. In season 9, she and new team member Kate compare notes and Squee over their favorites.
• Arrowverse:
  • In Arrow, when Felicity Smoak learns her mother is dating Captain Quentin Lance:
    Quentin: Listen, um, Laurel doesn't know.
    Felicity: Yeah, I'm going to hit myself in the head with something very heavy so that I don't know, either.
  • Supergirl (2015): This is Kara's reaction when Cat Grant speculates on the sexual prowess of Clark Kent.
    Cat: Mmm, those green eyes. He's got to be a tiger in bed.
    Kara: [while walking away] God, I hope Rhea kills me.
  • Legends of Tomorrow:
    • In the "Groundhog Day" Loop episode, Zari overhears Nate and Amaya having a rough sex (involving the former steeling up and the latter using her animal totem to do who knows what) and nearly vomits.
      Zari: (as the ship is about to explode) Kill me now.
    • Subverted in "Ground Control To Sara Lance". After learning that Zari and John slept together, Ava's response is to throw up. She then explains that it's because she's suffering from a hangover.
    • Mick does this on the regular to himself with the Time Bureau's memory wipers every time he sees something particularly disturbing.
  • Batwoman (2019): A variation occurs when Mary Hamilton-Kane discovers that Alice (the insane supervillain who poisoned Mary's mother) saved her life with a blood transfusion.
    Alice: After Nocturna drained your blood, you were on death's door. I found you and revived you with my own, meaning I literally pumped life back into your veins.
    Mary: Ugh! I need a bleach transfusion.
• GOB from Arrested Development carries a stash of pills that he calls "forget-me-nows". (They're actually illegal roofies.) At least once, he gets pinned to the window of a conjugal trailer that his parents are making full use of and desperately wants his pills so that he can forget what he's seeing. Fortunately for him, a Tap on the Head works just as well.
• The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air: In "Not With My Pig, You Don't", while Phil's mother tells the family stories about her "Zeke's" rural boyhood.
  Patty: Oh, growin' up, my Zeke always did love our swimmin' hole. He was stripped down to his birthday suit and dived right in.
  Will: Aww, Granny, please! It's almost dinnertime!
• House's facial expression makes it very clear he's reaching for the extra strength brain bleach when he sees the result of a patient who tired to circumcise himself.
• Law & Order: Special Victims Unit: In the episode "Families", Stabler has to tell a boy that his dead girlfriend was actually his half-sister (their mutual father had a Secret Other Family), and they know this because she was pregnant and they tested the DNA of the fetus. He takes it exactly as poorly as you'd expect. This neatly rules him out as the killer, because Huang points out that he couldn't have faked a physical reaction like that.
• Odd Squad: In "My Better Half", Oprah manages to witness Otto, who has had half of his body removed by Symmetric Al, eating soup. At the end of the episode, when Otto's body is restored, he begins to eat the rest of his soup, only this time, Olive is there to witness just how disgusting it is — and her reaction is one of disgust.
  Oprah: What's happening?
  Olive: Baby Genius gave me an address, but... it looks weird.
  Oprah: You wanna talk weird? I just watched Otto try to drink soup. I can't unsee that!
• Firefly: No one wants naked Jayne.
  Jayne: We need a distraction. I vote Zoe gets naked.
  Wash: Nope.
  Jayne: I could get naked.
  Everyone: No!
• Resident Alien: In "An Alien in New York", Sheriff Mike Thompson tells Mayor Ben Hawthorne that his dog Cletus is in a humping stage, asking him if he knows how to get deep stains out of couch cushions. Ben asks in return if Mike knows anything about getting disgusting images out of his head.
• Drop the Dead Donkey. When asked if he'd work with Sally Smedley on a particular project, Henry Davenport replies, "I'd rather have oral sex with a diseased warthog!" This becomes a Running Gag right up to the end of the credits because his colleagues can't get this image out of their heads.
  "Sorry, I was just thinking about Henry and the warthog."

Music

• "Weird Al" Yankovic: "My Own Eyes" is a List Song of all the bizarre and horrifying sights that the singer wishes that he could unsee, such as a pair of drag queens stuffing crackers up each other's noses, a fat man who sold his own skeleton to a pawn shop, a mime being murdered with an imaginary cleaver, and a child's lemonade stand that also sells weapons-grade plutonium (although he admits that their lemonade was actually really good).

Myths & Religion

• In the Greek tragedy Oedipus the King, when Oedipus learned that he had murdered the King on the road before marrying the Queen, oh, and also that they're his mom and dad, which means his kids are the product of incest, he literally gouged out his own eyes in horror on finding her dead by her own hand (using the pin used to secure his cloak, no less), and then went Walking the Earth to atone for what he had done, making this Older Than Feudalism.
• Hermes would've wanted some after catching Hades and Persephone in the act in the Homeric Hymn To Demeter.
• There's also nepenthe, which really is Brain Bleach.
• This is the express purpose of the waters of the river Lethe — to utterly remove one's memories of their past life.
• At the siege of Thebes, Athena is just about to bring Tydeus immortality, when she finds him chewing on the brains of the guy he just killed. Before she can go back home, she has to scrub her brain out with a ceremonial fire of purification and water from a special river. Needless to say, no immortality for you, Tydeus.

Podcasts

• The MST3K tradition continues on in RiffTrax.
  • For example, in the RiffTrax of Attack of the Clones, Kevin tells Mike during the Greasy Spoon scene regarding slovenly cook Dexter, "Mike, I invite you to think about his underpants." Mike understandably reacts in horror: "Why, Kevin?!" Kevin subverts the trope by telling him that so long as he's thinking about Dexter's underpants, he's forgetting the rest of the movie. Mike's response. "(sigh of relief) You're right. Ah, his underpants..."
  • From watching Ross Hagen having "brain sex" (It Makes Sense in Context) in Wonder Women:
    Kevin: You know, when I got here today, I didn't expect to see THE MOST VOMIT-INDUCING THING EVER COMMITTED TO FILM!!!
  • While watching Star Trek: Generations, when they first see the Duras sisters and their Cleavage Window, Kevin muses if they're seeing the only hairless portions of their breasts, prompting Mike to scream in bloody horror.

Video Games

• In Batman: Arkham Asylum, the Joker attempts to invoke this trope while Batman is under the effects of Scarecrow's fear gas.
  Joker: Tell me, Bats, what are you really scared of? Failing to save this cesspool of a city? Not finding the Commissioner in time? Me? In a THONG?! [maniacal laughter]
• Sam & Max: Freelance Police:
  • Early in Culture Shock, Jimmy Two-Teeth the rat steals the duo's phone. When they catch him and make him return it, he coughs it up... literally. Sam's reaction is a stunned "Oh, for the love 'a — I wish I could unsee that!"
  • Happens again in Beyond The Alley Of The Dolls. Flint Paper leaves to go "kill a few neurons" after seeing Girl Stinky kiss Sam.
  • In Ice Station Santa, Sam and Max both want their eyes clawed out after seeing Bosco's latest disguise. He's not wearing one.
• Dragon Age II:
  • At one point Hawke can comment on some dirty image Isabela apparently saw in the Amell family crest, and when s/he finds it s/he says "Sweet Maker! I can't unsee that!"
  • Another, and possibly funnier, exchange occurs when you accept a male hooker's invitation with Bethany in the party, but decline when she protests
    Bethany: Maker's breath! Can't you... do this when I'm not around?
    Hawke: Fine. I'll come back later.
    Bethany: It's too late. The images are already in my mind and they are never, ever going away.
  • Also the various reactions of most party members when Isabela makes vague suggestions for Aveline's new marriage. And then spells it out for everyone who still had doubts. Fenris actually chuckles.
    Isabela: If you shove your thumb up his arse, I win.
    Merrill: Ew!
    Anders: Just... no.
    Sebastian: Oh Maker.
• In Dragon Age: Inquisition, Commander Cullen clearly needs some after he gets an eyeful of naked Iron Bull during Bull's romance arc.
  Cassandra: Do you see this?!
  Cullen: No.
  [later]
  Inquisitor: I believe we may have blinded poor Cullen.
• Tales of Monkey Island, Episode 1: Guybrush Threepwood goes to open a cabinet, which the Voodoo Lady yells for him not to open. He asks her what's in it, and she replies, "My unmentionables." Guybrush shudders, and the cabinet from then on is named "The Scariest Cabinet In the World."
• Planescape: Torment accentuates not only the use of Brain Bleach but also the importance of keeping a note of having done so. A story is told in-game about an old man sitting at the side of the road with no memory of who he is or where he was going. An old hag then appears before him, and asks him what his third wish will be. The confused man wonders how he can have a third wish without making a first or second wish, and she tells him that he used his second wish to undo his first wish, which is why he doesn't remember making them. The old man wishes to know who he is, and the hag grants it, remarking, "Funny. That was your first wish."
• In The Reconstruction, there is this exchange:
  Kott: "The sky boils, the sea burns, the soil begs forgiveness." You ever heard anything like that?
  Qualstio: No, but, it's pretty creepy. I wish I could un-hear it.
• On one episode of Help Me! Professor Kokonoe!, Makoto runs right on in with a tone in her voice and a facial expression that suggests she needs the biggest glass of the stuff the titular professor can offer. Considering that the bad ending required to get here is Demon Path lite, can you really blame her?
• In the Sword of the Stars universe, there is a subcaste of Prester Zuul known as the Sin-Eaters who specialize in providing this service, by taking such memories into their mind away from those who suffer from it. They see holding these memories as part of their penance.
• The diary entry on the first appearance of Panoptes in Azada 4: Elementa referred to it as "an image I can't remove from my brain with bleach and a scrub brush."
• In Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, Jerry the Bob-omb could use five swimming pools worth of brain bleach after seeing Luigi in a wedding dress. In fact, his reason for joining Luigi on his adventure is to prevent other people from having the same experience.
  Jerry: It is now my goal in life to keep this guy from ever dressing as a woman again.
• In Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island, the Boss Battle with Prince Froggy involves yellow Yoshi getting shrunk down and swallowed by Froggy. After the fight inside the frog's stomach, Yoshi is expelled out Froggy's behind. He reverts back to normal, with a disturbed look on his face.
• In Mass Effect: Andromeda, a female Ryder can engage in some hilariously awkward flirting with the scientist on the bridge of the Tempest. At the end of the conversation, the ship's pilot, who's been sitting right next to them the whole time and obviously wishing he weren't, will look down at his console and say "Kill. Me. Now."
• Team Fortress 2: The Spy apparently finds performing a Square Dance (a taunt that needs two, and every other character is quite enthusiastic to join in) so mortifying he often promises to stab the memory out of his skull when he's done, when he's not threatening others to remain quiet about it on pain of death.
• World of Horror has the Memory Extract spell, which allows the caster to restore a bit of their Reason at the cost of a bit of Experience. This is because you're purging traumatic memories, losing whatever they taught you in the process.
• In Yakuza Kiwami 2, Kiryu is invited by Patriarch Gondawara in a substory called "Be My Baby" to his favorite club... which essentially sees a bunch of grown-ass men in diapers roleplaying as babies. The look on Kiryu's face when he finds Gondawara with his men pretty much screams this trope.
  • The Gondawara family also returns in Yakuza: Like a Dragon... Ichiban's reaction is every bit as disgusted and weirded out as Kiryu's. This coming from someone who, among other things, has had to catch a public urinator, fight a chimp operating heavy machinery, fight a tiger just like Kiryu did in the above game (in the main story, no less), and saved and outright befriended a crayfish.

Visual Novels

• Ace Attorney:
  • Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Trials and Tribulations has Jean Armstrong rubbing lotion on himself. It elicits a call for brain bleach by Phoenix.
  • Prior to that:
    Phoenix: So the particular feature you recognize about the waitress is... her outfit!? But anyone could wear just such a uniform! Even me!
    Judge: Mr. Wright! Please spare the court of any further mental anguish from that image.
  • And in case 5, we have this gem:
    Phoenix: It's so inappropriate. Like Sister Bikini^note a plump 48 year-old nun in a bikini! [shudder] ...I've gotta think of the kittens...
  • In Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney, after learning that there's a panty thief going around Apollo has a mental image of Plum Kitaki's bloomers. Understandably, he's not happy about it.
  • Not as egregious as the above, but still to some extent: Sal Manella describing how he "wolfed down a T-bone steak", complete with his most disturbing animation◊ prompts Phoenix some clearly unpleasant thoughts.
    Phoenix: (A mental image I will carry with me to my grave...)
  • In Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Dual Destinies, Edgeworth proposes that an 11-year-old Athena killed her mother, then had her body moved to the robotic operating table where it would be disassembled to hide the evidence. Phoenix really, really doesn't want this image in his mind.
  • Also from Dual Destinies is Phoenix's reaction to Norma DePlume's breakdown, which blows all the buttons off her coat and cuts away just as it's about to open. He even breaks out the rare Despair animation usually reserved for bad endings and Darkest Hours.
  Phoenix: That was one Wardrobe Malfunction I did NOT want to see...
• In Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors, repeatedly examining a useless bed in one room will cause one of your companions in that room (Snake) to remark on your reasons for becoming obsessed with the bed: "Is it because you're hoping to spend some time in it... with me?" This causes Junpei to remark that that mental image was the last thing he needed at that point in time.
• In the sequel, Virtue's Last Reward, Sigma and Alice wish they could forget the sight of a grown man in armour (K) riding a big cute bunny like a little kid.
• Mach in SC2VN has this reaction after seeing a FanGirl sniff a player's jacket
• Shuichi has this reaction in Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony to seeing Miu Iruma perform highly suggestive "maintenance" on Kiibo.

Web Animation

• In Extra Credits, one episode has Allison research "Eroge visual novels," and upon seeing the results, she's so grossed out she starts furiously cleansing her eyes with bleach, as pictured above.
• Near the end of Inventing Swear Words 2, there is a particularly ugly female tauren in a bikini, prompting possibly the best reaction to Squick ever;
  [ten seconds (or so) of screaming]
  Oxhorn: It's horrible!
  Staghorn: Oh God, why?
  Oxhorn: I can't see! I'm blind!
  Staghorn: Never will I be able to love another woman again!
  Oxhorn: Beat the images out of my eyes!
  Staghorn: We gotta run! RUN!
  Oxhorn: RETREAT TO THUNDER BLUFF!

They retreat to Thunder Bluff, shouting various things like "Run like your mama!"

• If the Emperor Had a Text-to-Speech Device:
  • The Emperor dislikes the Dreadknight's design so much he says "If I still had eyes, I would require someone to deposit prometheum-infused floor cleaner into them."
  • An ill-thought remark the Emperor makes about Rogal Dorn saying "fuck that" to the Codex Astartes gets him more information than he wanted. Rogal is apparently literally brain-damaged, explaining how he can be that Literal-Minded.
    Rogal: I did not wish to copulate with his book, father. I have only seen Lorgar do such a thing.
    [Glass shattering]
    Emperor: Please erase these mind images immediately
  • It happens again later in a podcast, with Rogal once more and with the same Primarch being the topic, after the Emperor's made several complaints about the equipment's painful approach to censorship:
    Emperor: Go *HONK* yourself Rogal
    Rogal: I believe that is biologically impossible, father. And I have only seen Lorgar do that with extensive genetic modifications.
    Emperor: Is there an option to censor everything Rogal says ever?
  • And yet again when The Emperor witnesses Santodes seduce the Skitarii on Mars.
    Emperor: Drill into my skull and remove my cognizance please.
  • Tu'Shan asks for a dose of this in /40kg/ SIMULATOR when he comes across anons discussing Salamander porn.
    Tu'Shan: No! (Thunder Hammers computer) No no no! Thine eyes stained! Foul smuttery! [angry newt energy increasing]
• Helluva Boss: In the pilot episode, Blitzo uses his phone as a surrogate for the idea to be erased after hearing Stolas on the phone explain what sexual acts he would like to perform with him next. Blitzo crushes the phone to pieces, liquefies it in a blender, has Loona swallow what's left, and tells her to go defecate it down from a specific bridge.
• Homestar Runner and Strong Bad are bemoaning the fact that The Cheat and Marzipan are going on a date.
  Homestar Runner: Mainly, I just want to keep 'em from making out.
  Strong Bad: Ewww! The disgust! It won't wash off!
  • There is another instance in which Strong Bad is forced to share a fallout shelter with Bubs and Coach Z.
    Strong Bad: Bubs, where's the bathroom in this place? It's just a bunch of canned goods.
    Bubs: Well, you know what they say, Strong Bad. Today's Pork and Beans is tomorrow's toilet.
    Coach Z: And in some rare cases, today's.
    Strong Bad: Ugh! Bubs, I thought you said this fallout shelter was Coach Z-free.
    Bubs: Well, somebody's gotta carry on the human race.
    Strong Bad: Aaagh! I don't want to think about words anymore!
• In Sonic Shorts, quite a few of the shorts involving Eggman involves this. The worst of them all is arguably his "ultimate weapon."
• In Red vs. Blue, Grif has this reaction when the Reds stumble upon a live video feed of his sister getting naked for a physical from Doc. He gets even more upset when his teammates stare at the screen and make lecherous comments. Also Church when he misremembers Blood Gulch and ends up turning all the Reds into women.
  Church: Ugh…I need mental bleach. Or regular bleach. I don't want to live in this world...
• In RWBY, there's this little exchange:
  Roman: Oh, look! She sent the kids again! This is turning out just like the divorce!
  Emerald: (shivering in disgust) Spare us the thought of you procreating.
• In the season 1 finale of RWBY Chibi, Yang has figured out that Team RWBY's window has the perfect view of the men's showers, which she eagerly ogles with binoculars. Unfortunately, the first man in is Professor Port.
  Yang: I'm blind! I'm blind!
• Seeing Deadpool naked makes Boomstick bemoan how he can't claw his own eyes out fast enough.
  • In a later episode, where Venom and Bane square off, whilst Wiz and Boomstick explain the symbiote, Wiz reveals that his clothes are actually symbiotes. Since sonic noises are one of the symbiote's weaknesses, Boomstick decides to test it out. By yelling loudly. Which he immediately regrets.
  Boomstick: OH MY GOD WHY DID I DO THAT? I CAN NEVER UNSEE! AUUGH! WHERE'S THE BLEACH?! I NEED IT FOR MY EYES!
• The Most Popular Girls in School: In Episode 53, this is Trisha 2's reaction upon seeing a baby's head sticking out of Saison's vagina.

Webcomics

• 8-Bit Theater:
  • When the Light Warriors learn of Bahamut and Matoya's relationship. And that the quest item they had just fetched for Bahamut was actually the last ingredient for a virility drug.
    Black Mage: I'm going to throw up now. On the off chance that there's a kind and loving God, I will choke on my own vomit. Do not help. [after vomiting for several panels] Oh God, I'm ejecting things I haven't eaten yet.
    [a few pages later]
    Black Mage: Right now, I'd be happy with the power to stab out my mind's eye.
    Red Mage: Can we get a full round of that?
  • In a later scene, Thief is unimpressed with a so-called dark, mysterious woods the party has entered, and makes an aside remark about having seen "darker wood in Elf porn." It's enough to make Black Mage projectile-vomit in the background. His analogy certainly didn't help matters... or the readers' sanity...
    Black Mage: Man, and I didn't lose it when I caught sight of an elder god defecating.
    Fighter: [looking down] You got some of it on my shoes.
    Black Mage: It shat out advertising executives. They're the bowel obstruction that killed the old universe.
  • When Red Mage proposes animal husbandry as a solution:
    Red Mage: Yeah. Two words for you. Animal. Husbandry.
    Fighter: I don't know what he means.
    Thief: God, I envy you.
• Bruno the Bandit:
  • The drawbacks of adventurous sex...for the observer.
  • Bruno's parents once took the concept of "kiss and make up" to a whole new level.
  • What Bruno's soul gets up to while naked.
  • Why Clonin's body spray was entirely too strong.
  • What happened when Bruno read an off-color comic book.
• Captain SNES: The Game Masta
  • Used in a rhyming non-canon Wonderful Life-ish storyline (the angel was drunk, so she took him to the wrong "what if" universe) when Alex realizes that the chick he's been checking out is his own opposite-gendered parallel universe equivalent.
    Alexis: [to her friends] I left them there on the street as black stains.
    Alex: [to the drunk angel] I'd like to go home to buy bleach for my brain.
  • In canon, Alex's captor screams for this after getting an extreme close-up, via flashback visual, of King Hippo's "bitch tits."
  • And then, of course, the crowning example found here, combined with a liberal dose of self-inflicted Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap! as Alex draws some conclusions about King Hippo's relationship with his ex-wife.
    Alex: Though, I am rather curious as to why she'd make it so you'd grow bigger when you blew on— AAAAAAUUGH! GOD IS DEAD AND SATAN JUST TOOK A PISS STRAIGHT INTO MY CEREBRUM TO CELEBRATE!!
• In The Cartoon Chronicles Of Conroy Cat, Conroy sees doggy "naked" and says that he'll "take up that sale on brain bleach."
• El Goonish Shive
  • Tedd asks Grace if her antennae can function as Brain Bleach in this strip.
  • Justin could probably use some Brain Bleach here.
  • Sarah wants to file an order now too.
    Susan: You once told me you felt less attracted to Elliot after he started having to transform. What if the actual reason you felt that way was that it made him feel more like a sister to you?
    Sarah: [beat panel] Nope. Not considering it.
    Susan: It could explain a few—
    Sarah: Nope.
• In Exiern, after accidentally picturing her father being involved in Yaoi Porn, Princess Peonie has this reaction:
  Princess Peonie: It's only by sheer will that I'm not jamming a spoon up my nostril to scoop out the mental image in my head.
• FreakAngels
  • This is one among the many FreakAngels powers. They apply it as a mercy to traumatized people they encounter, but also often without consent, in order to keep their powers secret. They do have self-imposed laws concerning the morals of this practice, but treat those more like "Guidelines"
  • The FreakAngels are OFTEN treated to Too Much (sex-related) Information from their friends, invoking this trope. Most clear example is poor Connor's reaction to reaching his Too Much Information limit for one day. This scene came very soon after a very similar reveal concerning his MOTHER. "No No NO That is not an interesting fact and I dont want it in my head".
• Freefall
  • When a security guard saw Helix's topiary rendition of Sam as a reclining nude, he had to be physically restrained: "My eyes! I have to pull out my eyes! If I don't I might see it again! I have to pull out my eyes!"
  • Robots commit data from short term memory to long term memory about every 24 hours in a procedure similar to sleep. Thus "staying awake" for extra 24 hours after a particularly nasty day will overwrite that day's memories and experiences, serving as general-purpose Brain Bleach.
  • Organic AIs were created with several safeguards, control and shutdown mechanisms hard-coded into their DNA. One of those works with a chemical that disables short to long term memory data transfer; another allows to wipe recent direct orders from the AI's memory.
  • Bowman AI architecture works via neural pathways. Pruning those pathways indiscriminately wipes information associated with them, be it memory, skill or attitude. The "Gardener in the Dark" neural pruning software, which blindly cuts all pathways above certain length, reduces self-aware A.I.s to sub-sentient robots, leaving only their primary purposes intact.
• Full Frontal Nerdity gave us a number of unpleasant mental images, including mind flayers and lizardmen reproducing. Considering that mind flayers are betentacled Eldritch Abominations, the screams of "THIS IS WORSE THAN HENTAI!" and "MUST DUMP CLOROX IN EARS!" seem entirely justified. It should be noted that Frank was intentionally trying to Squick the other characters in that panel.
  • The actual D&D lore for how those two reproduce? Mind flayers stick their tadpoles into the heads of other creatures, Wrath of Khan-style, and the tadpoles eat the brains of their new hosts and mutate into a mind flayer or flayer-esque creature. Not the same kind of horrible as Frank's friends are thinking, but still pretty gross.
• Girl Genius:
  • Being a comic about Mad Scientists this shows up in Girl Genius as something Mittelmind kindly provides to his loyal minion for her birthday.
  Mittelmind: Oh, there is some psychological damage, but I always wipe her memory for her birthday.
  Snaug: Happy birthday to meeeeeee...
  • Earlier the Baron had mild version of this type of reaction after hearing Bang talk about his son's crush:
    DuPree: He's all set to be a hero and rescue her and then he finds out he'd need fireplace tongs to get her undressed? Yeah-upset is the word.
    Klaus: Thank you DuPree, for that... vivid imagery.
• Girls Next Door
  • One of Christine's responses to Jadis the White Witch and Darkness hooking up in this comic strip.
  • And this when picturing Erik as a basement dwelling otaku
    Christine: Moon Healing Power Erase the bad mental images!!
  • And Erik here because of the new hobby of his roommate.
    Erik: Cannot unsee!!
  • From the same verse just from the Roommates side an omake page. He saw Javert and Valjean kissing.
    Erik: ...can't unsee... [whimper]
  • Also Jareth and Loki here. They played The Sandman (1989)-style Battle of Wits game ... seems like Nyan cat beats The Mighty Thor.
    Jareth: Look, it was your idea to play The Game, so it's hardly my fault we need Brain Bleach!
• In the female dominant webcomic Girly, the most important male character, Officer Policeguy, has a clear sign of brain bleach. He begins the comic with long hair and bishounen looks. During the beginning of the comic, he almost has sex with El Chupacabre, a man with the ability to attract any woman or man that looks somewhat like a woman, even if they are straight. He is traumatized, cuts his hair shorter, and blocks out the event completely from his mind when questioned about it later. However, when El Chupacabre accidentally falls on him later on, the horrible memory comes rushing back and starts cursing dramatically at him.
• Grrl Power: After a bad guy gets reduced to Ludicrous Gibs by Cora's ordnance, some of them splashing all over Halo, Sydney reaches out for the syringe containing a memory-erasing drug said bad guy planned to use on her — despite having fully heard the theory it could react badly with her ADHD and turn her into a vegetable. Good thing she can't reach it.
• Gunnerkrigg Court
  • Kat tries to be polite upon meeting Ketrak, the psychopomp of insects, but as soon as he's gone...
    Kat: Ugh! I need new eyes and a new brain!
  • Annie was shocked merely by observing two kissing Merostomatozons ("very distantly related to eurypterids and xiphosura").
• From Hark! A Vagrant, when someone suggests to her to check out James Joyce's love letters to his wife. Leads to this exchange:
  Dream James Joyce: I wrote you a letter.
  Kate: Get away from me, James Joyce!
• Head Trip by Shinga. "I can feel it... watching" Just exorcise it.
• In The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob!, Bob has twice thought, "Never gonna be able to un-see that!" The first time was on seeing giant goon Rocko Sasquatch in nothing but his underwear. The second was when he stumbled across a married pair of three-eyed lobster aliens sharing an intimate moment in a closet.
• Kevin & Kell's Rudy Dewclaw had a little trouble with the concept of his parents and mixed-sex flea dips, in addition to anime convention costumes.
• In Knights of Buena Vista, Mary mentioned that she liked to wear furs over swimsuits in summer, and her boyfriend Bill insisted that was a private thing with them. His sister Adriana realized that Mary then let her borrow those very furs after Mary wore them that way. Adriana thought she was going to be sick, and Mary insisted that nothing happened; Bill just took pictures.
  Adriana: That's NOT helping, Mary!"
• The Last Days of FOXHOUND:
  • A lot of talk occurs about about shutting down the parts of the brain that let you visualise things at one point.
  • During a dive into Ocelot's mind, Mantis assumes that the giant door labelled PORN must be anything other than porn, because it's Ocelot. He learns, the hard way, that he is wrong.
    Mantis: I would kill him later but I need to kill myself now.
• Last Res0rt lampshades it in the middle of Jigsaw's panic attack after she picks up some apparent thoughts from Jason Spades and Alice Quinn enjoying their newfound 'alliance'.
  Cypress: Doing any better down there?
  Jigsaw: [weakly] My brain wants bleach please...
• Life and Death: Steve is seen by his sister in Valkyrie armor. Her reaction is quite predictable.
• A Life With Lamarr strip had this reaction to something:
  Citizen: Thank the Lord I brought my lucky pliers today! Nothing for it but to pull out my own eyeballs and stamp on them... Only way to be sure I never see that again.
  Citizen #2: Hey, after you with those pliers?
• In Nip and Tuck, after being shown a picture of previous Pop's Girls, Nip asks about the fox cutie, stating that she was hot. Pop responds that that is Nip's mom. He then asks his brother to take a toilet brush and run it through his brain a few times.
• Bug shows why you need some at the nudist camp.
  "Hm... maybe I can destroy this memory by drinking turpentine."
• In one Oglaf comic, a man and woman having sex releases a tapeworm goddess from out of the woman's mouth. The tapeworm says she'll grant them each wish for freeing her, and both the man and woman wish they had never seen that.
• The Order of the Stick
  • Roy's reaction to hearing what Belkar wanted to do to his gender-flipped self:
    Roy: Excuse me, I need to soak my brain in acid now... Maybe my ears, too.
  • Note that this was fully intentional on Belkar's part. He could tell that it was Roy by the scent, and is apparently secure in his masculinity — not to mention extremely sadistic.
  • On a related note, Belkar himself has a tendency to go blind, or at least wish aloud that he'd done so, when he sees other male characters naked. See for example, #25
    Elan: Woohoo! I'm invisible!
    Roy: How I wish that was true.
    Belkar: [to Durkon] Please cast Blindness on me.
  • Roy and Belkar thinking that Haley was talking about Elan's penis when she's really talking about the new rapier she found for him.
    Haley: Vaarsuvius checked it out too, naturally [...] I mean, it's awfully skinny, but he uses it so masterfully.
  • This is then subverted when Haley says:
    Haley: Well anyway, V says Elan has been running around naked, so I'm off to see what his 18 Charisma is worth "under the hood".
  • Roy needed some Brain Bleach after he died and saw his mother in the afterlife, and realized that her spirit manifests there as a hot chick several years younger than he. He needed more Brain Bleach when he saw that she was sleeping around.
  • The Oracle of the Sunken Valley needed Brain Bleach after (apparently) having witnessed, in a vision, Roy and Celia having sex. He's a kobold, so he finds mammals mating disgusting.
  • #753 has Belkar attacking Roy mentally once again, covering up Roy's recognition of Tarquin's appearance via claiming Roy is gay and thinks Tarquin is totally hot. He's definitely getting a lot out of that feat in Craft Disturbing Mental Image.
• On the boat in Our Little Adventure, Angelika accidentally walks in on Julie and Lenny having sex. To make matters worse, Julie actually asks Angelika to take a look at Lenny's boner and compare it to Rocky's. Angelika is not amused by this, but ends up taking it out on Pauline when she also asks if it's bigger than Rocky's.
• Penny Arcade:
  • This strip.
  • And this strip.
• Questionable Content
  • Everything is ruined forever!
  • Made all the more funny when eventually, it did happen.
  • And then commemorated in a shirt.
  • There's also Jimbo's, erm, wallet picture. "Now I DO need a drink. To throw into my EYES."
  • Happy birthday, Grandma!
• Rusty and Co. used "lots and lots of beer" after an instance of Boy Meets Ghoul:
  Mimic: Goal: Achieved! Also... Brain: Scarred!
• Sweden learns something new about his sister in an episode of Scandinavia and the World.
• Schlock Mercenary:
  • Ennesby's "Weapons-Grade Vocabulary" and the memorable response:
    Jevee Ceeta: My stomach is in my throat now. It's trying to spit acid on the parts of my brain that remember reading his message.
  • The incident with cloning of General Hugo Matsui Xinchub in an effort to be paid five times for one job. Clones are grown in slime-filled People Jars and do not have clothing. While this may be enough to elicit minor comments of disgust when main characters are being partially cloned as an extreme medical measure — Xinchub is utterly despised by everyone in the cast and morbidly obese, to boot, and then, there was that tattoo...
    Kevyn: If I get drunk right now I might be able to shut down my long-term memory before the next write transaction.
  • That page also mentions a more literal version in "minute after" pills (mercenary work obviously can involve quite unpleasant imagery), but as the next page shows, these don't always work well enough.
    Ch'vorthq: You should ask the Doc for a "minute after" pill.
    Kevyn: I just popped three. There was a tattoo.
  • Der Trihs, staring into his (iced) drink after learning adult kreelies had been mating in the freezer (via external fertilization):
    Der Trihs: I need a tall glass of bleach right now.
  • And again, when Tagon attempts to take both their minds off alluring but improper thoughts and overdoes it:
    Kevyn: That's overkill. I'm shooting for "Don't think about Elf." and you're taking us all the way to "I need to gouge out my eyes."
  • While they are at brain-fixing, 'Chelle wants to wipe the memories of her clarinet lessons.
• Sexy Losers
  • Mark's plaintive cry (brought on by the antics of his roommate and his roommate's sister) of "I don't want my eyes anymore!"
  • In one guest comic, he goes for a more "realistic" solution when his roommate uses him as masturbation fodder — incredible amounts of cocaine.
  Nick: Note to self... install bleach dispenser in brain tank...
• Sluggy Freelance
  • In "Love Potion":
    Riff: Good God, man! If you're going to sit in the wine-glass-shaped jacuzzi, wear swim trunks! Holy pressed ham, I need to wash my eyeballs!
  • When Torg announces "I just got a magic flap installed!" and some other characters are heard making comments like "It's a little snug for me, but I did play with it a bit!" Later, at the bar:
    Riff: Whisky double straight up.
    Bun-bun: Alfalfa margarita, hold the alfalfa.
    [gulp!]
    Riff: It's that he came back from the doctor's with that announcement that freaks—
    Bun-bun: Never speak of it again.
  • Riff's reaction to Bert possessed by a ghostly women who is married to the ghost possessing Torg counts as this.
  • And now we have Lau in response to Dr. Nofun explaining how even dating is better without women.
  • In "Safehouse", Riff is looking a way to undo the effects of a hypnotic pattern spread via the Internet, and in the process runs across some zombie pornography on its creator's computer. When he does manage to send out hypnotic patterns to undo the previous ones, he also includes the command "unsee the zombie porn".
  • In "A Year in the Life of a Villain", Dr. Schlock remarks that "Sometimes, you've got to get out and live," and, after seeing a frog wearing a thong, adds, "And other times, you've got to hide, scrub your one good eye and try to get the images unburned from your brain."
• Something*Positive:
  • It's caused by low-end strippers and "the horror that is roleplaying geeks" ("take me home so i can claw my eyes out in privacy, please" and "I wash and I wash, but I can still feel their stares on my skin") respectively.
  • Aubrey's outraged claim "I could menstruate a better cup of coffee than this!" leads Jhim onto this path.
  Jhim: Must fight visual. Must. Fight. Visual... Urk!! Visual is winning! Visual is winning!
  • Lisa's dad in this strip.
• Spacetrawler: Yuri seems to give Dimitri reason to ask for some. Or at least some... uncomfortable cleaning implements. It's worth noting that disgusted/horrified as he is, he's still willing to try it out.
• Characters in Umlaut House do it from time to time. Given that most of them have quite a few implants in their brains, this is apparently a pretty trivial thing for them to do.
• VG Cats:
  • When Aeris saw the "Democrat Dance Revolution game intro. (It involves Q1Al Gore.)
    Aeris: SWEET HOLY HELL! SOMEONE GOUGE OUT MY EYES!
  • Also, the infamous Fox/Falco comic. For the readers. Unless you're into that.
• Creepknight from Voodoo Walrus seemed to hold it together well through everything. Until finding out how his boss powered his underwater "Doomcano" publishing house.
• Wally and Osborne "WILL NO AMOUNT OF SALTWATER EVER CLEANSE THESE EYES?!"
• Wapsi Square:
  • These two strips.
  • It is even the title of the strip "Brain Bleaching". And it is used as a verb.
• This The Way of the Metagamer comic references the concept, although thankfully the actual event is merely Noodle Implements.
• Who Says Space Quest is Dead: Xandra mentions she's seen a Crack Pairing Slash Fic between Vohaul (of Space Quest) and Manannan (of King's Quest). Roger goes off to get himself killed so that he can remove the image from his head. (Scary thing is, this is based on a real slashfic with that pairing that actually exists. It's just as mind-scarring as it sounds.)
• Wooden Plank Studios: those assigned to get something to revive Corrin in Fire Emblem Fates, when hearing his sister Camilla is also his wife (granted, she leaves out he's adopted), are downright horrified.

Web Original

• Chakona Space features Stew discussing having a group of gay characters sire her future children. Her captain, knowing they're not interested in females mentions them chasing after her with a turkey baster.
  Stew: Thanks. Now I can't get that image out of my head.
• Protectors of the Plot Continuum features Bleeprin (bleach combined with Aspirin), its variants, and Suebuprofen; they are used to help agents cope with anything disturbing they witness while on missions.
• Jericho's clothing in the Whateley Universe. Jericho is a (sort of) blind deviser who deliberately wears clothing so horrible that people — mutant superpowered people — flee in terror. He hangs with a guy who looks like a humanoid velociraptor, a girl who looks like a naga, monster-girl twins who cast a fear aura, and it's his clothing choices that upset nearby people. He actually manages to cause a guy to vomit just through color choices alone.
• Any Shock Site inspires videos or photographs of reaction videos, mostly of people asking for this.
• Boing Boing follows particularly disturbing posts with a "unicorn chaser."
• SCP Foundation
  • The use of "Class A amnestics" is routine for the Foundation, reserved primarily for those who have learned of the Foundation and/or what they deal with on a regular basis. All to maintain the illusion of a safe and sane universe.
  • Personnel working with SCP-231-7 are mandated to have regular memory wipes of the truly horrendous things they have to do, to ensure that the Fetus Terrible she carries remains unborn, lest they face the End of Days. Before it became policy, suicide among the personnel was very high.
  • Personnel will regularly request amnesiacs after particularly unsettling events, such as witnessing the particularly brutal death of a colleague or watching End of Evangelion. Most requests are denied.
  • Most if not all of these amnestics come from SCP-3000. And the way it produces said amnestics certainly requires amnestics.
• Texts from Superheroes: Supergirl searches the city for a bomb with her X-Ray Vision and declares that she needs to "fly through the sun and clean my eyeballs" after seeing some of the things people do behind closed doors.
• TV Tropes: Brain Bleach is available for purchase from the Trope Co. web shop.

Web Videos

• During the review of the live-action Dragonball Evolution Movie, LordKaT shows us how to eat a strawberry seductively.
  RolloT: CAN'T UNSEE!!!
• The Funday Pawpet Show
  • This live online puppet show, that runs for 4 hours every Sunday night (6pm-10pm Eastern), has the Pink Flamingo Challenge... where visiting guests' reactions are filmed as they watch the last 5 minutes of the movie "Pink Flamingos." Do NOT ask what they see... but they get bonus points if they can eat anything chocolate while watching without gagging.
  • Anything Fred Bedderhead sends in.
• Bad Movie Beatdown: Film Brain is temporarily undone when he sees a dog's nightmare of a cat holding scissors in Monkeybone.
• The Music Video Show in a Michael Jackson episode.
  "OH GOD! I CAN'T UNSEE THAT!"
• LoadingReadyRun had a sketch called "Forget About It" which was about Graham getting his brain bleached. It can be seen here.
• Cracked.com says, Tetris can help wash away painful, indelible memories.
• Demyx Time: After Axel discovers that Larxene slept with Xigbar (along with most of the rest of the Organization):
  Axel: Xigbar?
  Larxene: [nods] Uh-huh.
  Axel: Tell you what, I'll be back in about a half an hour, there's some stuff I really, quite desperately need to bleach, so if you would please—
  [leaves the room followed by screams of pain]
• The Nostalgia Chick and Nella don't react well to gruesome pictures of foot-binding. Also the only way to retain sanity after a viewing of The Star Wars Holiday Special.
• The Cinema Snob:
  • From Dracula (The Dirty Old Man) review:
  Snob: Wasn't that something? It was a comedically-dubbed rape film. Holy shit! The bath I just took now needs to take a bath!
  • In his review of A Serbian Film, Brad says it's the only film he regrets watching (and that includes gross Parallel Porn Titles and stuff such as Las Vegas Bloodbath!) and that he "wishes to unsee it, but can't".
• Smosh: One of the challenges in Food Battle 2014 is "hacking device". Anthony misinterprets it as using his rock candy as a cutting tool, all the while Ian uses his pink-frosted sprinkled donut to hack into a computer... finding naked pictures of Anthony and thus pouring bleach on his face.
• Tink in The Guild has this response to Bladezz joking about releasing a sex tape.
• From Attack of the Clones review by RedLetterMedia: "You know, they make a magic potion that makes you forget about The Phantom Menace when you drink it... it's called bleach!"
• The Best of the Worst guys had a collective disgusted reaction at the sex scene with a puppet worm creature from Dan Clark's film The Item.
• TV Trash: Chris "Rowdy" Moore is sickened at an episode of Striperella for showing a strip club owner's mother getting on stage.
  Rowdy: This is why I do reviews on an empty stomach.
• Jon Weber, from the YouTube Series The Punchline has used Brain Bleach in two episodes so far, "Lio" and "In the Bleachers", to cover up disgusting memories from the strips he was reviewing.
• The Media Hunter and several other reviewers need this after watching the scene listed above from his Ace Ventura review.
• Todd in the Shadows, while discussing Flo Rida's "Whistle", points out that with the Double Entendre, the obscenely catchy little whistle is actually Flo Rida's orgasm. Immediately afterwards, he vanishes up to the bathroom, accompanied by a scrubbing sound and cries of "GET IT OFF ME!" Later, at the end of the video, when he finds himself whistling the tune while playing a video game, he gets out a foam baseball bat and hits himself repeatedly in the head.
• In one of the Shadow the Hedgehog episodes of Game Grumps Dan mentions that because he is Jewish and therefore circumcised he doesn't have to deal with smegma. Arin reveals that he does not know what smegma is or at least misunderstands what it is. Dan explains it to him and Arin immediately replies that he wishes he could "unlearn" it.
• The Mysterious Mr. Enter:
  • His brain temporarily shuts down during his review of the Family Guy episode, "Fresh Heir", when Chris taught his grandfather how to masturbate and that it was implied that Chris gave him a hand job.
  • This is exactly what he said he was going to do after reviewing the Drawn Together movie so he can induce amnesia from reviewing the worst thing he has ever reviewed.
• Outside Xbox: On "Show of the Weekend" for 6th October 2018, Ellen said that after playing Rise of the Tomb Raider, she wanted to have her memories wiped so that she could play it again for the first time. After playing Shadow of the Tomb Raider, she just wanted to have her memories wiped.
• Watch Mojo's "Top 10 Most Disturbing Marvel Moments" has this line said about Gwen Stacy's affair with Norman Osborn being depicted through a sex scene with Osborn in his Green Goblin persona:
  "If anyone needs us, we'll be scrubbing our eyeballs with soap."
• "Parents Who Got Nosey, What Do You Wish You Didn't See? (Reddit Stories)" is a YouTube compilation of stories from people wishing for "eye bleach", most of which are about people discovering their family members' lube or sex toys or porn stashes or unclean socks/towels or NSFW google search history. One story that's more safe for work is about a mother cleaning her son's room and finding old and rotting apple cores and orange peels under the bed.
• In Mad Because Small, when Baby catches Tsuyu with Gosetsu and Tsuyu tells her she's going to give him a sponge bath, Baby runs out screaming to the heavens.
  "MAD BECAUSE SCARRED FOR LIFE!"
• In the Atop the Fourth Wall episode reviewing Youngblood (Image Comics) #7, Linkara yells out in holy terror as he sees the naked view of the character Troll only covered in soap suds before devolving into the "Conbine Harvester" Sanity Slippage routine.
  • Other instants of this are scattered through the hundreds of episodes, where various bizzare and horrifying moments in comics with one such moment including a wierd fan of Madonna's killing her and putting his head on her body

Western Animation

• Aqua Teen Hunger Force: In "Total Re-Carl", Frylock builds and presents a turbine power toilet to Carl for the latter to use. He also claims invisibility to be among its functions (It was a lie because he couldn't afford tech like that). When Aqua Teens see Carl using the toilet, Shake is the first to recoil in disgust, exclaiming that no one wants to see Carl essentially taking a dump on his front lawn.
  Master Shake: That has been burned into my retinas!
• Avatar: The Last Airbender: Prince Zuko uses lots of brain bleach, to the point that it's a miracle that his brains aren't dry by the end of the series. Including:
  • Watching his uncle Iroh getting up from a hot spring in his birthday suit in "The Winter Solstice, Part 1".
  • Watching his uncle sweet-talking an old lady to get them easy entry to Ba Sing Se in "The Drill" (complete with Facepalm and an exasperated "I'm going to forget I saw that").
  • Watching Li and Lo doing the "sexy" pose they did when they were young, and then in bikinis (Mai covers his eyes for this one, and the audience probably did the same), in "The Beach".
  • Not to mention the infamous scene of "The Southern Raiders" in which he walks in on an amorously-minded Sokka.
• Big Mouth: Andrew is mortified after accidentally witnessing his parents having sex. Maury, of all monsters, is traumatized by Marty's massive genitals.
  Maury: I still see them at night when I close my eyes...
• Family Guy: Stewie is prone to these sorts of moments.
  • A Cutaway Gag involves Brian showing Stewie 2 Girls 1 Cup. His reaction is marvellous.
    "Oh, I'm never gonna be able to eat ice cream aga— Oh my God!"
    "Can you imagine if two GUYS did that!? Let's Google it and see what comes up!"
  • After he saw a picture of Meg in a two-piece, he prayed it wasn't his first memory.
  • Upon seeing Brian dressed like Lois he said, "All right, so, uh, I'm just gonna go out in the hallway and throw up about something else."
  • In "Don't Make Me Over", Stewie can't get the mental image of Meg in low-rider jeans out of his head, and resorts to physically attacking the thought bubble that keeps popping up.
  • When Peter sees the nudist Jeff Campbell in his home he immediately borrows Lois' pepper spray/mace and sprays himself in the eyes.
• The Venture Bros.:
  • In "The Trial of the Monarch", the judge wants the Monarch's comments about Phantom Limb "pounding his invisible meat" stricken from the record and his memory.
  • Hank voluntarily had his memory wiped after finding out that the woman he lost his virginity to slept with his father and gave birth to his best friend.
• Futurama:
  • Following a particularly unpleasant "Tale of Interest" in "Anthology of Interest II", the announcer informs us, "You watched it, you can't un-watch it!"
  • In the episode "The Sting", the Professor explains what happens when you're allergic to space bees and get stung. As Hermes says: "I didn't want to know!"
• The Simpsons:
  • Aunt Patty remarks "There goes the last lingering thread of my heterosexuality!" after seeing Homer run naked through the kitchen in the "Treehouse of Horror III" segment "Clown Without Pity".
  • From "A Fish Called Selma", when Troy McClure passes by Fat Tony and his goons:
    Louie: Hey, I thought you said Troy McClure was dead.
    Fat Tony: No, what I said was: "He sleeps with the fishes". You see...
    Louie: Uh, Tony, please, no. I just ate a whole plate of dingamagoo...
  • "Marge Simpson in Screaming Yellow Honkers" opens with a talent show put on by the schoolteachers. Mrs. Krabappel's act is performing a striptease with a balloon-covered costume while singing "Fever" and popping the balloons one by one. The audience is visibly disgusted, and Bart mutters "Kill me..." After everyone's left, Homer has an armful of concessions; Lisa asks if he paid for them and he responds "I saw Krabappel's butt; I paid."
  • In "Little Big Mom", Homer freaks out at the sight of Flanders in a skin-tight ski suit.
    Flanders: Feels like I'm wearing nothing at all!
    Homer: MUST WASH EYES!
  • The "Wiz Kids" segment of "Treehouse of Horrors XII", a Harry Potter spoof, has Principal Skinner wipe the audience members' memories at a talent show with "amnesia dust" not once but twice. First for seeing Milhouse naked, then again when he let it slip that the refreshments were magically made from dead people.
  • In "Tales from the Public Domain", Discus Stu reveals that he's not a suitor for Marge, but for Bart. Bart shudders in disgust. Later in the same episode, Odysseus's crew see the sirens (Patty and Selma); one yells Someone, gouge out my eyes!
  • In "Weekend at Burnsie's", Homer is hired by Mr. Burns to help him write an important speech. At the time he was hired, Homer had been using medical marijuana and found everything funny. Since he was clean now, and no longer found Burns funny, Marge suggests Homer picture Mr. Burns naked, resulting in him screaming. Trying to make the situation better, she then changes it to picturing him in a funny hat. This idea is worse, causing Homer to curl up in a ball shuddering.
  • The Simpsons universe has its own Brain Bleach: Moe developed a drink out of various boozes and the poison of a certain butterfly that wipes the last 24 hours out of its drinker's memory. In "Eternal Moonshine of the Simpson Mind", Homer drinks it because he finds out that his family has planned him a surprise birthday party, and doesn't want to ruin all their work.
  • The police charge into Comic Book Guy's place and see him and Mrs. Skinner having sex — Eddie promptly vomits at the sight, and Lou reassures him "It's okay, you wouldn't be human if you didn't react like that."
    Wiggum: Uh, Comic Book Guy, you're under arrest for the possession of illegal videos. But we'll reduce your sentence if you put your pants on — fast!
  • Hysterically inverted when Bart Simpson sees what really goes on at MAD.
    Bart: [dreamily] I'll never wash these eyes again.
  • In "Puffless", Homer runs for the bleach after walking in and seeing Patty in the shower and literally pours it down into his brain after imagining himself and Patty tongue-wrestling. Bonus points for Bart then walking in and Homer preemptively bleaching his eyes as well — resulting in a "What the hell! [barely sees Patty through blurred vision] Oh, thank you!".
• American Dad!:
  • One instance involves Stan's boss and his (college-age) daughter, and kills his appetite.
    Stan: Oh, come on! [Bullock] rode me like an animal for three hours! Do you have any idea what that's like?!
    [Hayley folds her arms and cocks an eyebrow at her father]
    Stan: [discards restaurant menu] And now I'm not hungry.
  • In "Oedipal Panties", Roger, who had vowed to go alcohol-free for his "white month", watches Stan and his mother naked together in the bathtub while Stan sings a song about scrubbing her vagina. The traumatized Roger ends up breaking his vow and is seen downing a bottle of booze.
• King of the Hill:
  • Hank goes hysterically blind after seeing his elderly mother completely nude and making love to her equally elderly and equally nude boyfriend—with wrinkled flesh galore.
    Kasner: I'm not flattered that it made you go blind.
  • Bobby turns into a miserable zombie when he accidentally sees his cousin Luanne naked.
    Bobby: I can't get the image out of my head!
    Joseph: Put it in mine!
• Batman: The Animated Series: Batman and Batgirl discussing Baby Doll and Killer Croc (one is 40 and looks to be about 5, and the other is a guy who looks like a humanoid crocodile) in "Love is a Croc":
  Batgirl: What do you think they do on a date?
  Batman: ...I'd rather not think about it.
• The Oblongs:
  • After Biff and Chip walk in on their parents having sex in the kitchen, they rush to the bathroom and vigorously scrub their eyeballs.
  • In "Bucketheads", during Milo's fashion show, Helga eats her bacon dress off her body and ends up naked. One of the Hill kids yells, "Please, God, someone poke my eyes out!"
• The Time Squad episode "The Prime Minister Has No Clothes":
  Tuddrussell: A 300-pound man skinny-dipping with a robot. That is just not right.
  Otto: I gotta wash my eyes!
• To quote from Planet Sheen:
  Sheen: I have seen things so horrible they will never ever go away no matter how much I think of soap.
• The whole point of the Regular Show episode "Brain Eraser". Mordecai sees Pops naked and spends the rest of the episode trying to get the image out of his head.
• Phineas and Ferb:
  • This is weaponized by Agent P in Phineas and Ferb The Movie: Across the 2nd Dimension: in order to escape an ambush by the two Doofs and the army of Normbots, he shows a hologram of Major Monogram in the shower, prompting the baddies to react appropriately.
  • In the Musical Episode when Doofensmirtz rips off his clothes to vent his feelings in song, Perry's priceless expression suggests that he wished he had some brain bleach.
• The Boondocks:
  • In the second Stinkmeaner episode, Grandpa Freeman takes off his underwear in front of Huey and Riley. Riley throws up.
  • Riley get traumatized when Gangstalicious makes out with another man.
• In The Critic, Duke had this reaction when Doris sent him a naked picture of herself, along with demanding heart-attack pills.
• In an episode of Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated, Shaggy and Scooby witness a guy who said he hates pirates secretly acting like one.
  Scooby: My brain needs a shower.
• Lampshaded in Daria:
  Upchuck: [peaking into Ms. Li's office] Ooh, I like what I'm seeing.
  Jane: Watching Ms. Li change into her support hose again?
  Daria: That's another habit that'll lead to blindness, Upchuck.
  Jane: But in this case, you'll wish for it.
• Danny Phantom:
  • In the episode "Secret Weapons", Jazz hacks into Vlad's laptop to discover what his evil plan is, only for images of her mother, who Vlad still lusts for, to show up.
    Jazz: Oh, gross! I will never be able to unsee this!
  • And another episode had this combined with Amazingly Embarrassing Parents.
    Danny: [Maddie and Vlad kiss; Danny cringes in disgust] I thought my parents were embarrassing. [covers eyes and turns away] This is SO much worse!
• Requested on Duck Dodgers by I.Q. Hi twice in "Lame Duck Mind". He first asks Manobrain if he can erase their memory of the contents of Dodger's mind. Manobrain assures him that he can wipe their memories the second they leave Dodger's brain. The second occurs when they achieve their objective of rescuing the President of Space, only to find that he'd passed the time trapped in his closet dressing in his wife's clothing. In that instance, it is no sooner asked then granted.
• In an episode of Mike, Lu & Og, Mike has this reaction when Og goes naked on the catwalk during a mock fashion show.
  Mike: Sister Mary Francis, where are you now? [faints]
• Archer has this reaction when asked to picture Pam having a threesome with Yakuza members. "Ugh, can the mind vomit?" He later "answers" his own question when Pam tells of how her "change of address" notice for the UPS guy included a picture of her in a whipped cream bikini.
• Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness: In "Monkey in the Middle", Po examines a patch of fur left behind at a crime scene and begins licking it quite lustfully. The members of his team are quite disgusted.
  Mantis: Can't un-see that.
• The Amazing World of Gumball:
  • In "The Uploads", Gumball remarks that he needs to wash out his brain after he sees Mr. Small exhale himself inside-out.
  • In the beginning of "The Internet", Gumball and Darwin have both just watched a video of some guy breaking his leg. They immediately go to a video of puppies for a pallet cleanser. Gumball later tries to upload himself to the internet by sitting on a printer scanner naked. This fails to get Gumball on the internet, but what it does do is show (off-screen, thankfully) a scan of Gumball's exposed crotch on the computer, to Darwin's horror. We then cut to Darwin standing in the bathtub spraying his eyes with the shower nozzle.
    Darwin: You know, Mom was right. We really shouldn't have sprung for the hi-def scanner.
• The plot of one episode of Randy Cunningham: 9th Grade Ninja centered around Randy trying to find a mind wipe spell in the Ninjanomicon to erase some of the squickier things he's seen as the Ninja from his mind. He later gets a more urgent need to find one after Howard lets it slip that he knows the Ninja's secret identity.
• During the Codename: Kids Next Door Made-for-TV Movie, Operation: Z.E.R.O., Numbuh 2, Numbuh 86, and Numbuh 362 are all left frantically trying to shield their eyes after seeing the senior citi-zombified Numbuh 3 and Numbuh 4 making out.
  Numbuh 362: Eeeaaarrgh! End transmission! Please!
  [Numbuh 86 shoots the monitor screen]
• Rick and Morty:
  • In "Morty's Mind Blowers", it's revealed that Rick frequently erases Morty's memory. Usually it's at his request after a particularly horrifying or disgusting event, such as accidentally killing people or masturbating an alien, which fits this trope.
  • Twice in "Claw and Hoarder: Special Ricktim's Morty":
    • Balthromaw is still interested in soul-bonding with Rick and/or Morty after the adventure is complete. However, Rick takes the first excuse he can come up with to leave, and Morty refuses, as he is super grossed-out by the sexual nature of the soul-bonding with dragons—and also by the fact that he soul-bonded with his sister and grandpa along the way—and needs to process everything that happened.
    • When Rick and Jerry discover how a mysterious talking cat gained the ability to speak, it's apparently so horrific that Jerry vomits, weeps and curls in up a fetal position while Rick has to fight the urge to blow his own head off. Ultimately, he uses the memory-erasing device from "Morty's Mind Blowers" to make Jerry forget.
      Rick: Jerry, I have a device. I-It can make us forget.
      Jerry: No. I don't think we should forget. Not this. Someone has to remember.
      Rick: Someone will. [zaps Jerry]
• SpongeBob SquarePants:
  • In "Karen's Virus", Plankton's computer-wife Karen drunkenly flirts with a cash register while under the effects of the virus, and it gets weirder when Mr. Krabs rips the register out of her arms, gives it a smooch, tells it "I forgive you, baby!" and takes it into his office. Plankton, who's just witnessed all this, says in a deadpan tone "Wow. I can never un-see that."
  • At the (not)end of "SpongeBob's Bad Habit", Squidward walks into the office of Hans to get his regular therapy for his daily grievances, only to witness SpongeBob biting Hans' nails. He calmly declares "I want therapy for my therapy.", then walks out while biting his nails.
• In the Star Trek: Lower Decks episode "I, Excretus", Mariner's last holodeck test is being put through a variation of the infamous polywater intoxication incidents. When she walks into the bar to see an orgy going on, she's nervous but trying to make it through. A combination of a naked Boimler and Rutherford (with Boimler spread-eagle), Stevens riding Ransom, and Shaxs bursting out with T'ana clinging onto him proclaiming "It's naked time!" is too much for Mariner, and she opens up the airlock, wanting the test to end.
• The Duncanville episode "Throw Momma from the Brain" has Duncan traumatized from seeing his mother in the nude and making attempts at erasing the image of his mom naked from his mind.
• In the X-Men '97 episode "Fire Made Flesh", the Goblin Queen's awakened psychic powers start affecting the X-Men in the mansion. Gambit goes into one room to see a scantily-clad Rogue embracing an equally-clad Magneto, taunting him before their bodies start to fuse. We don't see what happens after that, except for Gambit racing out of the room and slamming the door behind him.
  Gambit: Gambit can't unsee that.

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