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"Well, at least here you'll be treated with dignity. Now strip naked and get on the probulator."
Medical examinations, particularly the physical exam, are generally not the most comfortable of situations. Real-life doctors generally get specific training to address professionalism and bedside manner.
Fictional doctors, on the other hand, generally come with a selection of flaws that are demonstrated in their overall behaviour. And patients may have their own hangups. Thus, giving or getting a physical is a great way to demonstrate that something isn't quite right. The doctor may be a little too intimate, brutally logical, or obsessive about some minor symptom that turns out to be a major plot point. The patient may have a panic attack, revealed to be related to past trauma. The discomfort of the exam itself is sometimes an allegory for the greater difficulty faced by the character. Or perhaps they enjoy the exam a little too much themselves. The viewer may be meant to share in the discomfort, creating sympathy for the patient, antipathy for the doctor, or a chance to display the emotional attachments of another character.
Often involves a medical Ass Shove gag. See also Strapped to an Operating Table. And whatever you do, never Turn Your Head and Cough.
Examples:
Anime & Manga
- Played with in an episode of The Ping Pong Club, where Maeno and Izawa impersonate doctors in order to force everyone at their school to endure a Creepy Physical. They frighten a teacher by remarking on the size of his nipples, imply that the principal has cancer, examine the entire ninth grade in less than twenty seconds, and get a lot of footage of shirtless girls with their hidden "blackmail camera."
- The virus scanner programs in OS Tan, portrayed as doctors, revel in this, especially Dirty Old Man Dr. Norton, who, in most stories, usually gets beaten up by 2K or XP.
- Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. When the Major is getting a new cybernetic body she finds herself the subject of some unsubtle come-ons by a Hospital Hottie doctor. Despite the Major's implied bisexuality she's unimpressed, especially when the doctor turns out to be one of the corrupt cops Section 9 are looking for. Only a last minute intervention by a third party saves her life.
Comic Books
- The Authority— in the middle of fighting The Authority, a villain in temporary possession of The Doctor's nigh-omnipotence goes back in time to The Engineer's adolescence, poses as a doctor, and gives her a very intentionally Creepy Physical so that, when he steps back into the present a sentence later and reminds her of it, the traumatic memory resurfaces.
Fan Fic
- Julien undergoing a humiliating medical exam sets up the plot for The Penguins of Madagascar fanfic "Princess". Since he's a lemur, it's not intentional on the vet's part, but an off-hand comment by the vet reveals to the eavesdropping penguins that Julien is a female-to-male Transsexual so it's pretty bad for Julien.
Film
literature
- Dave Barry, in the column "Getting Physical", remarks on how physical examinations are almost enjoyable until the doctor pulls out The Glove and horror ensues:
Suddenly you notice that the doctor looks vaguely like Vincent Price, and the room lights are flashing, and the music system, which had been playing "Wonderful World," is now playing the theme from Jaws. And now the doctor is holding up his hand, which has grown to the size of a mature eggplant and has sprouted eight or nine extra digits, and he's struggling to pull on The Glove, which has developed a life of is own, snarling and writhing like some kind of evil mutant albino squid. And now the doctor is turning to you, his eyes glowing like beer signs, and he's saying "Turn around hahahaHAHAHAHA" and you're thinking OH NO PLEASE NOOOOOOO.
Live-Action TV
Web Comics
- Used the very first week in Schlock Mercenary. Of course, since the protagonist is what he is, arguably subverted.
Web Original
- Melina Frost's Start of Darkness in Survival of the Fittest was apparently an incident during a physical/gynecologist's appointment where the doctors raped her, and she then sued them for fun even though she liked it. Yes, really. The post is on the site itself, and yes, it's as bad as you think.
Western Animation
- Peter Griffin's prostate exam in Family Guy.
"Yaar, I be a doctor!"
- Murderface and his doctor both get off during a medical exam in one episode of Metalocalypse.
Real Life
- There is, of course, a hell of a lot of pornography involving the interactions between medical personnel and their patients. Whether or not the appearance of this trope in other media is a reference to such, is unknown.
Now, turn your head and cough.
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