People Who Threw Up During Live TV Interviews
Vomit. Puke. Hurl. Retch. Upchuck. And perhaps funniest of all: chunder. Yes, vomiting sure can be hilarious so long as you're not the one doing it. In that case, better shy away from chugging blended yogurt, orange soda, and pickles before doing jumping jacks. Why would you even do that?
But vomiting can also be embarrassing. Rushing to the toilet at home and blurting out soupy chunks out of sight of other humans is one thing. Running to a toilet in a public bathroom and yelling, "I'm fine, I'm fine!" to a friend outside while you chunder up the blunder from down under is another thing. And vomiting outside of a toilet — like in the street or on someone's shoelaces in a bar — is another thing entirely. But how about vomiting up while on TV? Live TV. And you're talking to someone. And out bursts the gruel. Or maybe it dribbles. But regardless of consistency, viscosity, or intensity, forever shall we dub thee, "The one who vomited on TV."
Thankfully, when folks have chucked the upchuck up during TV interviews, it's never been a full-on hose-in-the-face situation — that we know of. Random beach drunks have done it, celebrity interviewers have done it, and even professional presenters like Wolf Blitzer have (almost) done it. Even if interviews weren't high-stress situations, it certainly seems like folks are puking way more than you'd think.
Wolf Blitzer chokes down the ralph
This first entry makes the list because, as far as vomitous TV interviews are concerned, it's one of the more famous ones. Namely, it stars everyone's impassive, white-haired and -bearded, animal-named CNN news anchor, Wolf Blitzer. In early February 2024 Blitzer was chatting with Maryland Congressman Jamie Raskin about Donald Trump when Blitzer started doing this purse-lipped, pre-vomit mouth pumping thing that we've all seen from comedies, if not real life.
About 30 seconds into the clip video feed switches to Raskin, who finishes the interview without a partner. Multiple sites say that if listeners focus closely, its possible to hear Blitzer blubbing out some vomit off-screen. After the show came back from a commercial break, correspondent Paula Reid told viewers that Blitzer "had to step away."
Various folks around the internet noticed that Blitzer seemed unwell, like one user on X posting the interview and simply asking, "Ummm is Wolf Blitzer ok?" Others speculated on Blitzer's overall health, his age (he's 75 at the time of writing), and so forth. Blitzer himself got on X the same night and said, "I'm fine! Thanks for the well wishes. I'll see you back in the Situation Room soon." CNN also responded to the incident, with Washington Post journalist Will Somers quoting on X, "Wolf wasn't feeling 100% while anchoring Thursday night. He looks forward to being back in the Situation Room and appreciates the well wishes."
Reporter Wendy Burch gets splattered with spew
As we know, there's always at least one person in a bunch who takes things too far. This is especially true of holiday celebrations like the Fourth of July, a time for fireworks, barbecues, lounging around, and something-something freedom, independence, and blah, blah, blah. And in the case of one reporter at Hermosa Beach, California, she paid the price on live TV for someone else overdoing it with society's social cure-all: alcohol. But judging by the footage in question, the shirtless dude next to her bore the brunt of things.
As Los Angeles-based reporter Wendy Burch good-naturedly posted on X in 2017, she was over at Hermosa Beach interviewing Fourth of July revelers who were partaking in an Iron Man competition that ended in a drunken party on the beach. A big guy next to her comments that he's been doing the Iron Man competition for about 25 years, and boom: Cue the arced spray of loose, milk-brown vomit that ker-splats on the guy's arm and ricochets to her a bit. The vomitous perpetrator remains off-screen and unknown. And yes, Burch's colleagues back at the news station had a good time making jokes about the incident.
A longer clip on sites like Fox News explains that the Iron Man involved running a mile on the beach, paddling a mile in the ocean, and chuggin' a six-pack of beer. Also, there was some girl on all fours in the sand passing out or something. Classic.
Beau Ryan's rancid liquid splutter near Matt Damon
It's not a stretch to say that lots of folks would crumble if they got the chance to meet their favorite celebrity or musician. All the things you wanted to say would flee your mind and you'd be left babbling some niceties or blanking out altogether. Of course, the same could happen to an interviewer. Beau Ryan — the interviewer in this case — didn't react like that when interviewing Hollywood A-lister Matt Damon as part of Damon's promotional tour for 2016's "Jason Bourne." Rather, Ryan took the performative route and tried to rope Damon into a game that left him, Ryan, spitting out some pestilent green bilge from his lips. It wasn't fake, so to speak, but he definitely forced the situation for "The Footy Show," the Australian sports and entertainment show that was hosting Ryan's Damon interview.
During the interview in question, Ryan proffered a plastic drinking cup containing a rancid smoothie to Damon, who took a whiff of it and promptly pushed the vile liquid away. Damon turned red, started coughing, and said, "I'm going to throw up, man" — and no, he wasn't acting. Just then Ryan took a swig of the smoothie and promptly blurted it out a couple of seconds later. Headlines say that he "almost threw up," which might be true if he didn't actually swallow the liquid. But regardless, he still ingloriously and vomitously spluttered over himself while sitting across from Matt Damon.
Linn Wiik's pregnancy-induced water vomit
Anyone who's been pregnant or knows someone who's been pregnant knows about pregnancy nausea, especially during the first trimester. Smells might seem extra strong, and waves of queasiness might come on without warning. Some people experience it worse than others but have to go about their business or work all the while, regardless. And sometimes pregnant people are talk show interviewers who feel a bit iffy while live on the air. Such was the case in 2018 with interviewer Linn Wiik on Norway's "God Sommer Norge."
In the clip in question, internet influencer Vegard Harm is sitting on a yellow couch with another guest as he talks about his health and exercise routine. Wiik sits across from him with another interviewer, and as Harm is talking, she starts to visibly struggle a bit. She leans forward, grabs a glass of water, keeps the glass near her mouth for a few seconds, and suddenly stands up and vomits out the water -—and possibly a little something else — right on the floor in the middle of everyone.
Of course everyone was shocked, but the real magic of this clip is how quickly and professionally everyone recovered. Wiik casually stands back up, turns back toward her seat, and says (looking to YouTube's automatic Norwegian-to-English translation), "Can I have some paper? I just felt so nauseous. Oh my God. I'm pregnant." Someone gives her some tissues, she steps off-stage, and the interview nonchalantly resumes in less than 30 seconds.
Eva Nazemson's sudden gut attack
Our last entry once again comes to us via our Nordic friends, this time from Swedish TV presenter Eva Nazemson. Nazemson's chunderous eruption didn't happen when she was doing a face-to-face interview, however, but a phone interview. Strictly speaking, she spurt out some brown goop during a game show and the person calling was a contestant. This happened way back in the internet heyday of 2007, proving that vomitous TV expulsions aren't a thing of the recent past.
As the clip shows — and this time we've got someone's helpful, manual Swedish-to-English translation to guide us — a guy named Niklas had just called up on the phone. Nazemson asks him for an answer to a trivia question, and blam: Cue the burst of gastric chum. Nazemson steps away, there are some sounds of liquid spattering on the floor, some heavy breathing, and then she strolls back into frame confident as ever. And lo and behold, much like our last entry, this time we've also got feminine issues to blame for the attack. "I must tell you this," she explains, "I have menstrual pains ... it's live ... and anything can happen." Too true, Eva. Too true.
Nazemson then apologies, laughs a bit, carries on the show, laughs a bit more, good-naturedly apologies again, and that's it — no harm, no foul. So what's the ultimate lesson here? We've got no clue, except that maybe you should wear a vomit shield if you ever do a TV interview.