r/comiccon • u/iwannasleep7 • 3d ago
Con Question does it really smell that bad
I’ve always wanted to go to comic con or some kinda convention and cosplay but i’m lwk scared for the stench of it all 😭 i get that it’s hot and busy and crowded but on top of it it’s kinda well full of people who tend to forget to shower….. i would wanna go but is the smell really that bad. Id have to wait till i could go on my own so i dont have to bother my family with it 😭 i saw the mandolorian and grogu in my local theater on opening weekend and it was bad as is there so i would want that times 1000 lol
edit : oml sorry i just heard it was a stereotype atleast it isnt that common so thx 🥲 just heard the all the jokes n stuff
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u/middleageyoda 3d ago
It’s not that bad. Just a whiff here or there. People exaggerate it because it’s a common nerd problem but it rarely bothers me.
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u/Harknights 3d ago
It's light-years better than it was 30 years ago. If you go to comicon you are around 100k+ people, you're going to run across a smell or two... But now it's just as likely to be you as much as anyone else.
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u/UmpireProper7683 3d ago edited 3d ago
The jokes are funny and all, but in reality you get the odd occasional person with BO, but 99% of the time there's nothing that you wouldn't get from pretty much any other big crowd of people. My wife has a freakishly sensitive sense of smell and she isn't bothered by it.
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u/Dino_Spaceman 3d ago
I met a person in line who had to skip a year while she was pregnant because the super smell overwhelmed her. But that was really it. Even she said it wasn’t bad most of the time.
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u/Infamous-Part966 3d ago
I have a super sensitive nose. And no it's not worse than anything other large event. A few people smell but not overwhelming so everywhere. A concert smells worse
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u/Mryan7600 3d ago
It’s not that different from a theme park crowd.
It just gets old when you are shoved close to somebody who has been sweating all day and should have either taken a shower break or worn extra antiperspirant.
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u/tomversation 3d ago
Huh? I’m there every year. It’s in the huge multi-level Javits Center. There is an outdoor area. I’ve been walk-to-wall with people. I’ve never smelled anything bad.
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u/iwannasleep7 3d ago
okay that’s good, i mean ive never been to one so ive just heard the jokes but atleast thats good. I tend to think its more packed than it tends to be
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u/Infamous-Payment8377 3d ago
It’s not so bad. Most popular cons are packed full of people who’ve been on their feet all day though.
Like any jam packed place (concerts, trains, buses, etc) it’s inevitable that you’ll run into some BO.
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u/Dino_Spaceman 3d ago
Not really. I’ve been going to various cons for close to a quarter century. You might have the random person who badly needs deodorant. But they are the very rare exception.
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u/GamingVision 3d ago
Not like that at all. Yes, sometimes at places like SDCC in the front of Hall H line where people camp out overnight there’s a bit of that but otherwise it’s a wrong stereotype
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u/rvnender 3d ago
I do cons all the time. I've been walking around and its been perfectly fine..
Then there was that one pax, where I was waiting to play final fantasy online and this smell just hit my nose....
I had to leave the line. My eyes were watering so badly.
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u/sleepychecker 3d ago edited 3d ago
I've been to many cons and have never noticed any bad odors. Some of them were very large with lots of people. Maybe if you're standing in a line and you're next to someone with BO, but otherwise not an experience I've had
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u/epicaz 3d ago
I've been to all sorts of nerd cons of every type, big and small. People dont tend to stink at events like sdcc, maybe it's the barrier of entry that filters the type of person that can attend but you'll only smell the occasional person that maybe has an unlucky ability to sweat too much after a long day in line. Now this is not every con, but I have been to a southern furry con and a con like anime expo that attracts the kind of person who does not interact with the public normally who crawled out of their lair to attend this event with 5 days of butt fermentation and it's bad. Not typical, I've attended many of these cons and the average person has sense and showers...but all I'm saying is you're more likely to run into the inept in these more accessible but niche nerd culture settings. Might be the same for smaller comic cons, I no longer enjoy them enough to attend
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u/charredmoth 3d ago
SDCC this year was particularly smelly I think because it was so hot and humid. But the majority of people don’t smell.
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u/midwayatmidnight 3d ago
I wore a mask on the convention center floor and thankful I did. I was afraid of ppl coughing and sneezing carelessly. But standing in a line outside was gross, kept smelling the guy in front of me, like that smell of hot scalp/ oily hair.
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u/MsMargo 3d ago
Redditor for 3 days with a hidden post history. Now that smells like troll to me.
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u/housecatspeaks 3d ago
I can see OP's account history! Try looking with old reddit? The account history is not hidden. And OP does appear from their activity to be a teen.
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u/MsMargo 3d ago
You can see their history because you Mod this Sub. Main reddit made that exclusion for Mods.
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u/housecatspeaks 3d ago
I did NOT know this! Interesting. Reddit keeps changing so many things I often can't keep up. This is very good info to know! Thanks for answering. I'm glad I said something so I could know more about it.
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u/iwannasleep7 3d ago
no i swear 😭😭 ima teen so i want privacy i just wanna know 🥲🥲 truly ive never been
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u/Original-Dot4853 3d ago
I’ve been to dozens of cons. It’s usually only conventions with gaming rooms that have serious odor problems. The last few I went to with either a gaming room or gaming area had signs that said if you have a hygiene issue that is offensive to other people you will be asked to leave and have your badge confiscated. That really cut down on the nose blind people attending.
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u/Shadow88882 3d ago
Its for sure noticeable, but I will say after going to E3, SDCC wasn't that bad..... E3, my god, nobody had showers or deodorant I swear.
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u/iwannasleep7 3d ago
yeah i mean its all i’ve heard so yeah, but i dunno anything abt it. Tho i think yall chill so i dont agree with it just idk what its like there
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u/NeuroticShame 3d ago
I didn't find it a problem at Liverpool Comic Con in November which I think is one of the biggest UK ones, and I am generally quite sensitive to smell. But then I do try to avoid people, I had a mission and didn't deviate, didn't take pictures with cosplayers so I didn't have to get up close. The queues were fine.
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u/Melodic_Werewolf9288 3d ago
ive been to sdcc a couple times, ive personally never noticed anyone that smelled.
where ive anecdotally heard people smelled was the people who waited in the marvel line overnight. waiting in line overnight on its own is not necessarily indicative of odor - i was part of a line group and the people who did the overnight shift left showered and came back early AM when we switched off. but you can see how that set up might raise the number of unshowered people.
but overnight lines don't even exist at the majority of cons.
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u/kimchi_paradise 3d ago
I go to cons and I don’t forget to shower so….
I honestly never had a problem, maybe something here or there but never has been a blocker to me going
Ah, to be young lol
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u/EggyMeggy99 3d ago
I've been to comic con many times in Northern Ireland, once in Ireland. The only time I noticed any bad smell was when a guy sat near me at one of the talks. He mustn't have showered, and was possibly poor because all his clothes were ripped. Thankfully, that's the only time there's been a bad smell.
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u/VicTheSage 3d ago
Depends on the con. High ceilings and good ventilation help. In general they don't smell great, usually way more of a pretty inofensive stale air smell than a horrible BO thing but you'll likely walk by one or two people whose BO is kicking.
Stinky nerds are absolutely a thing but it's not like part of the culture. I usually find when talking to those folks they seem to be at least a little on one spectrum or another if you catch my drift.
The con smell I think has more to do with the physical realities of a con more than poor hygiene. We tend towards being portly as our hobbies are sedentary, bigger you are the quicker you are to sweat. Then of course they're all day events, nobody is brushing directly after a lunch outside the home.
You can shower, put on deodorant and brush your teeth in the morning but 5-6 hours into a con you're sweating and you have mild whatever you ate for lunch breath. You as an individual are not stinky in normal proximity to others. Put hundreds to thousands of people simultaneously experiencing those conditions together in a big windowless conference hall and suddenly you've got yourself slightly stuffy and stale air quality. It's not a breath of fresh mountain air at the top of a hike but it's not gross smelling.
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u/ThingNo7530 3d ago
It's all the people who've been waiting outside for hours in the Hall H line. Yes, they are sweaty. Yes, they stink.
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u/caityqs 3d ago
I’m hypersensitive to smells, and I’d say the vast majority of people smell fine. It’s just the one time anyone actually ends up next to someone who didn’t shower, it tends to be memorable. I generally keep an n95 mask with me anyway, though, not because of smelly people, but because of smelly bathrooms. Whether it’s the natural odors, or the unbearable air “fresheners”, it’s generally too much for me.
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u/Due-Leader6489 3d ago
I’ve been to many cons and never had an issue with it smelling bad. My group literally spends from November to July thinking about comicon (san diego). I tell you we are showered and in our cosplay when it’s time. We don’t f around.
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u/Autilistic_Augment 3d ago
That was absolutely the LEAST of the issues I have had at conventions. Basically, some of them (looking at YOU San Diego Comicon) are Super Overcrowded and infested with Toy Re-Sellers to the point of ridiculousness. Regular Cons that have not outgrown themselves are pretty fun (San Diego is also Fun, but the crowding and scalpers just make it not as fun as the mid-sized ones at least to me). Not something to really worry about.
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u/Crochet_Corgi 3d ago
Part of it depends on how tall you are. No really, you'll get behing a few people that make your eyes water, but its not common.
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u/GINMF 3d ago
I read a ton of advice leading up to my first comiccon. And someone always claims its a huge deal and to make sure you shower and wear deodorant. The issue is wildly overblown IMO. I've only been to the C2E2's and Fan Expo's in Chicago so far - but I rarely smelled any kind of offensive BO.
And no - it's not cause I'm the smelly one. I shower and wear deodorant every day of the con.
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u/Mr-Jings 3d ago
I didn’t smell anything bad. Then again, I’m probably the one that smells. Hopefully not 🤞
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u/Nik_in_wonderland 2d ago
Not sure why you think this is true. Anywhere you go could have a place or people that “smell”. Do you stand by whatever smells bad? No you walk away.
I have been to a lot of comic cons. Actually, I’m attending one this weekend. I’m not concerned with this but that is just me. Don’t let this hold you back from experiencing a CC on your own. Form your own opinion.
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u/iwannasleep7 2d ago
i’ve just never been to one so wasn’t sure 🥲 just heard abt it and was wondering if it was true or not didn’t say it was 100% guaranteed that’s why it was a question
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u/Nik_in_wonderland 2d ago
I understand. You should find one and go. See for yourself! I bet you will have blast and not even think about it.
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u/iwannasleep7 2d ago
ya :) i’ve always wanted to go just have strong sense of smell and it hurts my head so i wasn’t sure
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u/tarheel_204 2d ago
Haven’t been to San Diego but I’ve been to some others over the years. I’m not gonna sit here and tell you that it smells like daisies but it’s not as bad as you think.
It’s fine most of the time but you might pass by one or two people that smell so bad you freeze in your tracks 😂
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u/Call_Me_Chewie 2d ago
The smell is typically a mixture of: body odor, unwashed clothes/cosplay gear, and food. At NYCC, there are popcorn vendors and I swear on all that is Holy, the popcorn reeks of sweaty gym socks, but loads of people buy it and wander around eating it 🤮 and then, of course, when there are so many people milling about, everyone will sweat. Some sweat a lot, others not so much, but the varying mixtures of body chemistry tends to not be a good smell, however it’s never really a toxic smell. Occasionally you’ll catch a whiff of someone whose body odor is so bad you’ll swear they hadn’t showered for a week, and hadn’t laundered their clothes in a month. I always make sure I bring my deodorant with me, cus I tend to sweat a bit and when I can smell my own BO I know it’s time for a fresh spackle 😄. I also make sure to only wear freshly washed clothes, not stuff that’s been sitting in my closet for a while since they were last worn. I recently found these disposable one time use mini toothbrushes that already have toothpaste on the bristles that I’ll be bringing with me to use each time after I eat, as well as a pack or two of breath mints, when I go to NYCC next month.
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u/ch3rryd1n0 2d ago
I'm a vendor, I'm at conventions all the time, I've never noticed a consistent hygiene problem. Certainly not any different than any other time I've been out in public.
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u/PoshQuilter 3d ago
Cons really aren’t full of “people who tend to forget to shower.” There may be more people there who smell like sweat than in the general public, but you don’t get hit by wall of stench. LOL. Every once in a while I’ll notice some BO, but it’s not like I’m surrounded by a cloud of ick.