Shy Bladder

Some people can't "do their business" when there is a chance they could be seen or overheard by someone else. This is somewhat understandable and a case of Truth in Television for some people. This can vary from not wanting to be watched (which most of us can say we'd agree with) to not being able to use public conveniences even if they are the only one there.

In fiction this seems to be an affliction that tends to affect shy and/or neurotic people more than anyone else. It also seems to be something that tends to affect children. A common cry of such a character is "I can't go with you looking at me!" (or "with you there" if the person is merely in earshot).

A Shy Bladder may be faked if a person needs to evade observation for some reason or if they want to avoid giving a urine sample as, at least in fiction, even prison guards will sympathise with a person over this. It isn't the prettiest thing to have to witness after all. With some exceptions.

Examples of Shy Bladder include:

Anime

• Averted on Neon Genesis Evangelion. They use adjacent urinals. They strike up a conversation.
• And Clannad
• And Kannagi

Film

• Amanda Crew has to pee into a radiator in Sex Drive.
• In The Mummy Returns Alex complains to the guard that he can't use the bathroom while he's being watched. Conveniently, this gets the guard to turn his back long enough for Alex to realize that the toilet opens directly onto the tracks; he pushes it aside and makes his escape.
• "Do not watch. I cannot go when you watch."
• In the movie Waiting... one of the waiters has a problem that he can't pee in a public restroom, even if there's no one in there.
• In Real Genius, Genki Girl Jordan follows the male lead into the bathroom, and up to a urinal. When this causes problems for him, she seems puzzled.
• In Trick, Gabriel is trying to pee in the bathroom at a gay club. But a drag queen with a vendetta barges in and starts telling him a long story about Mark, the go-go dancer Gabe is trying to land. During this Gabriel is increasingly nervous and can't pee (he asks her to turn around and she says, "Pee shy? Don't worry, Miss Coco's here to help." — she turns around, then turns right back for the next salvo). Finally the drag queen delivers the final, climactic invective against Mark, and, in a bit of auditory punctuation, Gabriel is suddenly able to pee ("Good boy!").

Literature

• In Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson, Randy Waterhouse has this problem.

Live Action TV

• Still Game has this happen in the first Hogmanay special "The Party" when Winston, Jack, Victor, and Isa are all stuck in an elevator. Winston has drunk four cans of lager to pass the time and needs to pee, after much conflict from the other four he tries to do "half a pee" and intially can't because the other four are there. His soon does give way to it though.
• Arrested Development GOB needs to poop out a key he swallowed, but he can't in "Key Decisions". This exact example is later inverted in "Spring Breakout," where GOB tries vomiting up a key... but it's implied to have finally emerged by the opposite route.
• That horrible Ally McBeal plot with the shy bladderness.
• Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe did a fairly brutal satire of self-improvement documentaries, with "Konnie's Great British Wee", where Konnie Huq (as herself) tries to fight the scourge of shy bladder syndrome by getting a group of sufferers to take a group piss on a hill.
• It was established in season 7 of Buffy that Jonathan had a shy bladder. Andrew took advantage of that to extend his time talking to dead Warren by calling out "You all right in there?", making Jonathan's stay in the bathroom longer.
• Elliot, from Scrubs has an extremely Shy Bladder. She can't go if someone speaks to her, or if they can hear her.
  • Dr. Cox and Jordan once made J.D. stop mid-stream by hovering behind him.
• This happens to House in House MD at least once - Cuddy, rather than leaving the room, runs the water on a sink. It works. One of House's patients pulls an extreme one of these. "I can't go in public. I have to go home." Essentially he wanted to bring someone else's urine to be tested, not his own.
• Roseanne: During her Sweet Polly Oliver, the eponymous heroine observes that bathroom etiquette follows 'elevator' rules: look straight ahead, no talking.
• In an episode of Veronica Mars, clean-living Wallace (among others) somehow fails a drug test, and friend Veronica gets hold of a home testing kit to see if maybe he was slipped something surreptitiously. When Wallace suffers from shy bladder, VM's dad plays with this by shouting through the door "Try twisting your nipples" earning a shout of dismay from Wallace.
• An episode of Popular had a female character with a shy bladder taking a drug test, and failing due to not being able to go.

Video Games

• In Persona 4, the first time the group enters the TV world, Yosuke is in desperate need of a bathroom and resolves at one point to simply relieve himself upon the wall. He asks the other two to turn around, but in the end, he still can't bring himself to do it.
• Spoofed in the concept trailer for Portal 2. After Chell fits Wheatley into a wall so he can open a passage, he says, "I can't do it if you're looking."

Western Animation

• The Rugrats episode about Chuckie moving from the potty to an adult toliet, he can't go because the adults always stay and watch him. He eventually is able to go when the other babies accompany him and then turn their backs.
• In an episode of Chowder Chowder, Mungal, and Schnitzel are locked in the bathroom. Chowder has to go, but, Chowder can't go in front of Mungal and Schnitzel, saying they are "all old and grody."
• The Simpsons - One of the uber-nerds Homer meets when he went back to college was so timid he couldn't use the bathroom after someone knocked on the door.
• In Superjail, the Warden claims to be "pee shy" in order to get away from the time police who have captured him.

Real Life

• Some Japanese women are very self-conscious of the noise they make during urination, so much so that there is a device called the Otohime which makes flushing noises when it is activated. It was invented to conserve water, since women would usually cover the noise with actual (and unnecessary) flushes.
• It's commonly accepted (well, in America, at least) that if you, a male, go into a bathroom and it's empty, you take the urinal furthest from the door or the stall. If another person comes in while you're still using the urinal, they take the one furthest from you or at least take a urinal that leaves a urinal between you. Talking or touching (not like that, sicko) is not accepted, even if you're drunk.
  • Sometimes lineups will form for urinals even when there is one (or more) free. This is how strong the unspoken rule about taking a urinal adjacent to one in use is.
  • Occasionally, to counteract this, small mini-walls are installed between urinals, just so men will use them all, rather than every other one.
  • No talking, stare directly ahead.
  • I avoid all this trouble by peeing into a toilet instead.