Warning: Don't Eat and Watch These Shows

We’ve all been there: settling into the couch, ready to tuck into some takeout and a new episode of one of your favorite shows. Then, just like that, you push the plate away, appetite extinguished. Who can eat in front of all this?! Rarely does this happen because the drama is so intense you forgot about that beef and broccoli sitting in front of you. No, typically, it’s because something on screen totally churned your stomach.

There are certainly some very obvious offenders: Penny Dreadful, American Horror Story, and The Walking Dead, with their depraved combo of blood, guts, and creepy crawlies, are easily the first that came to mind for most of the Yahoo TV staff. (Not to mention this week’s episode of Orphan Black.) And, seriously, how could anyone keep their food down as they watched the infamous eye-gouging scene on Game of Thrones? But shows known for their violence and gore aren’t the only ones that have us putting down our forks. Sometimes, it can surprise even us what might make us pass on dessert.

Related: Ken Tucker Reviews New Season of ‘Penny Dreadful’: Bloody Wonderful

All Things Shondaland (ABC)

I realized a long time ago that food and Grey’s Anatomy weren’t a great combination. Case in point: the teenage girl with her organs falling out during Derek’s recent final episode. The show definitely upped its guts factor several years ago and that, paired with the stars describing surgery scenes as “tossing salad,” kept the calories at bay. But I always thought Scandal was a safe bet… until a few weeks ago. When Huck and Quinn started breaking Mayor Verrano’s dead wife’s bones to put her into a suitcase and roll her into god-knows-where in the April 16 episode, that was the end of an official Thursday night ritual. And don’t even get me started on How to Get Away With Murder. — Breanne L. Heldman

Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives (Food Network)

There are few sights less appetizing than seeing host Guy Fieri stick his blond frosted tips into an eatery and exclaim lustily about a juicy hamburger, pulled-pork sandwich, or deep-fried whatever. I love diner food and wish there were more drive-ins, but Fieri has been doing his bad-boy-on-a-greasy-joyride shtick too long: Most of the places he visits these days stretch the definition of good comfort food. It’s enough to put me on a quinoa-‘n’-kale diet. — Ken Tucker

Tosh.0 (Comedy Central)

This uproarious clip show, which collects the best and (mostly) worst online videos for our viewing pleasure, has been making us collapse into giggling fits for years now… but we know better than to try to eat dinner in front of it. Tosh — along with a wave of anarchic cable comedies like South Park, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and Workaholics — derives a lot of its laughs from bodily functions and bathroom humor. (Indeed, it’s a rare episode of Tosh that doesn’t feature someone vomiting.) Will we stop watching? Hell no! But we’ll definitely skip the TV time snacks while these shows are on. — Dave Nemetz

Sleepy Hollow (Fox)

When you sign up for a series called Sleepy Hollow, you expect heads are gonna roll. But there are far more things than decapitated demons and severed appendages that put the ick in Ichabod Crane and keep me from stuffing my face while screening the supernatural series. Like bodies of horny twentysomethings found drained to a shriveled heap in the backseats of their cars by a life force-craving succubus, flashbacks to antiquated and gory battlefields, pregnant bellies undulating when a devil fetus becomes restless for rebirth across dimensions, or a serial killer traveling through time via a giant pool of hot red blood. — Carrie Bell

2 Broke Girls (CBS)

From the beginning, the casual racism on CBS’s inexplicably still-running sitcom was enough to turn my stomach. (It didn’t help that I’ve eaten in one too many real-world Brooklyn diners that put the “greasy” in greasy spoon.) And the show only got grosser when Jennifer Coolidge’s Sophie joined the cast and hooked up with Jonathan Kite’s short order cook — and “hilarious” perv — Oleg. It’s great that these two socially maladjusted oddballs found each other, but their romance hasn’t been easy to digest. — Ethan Alter

Nashville (ABC)

More than once I’ve almost choked or done a spit-take watching ABC’s soapy country-music drama. It’s those ridiculous moments that catch you off-guard, for better (pregnant Juliette not-so-covertly stalks Avery while riding a motorized scooter) or worse (Peggy takes a container labeled “pork blood” out of a paper bag and prepares to fake a miscarriage). — Mandi Bierly

The Strain (FX)

Hearts in a jar, parasitic vampire worms, an atrophied penis (that falls off into a toilet, no less)… these are just a few of the stomach-churning moments found on The Strain, Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan’s grotesque FX horror series about a potentially apocalyptic vampire virus that’s sweeping New York. This pandemic procedural is so revolting that in some areas the network was forced to take down billboards advertising the series because the disturbing imagery on them was grossing people out. Definitely not for the squeamish, don’t attempt to eat a sandwich (or anything else) while watching these vile vampires go to town. — Victoria Leigh Miller

Watch a clip from Season 2 of Penny Dreadful, which premieres Sunday at 10 p.m. on Showtime: