Web Video / Dr Glaucomflecken

Dr. Glaucomflecken is a Youtube, Tiktok, and Twitter series created by ophthalmologist Dr. Will Flanary, as "a creative outlet for painfully specific ophthalmology jokes and to cope with my own health challenges" and expanded into satire of the American medical system, interpersonal conflicts in medicine and academic publishing. These are short medical satire videos, usually character depictions.

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The series contains examples of:

• Ambiguous Robots:invoked It's never been made clear what exactly Jonathans are. They need to be recharged overnight, they don't speak, they do a huge amount of work in a short time, and the Ophthalmologist packs his Jonathan in a suitcase when traveling. However, they look human, and Word of God says that they can be fed.
• Bait-and-Switch: "You suture like a senior Resident... in Psychiatry."
• Berserk Button: Saying "altered mental status" or saying that a neurological test was "nonfocal" or "unremarkable" causes Neurology to appear and berate whoever said it.
• Book Smart: Among all the specialties, Internal Medicine is generally portrayed as this, obsessing over teaching rounds, research articles, and laboratory minutiae. It's actually deconstructed a bit, because said obsession makes Internal Medicine rather inefficient.
  Psychiatry: Now, how long were rounds this morning?
  Internal Medicine: Four and half hours.
  Psychiatry: What, we had you consistently under four hours.
  Internal Medicine: Well, the intern wanted to start metoprolol on a patient with hypertension.
  Psychiatry: Ok, that sounds like a reasonable medical decision. What happened?
  Internal Medicine: I made us have a two hour journal club about it.
• Butt-Monkey:
  • Family Medicine is perpetually overworked, burnt out, underpaid and underappreciated.
  • Dr. Bill, who is a stand-in for residents in general, is even more overworked than Family Medicine, and the skits involving him have gradually shifted to highlighting how absolutely inhumane working conditions are for doctors-in-training.
  • Anesthesia is this to Surgery, who makes him do menial tasks solely for the sake of telling him what to do and can't be bothered to learn his name.
  • Ortho is this to a lesser extent. Almost all the other specialists use him as a go-to example of an unintelligent or incompetent doctor; downplayed in that Ortho is very competent in his field.
• Card-Carrying Villain: United Healthcare and other insurance companies, alongside hospital-buying Private Equities, are very often mocked in skits and portrayed as simply greedy monsters who exploit every legal loophole they can to accumulate as much money as possible and are fully aware of the damage they're causing - however, in a depressing twist, they're more often shown winning and any repercussions they receive is minor to non-existant.
  • In Prior Authorizations for Everybody!, the executive for the insurance company Aetna shows Aetna's mission statement which is "Be Evil."
• Catchphrase: The Med Student enters with "Knock, knock, hi! I'm the new med student!" This extends to the related podcast "Knock, Knock, Hi! with the Glaucomfleckens".
• Closest Thing We Got: Everything in Rural Medicine, which is underfunded, understaffed and far away from other medical help. The rural medicine doctor does everything from surgery to therapy (as well delivering the mail and being the town mayor), relies on gas station owner Texaco Mike for transport and the imaging machine in the back of the gas station and mentions that the pharmacist covers both medicine and veterinary work.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Pathology is a mild example of this. He appears the happiest, most well-adjusted and healthiest of the specialists until it's revealed that he has conversations with his microscope and considers his lab equipment to be coworkers.
• Comically Small Bribe: General Surgery is able to get Anesthesia to take on a several extra surgeries by giving him a new book of Sudoku puzzles. After accepting the bribe Anesthesia discovers that Surgery already did the easy ones.
• Companion Cube: Pathology has very personal relationships with his lab equipment: he considers his microscope (Tabitha) to be family, and other pieces of lab equipment (all of whom also have names) coworkers. If the Youtube comments are anything to go by, this is Truth in Television for many medical lab workers.
  Pathology: Tabitha is reliable, she listens, I can trust her; do you know any humans like that?
• Cool and Unusual Punishment:
  • Psychiatry is fond of these, forcing Cardiology to read from "the list of things that nobody else outside of cardiology cares about", threatening Nephrology and Cardiology with being put on the quality improvement committee, Anesthesia with cutting off the wifi and Surgery with making the operating room warmer.
  • The "dark-adapted" Radiology punishes Dr. Bill with time in "the box", which turns out to be a well-lit room.
• Creator Career Self-Deprecation: About doctors in general, depicted as eccentric, maladjusted, myopic about medicine beyond their speciality and in some cases bullying underlings and prone to petty feuds with colleagues. But most of all towards Dr. Flanary's speciality, Ophthalmology, not being knowledgeable about what he calls "body medicine", avoiding time at the hospital if possible, and making his scribe do all his work.
• Didn't Think This Through: Ophthalmology offers Family Medicine twelve hours of Jonathan's service as a birthday gift. Too late, he is horrified to realise this means he has to do his job himself.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: "The Annual Faculty Easter Egg Hunt" is a collection of examples of this.
  • Emergency Medicine found a single egg, then asked Internal Medicine to find the rest of the eggs.
  • Urology found two eggs and carried them around in a little bag.
  • Gynecology brought 500 of her own eggs and kept dropping them periodically throughout the morning.
  • General Surgery removed the candy from his eggs and forced Bill to put the eggs back together.
  • Family Medicine found no eggs despite trying harder than everyone else.
  • Infectious Disease found the most difficult egg.
  • Dermatology found the most expensive egg.
  • Pathology found the most Easter eggs.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: Jonathan talked in some early videos and was more of a manservant than the supernatural force he later became.
• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": The attending doctors are, for the most part, only referred to by their specialty (e.g. "Radiology," "Ortho," "Neurology"). Anesthesia's name is revealed to be Mark, in chiding Surgery for not caring to know it.
• Extreme Doormat: Family Medicine is at the bottom of the hospital pecking order, despite being considered the backbone of modern medicine by everyone. He's so used to being disrespected that he will accept any humiliation.
• Five Stages of Grief: Surgery goes through them after Anesthesia tells him they have to cancel a surgery.
• Foreshadowing: The fact that Neurology and Neurosurgery as brothers is hinted at by the fact that they both wear the same glasses. ^note Though Dr. Flanary hasn't revealed whether this was by design or a lucky accident.
• Freudian Slip: The Hospital CEO & Administrator are prone to them, usually in ways involving money.
  Hospital CEO: Do your feelings pay the hospital bonus, uh, bills?
  Hospital Administrator: And finally, we have the golden egg, which goes to the CEO. He’s not here today. I'll make sure it gets delivered to his bank account, uh, to his home.
• Glad I Thought of It: The key to getting a surgeon to accept that a surgery has been cancelled is to have them believe it was their idea.
• Happiness Is Mandatory: Played with. While the hospital staff aren't forced to pretend to be happy, the administration attempts to address the burnout many of them experience by forcing them to attend wellness training- sometimes by force as seen in Mandatory Wellness- which doesn't address any of the issues that actually cause employee burnout and only adds to their workload and stress level.
  • A clearer example of this trope occurs in How to Ace Your Private Equity Interview where the hospital administrator is coerced into pretending to be happy working for Bartholomew Banks, the private equity investor who bought the hospital.
• Howl of Sorrow: The desperately-tired Dr. Bill’s reaction (overlapping with Crucified Hero) when internal medicine rounds are about to end, but the med student asks a question that prompts the attending physician to go on for even longer.
• Humble Hero:
  • Pharmacy will happily help anyone who calls and will quietly fix any mistakes people make in orders, despite being taken for granted by other doctors who frequently order potentially lethal doses of medication.
  • Although Family Medicine is not ignorant to how much he is being taken advantage of, he is far too dedicated to his job and patients to complain.
• Insufferable Genius:
  • Neurology never passes up an opportunity to remind others that they couldn't do his specialization.
  • The various surgeons all buy into their own hype except Ortho.
• Insult Backfire: The result of attempting to call out a health insurance company for its greed.
  CVS Health/Aetna: We have just as much greed as big pharma, but none of the blame.
  Jimothy: No, I think you're way worse.
  CVS Health/Aetna: Really?
  Jimothy: Yeah. Pharma is gouging consumers for insane profits, but at least they make something. From what I can tell, the only reason this company exists is to cause pain and despair.
  CVS Health/Aetna: [Close to tears] Jimothy, that's the nicest thing anyone has ever said about us!
• Land Down Under: Upon learning that the Ophthalmologist gets to visit Australia instead of attending the mandatory wellness retreat (a.k.a. waste of time), the other specialties get back at him by telling him about the dangers of Australian wildlife.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: During the ophthalmology residency interview, the program director asks the candidate about his hobbies. The candidate answers "Making silly videos on the internet" and glances at the camera.
• Limited Wardrobe: The characters have distinct costumes so that the audience can tell them apart. Psychiatry wears a tweed suit, Anesthesia wears scrubs and a pink bouffant cap, Pediatrics wears a unicorn headband, etc. Lampshaded with Emergency Medicine, who tells Psychiatry he drove into work. Psychiatry asks why he's still dressed in a bike helmet, cycling suit, and sunglasses, but decides against it.
  • This is exploited when combining specialties. For example, Emergency Pediatrics has a bike helmet with a unicorn cover over it.
• Lured into a Trap: How doctors are tricked (bordering on Schmuck Bait) into attending mandatory "wellness training."
  Ortho: It's a trap. It's a trap! [Sees "Benefits of Yoga" sign] Resiliency trap! Bros, run!
  Hospital Administrator: The windows are locked. The doors are bolted. You will be completing your resiliency modules today!
• MacGyvering: Rural Medicine at one point repurposed the crash cart into an extra hospital bed. Sadly, this means that the crash cart has now been replaced with the crash burlap sack.
• Mistakes Are Not the End of the World: In the sketch "Surgical Complications", Surgery encounters a resident who had something go wrong in surgery, resulting in harm to the patient. After confirming that it wasn't Anesthesia's fault, Surgery explains to the resident that the only way to completely avoid surgical complications is to stop operating, that it's a good thing the resident feels terrible about it because it means that he cares, and that, after he explains everything to the patient and their family, he should use it as a learning experience, figuring out what went wrong and how to prevent it from happening again. He also recommends therapy.
• Mundane Made Awesome: "Paper Charting". All is not lost if the computer system goes down, because 50-year-old attending doctors still remember how to do literal paperwork, to a soundtrack of "Eye Of The Tiger".
• Must Have Caffeine:
  • Anesthesia always has a tumbler full of coffee and can summon one out of thin air. Apparently, even he doesn't know how the latter happens.
  Psychiatry: Well, according to the circulating nurse– Where did you get coffee?
  Anesthesia: Hmm? Oh, I don't know. It's one of the perks of anesthesia. Somehow, we just end up with coffee.
  • Emergency Medicine, on the other hand, prefers his caffeine in the form of Red Bull and Diet Coke.
• The Nicknamer: Ortho calls everyone "[Descriptor] Bro": Psychiatry is Feelings Bro, Internal Medicine is Med Bro, Gynecology is Lady Bro, etc.
• Oh, Crap!: Rural Medicine is already shocked when one of his patients willingly seeks treatment, and it graduates into full on “Oh Crap” territory when he realizes the patient interrupted his daily chores of his own volition to seek said treatment.
• Out-of-Genre Experience: The skits sometimes swerve into horror territory:
  • For non-Emergency Medicine physicians, visiting the ER is deeply scary, especially for Surgery and Anesthesia.
  • All specialties regard "wellness training" with dread, and are lured to it via specialty-specific baits.
  • The hospital administration's "wintertime wellness" program borders on brainwashing.
  Psychiatry: This isn't wellness. You need actual sunlight!
  Bill: Well, the administration said that this, and individual saltine packets are all we need. Besides, we like it here.
  • New med school graduates look with fright at their upcoming first year of residency (a.k.a. intern year).
  • The hospital lab is an alien & rarely-visited place for the doctors, who are nervous about going there.
  Internal Medicine: Take the stairs down further than you've ever been before; when you think you've reached the bottom, keep going. Eventually, you'll find yourself in an unfamiliar place full of long, dark, windowless hallways. The only sound you'll hear is that of your beating heart and trembling breath.
  • The battle of the scopes for a med student's affection.
• Pants-Free: Radiology spends so much time by himself that he sometimes forgets to wear pants in social situations; other radiologists don't see a problem with this.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: Ortho’s attempt to disguise himself as a member of the internal medicine team.
  Internal Medicine: Ortho, I know it’s you.
  Ortho: How, bro? I’m wearing nerd glasses!
  Internal Medicine: You’re also wearing an Ortho scrub cap.
• Physical Fitness Punishment: Inverted by Ortho, who uses exercise as a reward for orthopedics residents when he's happy about the work they've done.
• Punch-Clock Villain: The various villains' assistants (Jimothy & Todrick for United Healthcare, Himothy & Bimothy for the hospital CEO, and Tristopher for academic publishing) clearly disagree with their respective bosses' unethical practices, but keep working for them.
• Rapid-Fire "No!": Psychiatry's answer when he's asked whether he has succeeded in improving his colleagues' mental health.
• "Ray of Hope" Ending: The potential ending of the Private-Equity-buying-the-ER storyline: Bartholomew Banks' buyout of the ER is unprofitable (in part due to the No Surprises Act), he's facing potential bankruptcy, and the Emergency Medicine physicians are suing him. The system of for-profit healthcare and insurance remains intact, however, so it's a partial victory at best.
• Repetitive Name: The hapless resident Bill's full name is revealed to be... Dr. Bill Bill. ^note A Mothers' Day skit showed his actual name to be William...and Dr. Flanary revealed (in the comments) that his full name is Dr. William William.
• The Reveal: Neurology and Neurosurgery are brothers!
• Running Gag:
  • Nephrology and Cardiology are natural enemies. ^note Clinically, what's good for the heart is generally not good for the kidneys, and vice versa.
  • Cardiology hands out EKGs to people asking "What do you see here?" This is especially if that person is a medical student, intern, or anyone lower in the medicine hierarchy.
  • Radiology always has one more set of sunglasses beneath the first.
  • Doctors forget about the Krebs cycle once they graduate med school because they never need to use it. (Except the Clinical Geneticist.)
  • Ophthalmology going to great lengths to avoid working on holidays and weekends.
• Scare 'Em Straight: Ortho attempts to dissuade kids from the trampoline park by describing the various bone fractures he sees from trampoline-related injuries.
  Ortho: Oh yeah, bro, keep double jumping! I can't wait to show you what the inside of your femur looks like!
• See-Thru Specs: In "How to Ace Your Radiology Residency Interview", the applicant tells the program director about how disappointed he was when the x-ray glasses he got as a child didn't actually work, so he tried to make the world's first working pair of x-ray glasses. The program director smiles and calls it a "fun little kid project." The applicant then chuckles and says "Nice pacemaker, by the way," and the program director looks at his own chest in surprise.
• Self-Deprecation: On his podcast, Dr. Flanary shared that he named much-abused resident Bill after himself (albeit Bill, rather than Will).
• Shoddy Knockoff Product: As far as Emergency Medicine is concerned, Diet Pepsi is this to Diet Coke.
  Emergency Medicine: I'll drink it, but I don't have to like it.
• Shown Their Work: The sketches are (obviously) exaggerated for comic effect, but many other physicians have praised them for their accuracy and humor.
• The Silent Bob: Jonathan, Ophthalmology's Loyal Scribe, communicates entirely through terse nods and simple facial expressions. He is able to carry entire conversations this way.
• Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: The opposing concerns of the specialties leads this between:
  • Nephrology and Cardiology
  • Surgery and Anesthesia
  • Neurology and Neurosurgery, which also turns out to be sibling rivalry.
  • Ophthalmology and Dermatology, though this is mostly rivalry over which specialty has the better quality of life.
• Slasher Smile: The hallucination/anthropomorphic representation of intern year has one.
• Speak of the Devil:
  • Being vague about patients' mental states or neurological scans means Neurology suddenly enters to berate the poor doctor responsible, even if he was on vacation.
  • The man in a hot tub mentioning that he's still wearing his contact lenses summons Ophthalmology and Jonathan to wrestle him out of there.
• Sunglasses at Night:
  • Radiology ("our dark-adapted colleague") wears multiple pairs of sunglasses whenever he ventures out from his pitch-black reading room.
  • Infectious Disease always wears sunglasses because he's the coolest person in the room.
• The Swear Jar: There is a swear jar for surgeons in the operating room; the money collected is used to pay residents' salaries.
• Throw the Dog a Bone:
  • Family Medicine, after years of being the depressing punchline of other doctors' jokes, finally gets a birthday gift of twelve hours of Jonathan's service. His disheveled appearance immediately straightens out and he rushes away to make use of Jonathan's help. Ophthalmology, now without a helper to organize his day, immediately turns into a mirror of Family Medicine's usual appearance.
  • The Med Student Mafia stand up to Surgery to make sure Bill is able to leave the hospital on time for once.
• Thousand-Yard Stare: Doctors with end-stage burnout have this expression.
• Trademark Favorite Food:
  • Emergency Medicine is never far from a bottle of Diet Coke.
  • Nephrology's ever-present tube of salt.
  • Pediatrics is fond of lollipops.
  • Anaesthesia can spontaneously materialize coffee.
• The Unsmile: Neurosurgery's New Year's resolution was to learn how to smile, with unfortunate results. "He's trying!"
• Viral Transformation: Doctors who spend too long in the Emergency Department are assimilated into the staff and find themselves wearing cycling gear.

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