George H. W. Bush vomiting incident

On January 8, 1992, about 8:20 p.m JST, while attending a banquet hosted by the then Prime Minister of Japan, Kiichi Miyazawa, U.S. President George H. W. Bush fainted after vomiting in Miyazawa's lap.

On January 8, 1992, Bush was attending a state event for 135 diplomats held at the home of the Japanese Prime Minister, near the end of the President's 12-day trade-oriented trip through Asia. Earlier that day Bush had played a doubles tennis match in which the Emperor of Japan Akihito and his son the Crown Prince Naruhito beat Bush and his partner, a former U.S. ambassador to Japan.

The incident was widely reported, and quickly became fodder for the nation's comedians. Footage of the President vomiting was broadcast on the ABC network.

Shortly after the incident, an Idaho man, James Edward Smith, called CNN posing as the president's physician and claimed that Bush had died. A CNN employee entered the information into a centralized computer used by both CNN and sister network CNN Headline News, and Headline News nearly aired it before it could be verified. Smith was subsequently questioned by the Secret Service and hospitalized at a private medical facility for evaluation.

In Japan, even several years later, Bush was remembered for this event. According to the Encyclopedia of political communication, "The incident caused a wave of late night television jokes and ridicule in the international community, even coining Bushu-suru which literally means 'to do the Bush thing'."

According to USA Today, the incident was one of the top "25 memorable public meltdowns that had us talking and laughing or cringing over the past quarter-century."

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