The meaning of 吐く in a scene from 火花

Question

In the popular novel 火花, after the two main characters engage in a manzai-like conversation, Kamiya says the following:

「二人がかりで結構時間かかったな。笑いって、こんなに難しかったっけ？」

I think I have a good understanding of that statement. However, the next statement by Tokunaga is as follows:

「僕も吐きそうになりました」

Generally, I've seen 吐く used to mean "spit out" or "throw up". I know there are a few other meanings as well, but none of them seem to fit the context here.

It just seems strange for a comedian to say "I was ready to throw up" after only a few exchanges with someone (I'd say less than a minute), even if it was an intense discussion (or comedy routine). And they haven't been drinking enough here to actually mean "vomit".

My guess is something like "break out laughing", but I've never heard 吐く used in this context, at least without an object.

Can someone please clarify what 吐く means here?

Answer 1

I found an excerpt from here.

It looks like he went out with his 先輩{せんぱい} for the first time drinking, in which he never drank before and felt very nervous.

Then his 先輩 says:

その代わり笑わしてな。でも、俺が真面目に質問した時は、ちゃんと答えて

So he feels under a lot of pressure to make his 先輩 laugh, also they have a very quick exchange back and forth where he is under a lot of pressure to answer.

僕も吐きそうになりました

While a literal translation of this is "I feel like I'm going to vomit" I think a more accurate interpretation is "I feel sick". I often hear this phrase in a situation where someone is under a lot of pressure too. For example, when you have a huge workload and you don't know what to do next, I would hear this phrase from a co-worker.

Answer 2

From my understanding, Tokunaga is talking about how difficult it is to get laughs from the audience and how much effort is required - in this case, to the point of vomiting. 「吐く」 is normally not used to express laughter.

Answer 3

We often use 緊張して吐きそうになる, which means "I am almost throwing up under tension/pressure."

Tokunaga was so nervous that he was almost throwing up.