Subject: Re: "They Must've Been on Drugs!"
Author:
Posted on: 2010-12-20 13:23:00 UTC
It's one of the many frankly stupid jokes that people seem inclined to make without thought or warning. But I actually haven't seen it that much.
...and the like. I'm rushed and headachey and not entirely up for comment at the moment, but a few days ago someone linked to this post, titled "The next person who says 'Hur hur they must have been on drugs when they did that' gets punched". It's an excellent post, and I'm wondering-- what do you guys think? We've done the "What are they on and where can I get some?" conversations here, and I'm not going to pretend they don't make me a little twitchy. Given, in those cases we're usually boggling at the stupid, so it's a little less irritating. But this is something I've noticed (more in the IRC): someone will link to a surreal, strange sort of thing, and go "Man, what drugs were they on?" or similar-- and it always seems to be treated like a bad thing. Which is rather frustrating for those of us who rather value creativity.
What do y'all think?
I don't recall having seen this used as a comment on particularly creative things. The only times I have heard it used both in Real Life and online is in reference to acts of extreme stupidity.
Such as "What was he smoking to think that pouring all the powder from an entire case of bullets into the barrel of a gun and then pulling the trigger repeatedly was a good idea?" (Real life incident by the way, I think he kept all his fingers and the fire was contained to the kitchen--I'll have to ask my sister for an update).
Or "What drugs was that author on when they decided t at one in the morning to write the untold pornlove story of Frodo and Aragorn and post it before they went to bed at four that same morning."
Using it toward any act of creativity would be annoying, and there are much more creative insults that could be hurled in the general direction of the people creating either of the above situations, so I agree that it could be retired.
It's one of the many frankly stupid jokes that people seem inclined to make without thought or warning. But I actually haven't seen it that much.
"The next person who says 'Hur hur they must have been on drugs' gets punched. And the one after that gets stabbed."
Sounds like Kit belongs here.
Are you a Slacktivite? I lurk there.
I am indeed, though I go by a different name there. It's one of my favorite spaces on the internet, for sure.
There's an excellent TV Tropes page to the effect that actually making certain creative things while on drugs is difficult. And then we have that one poem about Kublai Khan in Xanadu that the author claims to have made on drugs. So... yeah. I guess dismissing anything odd as having been made on drugs is stupid. After all, something Axe Cop is excessively weird not because it was made on drugs, but because it was written by a creative seven year old.
I would provide linkses but I have no experience with this type of board and don't know how. I'd look it up if I had more time, and I apologize in advance for not doing so.
A rock band I know has tried several times to write songs while drunk. They usually failed, because said songs were usually completely incoherent. In fact, in more than 30 years and hundreds of songs, they alledgedly succeeded once.
Mainly because we don't want to upset the gravitational field of HQ with the collective eye-rolling of the entire PPC population. XP
But yeah, if I recall, they were all in a surrealist street gang who used to laugh at the kids who'd go out and get drunk. And Adam's drug habit was treated with all gravitas due, by him and the rest of the band.
That, too.
And the song they wrote drunk is neither better, nor worse nor stranger than the others. I wouldn't have guessed if I hadn't been told.
But it is very highly recommended. Kit Whitfield's an excellent writer, and her blog is very cool indeed.