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He’s Popeye the Pothead Man… (toot! toot!)

Posted by Ampersand | February 10th, 2005

This entertaining Alternet article explains what Popeye has stuffed in his pipe:

…is the spinach which gives Popeye his super-strength really a metaphor for another magical herb? Have children around the world been adoring a hero who is really a heavy consumer of the forbidden weed — marijuana?

The evidence is circumstantial, but it is there, and when added together it presents a compelling picture that, for many readers at least, Popeye’s strength-giving spinach is meant as a clear metaphor for the miraculous powers of marijuana.

Via Pen-Elayne.

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15 Responses to “He’s Popeye the Pothead Man… (toot! toot!)”

  1. Robert Writes:
    February 10th, 2005 at 1:27 pm

    I’m Popeye the Sailor Man
    I get baked when’er I can…

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  2. Jeff Writes:
    February 10th, 2005 at 7:28 pm

    I basically regard the folks who find hidden marijuana references at best as something along the lines of gay references; sometimes it’s like Hooper X in Chasing Amy explaining that “Archie and Jughead were lovers,” and sometimes it’s like Jerry Falwell complaining about the Teletubbies. Insistence on a subversive reading just smacks of desperation to me.

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  3. Joan Writes:
    February 10th, 2005 at 7:39 pm

    Interesting. That’s the kind of thing I would have expected to see in a right-wing mag, not a stoner mag.

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  4. acm Writes:
    February 11th, 2005 at 7:46 am

    heh — pot may have miraculous powers, but I’ve never heard included among them any prod to action, let alone increased athleticism… maybe if Popeye sank into the cushions and exuded waves of “what’s the problem, dude?”…

    :)

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  5. Ron O Writes:
    February 11th, 2005 at 12:58 pm

    I knew a few stoners in college who used spinach as a euphamism for pot. My stoner group used ‘film’.

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  6. jam Writes:
    February 14th, 2005 at 9:46 am

    Insistence on a subversive reading just smacks of desperation to me.

    as opposed to what? the “correct” reading?

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  7. Kevin Moore Writes:
    February 15th, 2005 at 1:26 pm

    So, what about the fried chicken? The Popeye’s fast food chain sells better fried chicken than KFC. And no spinach. Remember: the egg in the frying pan was your brain on drugs. A whole fried chicken is one stoned bird, man.

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  8. Shahryar Writes:
    February 18th, 2005 at 8:40 pm

    I was led to believe that “Popeye the sailorman” cartoon was devised to market spinach!

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  9. Morgaine Swann Writes:
    February 19th, 2005 at 1:52 am

    I knew there was something I liked about Popeye…

    This comment was written by Morgaine Swann.
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  10. Brittany Writes:
    December 4th, 2005 at 9:36 pm

    ok so i totally agree with popeye being a pot head. one time he gets punched into this batch of ’spinach’ and he stated “aah what a strange weed this be.. thus it strengthens my Vitality” or something like that(im sayin that from memory so…… hah) also i have this dvd of him and like if you look in the background of like every scene there is like a crazy face and shit its seriously NUT. i love watchin it stoned its Freakkky!
    ok im done ranting
    peace

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  11. Roland A. Duby Writes:
    November 21st, 2007 at 1:57 am

    Popeye was originally representative of the struggle between the common man (popeye) and big industry (brutus) over the control of Olive Oil (which was used for many things as well as running diesel engines)

    Olive was tall and skinny and ugly like an Olive tree.

    When Popeye smoked spinach thru his pipe he got amazing strength.
    This was a common theme in the news papers of the 20’s, they would report the amazing strength of the “blacks and mexicans while under the influence of the hemp”

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  12. Ampersand Writes:
    November 21st, 2007 at 6:54 am

    I haven’t read as much of the original strips as I wish; but I’ve read enough to be certain that you’re mistaken in just about every particular.

    In the original 1920s comic strips, Popeye didn’t eat or smoke for strength; his superhuman strength came to him after he rubbed the head of a magic bird, which saved his life (he had been shot several times and was dying).

    Olive was originally a relatively minor character; she was brought in as the sister of a more important character, Caster Oil (Caster later got written out). Olive got skinnier later, but wasn’t especially thin as originally drawn. And she wasn’t ugly within the context of how the cartoonist drew other characters.

    And Brutus, who was just labeled “mean man” in a 1920s cast drawing by Segar (the cartoonist), was a thug, not an industrialist. He also wasn’t Popeye’s most important antagonist in the comic strip.

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  13. Daran Writes:
    November 21st, 2007 at 7:08 am

    I thought it was ‘Bluto’ not ‘Brutus’. The straight dope confirms.

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  14. Ampersand Writes:
    November 21st, 2007 at 8:24 am

    Hoist on my own nit-picking petard! :-P

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  15. Roland A. Duby Writes:
    November 21st, 2007 at 3:42 pm

    maybe y’all should read this

    http://www.cannabisculture.com/articles/3568.html

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