# 2 year old smokes 40 cigarettes a day. WTF? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 31, 2010, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2-year-old-smokes-40-cigarettes-a-day-wtf/541401 "2010-05-31T17:35:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Gestalt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/90ced4/32.png) [@Gestalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gestalt)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2010, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2-year-old-smokes-40-cigarettes-a-day-wtf/541401/41 "2010-06-02T01:59:48Z")
I was amazed at the two year old’s dexterity in the few seconds at the end! I mean, don’t most babies that age have trouble holding a sippy cup? ---
**Author:** ![Cubsfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Cubsfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cubsfan)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2010, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2-year-old-smokes-40-cigarettes-a-day-wtf/541401/42 "2010-06-02T02:14:01Z")
> [@Gestalt](#): > > I was amazed at the two year old’s dexterity in the few seconds at the end! I mean, don’t most babies that age have trouble holding a sippy cup? That what what was so funny and bizarre. ---
**Author:** ![lavenderviolet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/cdc98d/32.png) [@lavenderviolet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lavenderviolet)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2010, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2-year-old-smokes-40-cigarettes-a-day-wtf/541401/43 "2010-06-02T02:15:42Z")
> [@DiosaBellissima](#): > > Why wouldn’t they just stop smoking? I mean, I realize it isn’t quite that easy, but if I had a kid who was hell bent on eating cigg butts, he’d have an issue finding them within 100 feet of my house. It’s pretty amazing how devoted some people are to cigarettes. I have met many American families who bring their kid to the hospital or clinic because the kid has bad asthma but yet the parents still smoke around the kid. Personally I consider that sort of thing at least as bad as this Indonesian mom letting the kid smoke directly. ---
**Author:** ![MoodIndigo1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e8c25b/32.png) [@MoodIndigo1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MoodIndigo1)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2010, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2-year-old-smokes-40-cigarettes-a-day-wtf/541401/44 "2010-06-02T02:17:52Z")
There are 2 videos on Youtube of him smoking. This is the first one. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xykDdOiz3zI&feature=related](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xykDdOiz3zI&feature=related) When I saw it, I ran to Snopes to make sure this wasn’t some sort of gag (like the video of the babies dancing), but I didn’t see it mentioned. Somehow, that video doesn’t seem real to me, the toddler is too skilled for his age, as some posters have mentioned… ---
**Author:** ![Gestalt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/90ced4/32.png) [@Gestalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gestalt)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2010, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2-year-old-smokes-40-cigarettes-a-day-wtf/541401/45 "2010-06-02T02:29:07Z")
> [@MoodIndigo1](#): > > There are 2 videos on Youtube of him smoking. This is the first one. > [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xykDdOiz3zI&feature=related](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xykDdOiz3zI&feature=related) > > When I saw it, I ran to Snopes to make sure this wasn’t some sort of gag (like the video of the babies dancing), but I didn’t see it mentioned. > Somehow, that video doesn’t seem real to me, the toddler is too skilled for his age, as some posters have mentioned.. Huh. That video definitely makes him seem more typically two-year-oldish (I thought the tongue-sticking out part was cute), but I also thought the kiss he blew was surprisingly dextrous for someone his age, though not as much as the smoking. ---
**Author:** ![ENugent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/4af34b/32.png) [@ENugent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ENugent)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2010, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2-year-old-smokes-40-cigarettes-a-day-wtf/541401/46 "2010-06-02T03:22:12Z")
> [@Gestalt](#): > > I was amazed at the two year old’s dexterity in the few seconds at the end! I mean, don’t most babies that age have trouble holding a sippy cup? My toddler just turned two on Friday, and I don’t think that the boy in the video is outrageously dextrous. Most two-year-olds are quite capable of drinking from a non-sippy cup, although the sippy is more convenient for parents. It’s decent fine motor control, but I bet it’s within a standard deviation of the norm. He’s obviously had a lot of practice with the skill. Of course, I am still horrified by a toddler smoking. ---
**Author:** ![jackelope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@jackelope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackelope)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2010, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2-year-old-smokes-40-cigarettes-a-day-wtf/541401/47 "2010-06-02T04:23:13Z")
I can’t quite disengage from the horror enough to find this funny. Maybe it’s because I was a heavy smoker for many years, but at no point during the video did I feel any urge to laugh. All I see is this kid dying young. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2010, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2-year-old-smokes-40-cigarettes-a-day-wtf/541401/48 "2010-06-02T05:30:59Z")
OH come on, this is the best line > [@](#): > > Tears formed a small pool in the folds of his double chin. ---
**Author:** ![runcible\_spoon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9fc29f/32.png) [@runcible\_spoon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/runcible_spoon)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2010, 7:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2-year-old-smokes-40-cigarettes-a-day-wtf/541401/49 "2010-06-02T07:43:00Z")
I saw that yesterday, and it still doesn’t seem real to me. I can’t even imagine someone letting a two-year-old smoke, it seems like it has to be made up. In my head it’s like watching that video of the kids doing Scarface - incongruous, hilarious, harmless. So, I laugh, even though it’s horrifying. ---
**Author:** ![simple\_homer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@simple\_homer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/simple_homer)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2010, 7:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2-year-old-smokes-40-cigarettes-a-day-wtf/541401/50 "2010-06-02T07:58:31Z")
In my experience many Asians think that smoking is very macho. If it was a baby girl smoking, the parents would probably stop it very quickly. But, because it is a boy, then it is macho, entertaining, and funny. Same with the baby’s obesity. The baby boy is seen as healthy, wealthy, and macho because it is fat. A baby girl would probably not be fed so much food. I do not believe that the mother is seeking help for her baby. I believe that she just enjoys the attention. ---
**Author:** ![Seamack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/46a35a/32.png) [@Seamack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seamack)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2010, 8:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2-year-old-smokes-40-cigarettes-a-day-wtf/541401/51 "2010-06-02T08:10:29Z")
> [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](#): > > You’re not understanding human nature then. Horror can be funny. It’s also humorous when you are faced with extreme _incongruity_. > > The video of the kid smoking, as someone said above, looking in some ways like a miniature adult/Jabba the Hutt cross - you look at it and it just does not compute. It’s incongruous and one’s brain goes all kerflooey at the sight. > > So no, not “delightful ha-ha” but rather “oh, how sick and bizarre ha-ha”. I do understand human nature. I do ‘get’ sick jokes. This however is an actual video of an actual infant partaking in an activity that is both wrong and dangerous and has furthermore been sanctioned by his parent. I have like many laughed at inappropriate jokes about famines, paedophilia and all sorts of extreme incongruities. I do get the horror can be funny side of things. Pointing at a tv screen/computer monitor and laughing at an actual horror is a very different thing in my mind. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2-year-old-smokes-40-cigarettes-a-day-wtf/541401.md?page=2)