# Did anyone, literally, want smoke blown up their ass? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 24, 2018, 9:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-anyone-literally-want-smoke-blown-up-their-ass/826617 "2018-12-24T09:45:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2018, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-anyone-literally-want-smoke-blown-up-their-ass/826617/21 "2018-12-25T04:18:58Z")
p.s. That “If you won’t take this medication orally, I’m sure we can find some OTHER way for you to take it!” line came from “One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest.” You can also get Tylenol suppositories, and I’ve seen aspirin supps. Some narcotics and sedative/hypnotics can also be given that way; let’s not go there, because there are people who do it recreationally. ---
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2018, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-anyone-literally-want-smoke-blown-up-their-ass/826617/22 "2018-12-25T05:13:11Z")
It was so accepted as a treatment for drowning that Victorian swimming pools would have the nessacary equipment available to administer tobacco smoke enemas. The same way modern pools have CPR instructions at hand in the event of drowning. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2018, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-anyone-literally-want-smoke-blown-up-their-ass/826617/23 "2018-12-25T17:38:35Z")
There was a suppository joke in _Futurama_, circa 2000 (the Professor gives the rest of the cast an extremely large pill each, which they wouldn’t be able to swallow whole, followed by “Good news, everyone! It’s a suppository”). So not quite two decades. And no mention of “you wouldn’t believe what people stick up their butts” is complete without the [definitive resource](https://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/478/is-it-true-what-they-say-about-gerbils/). ---
**Author:** ![nelliebly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nelliebly/32/5422_2.png) [@nelliebly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nelliebly)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2018, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-anyone-literally-want-smoke-blown-up-their-ass/826617/24 "2018-12-25T19:19:53Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > Where’s the thread from the guy who wanted to know if eating large amounts of ultra-hot peppers would hurt him? > > Yeah, the coffee enema thing is/was part of the Gerson treatment, devised in the 1920s as a treatment for cancer, and some people still do it. :smack: OK, maybe at the time it was about as useful as anything else, but we do have better methods nowadays. It also includes juicing (you drink that, not stick it up your butt) and it’s possible that some people might benefit from that, due to getting better nutrition than they did before. > > [http://www.cam-cancer.org/The-Summaries/Dietary-approaches/Gerson-therapy/What-is-it](http://www.cam-cancer.org/The-Summaries/Dietary-approaches/Gerson-therapy/What-is-it) > > [History of Gerson Therapy and Where to Get it - Cancer Tutor](https://www.cancertutor.com/gerson-therapy/) > > Charlotte Gerson, the founder’s daughter, continues to promote this treatment at the age of 96. The U.S. treatment centers are only licensed as spas; you need to cross the border to be treated this way by ostensibly licensed health care professionals. > > [Charlotte Gerson: Promoter of cancer “therapy” that failed the “Wellness Warrior” - JREF](https://web.randi.org/swift/charlotte-gerson-promoter-of-cancer-therapy-that-failed-the-wellness-warrior1) I remember reading about the Gerson diet in\* Death Be Not Proud\*, John Gunther’s account of his son Johnny’s battle with brain cancer. IIRC in addition to the juice, patients ate lots of certain raw vegetables–kind of a raw vegan diet. I don’t recall mention of coffee enemas in the book, but didn’t Steve McQueen go to Mexico for coffee enemas when he was battling cancer? What was the reasoning behind their use? ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2018, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-anyone-literally-want-smoke-blown-up-their-ass/826617/25 "2018-12-25T19:48:19Z")
> [@nelliebly](#): > > I remember reading about the Gerson diet in\* Death Be Not Proud\*, John Gunther’s account of his son Johnny’s battle with brain cancer. IIRC in addition to the juice, patients ate lots of certain raw vegetables–kind of a raw vegan diet. I don’t recall mention of coffee enemas in the book, but didn’t Steve McQueen go to Mexico for coffee enemas when he was battling cancer? What was the reasoning behind their use? It’s been many years since I read “Death Be Not Proud”, but I do remember how his son said he could tell time by the enemas. Like I said earlier, at the time it was as good a treatment as anything, and truthfully is now, because glioblastoma multiforme is still pretty much a death sentence. ☹ They allegedly stimulated the liver, and back in the day, enemas were used for pretty much whatever ailed you, because it gave the impression that something was being done about it. Usually, it didn’t produce anything beyond a cleaner colon. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2018, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-anyone-literally-want-smoke-blown-up-their-ass/826617/26 "2018-12-25T23:23:39Z")
p.s. I don’t remember Steve McQueen (the white one who died many years ago) doing this, but I do remember that Michael Landon went to a Mexican clinic, and so did Steve Jobs. All three had pancreatic cancer; however, Jobs had a type that is usually treatable, but by the time he pursued standard treatment, it was too late to do much for him beyond comfort care. IDK if McQueen or Landon had that type, or what kind of prognoses they would have had at the time if they did. Coretta Scott King died at a clinic in Tijuana, but IDK what kind of cancer she had. ---
**Author:** ![SigMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@SigMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SigMan)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2018, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-anyone-literally-want-smoke-blown-up-their-ass/826617/27 "2018-12-26T00:47:19Z")
Hmm… I find this interesting. Does this mean if I stick my pain pill up my ass it’ll work better than by swallowing it? ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2018, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-anyone-literally-want-smoke-blown-up-their-ass/826617/28 "2018-12-26T00:47:32Z")
> [@griffin1977](#): > > It was so accepted as a treatment for drowning that Victorian swimming pools would have the necessary equipment available to administer tobacco smoke enemas. The same way modern pools have CPR instructions at hand in the event of drowning. There were also kits available next to rivers, canals and lakes, as reported by Stephen Fry on QI: _Blowing Smoke Up One’s Ass_ bit - QI, Series 8, Episode 10 [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/6uEJbwGYaDs/hqdefault.jpg "Blowing Smoke Up One's Ass - QI, Series 8, Episode 10 Preview - BBC One") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uEJbwGYaDs) ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2018, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-anyone-literally-want-smoke-blown-up-their-ass/826617/29 "2018-12-26T05:00:58Z")
> [@SigMan](#): > > Hmm… I find this interesting. Does this mean if I stick my pain pill up my ass it’ll work better than by swallowing it? I wouldn’t recommend it. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2018, 8:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-anyone-literally-want-smoke-blown-up-their-ass/826617/30 "2018-12-26T08:31:50Z")
Another old medical joke: “Doctor, for all the good these pills are doing me, I might as well be sticking them up my ass.” ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2018, 10:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-anyone-literally-want-smoke-blown-up-their-ass/826617/31 "2018-12-26T10:18:03Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > They allegedly stimulated the liver, and back in the day, enemas were used for pretty much whatever ailed you, because it gave the impression that something was being done about it. Usually, it didn’t produce anything beyond a cleaner colon. I’m not certain about this, but the colon can absorb fluids and back before IV hydration was a thing it may have helped people who couldn’t swallow water, either because they were unconscious or vomiting or whatever. But I’m not at all sure that it would be sufficient to preserve life. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2018, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-anyone-literally-want-smoke-blown-up-their-ass/826617/32 "2018-12-26T17:48:12Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > I’m not certain about this, but the colon can absorb fluids and back before IV hydration was a thing it may have helped people who couldn’t swallow water, either because they were unconscious or vomiting or whatever. But I’m not at all sure that it would be sufficient to preserve life. It was used in some cases of hyperemesis gravidarum in the days before IVs were common, and other situations where a person could not take oral fluids. Water is absorbed that way; however, many people were given concoctions made of milk, eggs, honey, etc. and the efficacy of that was dubious. This was done to President Garfield as part of the torture he endured for the two months between his shooting and his death. ---
**Author:** ![jbaker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/59ef9b/32.png) [@jbaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jbaker)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2018, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-anyone-literally-want-smoke-blown-up-their-ass/826617/33 "2018-12-26T18:46:50Z")
According to Green’s Dictionary of Slang, to “blow smoke up someone’s ass” means to confuse, to tell lies to. The earliest cited reference is a 1958 novel, Band of Brothers by Ernest Frankel, set in the Korean War in 1950. So the phrase derives from the well-known characteristic of smoke as aiding deception, rather than an actual physical practice. One might have thought that blowing smoke in, say, the eyes would be more effective, but slang tends to reach for crudity, soldiers’ slang especially so. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2018, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-anyone-literally-want-smoke-blown-up-their-ass/826617/34 "2018-12-26T19:02:25Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > There’s a shop I pass on the way to work called “Avail Vapor”. > > I tend to read their sign as “Anal Vapor”. :smack: Shh, don’t give the vape shops any ideas. ---
**Author:** ![ExTank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@ExTank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ExTank)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2018, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-anyone-literally-want-smoke-blown-up-their-ass/826617/35 "2018-12-26T19:19:30Z")
I read the OP Title on the GQ Forum Page, and thought, “Well, yeah, sure; Rules 34 and 41 are _always_ in effect.” ---
**Author:** ![SigMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@SigMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SigMan)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2018, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-anyone-literally-want-smoke-blown-up-their-ass/826617/36 "2018-12-26T20:51:19Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > I wouldn’t recommend it. :rolleyes: LOL! I used to do crank that way. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2018, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-anyone-literally-want-smoke-blown-up-their-ass/826617/37 "2018-12-27T00:11:49Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > It was used in some cases of hyperemesis gravidarum in the days before IVs were common, and other situations where a person could not take oral fluids. Water is absorbed that way; however, many people were given concoctions made of milk, eggs, honey, etc. and the efficacy of that was dubious. This was done to President Garfield as part of the torture he endured for the two months between his shooting and his death. I just remembered what the medical term was for this. It’s proctoclysis. What’s Rule 41? I know what Rule 34 is, but Google doesn’t give me anything specific for Rule 41. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2018, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-anyone-literally-want-smoke-blown-up-their-ass/826617/38 "2018-12-27T00:13:07Z")
> [@SigMan](#): > > LOL! I used to do crank that way. :eek: Do you still have your lower bowel?!?!?? ---
**Author:** ![SigMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@SigMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SigMan)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2018, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-anyone-literally-want-smoke-blown-up-their-ass/826617/39 "2018-12-27T03:30:06Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > :eek: > > Do you still have your lower bowel?!?!?? I’m fine. ---
**Author:** ![Enola\_Straight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dec6dc/32.png) [@Enola\_Straight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enola_Straight)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2018, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-anyone-literally-want-smoke-blown-up-their-ass/826617/40 "2018-12-27T14:11:08Z")
From an old veterinary illustration: A horse with a pipe up it’s ass: [![](http://web-static.nypl.org/exhibitions/drydrunk/images/horse.jpg) ](http://web-static.nypl.org/exhibitions/drydrunk/images/horse.jpg) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-anyone-literally-want-smoke-blown-up-their-ass/826617.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-anyone-literally-want-smoke-blown-up-their-ass/826617.md?page=3)