# Fictional Drug or Disease Names **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 28, 2008, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-drug-or-disease-names/443057 "2008-03-28T16:06:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![photopat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e95f7d/32.png) [@photopat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/photopat)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2008, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-drug-or-disease-names/443057/21 "2008-03-28T22:10:40Z")
[QUOTE=Bosda Di’Chi of Tricor] I can’t believe you have all forgotten: **The Andromeda Strain**. Various comics jump to mind: the Super-Soldier Serum (Captain America), Miraclo (Hourman), Gingold Serum (The Elongated Man). [/QUOTE] Disease: Virus X (deadly to Kryptonians, cured by white kryptonite) . Drug: Venom (Batman was addicted to it and it gave Bane his physique), Dried Frog Pills (Discworld). And of course Moe’s drink the Forget Me Shot. ---
**Author:** ![Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troy_mcclure_sf/32/4150_2.png) [@Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Troy_McClure_SF)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2008, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-drug-or-disease-names/443057/22 "2008-03-28T22:22:46Z")
_AD_’s Temocil. ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2008, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-drug-or-disease-names/443057/23 "2008-03-28T23:26:16Z")
Do they have to come from movies or TV shows? There are a couple of streets near here that inspire fictional diseases: **Infectious Clementina** and **Malignant Natoma** ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2008, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-drug-or-disease-names/443057/24 "2008-03-28T23:27:44Z")
[QUOTE=Annie-Xmas] The Legion of Super-Heroes had ProFem and ProMen, drugs used to change gender. Remember Shavaugh/Sean Erin? [/QUOTE] On the disease front, around the same era, there were Grandin Gender Reversal germs. Other comic book diseases - Clench, an ebola variant that was a problem in Gotham during one of the bat-events (No Man’s Land, IIRC). Dispotellis, a sentient disease, currently a member of the Sinestro Corps. Venusian Stinkwart Plague, extinct by the early 31st century, it’s still enough to get a decontamination team into the Legion’s HQ when Lightning Lad tries to get some privacy by claiming they’re quarantined for it. Transmetropolitan is full of fictional drugs and diseases - drugs range from the simple Stim to (probably badly incorrect) recreations of Hitler’s urine, diseases include venerealy transmitted ergot infections (one of many diseases that Spider Jerusalem is known to have contracted at one point or another) and sentient venereal worms (Robert McX’s dark, disturbing secret). ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2008, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-drug-or-disease-names/443057/25 "2008-03-28T23:33:26Z")
[QUOTE=photopat] And of course Moe’s drink the Forget Me Shot. [/QUOTE] Other Simpsons drugs include Focusyn, which is a Ritalin knockoff, and Viagragay, an impotence drug for bald men. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2008, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-drug-or-disease-names/443057/26 "2008-03-28T23:34:15Z")
What about Diminished Gluteal Syndrome (DGS), which Hank Hill suffers from? He basically has no ass, and needs support to his spine, thus he wears a prothesis? “We’re here! No rear! Get used to it!” “You’re wearin’ butt boobies!” ---
**Author:** ![SpoilerVirgin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@SpoilerVirgin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpoilerVirgin)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2008, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-drug-or-disease-names/443057/27 "2008-03-28T23:37:49Z")
My favorite fictional drug is Retinax, the eye medication to which Captain Kirk is allergic in _Wrath of Khan_. I use a medication called Naphcon A for my eye allergies, and I can never, ever remember what it is called, because I always think of it as Retinax. ---
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2008, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-drug-or-disease-names/443057/28 "2008-03-28T23:38:04Z")
The disease in the recent “I am Legend” remake is not named as far as I recall. Anyone else remember it being given a name at any point in the film ? In the original Omega Man it’s Neutron Bomb, not a disease, that does for the human race as I recall (though I can only really recall the Simpsons take on it). Never read the book. ---
**Author:** ![Kythereia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e8c25b/32.png) [@Kythereia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kythereia)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2008, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-drug-or-disease-names/443057/29 "2008-03-28T23:45:06Z")
The “white blindness” (myxomatosis) in _Watership Down_ always sounded incredibly creepy. ---
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2008, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-drug-or-disease-names/443057/30 "2008-03-28T23:46:42Z")
[QUOTE=Kythereia] The “white blindness” (myxomatosis) in _Watership Down_ always sounded incredibly creepy. [/QUOTE] Though of course, that is a fictional name for a very real disease. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2008, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-drug-or-disease-names/443057/31 "2008-03-29T00:39:01Z")
From Cordwainer Smith: Drugs **Stroon** (aka, the Santaclara drug) – immortality drug **The cranching wire** – Stimulates the pleasure centers **The Caps** – more pleasure center stimulation. From Smith’s general timeline, this probably replaced the cranching wire. **Super-condamine** – the most powerful euphorant – “If you took it in your present shape, you’d be dead in three minutes, but those three minutes would seem like ten thousand years of happiness in your mind.” Diseases **The Achrosian Sickness** – caused a hormonal change in females that caused them to develop cancers. **Dromozoa** – Not quite called a disease, but they infect people and cause them to grow extra body parts. Also allow them to take super-condamine safely. I wouldn’t change a thing. No one could top Smith when it came to names. ---
**Author:** ![Pine\_Fresh\_Scent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/43a26b/32.png) [@Pine\_Fresh\_Scent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pine_Fresh_Scent)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2008, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-drug-or-disease-names/443057/32 "2008-03-29T02:16:24Z")
Thanks **ArchiveGuy** , I had forgotten about Soma from _Brave New World_. **Marley23** , I never knew Jerry Garcia was referred to as Captain Trips. The name doesn’t sound so out of left field now. Vellocet, Synthemesc and Drencrom from \*A Clockwork Orange \* are pretty good names, thanks **Labdad**. “Sexlexia”, heh heh. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2008, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-drug-or-disease-names/443057/33 "2008-03-29T02:18:24Z")
[QUOTE=Pine Fresh Scent] **Marley23** , I never knew Jerry Garcia was referred to as Captain Trips. The name doesn’t sound so out of left field now. [/QUOTE] And I never knew that the disease in The Stand was Captain Trips! Or maybe I did and forgot, I saw the miniseries more than a decade ago. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2008, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-drug-or-disease-names/443057/34 "2008-03-29T02:28:25Z")
[QUOTE=CalMeacham] **Ephemerol** in Cronenberg’s **Scanners**. It was a tranquilizer that had a nasty side effect – when given to pregnant women they produced babies with psychic abilities. [/QUOTE] If you changed “psychic abilities” to “an uncanny memory for pop culture trivia”, that would be the best drug name evah. Anybody remember a Don Martin story for _MAD_ that referred to the dread condition of **recalcitrant plebney**? That’s the name I use for any mysterious chronic ailment that’s not too serious. Constant itching on the back of your hands? Recalcitrant plebney. Stiff neck and eye floaters on awakening? Recalcitrant plebney. Chin pimples after eating too late at night? Recalcitrant plebney. ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2008, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-drug-or-disease-names/443057/35 "2008-03-29T02:55:59Z")
[QUOTE=Pine Fresh Scent] In the first _Robocop_ movie, one of the plot devices was the illegal drug called “Nuke”… [/QUOTE] GASP! :eek: That was in _RoboCop 2_, which might explain the sophomoric drug name. I’ve always like King’s name for the addictive painkiller in _Misery_: **Novril™** Also, let’s not forget [Obay™](http://torontoist.com/2008/02/the_ones_that_m.php) ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2008, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-drug-or-disease-names/443057/36 "2008-03-29T03:02:00Z")
[QUOTE=Marley23] Other Simpsons drugs include Focusyn, which is a Ritalin knockoff, and Viagragay, an impotence drug for bald men. [/QUOTE] And the stuff Milhouse was taking, Represitol. ---
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2008, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-drug-or-disease-names/443057/37 "2008-03-29T03:16:29Z")
And of course the awesome Brass Eye fake drug “Cake”. A UK Mockumentary show where they got various celebrities and politicians to record “anti-Cake” awareness PSAs: > **[Brass Eye](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brass_Eye)** > > Brass Eye is a British satirical television series parodying current affairs news programming. A series of six episodes aired on Channel 4 in 1997, and a further episode in 2001. The series was created and presented by Chris Morris, written by Morris, David Quantick, Peter Baynham, Jane Bussmann, Arthur Mathews, Graham Linehan and Charlie Brooker and directed by Michael Cumming. > Originally planned as a spin-off from The Day Today (1994), the pilot (then called Torque tv™) was passed on by the ... I have a vague memory of a similar scheme in The Fabulous Furry Freak brother comics. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2008, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-drug-or-disease-names/443057/38 "2008-03-29T03:18:37Z")
The first episode (?) of Cowboy Bebop featured a drug with the appealing name “Bloody Eye.” ---
**Author:** ![ToeJam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dfb087/32.png) [@ToeJam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ToeJam)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2008, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-drug-or-disease-names/443057/39 "2008-03-29T03:23:21Z")
[QUOTE=Marley23] Was King making a reference to Jerry Garcia here, or did people start calling Garcia “Captain Trips” after The Stand came out? If so, that’s a little creepy. [/QUOTE] Garcia came first. The Stand was heavily into Music and such, so the reference really fit it well I thought (I also loved the miniseries opening with “Don’t fear the Reaper” by BOC while it panned around showing all the dead). ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2008, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-drug-or-disease-names/443057/40 "2008-03-29T03:27:54Z")
That makes sense. I’ve read a lot of King’s other work and he seems a big classic rock fan. And that’s not counting “You Know They Got a Hell of a Band.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-drug-or-disease-names/443057.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-drug-or-disease-names/443057.md?page=3)