# Hopped up on goofballs. Where'd that come from? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 1, 2009, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hopped-up-on-goofballs-whered-that-come-from/508430 "2009-09-01T01:20:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Bayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bayaker/32/3454_2.png) [@Bayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bayaker)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2019, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hopped-up-on-goofballs-whered-that-come-from/508430/61 "2019-08-20T14:48:01Z")
> [@testarossa1222](#): > > This episode was " the Case of the Silent Six" from 1965. Here’s the clip: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUQuj9elPqg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUQuj9elPqg) ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2019, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hopped-up-on-goofballs-whered-that-come-from/508430/62 "2019-08-20T15:08:44Z")
Google Books must have added a lot of new sources since this thread started. Perry Mason is out. > [@](#): > > Without a Trace - Page 119 > [Without a Trace - Stephen Ransome - Google Books](https://books.google.com/books?id=LdJPAQAAMAAJ) > Frederick Clyde Davis, ‎Stephen Ransome - 1962 - ‎Snippet view > Found inside - Page 119 > You know as well as I do, some of these crazy kids get themselves hopped up on goof balls or weed or even a taste of horse. Mr. Porter was taking a nap and the girl was out, so it looked like nobody was home. The goofed-up kid needs money … > > Juvenile Delinquency (National, Federal and Youth-Serving … > [Juvenile Delinquency; National, Federal, and Youth-serving Agencies ... - United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on the Judiciary - Google Books](https://books.google.com/books?id=N1tFAQAAMAAJ) > United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on the Judiciary. Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency - 1954 - ‎Snippet view > Found inside - Page 291 > Some of them were hopped up on these “goofballs,” drinking them with beer. These kids would refer to it as a “pad” instead of an apartment. They would have some girl around 18 or 19 years old rent this “pad” or apartment for them, usually in … > > Harper’s Magazine - Volume 192 - Page 375 > [Harper's Magazine - Google Books](https://books.google.com/books?id=m2MQAAAAIAAJ) > 1946 - ‎Snippet view > Found inside - Page 375 > they said, and stepped up one by one and got their quarters and retreated, their heads together and their armed hips clanking together and their faces … She’s hopped." “Hopped?” “I thought you went downtown with her.” “I did.” “Did she leave you at the pony track?” “Yes, for a few minutes. … She’s a sucker for all three.” “Goofballs?” Mr. Palmer said. “Reefers?” “Phenobarb,” Mrs. Vaughn said. "Marijuana. The Senate hearings on Juvenile Delinquency got massive publicity, so that’s probably the source. The _Harper’s_ story is “The Women on the Wall” by Wallace Stegner. You can see it being an easy step from “She’s hopped up.” “On what?” “Goofballs.” to a phrase. The first use of goofballs I find is 1932. > [@](#): > > Report of the Crime Problem Advisory Committee of California - Page 61 > [Report of the Crime Problem Advisory Committee of California - California. Crime Problem Advisory Committee - Google Books](https://books.google.com/books?id=R8Y1AAAAIAAJ) > California. Crime Problem Advisory Committee, ‎Rolland A. Vandegrift, ‎University of California, Berkeley. Institute of Governmental Studies - 1932 - ‎Snippet view > Found inside - Page 61 > These drugs are more commonly referred to by users as “bennies”, “goof balls”, “red devils”, “blue heavens”, “Mickey Finns” or " knock out drops", “yellow jackets”, and “green dragons”. The most alarming fact brought to our attention was the … Definitely not marijuana. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2019, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hopped-up-on-goofballs-whered-that-come-from/508430/63 "2019-08-20T15:21:31Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > We called that a “speedball”, and then much later, a “Belushi cocktail”. “We”? :dubious: _"Shooting (paregoric) is a terrible hassle, you have to burn out the alcohol first, then freeze out the camphor and draw this brown liquid off with a dropper—have to shoot it in the vein or you get an abscess, and usually end up with an abscess no matter where you shoot it. **Best deal is to drink it with goof balls** … So we pour it in a Pernod bottle and start for New Orleans past iridescent lakes and orange gas flares, and swamps and garbage heaps, alligators crawling around in broken bottles and tin cans, neon arabesques of motels, marooned pimps scream obscenities at passing cars from islands of rubbish … New Orleans is a dead museum._" - William S. Burroughs ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2019, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hopped-up-on-goofballs-whered-that-come-from/508430/64 "2019-08-20T15:57:47Z")
> [@Koxinga](#): > > Where does Mary Jane fit into all this? If you date her, you hit the jackpot. ---
**Author:** ![Stephe96](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Stephe96](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stephe96)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2019, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hopped-up-on-goofballs-whered-that-come-from/508430/65 "2019-08-20T16:52:29Z")
I hear “hopped up on goofballs” in Danny De Vito’s voice. Did he say this in LA CONFIDENTIAL? ---
**Author:** ![Dropo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce7236/32.png) [@Dropo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dropo)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2019, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hopped-up-on-goofballs-whered-that-come-from/508430/66 "2019-08-20T18:50:32Z")
- A Dictionary of the Underworld\* by Eric Partridge (Bonanza Books, 1961): Hopped up. “Intoxicated on opium,” Geo. C. Henderson, _Keys to Crookdom_, 1924; “They do their shooting when they are all hopped up with dope,” Charles F. Coe, _Me-Gangster_, 1927. Goof-ball, is an occ. variant of goof-butt. _The American Thesaurus of Slang_, 1942. Goof-butt. “’Reefers,’ or ‘goof-butts’, as the marijuana cigarettes were called,” Mary Sullivan, _My Double Life_, 1939. ---
**Author:** ![Dropo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce7236/32.png) [@Dropo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dropo)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2019, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hopped-up-on-goofballs-whered-that-come-from/508430/67 "2019-08-20T19:08:58Z")
From the same source as post #66 (I forgot to look in the appendix): Goof ball. 1. A smoker of marijuana cigarettes; drug traffic; since ca. 1940. Fishman, Nov. 1947. Sense 2 is suspect. 2. A barbiturate; since ca. 1940. Sherman S. Wilse, in _Time_, Aug. 28 1950., “A goof ball is a nemmie (from Nembutal, trade name for a certain barbiturate), Geronimo, bomber, or any other barbiturate or sleeping pill”; Dr. Simpson “Digs U.S. Crime Lingo”; in _The Daily Telegraph_, March 2, 1959. ---
**Author:** ![eunoia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eunoia/32/97_2.png) [@eunoia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eunoia)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2019, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hopped-up-on-goofballs-whered-that-come-from/508430/68 "2019-08-20T23:16:20Z")
There are older cites, but in the context of pop culture I think Kevin Meaney popularized the ironic use of the expression, probably in the voice of his mother. ---
**Author:** ![drad\_dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@drad\_dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drad_dog)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2019, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hopped-up-on-goofballs-whered-that-come-from/508430/69 "2019-08-20T23:49:30Z")
It came from culture? Before the internet we just knew stuff. We watched a lot of TV. It never came up where we first heard something, because that was in the mists of time. We knew it was old though. The whole point is that it sounds old, so even without the eytimology you know it came from real life via radio, films and tv. And you know the later the usage the more ironic or old it is meant to be. ---
**Author:** ![Bayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bayaker/32/3454_2.png) [@Bayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bayaker)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2019, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hopped-up-on-goofballs-whered-that-come-from/508430/70 "2019-08-21T01:02:54Z")
> [@drad\_dog](#): > > It came from culture? Before the internet we just knew stuff. We watched a lot of TV. It never came up where we first heard something, because that was in the mists of time. We knew it was old though. The whole point is that it sounds old, so even without the eytimology you know it came from real life via radio, films and tv. And you know the later the usage the more ironic or old it is meant to be. The editors of the O.E.D. would beg to differ. ---
**Author:** ![eunoia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eunoia/32/97_2.png) [@eunoia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eunoia)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2019, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hopped-up-on-goofballs-whered-that-come-from/508430/71 "2019-08-21T01:46:29Z")
My point is that I can believe “hopped out” and “goofball” were at some point legitimate drug slang in some city (not even necessarily the same one) but you likely won’t find the originator. The full construction “hopped out on goofballs” was more likely invented by someone trying evoke legitimate street slang, so by the time it got vulgarized and grandma picked it up from Perry Mason, it always sounded funny to anyone familiar with their own local drug slang. Kevin Meaney says it here in his 1986 HBO special, but I can find the bit where it’s repeated multiple times for effect: [Kevin Meaney HBO Special - YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IC4__nBya0&feature=youtu.be&t=2548) ---
**Author:** ![eunoia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eunoia/32/97_2.png) [@eunoia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eunoia)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2019, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hopped-up-on-goofballs-whered-that-come-from/508430/72 "2019-08-21T02:14:43Z")
I _can’t_ find it, now I’m thinking it might have been Larry Miller. ---
**Author:** ![Beezer725](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/df788c/32.png) [@Beezer725](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beezer725)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2020, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hopped-up-on-goofballs-whered-that-come-from/508430/73 "2020-04-17T17:21:08Z")
Just watched an episode of Perry Mason where the terms “goofball” and “hopped up on goofballs” was used. The episode was The Case of the Silent Six. it originally aired November 21, 1965, long before The Simpsons, but not sure in context to Dragnet… same time period though. ---
**Author:** ![RioRico](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f04885/32.png) [@RioRico](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RioRico)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2020, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hopped-up-on-goofballs-whered-that-come-from/508430/74 "2020-04-18T01:59:57Z")
I have a vivid memory of skateboarding with a tiny transistor radio hanging on my neck, cheap earplugs inserted, listening to XERB (The Mighty Ten-Ninety) and Wolfman Jack saying, “He’s all messed up on goofballs” circa 1960. ---
**Author:** ![aurora\_maire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aurora_maire/32/328_2.png) [@aurora\_maire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aurora_maire)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2020, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hopped-up-on-goofballs-whered-that-come-from/508430/75 "2020-04-18T02:41:45Z")
I didn’t realize until a dozen posts in that this was a zombie. But I did notice that 9 people created an account and their only post ever was in this thread. Lots of people goggling “hopped up on goofballs” over the years. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2020, 8:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hopped-up-on-goofballs-whered-that-come-from/508430/76 "2020-04-18T08:19:22Z")
> [@aurora\_maire](#): > > I didn’t realize until a dozen posts in that this was a zombie. Neither did I. But I did find [the Perry Mason clip](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUQuj9elPqg) referenced by **Beezer725**.\* Incidentally, I have a vague memory about reading in a Heinlein juvenile a scene where the First Person narrator was slogging through the jungles of Venus, when a Venusian slithered from the swampy underbrush and asked him for a “_thigarek_.” It seems that when Earthlings began exploiting Venus’s natural resources, they introduced the indigenous population to tobacco. The Venusians were apparently susceptible to mind-altering effects from nicotine (including chemical dependency). Later in the book, a character mentions having encountered Venusians who were “hopped up on cigarettes.” \*I also found [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYAlyOyb95w), and may God have mercy on my soul. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2020, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hopped-up-on-goofballs-whered-that-come-from/508430/77 "2020-04-18T15:20:54Z")
I swear I saw it in a Perry Mason episode. The Case if the Guy Hepped Up On Goofballs. I think Hank Azaria played the killer. But it probably isn’t true. No video has ever been found. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![ttenchantr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/edb3f5/32.png) [@ttenchantr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ttenchantr)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2021, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hopped-up-on-goofballs-whered-that-come-from/508430/78 "2021-09-15T19:30:42Z")
Watching that episode now: Season 9 Episode 11: The Case of the Silent Six. Original Airdate: 11/21/65: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/hUQuj9elPqg/hqdefault.jpg "Hopped Up On Goofballs") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUQuj9elPqg) ---
**Author:** ![UltraVires](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecccb3/32.png) [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2021, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hopped-up-on-goofballs-whered-that-come-from/508430/79 "2021-09-23T01:35:26Z")
This board is usually on top of things in answering these types of questions, and I am very disappointed in posters that over these many years nobody has mentioned that this phrase appeared in the television program “Perry Mason” starring Raymond Burr. It was featured in Episode 252, the 11th Episode of Season 9, originally aired on 11/21/1965 on CBS. We all should strive to be better in the future. ---
**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:** [September 23, 2021, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hopped-up-on-goofballs-whered-that-come-from/508430/80 "2021-09-23T13:29:13Z")
Awesome find ttenchantr! Thanks for that and welcome to The Straight Dope. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hopped-up-on-goofballs-whered-that-come-from/508430.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hopped-up-on-goofballs-whered-that-come-from/508430.md?page=5)