Hopped up on goofballs. Where'd that come from?

[Cliffy]

@In_Winnipeg

Regarding “hop”, my mother and my uncles often referred to a drug user as a “hop head”. I think I heard Red Forman in That 70s Show also utter the same term.

I found myself using it just yesterday. Then I thought to myself “Where did I get that term? NYPD Blue, maybe?”

–Cliffy

[Hail_Ants]

As a member of The Simpsons Stickler Society lets get the quote correct.
Chief Wiggum did NOT say that line, Ned did. And he said ‘hepped up’ not ‘hopped up’.

From The Simpsons Archive:

** Ned**: I told you, officer, I’m not “hepped up on Goofballs.”
** Wiggum**: [bored] Yeah, right.
[a church tour bus drives by]
Lovejoy: Ned Flanders! I never would have imagined.
[Ned feels weak with shame, then faints]
** Wiggum**: High as a kite, everybody! Goofballs!

Ah, back when the show was so funny.

I say it all the time as a sarcastic way of responding to an incredulous statement. It works so well because its over the top, its mocking what once was a very serious statement, and the word goofball itself is just, well, goofy!

[Koxinga]

Now tell me this: I’ve never heard the OP’s phrase in either Dragnet or The Simpsons.

But I do have the phrase stuck in my mind: “Hopped up on bennies and goofballs.” Is that from long ago “Just Say No” propaganda?

[devilsknew]

For some reason I am picturing Dan Akroyd uttering this line. Not sure, but I think it is also from an SNL spawn.

[Girl_From_Mars]

I feel like I’ve heard the line - the Naked Gun series seems to be ringing a bell?

[ShibbOleth]

@Shoeless

I always wondered if that is what Springsteen’s singing about in that song “Glory Days”:

“He could throw that speedball by you, make you look like a fool, boy.”

In case you’re not being facetious, that’s about a guy who was a good athlete in high school and still lives on that, many years later. The line is reference to him pitching baseball. The song is about people living in the past.

[Dr.Drake]

@samclem

1965(ACTUALLY 1966). Google book cite.

You can only read a snippet. But it’s for real.

Review and Herald: Official Organ of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church - Google Books

This didn’t reveal anything when I clicked the link. The earliest I could find was Horace Woodroof’s Stone Wall College from 1970, p. 175: “…killed him with his bare hands. Hopped up on goofballs, he stabbed him repeatedly with a foot-long dirk, butchering him up so badly that the warden and deputy warden made Monty, who was photographer for The Inside Story, take pictures of…” That’s all Google will give. Apparently it’s autobiographical.

[jsc1953]

@ShibbOleth

In case you’re not being facetious, that’s about a guy who was a good athlete in high school and still lives on that, many years later. The line is reference to him pitching baseball. The song is about people living in the past.

Love the song, but Bruce should know better. No one who knows anything about baseball ever uses the word “speedball”. It’s a fastball, heater, Number 1, cheese.

[ShibbOleth]

Maybe he wasn’t much into baseball. Or they use different words near the Shore. Who knows? I guess lyrically, curve ball would have also worked. Split fingered fastball would not.

[samclem]

@samclem

1965(ACTUALLY 1966). Google book cite.

You can only read a snippet. But it’s for real.

Review and Herald: Official Organ of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church - Google Books

@Dr.Drake

This didn’t reveal anything when I clicked the link. T.

Sorry, you could read it from the original search for the phrase, but not when you went to the page link. I’ve refined the link so it shows what I found.

http://books.google.com/books?as_q=&num=50&lr=&btnG=Google+Search&as_epq=hopped+up+on&as_oq=&as_eq=&as_brr=0&as_pt=ALLTYPES&lr=&as_vt=review+and+herald&as_auth=&as_pub=&as_sub=&as_drrb_is=b&as_minm_is=0&as_miny_is=1965&as_maxm_is=0&as_maxy_is=1965&as_isbn=&as_issn=

[panamajack]

I’ve never seen ‘speedball’, but “speed ball” for a fastball is not unheard of, especially in older sources. See also here and here for more modern cites.

[gaffa]

I found the same link. Who knew the Seventh Day Adventists were such trendsetters?

Update: I love me some Google Books. But “Snippet View” sucks. I want some court case to determine, once and for all, the Google is a library.

[Face_Intentionally_Left_Blank]

I’m pretty sure Letterman used it way back when, probably pre-1990, when I used to watch him. I never watched the Simpsons, I definitely recall hearing it, and I think it was Letterman, in my case.

[Taenia_spp]

OED lists ‘goofball’ meaning Marijuana from 1938, but referring to barbituates in 1950. The term ‘hopped up’ predates goofball by a couple decades, unequivocally referring to being high (on opium), found in the 1920s.

[lost4life]

I’m resurrecting this semi-zombie from the semi-dead.

I was watching A Cry in the Night last night on TCM (starring Natalie Wood & Raymond Burr). The movie is from 1956, and the opening scene has the police confronting a drunk. They use the line “he might be on goofballs.” I immediately thought of this thread (even though they didn’t say “hopped up”).

Carry on!

[biohazardgraphics]

@Face_Intentionally_Left_Blank

I’m pretty sure Letterman used it way back when, probably pre-1990, when I used to watch him.

Dave: “Them hippies are hopped up on somethin’!”

Paul: “What…Were…They…On?”

Dave: “I dunno, something my Dad would say as he stumbled in out of the garage…”

[Taomist]

When I was in jr high and the drug edumacation was going strong, I recall thinking goofballs were some mixture of two drugs that you wouldn’t normally put together. Which two, no clue. I didn’t know shit about drugs until long after high school. Those classes just confused me.

[Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew]

@Taomist

When I was in jr high and the drug edumacation was going strong, I recall thinking goofballs were some mixture of two drugs that you wouldn’t normally put together.

Sounds like you might be thinking of a “speedball” (heroin + cocaine).

[Koxinga]

Where does Mary Jane fit into all this?

[Algher]

I remember it from Jack Lemmon’s “How to Murder Your Wife.”