# I thought cigarettes were edible **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 17, 2014, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-thought-cigarettes-were-edible/693395 "2014-07-17T20:05:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Lemmytheseal2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/82dd89/32.png) [@Lemmytheseal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemmytheseal2)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2014, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-thought-cigarettes-were-edible/693395/1 "2014-07-17T20:05:30Z")
What movie features this scene: Some rogue, perhaps the protagonist, is walking down a hall. He hears someone, perhaps a teacher, administrator, or other authority figure, hailing him from behind. As he has a cigarette dangling from his mouth, and doesn’t want said person noticing, he deftly flips it into his mouth before turning to face her. I think she talks to him about “motorcycle tracks on school grounds” or something like that. Thanks to this scene, which was on TV when I was a kid, I thought that, if one so desires, one could eat a cigarette, rather than, say, dropping it in a urinal. What movie is this? ---
**Author:** ![Kimballkid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b5a626/32.png) [@Kimballkid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimballkid)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2014, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-thought-cigarettes-were-edible/693395/2 "2014-07-17T20:12:04Z")
Grease 2. He only ended up swallowing the cigarette because his buddy clapped him on the back. ---
**Author:** ![74westy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/74westy/32/3950_2.png) [@74westy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/74westy)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2014, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-thought-cigarettes-were-edible/693395/3 "2014-07-17T20:25:50Z")
> [@Lemmytheseal2](#): > > Thanks to this scene, which was on TV when I was a kid, I thought that, if one so desires, one could eat a cigarette, rather than, say, dropping it in a urinal. Sounds like a story behind this. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2014, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-thought-cigarettes-were-edible/693395/4 "2014-07-17T20:54:38Z")
There was a scene in Cheers where Rebecca Howe, afraid of getting caught smoking, flipped a lit cigarette into her mouth when Sam came into her office, then flipped it out again when he left. As with all subjects of vital interest [Cecil had a column on how it’s done.](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/273/is-it-possible-to-swallow-a-lit-cigarette-then-take-it-out-and-resume-smoking) ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2014, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-thought-cigarettes-were-edible/693395/5 "2014-07-17T20:58:05Z")
In the Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker comedy Top Secret the character _Chocolate Mousse_ does the flip with a cigar. ---
**Author:** ![Lemmytheseal2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/82dd89/32.png) [@Lemmytheseal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemmytheseal2)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2014, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-thought-cigarettes-were-edible/693395/6 "2014-07-17T20:58:20Z")
> [@Kimballkid](#): > > Grease 2. > > He only ended up swallowing the cigarette because his buddy clapped him on the back. Thanks! > [@74westy](#): > > Sounds like a story behind this. Fortunately, there is not. ---
**Author:** ![xizor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xizor/32/102_2.png) [@xizor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xizor)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2014, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-thought-cigarettes-were-edible/693395/7 "2014-07-17T22:34:22Z")
I also remember Chevy Chase attempting the flip in a music video back in the 80s. Possibly for the theme song to the movie “Spies like us” ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2014, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-thought-cigarettes-were-edible/693395/8 "2014-07-17T22:52:26Z")
> [@gaffa](#): > > In the Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker comedy Top Secret the character _Chocolate Mousse_ does the flip with a cigar. Actually, he just grunts and eats it, with overdubbed crunchy sound effects. > [@xizor](#): > > I also remember Chevy Chase attempting the flip in a music video back in the 80s. Possibly for the theme song to the movie “Spies like us” It was the video for [Ghostbusters](http://youtu.be/Fe93CLbHjxQ). (Right at the end). ---
**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:** [July 18, 2014, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-thought-cigarettes-were-edible/693395/9 "2014-07-18T00:13:42Z")
One of the late Three Stooges comedies (with Joe Besser) has him eating cigars. For some reason, Besser was pretending to be a child; someone found a cigar in his pocket and says he’s too young to smoke. Moe says, “He doesn’t smoke them. He eats them like candy” and Joe is forced to show how he does it. ---
**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:** [July 18, 2014, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-thought-cigarettes-were-edible/693395/10 "2014-07-18T01:00:16Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > There was a scene in Cheers where Rebecca Howe, afraid of getting caught smoking, flipped a lit cigarette into her mouth when Sam came into her office, then flipped it out again when he left. 1987 episode “My Fair Clavin”. It was the first time I ever saw someone do that. In the 2004 version of _The Ladykillers_, flip-concealing a cigarette sets off a significant scene. ---
**Author:** ![Marlonius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/838e76/32.png) [@Marlonius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marlonius)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2014, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-thought-cigarettes-were-edible/693395/11 "2014-07-18T02:17:59Z")
My friend’s mom forced him to eat a cigarette as punishment for getting caught smoking one when we were in grade 5. It wasn’t lit at the time. Word on the street was it didn’t taste very good. And just for completeness of story: one of the other kid’s dads made him smoke an entire cigarette and he got quite sick. The other 2 kids involved just got beatings if I recall correctly. As far as I know, none of them ever took up smoking for real later in life. ---
**Author:** ![joyfool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@joyfool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joyfool)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2014, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-thought-cigarettes-were-edible/693395/12 "2014-07-18T02:24:50Z")
There was also a similar scene in _Mrs. Winterbourne_ where Shirley McLaine does that. Made me shutter every time they showed it on the trailer. ---
**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:** [July 18, 2014, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-thought-cigarettes-were-edible/693395/13 "2014-07-18T03:00:43Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > There was a scene in Cheers where Rebecca Howe, afraid of getting caught smoking, flipped a lit cigarette into her mouth when Sam came into her office, then flipped it out again when he left. > > As with all subjects of vital interest [Cecil had a column on how it’s done.](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/273/is-it-possible-to-swallow-a-lit-cigarette-then-take-it-out-and-resume-smoking) W. C. Fields did it first, in **The Bank Dick** ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2014, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-thought-cigarettes-were-edible/693395/14 "2014-07-18T13:21:04Z")
> [@Marlonius](#): > > My friend’s mom forced him to eat a cigarette as punishment for getting caught smoking one when we were in grade 5. It wasn’t lit at the time. Word on the street was it didn’t taste very good. That is a very bad idea. Nicotine is a toxin and much more of it is absorbed when a cigarette is ingested than when it’s smoked. Eating one cigarette probably won’t kill even a small child, but it’s definitely a bad idea. > [@](#): > > Although a typical cigarette contains from 9 mg to 30 mg of nicotine, inhalation through smoking is only about 0.5–2 mg per cigarette. The estimated toxic dose of nicotine in non-addicted adults is 4–8 mg, and the lethal dose after one-time ingestion among children is reported as 40–60 mg.[9] Nicotine in tobacco products is rapidly absorbed by oral and intestinal mucosa… > [http://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/20/Suppl\_1/i17.full](http://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/20/Suppl_1/i17.full) ---
**Author:** ![Drummond\_Bays](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/8edcca/32.png) [@Drummond\_Bays](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drummond_Bays)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2014, 7:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-thought-cigarettes-were-edible/693395/15 "2014-07-20T07:25:35Z")
Once upon a time when I was young and beginning to dabble in smoking, I got the bright idea that cigarette tobacco and chewing tobacco were the same thing. A friend and I found a half smoked cigarette on the top of some stairs to an underground parking. We tore the burn bit off, and proceeded to chew the remaining tobacco. Let me assure you, it was the most wretched, vile, caustic, burning flavour sensation I have ever experienced. The trendy new “87698726987634982346923864238 Scoville units hot” type hot sauces are a walk thru Mary Poppins Park on a Sunny Sunday in comparison. I can taste the taste now just from memory… ---
**Author:** ![Drummond\_Bays](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/8edcca/32.png) [@Drummond\_Bays](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drummond_Bays)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2014, 7:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-thought-cigarettes-were-edible/693395/16 "2014-07-20T07:36:16Z")
Once upon a time when I was young and beginning to dabble in smoking, I got the bright idea that cigarette tobacco and chewing tobacco were the same thing. A friend and I found a half smoked cigarette on the top of some stairs to an underground parking. We tore the burn bit off, and proceeded to chew the remaining tobacco. Let me assure you, it was the most wretched, vile, caustic, burning flavour sensation I have ever experienced. The trendy new “87698726987634982346923864238 Scoville units hot” type hot sauces are a walk thru Mary Poppins Park on a Sunny Sunday in comparison. I can taste the taste now just from memory… ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2014, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-thought-cigarettes-were-edible/693395/17 "2014-07-21T12:35:44Z")
[Roscoe casually flips a cig out at :27.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8eOcTtzlUsE) ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2014, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-thought-cigarettes-were-edible/693395/18 "2014-07-21T13:36:07Z")
In the 70s I went to England, where I had been born, and finally met my mother’s parents. My grandfather smoked and, while he didn’t do the eat a cigarette trick, he often used to take one out of the pack and just flick it back between his lips. I thought it was very cool and tried to work out how to do it but couldn’t.