# In The Stand why was the super flu called Captain Trips? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** books-writing-myths\ **Created:** [February 12, 2024, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-stand-why-was-the-super-flu-called-captain-trips/997479 "2024-02-12T16:15:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2024, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-stand-why-was-the-super-flu-called-captain-trips/997479/1 "2024-02-12T16:15:27Z")
The Stand is my favorite novel. For several years I would reread it every June (the story starts in June) but one thing I never got is why the disease in the story got the nickname Captain Trips. I imagine it was a reference that was too old for me to understand but I just never saw any connection between that term and the disease so why in the story did that become a nickname for it? ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2024, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-stand-why-was-the-super-flu-called-captain-trips/997479/2 "2024-02-12T16:18:37Z")
> The meaning of the nickname is never revealed. > **[Captain Trips](https://stephenking.fandom.com/wiki/Captain_Trips)** > > Captain Trips is a nickname for the constantly-shifting antigen virus that exterminates 99.4% of the human population in The Stand. The meaning of the nickname is never revealed. Developed under the codename Project Blue by a biological weapon's... ---
**Author:** ![dirtball](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dirtball/32/18772_2.png) [@dirtball](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dirtball)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2024, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-stand-why-was-the-super-flu-called-captain-trips/997479/3 "2024-02-12T16:25:11Z")
It was/is a nickname for Jerry Garcia, for reasons that are probably easy to guess. I wouldn’t necessarily assume that King used it as a tribute to him (some tribute, naming a deadly disease after someone), but then again, it’s a distinctive name. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2024, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-stand-why-was-the-super-flu-called-captain-trips/997479/4 "2024-02-12T16:37:19Z")
I’m absolutely sure it was deliberate. I’ve been vaccinated against Captain Trips. [![](https://i.imgur.com/aCKdFHb.jpg) ](https://i.imgur.com/aCKdFHb.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2024, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-stand-why-was-the-super-flu-called-captain-trips/997479/5 "2024-02-12T16:44:17Z")
I get that King chose the name and what it means in real life but within the context of the story the general public came up with it and it went viral before that was a ubiquitous term. But that’s the disconnect. I don’t get how they came up with it within that world. What about the flu makes someone give it that name? I guess there is no answer. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2024, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-stand-why-was-the-super-flu-called-captain-trips/997479/6 "2024-02-12T16:49:09Z")
I’d presumed that “trips” was a variant of “trots” i.e. the runs. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2024, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-stand-why-was-the-super-flu-called-captain-trips/997479/7 "2024-02-12T16:50:58Z")
Captain Trips always felt like a catchy, 70s-era kind of name that became applied and widespread before people realized just how bad it was. I admit I can’t come up with a firm philological explanation of the name, but it’s always felt intuitive in my half dozen or so readings of the book ---
**Author:** ![dirtball](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dirtball/32/18772_2.png) [@dirtball](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dirtball)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2024, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-stand-why-was-the-super-flu-called-captain-trips/997479/8 "2024-02-12T16:52:16Z")
It’s been a long time since I’ve read the book, so correct me if I’m wrong, but don’t the symptoms include delirium or hallucinations? ---
**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:** [February 12, 2024, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-stand-why-was-the-super-flu-called-captain-trips/997479/9 "2024-02-12T17:01:30Z")
It was a _bad_ trip. Have we forgotten our acid roots?? ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2024, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-stand-why-was-the-super-flu-called-captain-trips/997479/10 "2024-02-12T17:05:40Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > I’d presumed that “trips” was a variant of “trots” i.e. the runs. That’s what I’d think. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2024, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-stand-why-was-the-super-flu-called-captain-trips/997479/11 "2024-02-12T21:25:44Z")
There was a short story called “Night Surf” in one of King’s collections that came out before The Stand, and it had “Captain Trips” in it. My interpretation at the time, when I first read the short story, was that it was just one of those trend-following but mostly nonsensical things that our culture is so rife with. People do what they see or hear other people doing, especially if it seems trendy, and they don’t need any other reason to participate. Certainly no need for it to make any particular sense. ---
**Author:** ![Baal\_Houtham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baal_houtham/32/13604_2.png) [@Baal\_Houtham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baal_Houtham)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2024, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-stand-why-was-the-super-flu-called-captain-trips/997479/12 "2024-02-12T23:27:38Z")
I only know The Stand from cultural osmosis, but have heard about the Captain Trips disease name. My figuring is that something that invisibly takes over bodies and casually wipes out human culture is the Ultimate Experience. Even if you live your world will be altered beyond recognition. It did to the human race what too much dirty acid did to some human minds. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2024, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-stand-why-was-the-super-flu-called-captain-trips/997479/13 "2024-02-12T23:38:38Z")
It does get its name before it’s even remotely clear it’s going to wipe out human existence, but I can see where that would appeal. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2024, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-stand-why-was-the-super-flu-called-captain-trips/997479/14 "2024-02-13T01:24:31Z")
Maybe it’s a cross between “trots” and “grippe”? ---
**Author:** ![Zyada](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zyada/32/3028_2.png) [@Zyada](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zyada)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2024, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-stand-why-was-the-super-flu-called-captain-trips/997479/15 "2024-02-14T04:56:28Z")
I had also assumed it had something to do with diarrhea but I see that isn’t one of the symptoms. ---
**Author:** ![Banksiaman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banksiaman/32/3334_2.png) [@Banksiaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banksiaman)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2024, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-stand-why-was-the-super-flu-called-captain-trips/997479/16 "2024-02-14T05:57:03Z")
Tuberculosis was once known, because of its lethality across populations in and out of epidemics as ‘The Captain of these Men of Death’. In the early modern era there were other personifications of infectious disease, which I think makes for a plausible origin story. Wracking my brains to remember them, but its kind of bound up with the Horsemen of the Apocalypse, those beaky plague-doctors and blaming cats. ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2025, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-stand-why-was-the-super-flu-called-captain-trips/997479/17 "2025-11-22T13:46:15Z")
I am resurrecting this because I had an epiphany and after all these decades I think I figured it out. One of the key symptoms of the Superflu is it makes your neck swell and bruise (another nickname for the disease was tube neck) and if you have a dark sense of humor and irony the swollen bruised neck kind looks like the thick bushy beard of one Mr. Jerry Garcia (aka. Captain Trips). Wow. Finally it makes a little bit of sense. ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2025, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-stand-why-was-the-super-flu-called-captain-trips/997479/18 "2025-11-22T17:34:19Z")
Seems far-fetched to me. Also, I don’t know exactly when Garcia grew his beard, but during at least some of the time when his Captain Trips nickname was in common use, he was clean-shaven. [![](https://images.wolfgangsvault.com/m/large/GAP1104-FP/jerry-garcia-fine-art-print.jpg) ](https://images.wolfgangsvault.com/m/large/GAP1104-FP/jerry-garcia-fine-art-print.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2025, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-stand-why-was-the-super-flu-called-captain-trips/997479/19 "2025-11-22T19:27:03Z")
> [@Maserschmidt](#): > > Captain Trips always felt like a catchy, 70s-era kind of name that became applied and widespread before people realized just how bad it was. I haven’t read the book in while but I’m pretty sure “Captain Trips” was explicitly said to be the West Coast name for the disease. There was some less funky name for it in the rest of the country. I assume King was making a point about the West Coast being known for being prone to fanciful branding, rather than the sober approach you’d find in the rest of the USA. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2025, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-stand-why-was-the-super-flu-called-captain-trips/997479/20 "2025-11-22T20:12:09Z")
Like calling COVID-19 “the ’Rona.” [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-stand-why-was-the-super-flu-called-captain-trips/997479.md?page=2)