It is by caffeine alone I set my mind in motion
It is by the beans of Java that thoughts acquire speed
The hands acquire shakes
The shakes become a warning
It is by caffeine alone I set my mind in motion
I like Dune, and I like coffee. So this little spoof was always fun for me to have around, it was my .sig on boards back in the day, and I’d post it around my workspace. People would ask where I’d gotten it from and I really don’t know. I’d probably seen it posted somewhere in the early '90’s of the internet – you know, when we rode to work on dinosaurs and networks were coal burning. Does anyone know where this spoof first appeared, or at least, was first made really popular.
Considering that Dune was first published in 1965, I’m guessing it appeared not later than 1966. Beyond that, I got nothin’.
Entirely plausible ExTank:. Someone read the book, or maybe saw the movie, and they were a comedy writer, so they scribbled it down, and then … what? Did it show up in a Neil Simon play from 1978? Or was it a prominent web page border joke? Or just a random USENET posting? I dunno, but I’d like to hear any guesses.
For some reason, I thought that was from Doon, the National Lampoon parody.
Doon
Arruckus
The Dessert Planet.
In 1984, National Lampoon did a parody of Dune called Doon.
Perhaps it came from there.
ETA: Argh! Shakes fist.
ISTR that the original mantra isn’t from the books, but was introduced in the Lynch movie. I have a vague recollection of coining this amongst friends sometime around '95 - not to say that we created it, only that it was popular to say when tanking up on coffee first thing in the morning.
For I am the Kumkwat Haagendasz
Sounds like the basis for a new parody, called Bean.
Nice work guys. I will have to try to find that back issue sometime.