# Star Wars - Ben Kenobi smoking hookah? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 11, 2011, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-wars-ben-kenobi-smoking-hookah/602644 "2011-11-11T21:59:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2011, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-wars-ben-kenobi-smoking-hookah/602644/21 "2011-11-12T16:45:11Z")
The scene as linked to looks like the original scene, and he’s just touching his beard in a moment of reflection. People do have a way of remembering stuff in movies that never was there. It’s natural. We’ve been exposed to Star Wars stuff for 35 years now, it all starts to melt together. ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2011, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-wars-ben-kenobi-smoking-hookah/602644/22 "2011-11-12T16:47:20Z")
Ben smoked first! Dammit! ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2011, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-wars-ben-kenobi-smoking-hookah/602644/23 "2011-11-12T18:37:09Z")
There _were_ several people smoking in the Cantina, though. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2011, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-wars-ben-kenobi-smoking-hookah/602644/24 "2011-11-12T18:47:25Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > People do have a way of remembering stuff in movies that never was there. It’s natural. We’ve been exposed to Star Wars stuff for 35 years now, it all starts to melt together. I do remember the alternate ending to Big, though, where his girlfriend shows up in class the next day as a little girl and he laughs and smiles. I swear. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2011, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-wars-ben-kenobi-smoking-hookah/602644/25 "2011-11-12T22:12:46Z")
> [@randwill](#): > > I don’t get this. To remove a pipe that would be in front of his face, you’d have to replace the parts of his face and mouth, which is moving as he is speaking. This was 1977 and there was no CGI capable of doing such a seamless job at the time. That wasn’t what I meant. I didn’t think anything had been digitally or optically removed from the shots, just that all subsequent edit choices were of shots that did not have anything in his mouth. The single shot in question I figured was just a lighting/angle thing, making it sort of hard to see, but now I agree with others in that it’s just an illusion, and there’s nothing there to see. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2011, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-wars-ben-kenobi-smoking-hookah/602644/26 "2011-11-12T22:28:54Z")
I saw the filmm nine times the first year it came out. I’ve watched it countless times since, and own it on early VHS and on DVD. I don’t recall Ben Kenobi _ever_ smoking anything, pipe, hookah, or cigar, in any version of the film. I think I would’ve noticed it and recalled it. I think you’re simply mistaken. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2011, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-wars-ben-kenobi-smoking-hookah/602644/27 "2011-11-13T01:42:17Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > I saw the filmm nine times the first year it came out. I’ve watched it countless times since, and own it on early VHS and on DVD. I don’t recall Ben Kenobi _ever_ smoking anything, pipe, hookah, or cigar, in any version of the film. I think I would’ve noticed it and recalled it. I think you’re simply mistaken. No, I saw Star Wars the first week it came out, & I recall _something_, briefly, that at least _resembled_ Ben smoking a hookah in the Cantina. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2011, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-wars-ben-kenobi-smoking-hookah/602644/28 "2011-11-13T01:48:55Z")
Ol’ Ben smoking? Say it ain’t so! Why he made that guy stop trying to sell him deathsticks in Ep2! ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2011, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-wars-ben-kenobi-smoking-hookah/602644/29 "2011-11-13T22:51:29Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > I saw the filmm nine times the first year it came out. I’ve watched it countless times since, and own it on early VHS and on DVD. I don’t recall Ben Kenobi _ever_ smoking anything, pipe, hookah, or cigar, in any version of the film. I think I would’ve noticed it and recalled it. I think you’re simply mistaken. Exactly. This isn’t the first time that someone swears up and down that in the original theatrical screening of one of the original SW trilogy, they saw something that has disappeared since then. George’s tendency to tinker and alter doesn’t help in this regard, and the numerous novelizations, comic book versions, radio adaptations, etc. have also muddied the waters dramatically over what someone “saw”. But the original versions were released on Laserdisc and then DVD. The true-to-God unaltered versions, so they would be easily researchable if such a thing did exist in one version or another. The short answer is–It Didn’t. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2011, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-wars-ben-kenobi-smoking-hookah/602644/30 "2011-11-13T22:53:24Z")
> [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](#): > > No, I saw Star Wars the first week it came out, & I recall _something_, briefly, that at least _resembled_ Ben smoking a hookah in the Cantina. I saw it twice the day after it came out, and saw no Kenobi hookah. One of the denizens of the cantina seemed to be smoking one, though. ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2011, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-wars-ben-kenobi-smoking-hookah/602644/31 "2011-11-13T22:57:33Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > I saw it twice the day after it came out, and saw no Kenobi hookah. > > One of the denizens of the cantina seemed to be smoking one, though. [This guy](http://massassi.hobby-site.com/massassi/pictures/episode_4/img/mos_eisley_cantina10.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2011, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-wars-ben-kenobi-smoking-hookah/602644/32 "2011-11-14T04:39:53Z")
Years ago (it was 1993 or 1994) I went to a charity event where they were showing all three movies on a big screen. This was before the Special Editions, etc. The print of Star Wars we saw was an original print. I know this because 1. It didn’t have the C3PO narration about the tractor beam that was added later and 2. In the end when Luke gets out of the X-Wing and the crowd runs to him he clearly and unambiguously yelled “Carrie!” (I imagine in future prints, the sound was remixed to the “HeeeEEeeyyy!!” we hear today). Other than those two things, there wasn’t anything of note different, definitely no smoking (this viewing was of course after the one I talked about in my previous post). ---
**Author:** ![fiddlesticks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddlesticks/32/18129_2.png) [@fiddlesticks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fiddlesticks)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2011, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-wars-ben-kenobi-smoking-hookah/602644/33 "2011-11-14T04:58:40Z")
I had the infamous Star Wars storybook ([entry on Wookiepedia](http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/The_Star_Wars_Storybook)) that was likely the source of most false “I saw Biggs on Tatooine” false memories. I wish I still had it, so I could check the book for the pictures of Ben’s hut. I have no memory of a hookah for what it’s worth. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![BarefootOkieGal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/fbc32d/32.png) [@BarefootOkieGal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BarefootOkieGal)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2011, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-wars-ben-kenobi-smoking-hookah/602644/34 "2011-11-18T00:00:41Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > I saw the filmm nine times the first year it came out. I’ve watched it countless times since, and own it on early VHS and on DVD. I don’t recall Ben Kenobi _ever_ smoking anything, pipe, hookah, or cigar, in any version of the film. I think I would’ve noticed it and recalled it. I think you’re simply mistaken. If I were the only one of my friends to remember the hookah, I’d agree that it’s just my faulty memory (after all, anyone old enough to drive to the drive-in to see the movie would be about 50 now - I’m 50, myself, which is one reason I’d be willing to assume I had just remembered wrong) - trouble is, I remember it not only from the original movie, but from the original VHS version as well, which I saw as recently as 2001! We lost the old VHS in a move, and ended up buying the movie on DVD, and that scene caused both my husband and myself to sit up and take notice - “Where’s the hookah? I swear he was smoking a hookah in that scene!” - and then we polled our friends, who remember the same thing. Now, if we were a bunch of hookah-smokers ourselves, I can see where our memories might be a bit vague, but all of us are (mostly) respectable citizens who don’t own hookahs, but we do remember seeing it in that scene. I’d bet my sweet bippy on it! We just re-watched the DVD last night, and he is definitely holding SOMETHING in his hand and moving it about; might take a closer look to see if he’s merely beard-fiddling… the funny thing about it is that when we originally saw the movie, the hookah wasn’t such a big deal - after all, “Up in Smoke” was a pretty popular movie of the era, too - and while we didn’t particularly note it at the time, we sure noticed its absence in the later releases of the movie! So - I’m kerfluffled!!! ---
**Author:** ![BarefootOkieGal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/fbc32d/32.png) [@BarefootOkieGal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BarefootOkieGal)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2011, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-wars-ben-kenobi-smoking-hookah/602644/35 "2011-11-18T00:08:09Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > 1. I think this belongs in Cafe Society. > > 2. I don’t see any reference to this in any version and it isn’t in the theatrical edition, which is available on DVD. I’m sorry if I originally put this in the wrong place - it was my first post, and I wasn’t sure where it might go! The only versions of the movie in which we remember seeing the hookah were the original movie version shown in theaters and the very first VHS release. Even later VHS releases don’t have it, and it’s not in any DVD release. We lost the VHS that we had with the scene in it, and when we first watched it on DVD, we noticed that during that scene, Ben’s hand is waving about as if he’s gripping something and bringing it to his mouth, and we said to one another, “Wait a minute - wasn’t he smoking a hookah in the original scene?” and we both remembered that he had been, and we checked with some of our friends who are also 50-ish and they remembered it, so we went on-line to see why they had changed the scene - only to find no mention of it at all! It’s all very confusing, but that WAS 33 years ago and sometimes I have a hard time remembering what I had for lunch on any given day, so it’s possible that I’m mistaken - but that would mean that all my friends as well as my husband are sharing a delusion! (We didn’t all see the movie together, either, so it wasn’t as if we all saw some weird Cheech & Chong version…) ---
**Author:** ![BarefootOkieGal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/fbc32d/32.png) [@BarefootOkieGal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BarefootOkieGal)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2011, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-wars-ben-kenobi-smoking-hookah/602644/36 "2011-11-18T00:11:07Z")
> [@JBDivmstr](#): > > I have a pretty vivid mental picture of Obi-Wan smoking… something. Not quite sure if it was a hookah, but I have a very distinct mental image of OWK exhaling smoke, while sitting and talking to the young Luke Skywalker, just prior to the Princess hologram being produced by R2D2. Yeah! He’s sitting there talking to Luke about how he knew his father, and he’s definitely holding something in his hand which he then brings to his mouth, and he leans back and relaxes. Apparently, this scene appears in the book (which I’ve never read) - and I’m willing to swear that I saw this in the original movie, as well as the very first VHS edition. ---
**Author:** ![BarefootOkieGal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/fbc32d/32.png) [@BarefootOkieGal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BarefootOkieGal)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2011, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-wars-ben-kenobi-smoking-hookah/602644/37 "2011-11-18T00:13:51Z")
> [@Crazyhorse](#): > > I think this is [the scene in question](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukbTFgQ4jxs&t=0m16s). At about 21 seconds he places his hand to his mouth and he does appear to bite down on the stem of a (now invisible) pipe or hookah mouthpiece or something. I don’t remember one way or the other from when I saw the movie originally, but I agree with the OP the hand motion and mouth movement looks very much like he was originally smoking a pipe in that scene. That’s the scene!!! ---
**Author:** ![BarefootOkieGal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/fbc32d/32.png) [@BarefootOkieGal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BarefootOkieGal)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2011, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-wars-ben-kenobi-smoking-hookah/602644/38 "2011-11-18T00:21:13Z")
> [@TBG](#): > > Ol’ Ben smoking? Say it ain’t so! Why he made that guy stop trying to sell him deathsticks in Ep2! I just remember him smoking a hookah - I don’t know exactly what he had in it!!! After all, there are hookah bars around town here where you can go to smoke exotic tobaccos. (Bleh. I’ll stick with my menthol lights.) Maybe he borrowed some pipe-weed from the Hobbits? ---
**Author:** ![BarefootOkieGal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/fbc32d/32.png) [@BarefootOkieGal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BarefootOkieGal)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2011, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-wars-ben-kenobi-smoking-hookah/602644/39 "2011-11-18T00:25:13Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > The scene as linked to looks like the original scene, and he’s just touching his beard in a moment of reflection. > > People do have a way of remembering stuff in movies that never was there. It’s natural. We’ve been exposed to Star Wars stuff for 35 years now, it all starts to melt together. I haven’t been able to keep track of Star Wars ever since the first movie became the fourth movie, with the release of the second trilogy… ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2011, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-wars-ben-kenobi-smoking-hookah/602644/40 "2011-11-18T02:05:50Z")
> [@BarefootOkieGal](#): > > I haven’t been able to keep track of Star Wars ever since the first movie became the fourth movie, with the release of the second trilogy… It’s easier just to forget the prequels all together. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-wars-ben-kenobi-smoking-hookah/602644.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-wars-ben-kenobi-smoking-hookah/602644.md?page=3)