# What is so "cool" about smoking? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 2, 2003, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-so-cool-about-smoking/179025 "2003-06-02T00:14:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2003, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-so-cool-about-smoking/179025/41 "2003-06-04T05:27:44Z")
Smokers on average have lower educational and income levels than non-smokers. That’s cool? ---
**Author:** ![Mockingbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c68b51/32.png) [@Mockingbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mockingbird)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2003, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-so-cool-about-smoking/179025/42 "2003-06-04T06:39:51Z")
Some of us started smoking because we _enjoy_ it. Yes, it isn’t good for me, but neither is the President, so at least this is a vice I _chose_. ---
**Author:** ![Parallax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bbce88/32.png) [@Parallax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Parallax)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2003, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-so-cool-about-smoking/179025/43 "2003-06-04T13:20:07Z")
You were instantly a perfect smoker? I’ve never heard of anyone who didn’t cough, choke, etc. when learning to smoke. So what was it that made you want to get through all that? Did you enjoy that part? That is what confuses me - you have to work really hard to get used to smoking and it doesn’t seem worth all the effort. ---
**Author:** ![Tiram](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c37758/32.png) [@Tiram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tiram)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2003, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-so-cool-about-smoking/179025/44 "2003-06-04T13:41:44Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Parallax \* > I’ve never heard of anyone who didn’t cough, choke, etc. when learning to smoke. I didn’t. Not that I wouldn’t like to quit now, but I took to it immediately. ---
**Author:** ![greck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/7ab992/32.png) [@greck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/greck)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2003, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-so-cool-about-smoking/179025/45 "2003-06-04T15:39:27Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Walloon \* > \*\*Smokers on average have lower educational and income levels than non-smokers. That’s cool? \*\* The Fonz never went to college, lived in the Cunninghams’s attic. aayyyyyyy! ---
**Author:** ![tiny\_ham](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a183cd/32.png) [@tiny\_ham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tiny_ham)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2003, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-so-cool-about-smoking/179025/46 "2003-06-04T16:44:36Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Walloon \* > \*\*Smokers on average have lower educational and income levels than non-smokers. That’s cool? \*\* Of course not. Most of us if not all are aware smoking is dirty, dangerous, taboo, smelly, a waste of money and rude to others. but when I’m fantasizing about a mysterious, dangerous stranger picking me up in a bar, he’s almost always smoking. All my favorite actors, rock stars and athletes smoke. It’s just…manly. YMMV ---
**Author:** ![Gotterfunken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/58956e/32.png) [@Gotterfunken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gotterfunken)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2003, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-so-cool-about-smoking/179025/47 "2003-06-04T16:47:13Z")
[Oscar Wilde](http://www.readliterature.com/owilde.htm) once said “A cigarette is the perfect type of a perfect pleasure. It is exquisite, and it leaves one unsatisfied. What more can one want?” That’s cool. ---
**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:** [June 4, 2003, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-so-cool-about-smoking/179025/48 "2003-06-04T16:55:32Z")
Freudian symbolism? At the period when teens become sexually active/interested? Don’t laugh, **I’m serious**. ---
**Author:** ![KidCharlemagne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ed8c4c/32.png) [@KidCharlemagne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KidCharlemagne)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2003, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-so-cool-about-smoking/179025/49 "2003-06-04T17:10:25Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Stonebow \* > \*\*It’s a phallic thing. The cigarette (or cigar for those of you who need something BIGGER) is clearly evocative of the male sexual drive and virility. the practice in females is a cear sign of receptiveness for that virility. > I mean, we can pretty much agree that sucking cock is cool, right? > > Right? \*\* Nah, it’s an oral thing. Smoking is usually considered an extension/frustration of the oral stage of psychosexual development. But, since males have to make a phallus out of everything they get their hands on (pun intended) , cigars were made bigger. ---
**Author:** ![Dogface](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9d8465/32.png) [@Dogface](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dogface)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2003, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-so-cool-about-smoking/179025/50 "2003-06-04T18:00:29Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Dodeca Aww Hell With It \* > \*\* > > How could something that stains your teeth and fingers a hideous brown color and makes your breath, clothes, car and place of residence smell like deep fried shit not be cool?\*\* I must ask how it is you are personally familiar with the deep frying of feces. > [@](#): > > \*\*James Dean smoked and look how he turned out—dead before the age of 30. (Yeah, yeah I know, cigarettes had nothing to do with his death.) \*\* Then obviously all those other claims of cigarettes connected with mortality must be equally as true, right? ---
**Author:** ![Dogface](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9d8465/32.png) [@Dogface](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dogface)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2003, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-so-cool-about-smoking/179025/51 "2003-06-04T18:03:16Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Parallax \* > \*\*You were instantly a perfect smoker? > > I’ve never heard of anyone who didn’t cough, choke, etc. when learning to smoke. So what was it that made you want to get through all that? Did you enjoy that part? That is what confuses me - you have to work really hard to get used to smoking and it doesn’t seem worth all the effort. \*\* What cough? What choke? What are you talking about, dear boy? The first thing I ever smoked was a cigar. No cough, no choke, no sputter at all. Of course, I was too well-educated to inhale, merely drawing the essence into my mouth and then expelling it. ---
**Author:** ![Dogface](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9d8465/32.png) [@Dogface](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dogface)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2003, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-so-cool-about-smoking/179025/52 "2003-06-04T18:13:47Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Necromancer \* > \*\*Over the decades, tobacco companies have traditionally portrayed smoking as glamorous, sophisticated, and cool. The images they advertising suggested were you will be popular, independent and outgoing if you smoked. \*\* Yeah, yeah, yeah, blame it all on “the tobacco companies”. I got news for you, Junior, the world wasn’t created in 1980. People were smoking and associating it with “sophistication” long before mass marketing was invented. And about as long, other people were complaining about smoking. ---
**Author:** ![smam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/46a35a/32.png) [@smam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smam)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2003, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-so-cool-about-smoking/179025/53 "2003-06-04T18:50:28Z")
Got it - SMOKE RINGS!! " BINGO " . ---
**Author:** ![angelabaca](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f05b48/32.png) [@angelabaca](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/angelabaca)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2003, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-so-cool-about-smoking/179025/54 "2003-06-04T19:52:14Z")
for me, smoking is a oral fixation. If I have enough gum, I don’t smoke. If you go through any more than a pack a day, it’s a nicotine thing. Any less, it’s just a habit. I go through 1 pack every 2-4 days. ---
**Author:** ![Dogface](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9d8465/32.png) [@Dogface](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dogface)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2003, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-so-cool-about-smoking/179025/55 "2003-06-04T20:01:09Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by tanookie \* > \*\* > Somehow I cannot see what is cool about being addicted to anything or about being a human chimney. > > Also when you have to clog up the exit door to a non smoking establishment simply so you can get that cigarette in the nanosecond you leave said building you aren’t cool\*\* Can anyone here conclusively prove that ALL smoking consists EXCLUSIVELY of cigarette use? I smoke, and I dislike cigarettes. I do not smoke cigarettes and have no desire for them. However, a well-pressed and steamed blend of virginia, perique, and latakia with a hint of tonquin essence, that’s another story. Likewise, a stout twist of best Virginia and African can pique my interest. Of course, they are best enjoyed in the confines of my study, with a dollop of bourbon or _reposado_ tequila for contrast. (My veranda is still in the architectural drawing stage.) However, proper clubs and taverns that have not stooped to catering to the lowest of the low are also suitable venues. ---
**Author:** ![Mockingbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c68b51/32.png) [@Mockingbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mockingbird)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2003, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-so-cool-about-smoking/179025/56 "2003-06-04T20:09:22Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Parallax \* > \*\*You were instantly a perfect smoker? > > I’ve never heard of anyone who didn’t cough, choke, etc. when learning to smoke. So what was it that made you want to get through all that? Did you enjoy that part? That is what confuses me - you have to work really hard to get used to smoking and it doesn’t seem worth all the effort. \*\* No coughing, no choking. I started with clove cigarettes. After a few years, those grew too harsh and I moved to standard cigarettes. Still no hacking, etcetera. It wasn’t an effort. ---
**Author:** ![tiny\_ham](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a183cd/32.png) [@tiny\_ham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tiny_ham)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2003, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-so-cool-about-smoking/179025/57 "2003-06-04T20:21:25Z")
oh good god. I smoked cloves once, three cigarettes in a row and 12 rolling rock beers. To this day i will consume neither. BLECH. ---
**Author:** ![greck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/7ab992/32.png) [@greck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/greck)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2003, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-so-cool-about-smoking/179025/58 "2003-06-04T20:30:09Z")
I think for the purpose of this thread, “smoking” means cigarettes. Although the same types of things in terms of “Looking cool” could be gained from pipe, cigarettes or cigars. ---
**Author:** ![tiny\_ham](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a183cd/32.png) [@tiny\_ham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tiny_ham)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2003, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-so-cool-about-smoking/179025/59 "2003-06-04T20:33:19Z")
no no. I’m sorry. I have to step in and say that smoking a pipe…while dignified and literarly…just isn’t cool. You don’t see fifty guys hanging around tricked out hondas, street racing and smoking pipes. 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-so-cool-about-smoking/179025.md?page=2)