Do you mind if I don't smoke?

December 14, 2004 5:17 PM

"My Acid Trip with Groucho"
In the preparation for a highly zany/psychedelic/recommended movie called "Skidoo" (directed by Otto Preminger, starring Jackie Gleason, and featuring music by Harry Nilsson), Groucho Marx takes LSD.
posted by The Great Big Mulp (19 comments total)

Minus the extraneous "the", of course.
posted by The Great Big Mulp at 5:19 PM on December 14, 2004

Thanks for posting this; I've wanted to read more about this story since reading the Krassner interview in RE:Search: Pranks!
posted by interrobang at 5:23 PM on December 14, 2004

great link, thank you Mulpy.
posted by chaz at 5:39 PM on December 14, 2004

aturally I took an immediate vow never to appear on any TV show again unstoned. Which in turn explains why eating magic mushrooms was practically a prerequisite for my being interviewed by Tom Snyder.

Or watching Tom Snyder...
posted by SweetJesus at 5:54 PM on December 14, 2004

How can a movie with so much promise be so boring? I found this at my local video store four or five years ago. My excitement at finding it was matched only by my disappointment when I actually watched it. It is mercifully short, but that is the only thing merciful about it. I imagine that, at the time, it must have been different and exciting, but now the most shocking thing about it is that it was ever made. It is a little too zany. That said, it is worth seeing just to see how ludicrous it is. Just don't get your hopes up.
posted by mokujin at 5:59 PM on December 14, 2004

Great link! Now I want to get stoned and watch Tom Snyder.
posted by Sticherbeast at 6:05 PM on December 14, 2004

Wow. This is really wonderful for obscure personal family reasons. Thank you.
posted by alms at 6:08 PM on December 14, 2004

A bit Gawkeresque.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 6:26 PM on December 14, 2004

Yay! This went much better than my first attempted post to the mefi.
posted by The Great Big Mulp at 6:36 PM on December 14, 2004

a very hyperreal/alt.drugs flashback. odd.
posted by shoepal at 6:38 PM on December 14, 2004

Site appears down. Wayback archive
posted by abcde at 7:17 PM on December 14, 2004

That was an excellent read. Thank, GBM.
posted by saladin at 7:42 PM on December 14, 2004

Thank you .Your post reminded me of the fact, that the
FBI and CIA,ran a program to discredit the sixties youth
movement. cointelpro and chaos
posted by hortense at 7:45 PM on December 14, 2004

The think tanks had not formulated a contingency plan for this counterculture that was refusing to be brainwashed into becoming consumer and military zombies. This -mutation!-would certainly have to be discredited.

Sadly their work only required another decade or so to achieve the goal. Very trippy read overall.
posted by billsaysthis at 7:50 PM on December 14, 2004

I was one of the unfortunates who saw Skidoo in the movie theater as a youth. Dreadful then, dreadful now. Who needs the FBI to discredit the youth movement with Hollywood on the job?
posted by QuietDesperation at 8:55 PM on December 14, 2004

Kempa had an interesting post about Otto Preminger that mentioned Skidoo (and featured an MP3 of a Harry Nilsson song from the score).
posted by filmgoerjuan at 9:06 PM on December 14, 2004

Terry Gilliam should do a remake.
posted by buriednexttoyou at 10:05 PM on December 14, 2004

Why thank you, abcde. I've been trying to find it mirrored in some archive for a while, forgetting entirely about the Wayback folks.
posted by The Great Big Mulp at 1:31 PM on December 15, 2004

I have been reading a book about Groucho these last fews days and this article was a nice addition to the legend. Good for Grouch!
posted by Joey Michaels at 1:42 PM on December 15, 2004