Talk:This Is Your Brain on Drugs/Archives/2013

Shorter version of commercial?

I seem to vaguely recall, from the 80s, a shorter version of the commercial. It opens with a focus on an frying pan filling the entire screen - no sight of a narrator, no sight of an egg, no words. An egg is poured/dropped into the frying pan, sizzling and bubbling.

A disembodied voice - possibly teenage? - says, "this is your brain on drugs. Any questions?"

This short version was incomprehensible because it lacked the opening "this is your brain", "this is drugs" explanation.

Can anyone else corroborate this? (If not, maybe my local TV station made its own version of the ad, who knows.)

"This is the last time..."

I seem to recall an alternate version where the male narrator says "All right, this is the last time I'm going to tell you..." (or words to that effect) before holding up the egg. Any verification of this?

• Yes, yes, absolutely! I'm guessing mid-to-late 80's. My recollection: some male dude, white T-shirt, short-to-medium darkish hair, sturdy build. The scene is shot is in a large kitchen. The speaker is speaking in an intentionally simplified tone, as if to imply "come on, this isn't that hard to understand." I recall the guy saying, in an almost exasperated tone, something like "All right, one last time: THIS is your brain. [holds up egg]. THIS is drugs. [holds up frying pan, puts it on stove] THIS [crack egg, pour into frying pan] is your brain on drugs. ANY QUESTIONS?" I always thought this version of the commercial was a direct response to the overly-abbreviated, incomprehensible version mentioned above (which simply said "this is your brain on drugs" as an egg was fried) - since no one understood what the hell the short commercial was trying to say, they made the follow-up "exasperated explanation" version.

You forgot his opening words (which also are absent from the article): "For the last time, etc." These opening words stuck with me because I had never seen or heard this message before. And I remember my reaction as a teenager to this PSA: "The stoners are just going to laugh at this, & talk about how much fun they're having by frying their brains." -- llywrch 22:29, 9 May 2007 (UTC)

2nd commercial

the second commercial with rachel that was linked is very low quality and has CNN text garbage covering it up, this version link has better quality and no CNN garbage.

note: the article quotes her as "starting heroin" but it sounds like "snorting heroin" to me. I notice several revisions in this vein. Is there any concensus about what she says?Hal 10000.0 (talk) 21:22, 31 October 2008 (UTC)

C&P of too-long trivia section

The second PSA was satirized in the premiere episode, 'Junk In The Trunk', of the animated television show Robot Chicken, for which Cook reprised her role. In this one, instead of merely smashing plates and glass objects in the kitchen, she goes crazy with the pan, hitting old women, animals, passers-by, and, eventually, herself, screaming about consequences that are actually entirely unrelated to taking drugs ("And your boyfriend gives you Herpes simplex A!") or only marginally possible consequences ("And you get a unicorn tattoo on your left ass-cheek that was supposed to be a bitchin' firebird but you were too stoned out at the time to notice!")

• Its use in the first PSA was also sampled in the parody song, 'I Can't Watch This', by 'Weird Al' Yankovic on his 1992 album titled Off The Deep End (alongside other US television advertising slogans from the time, such as "I've fallen and I can't get up").
  
• It was also ridiculed by stand-up comedian and satirist Bill Hicks, as can be heard in his live performance on Relentless (album).
  
• On the sitcom Married With Children, in the episode "What Goes Around Comes Around", Al takes an egg, says "This is your brain", then says "This is your brain on marriage", drops it on the ground, and asks, "Any questions?"
  
• A poster produced in the early 1990s called "Famous Brains on Drugs" parodied the concept by having eggs appear in the frying pan in forms intended to remind the viewer of certain people. For instance, a pan labeled "Saddam Hussein" had an egg with a crosshair over it, and a pan labeled "Milli Vanilli" contained a box of imitation eggs.
• The film sequel Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991) also spoofed the original PSA by having Johnny Depp (whose acting career began with A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), the first film in series) perform the skit, only to be hit in the face with the frying pan by the character Freddy Krueger.
  
• The second PSA was satirized in the premiere episode, 'Junk In The Trunk', of the animated television show Robot Chicken, for which Cook reprised her role. In this one, instead of merely smashing plates and glass objects in the kitchen, she goes crazy with the pan, hitting old women, animals, passers-by, and, eventually, herself, screaming about consequences that are actually entirely unrelated to taking drugs ("And your boyfriend gives you Herpes simplex A!") or only marginally possible consequences ("And you get a unicorn tattoo on your left ass-cheek that was supposed to be a bitchin' firebird but you were too stoned out at the time to notice!")
  
• The movie Scary Movie 2 also features a parody of the skit.
• There have also been in form of T-shirts, such as versions based on The Simpsons ("This is your brain on donuts, showing a X-ray of Homer Simpson's head) and the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry (shirts targeted to both alliegiances of the famed rivalry), among others.
• The title of the New York Times best-selling book, "This Is Your Brain On Music: The Science of a Human Obsession" (Dutton/Penguin, 2006) by Daniel Levitin was a nod to the first PSA.