Stoners are fun , are n’t they ? They ’re an amusement raw material , whether at the heart of the action mechanism or provide comic respite , and perhaps more significantly , they ’re an entirely euphemistic stereotype that most folks can do a half - decent impression of .
One popular bit ofweed slangthat citizenry run to discombobulate around in smoke circles is some variation ondon’t Humphrey DeForest Bogart that joint , man . When it comes to herbal recreation , bogarting is considered the tiptop of crudity : It violates the oldpuff - puff - base on balls ruleand suggests that you ’re taking your sweet time — and more than your fair ploughshare — with that spliff .
It descend , of course , from the actor Humphrey Bogart . But how the star of such fear Hollywood classics asCasablancaandThe Maltese Falconcame to be relate with pot in the first place is a lot foggier ( and not just because of the ganja ) . harmonize toGreen ’s Dictionary of Slang , the terminus itself can have a few unlike meaning , including “ to act sharply , in a bullying manner , ” or “ to enter without invitation , ” as movie theatre ’s favorite pitiful - faced image was wo nt to do . In the sixties , if you barge your path through a gang or shoved someone , you could have easily been accused of bogarting .

Its second , better - known meaning alsooriginated in the 1960swith the rise of the counterculture . It was used to describe one who hold something egotistically , or more specifically , “ to monopolize or smoke too much of a marihuana butt . ” While the screen door caption was n’t known for being a midnight toker , he did have a rathernotorious habitof stimulate a cigarette permanently dangling from his mouth , which is how the association took root .
But the term was really immortalized in the Fraternity Of Man song “ Do n’t Bogart Me , " which was used in 1969’sEasy Riderand feature the words : “ Do n’t bogart that joint , my friend / Pass it over to me . ”
The import intended by the striation was n’t about smoke too much , however , but rather about hanging onto the joint for too longwithoutsmoking it . “ The band was smoking some pot in our rehearsal house up in Laurel Canyon , when Elliot [ Ingber , the circle ’s guitar player ] turned to me and said , ‘ Hey man , do n’t bogart that thing , ’ ” Fraternity Of Man singer Lawrence “ Stash ” Wagner toldIt ’s Psychedelic Babymagazinein 2011 . “ I asked him , ‘ What does ‘ bogart ’ mean value ? ’ He suppose , ‘ You know , like Humphrey Bogart always had a coffin nail in his handwriting or hanging from his mouth when talk . Well , you were hanging onto that roast while your lips were flapping . ’ I say , ‘ Cool , we should write a birdcall using Bogart . ’ ”
Etiquette expert Lizzie Postagrees with this definition , writing inHigher Etiquette : A Guide to the World of Cannabis , From dispensary to Dinner Parties : “ Bogartingis a term derived from the way Humphrey Bogart would just let a cigaret hang out of his mouth , not seeming to actually fume it . Bogarting a joint is when you are holding on to it or wasting it by let it burn down without being come to . ”
Thus there are two slightly different meanings , albeit both with the same resolution from the full point of scene of the speaker : weed going where it should n’t , when where it should be going is into said speaker ’s respiratory organisation . As for Bogart himself , his labored smoke and crapulence habits almost for sure lead to his other end from esophageal Cancer the Crab in 1957 at the age of 57 . He probably would n’t be tickle at his surname becoming a synonym for either smoking too much or not enough , but as they say , fume ’em if you got ’em .
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