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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to not understand all the glue hilarity on MN?

45 replies

MardyBra · 09/04/2014 07:39

I keep seeing references to "are you on glue?" and I remember there was an unreasonable bride who became known as Gluezilla.

I've just been presuming it was something about sniffing glue. Why is that so hysterically funny?

Or am I missing something?

OP posts:
Original poster
MardyBra · 09/04/2014 07:41

Is glue the new Bear ?

OP posts:
LtEveDallas · 09/04/2014 07:45

Missing something.

On the Gluezilla thread, long before she got called that, the bride was asking for more and more unreasonable things to be done by the OP.

OP asked what she should text Gluezilla to decline.

Another posters suggested "Bitch, are you on glue?" And Gluezilla was born.

(You kind of had to be there) Grin

Original poster
MardyBra · 09/04/2014 07:47

Still don't quite see what I'm missing. But thanks for trying Eve.

OP posts:
Original poster
MardyBra · 09/04/2014 07:47

So it's a bit like "did you mean to be so rude?"?

OP posts:
LtEveDallas · 09/04/2014 07:51

Oh I suppose that because sniffing glue would lead to dizziness/drunken behaviour (not quite sure - do kids even do it these days?), so for her to have asked the OP of that thread to do stuff (OP wasn't invited but bride was expecting her to decorate the venue and stuff as a 'friend' and as a 'favour' not even paying her) then she must have been drunk/on drugs to think that was acceptable, hence "are you on glue?"

Glue sniffing was a big problem when I was a kid (I'm 42 now). Maybe you have to know that to understand it (and find it funny).

MammaTJ · 09/04/2014 07:55

I was going to say 'I guess you had to be there' but you were and you still don't get it!

Not really sure what to say then! Hmm

thecatfromjapan · 09/04/2014 08:01

Solvent abuse. Perhaps it is an age thing. It crept into the conversation in my youth, too. There were counter-cultural references, too.*

There was something of a moral panic about it, leading to many things not being quite so easily purchased, and different nozzles attached to things.

Somebody told me it was on the increase again now. Heavens knows why, when there is so much cheap alcohol around. Perhaps it is the ever enduring appeal of turning everyday objects from their quotidien and prescribed use? The allure of committing a small revolution and liberation from the mundane? Who knows.

Anyway, the joke of it lies in a. implying a poster is secretly getting high on the objects that lie around the home, and, I think, behind that, a kind of joke about the idea of a Normal Mother being secretly a Juvenile Delinquent in John Lewis. Maybe.

*For instance, the fanzine "Sniffin' Glue", which was constructed in the old cut n' paste (with glue) manner. There is also a very funny scne in "The Crow Road" by Ian M. Banks where the narrator and a friend try a little solvent abuse with aerosols of whipped cream (though not glue).

thecatfromjapan · 09/04/2014 08:02

thecatfromjapan joins Sigmund Freud in the illustrious pantheon of Joke Killers Extraordinaire.

thecatfromjapan · 09/04/2014 08:08

By the way, I don't think it has quite the same deployment as "Did you mean to be so rude?" because it has a slightly more ironic ring to it (with it's 70s/80s revival references) and a slightly counter-cultural, anti-authority aura to it (glue-sniffing was associated with punk and also those excluded from the Thatcher glory years), so there is a sense of the speaker colluding with the person to whom they address the comment, rather than simply trying to put them down.

Usually.

Original poster
MardyBra · 09/04/2014 08:14

"I was going to say 'I guess you had to be there' but you were and you still don't get it!"

To be fair, the thread went on so long, I mainly read the OP's posts and skimmed others' contributions at times. And I'm in my late 40s so I definitely remember glue-sniffing, although I never progressed beyond a sneaky whiff of Tippex myself.

I just don't get why it was so funny and why it's repeated so much. If everyone else gets it, maybe I've just had a sense of humour failure on this one.

OP posts:
TheDoctrineOfSnatch · 09/04/2014 08:17

Mardy, were you following the threads as they developed? I think in the context of various "I am confused as to why you are acting so entitled" type suggestions, "Bitch, are you on glue?" just caught the imagination the way things do sometimes.

It's not as legendary as Bear obviously, else there would be a [copydex] emoticon...

SetPhasersTaeMalkie · 09/04/2014 08:19

It's hard to explain but I'll try.

People have different senses of humour and find different things funny. If you don't get a joke you never will and having it explained won't really help.

DowntonTrout · 09/04/2014 08:25

Are you on glue? is like "are you on drugs?"

Acting irrationally/crazed. It was a big deal when I was younger too, all sorts of warnings about glue sniffing. You would find plastic bags full of glue in bus shelters/ in the park. Then it became general "solvent abuse" cans of deodorant etc. I'm not sure it goes on so much now, I think drugs/alcohol are just as cheap and readily available.

Anyway, it's just one of those phrases that catches on on MN.

ilovesooty · 09/04/2014 08:27

Mardy I'm really glad you started this thread. I didn't know about the thread where this originated but know I do I'm still not amused.

I've been feeling increasingly uncomfortable seeing this about. I work in substance misuse and dont find references to it funny.

And I was around, teaching, when glue sniffing was popular, dealing with young people affected. I didn't think it was too funny then either.

DownstairsMixUp · 09/04/2014 08:27

I don't think I've ever used it on MN but I have IRL. Blush I'm not old either, just my Nan used to say it about my Grandad when he was around a lot when he did stupid things and it always stuck with me when people act oddly!

SetPhasersTaeMalkie · 09/04/2014 08:28

I think the op gets that tbf.

She just doesn't find it funny. Which seems to be the point of the thread I think.

mycatlikestwiglets · 09/04/2014 08:31

I'm with you on this MardyBra. I mean, I followed the whole GlueZilla thread but for me the "are you on glue" bit wasn't really funny. I guess it just doesn't appeal to some senses of humour but it seems to have caught on as a new mnism. It's just like the did you mean to be so rude thing IMO.

TheKangaroo · 09/04/2014 08:33

I don't really find it that funny, I remember most of my friends doing it tbh and although I understand the basics of why it's supposed to be funny, it just doesn't come across as funny to me, not for any particular reason, it just falls a bit flat imo.

DowntonTrout · 09/04/2014 08:33

Oh ok.

Well sniffing glue isn't funny. Neither is drug abuse or alcohol abuse. No ones saying they are.

But I think the phrase is amusing as it's an out dated term of phrase.

Ubik1 · 09/04/2014 08:35

Remember you are not allowed to treat anything in a vaguely lighthearted/satirical fashion anymore as it makes folk uncomfortable.

Original poster
MardyBra · 09/04/2014 08:35

"People have different senses of humour and find different things funny. If you don't get a joke you never will and having it explained won't really help."

Thank you for that explanation. Hmm

I just wanted to see if I'd missed something. But evidently not.

So, saying "are you on glue OP?" is a bit like saying "are you pissed?" but slightly funnier because of some retro cultural references.

OP posts:
Notafoodbabyanymore · 09/04/2014 08:36

I was the person who said it. Blush

It's just something that DH and I giggle about, think the phrase "are you on glue?" was used in an episode of Phoenix Nights, and we say it to each other when one of us makes a slightly crazy comment or suggestion.

Didn't quite expect it to be received or analysed in the way it has been though. Just thought it was a bit of a funny thing to post.

TheDoctrineOfSnatch · 09/04/2014 08:41

Mardy, I honestly think it was the pithiness of ot on that thread as well. If the same poster has said, "why not text, "bitch are you smoking squirrel shit?" " then that might have caught on too.

I don't find pom bear or penguins that funny because I read the threads in one go from classics, but I can see as part of a developing story they tickled people's fancies.

TheDoctrineOfSnatch · 09/04/2014 08:42

Oh, x-post with the original glue-r!

SetPhasersTaeMalkie · 09/04/2014 08:46

My pleasure OP.

It seemed like a timely reminder.