Turn on, tune in, toad out.
"I'd like to remind all my readers, especially you impressionable young people, that if you must lick a toad, make sure it's wearing a condom. Thank you."
Licking the backs of toads to
get high.
Based on an urban legend dating as far back as
The Seventies, groups of hippies and teenagers were alleged to have been licking specific species of toads which secrete psychoactive compounds through their skin that can cause hallucinations.
While there
are toads that do secrete such chemicals, licking it off a toad itself is very dangerous (they are toxins to deter predators after all, coupled with an easy case of salmonella) and will cause some
serious poisoning for anyone considering a pursuit to get high in such a fashion in
Real Life (or in layman's terms,
Don't Try This at Home).
In fiction, the psychoactive toad is commonly used as a
G-Rated Drug.
See Also:
Mushroom Samba.
Compare:
Alien Catnip,
Fantastic Drug,
I Can't Believe It's Not Heroin
Examples
Comic Books
- One X-Men spinoff series featured Toad Boy, a young mutant who secreted a powerful narcotic.
Film
Literature
- In one of the Sword of Truth novels, hallucinogenic toads are used as part of a tribal ritual, but they're not actually licked as the hallucinogens in question are transmitted through skin contact.
- A character in Big Trouble has an encounter with a toad of this nature, and spends the rest of the book firmly believing that a politician's wife is trying to eat his soul.
- Carl Hiaasen's eccentric governor-turned-hermit Clinton "Skink" Tyree frequently licks toads.
- The Anarchist Cookbook has a recipe to make dried toad skin powder for smoking. It's not good for your toad karma.
Live-Action TV
Music
- The M83 track "Raconte-Moi Une Histoire"* is nothing more than an instrumental with a voice-over of a little girl telling of the wonders of touching a special little frog in the rainforest.
Tabletop Games
Webcomics
Web Original
- From Things I Am Not Allowed to Do at Hogwarts: "I will not lick Trevor."
Western Animation
- Homer in The Simpsons episode "Missionary: Impossible" is depicted at one point lying on a hammock and picking up toads at random and licking them to get high while stranded on a South Pacific island.
Bart: Dad, are you licking toads?
Homer: I'm not not licking toads!
- In another episode, Homer resorts to licking the toads in a pet shop in an attempt to intoxicate himself after being kicked out of Moe's Tavern.
- In one more, Lenny licks a toad after a drug test held at the plant.
- On Family Guy, "toad" becomes such a popular fad at James Woods High School, after a Colombian drug cartel's plane transporting the toads crashes near Quahog, that Peter winds up going undercover at the school as "Lando Griffin" to get the students to stop.
- There was even a hilarious anti-drug PSA directly spoofing the classic Tootsie Pop commercial with Mr. Owl.
Kid: Mr. Toad, how many licks of you does it take to get to the center of a Rhode Island State Prison?
[Jail Door Closes]
Voiceover: Just one.
- In Avatar: The Last Airbender, toad-licking is used as a fever cure.
- An episode of Drawn Together saw Xander, Toot, and Wooldor discover that Ling Ling excretes a hallucinogen whenever he becomes disappointed. After directly referencing the similarity to toads, they proceed to repeatedly disappoint him so they can lick the life out of him.