Friday Fun Drunk Link: She's Like Morgan Spurlock & McDonald's, Only for Booze

Nick Gillespie | February 17, 2006

Reader david sends along news of a BBC documentary called Booze Bird that turns the Super Size Me ideological laserium on glug-glug:

Over eight million Brits drink far more than they should every week. Following the relaxation of the licensing laws in November, Britain's drink problem may get worse.

And so, [Booze Bird] decides to find out whether Britain really does have a drink problem and if so whose fault is it? A mother of three is sent off to give binge drinking a go for a month.

Nicky goes out on the town with a bunch of girls half her age to see what effect drinking has on the body and the mind. And despite her rather heavy hangover, Nicky attempts to find out who is to blame for keeping Britain drinking. Is it the multi-billion pound drinks companies, the Government, or individuals?

Without having seen the doc, I'm guessing they end up blaming Margaret Thatcher somehow.

More, including a Real Video clip of slurred speech, here.

Reason's Kerry Howley brings us up to date on how liberalizing liquor laws has turned out (surprise: all good) here.

Onion "I'm like a chocoholic but for booze" T-shirt here.

Comments

|2.17.06 @ 10:25AM|#

In-fucking-spirational. Thank You for this. I'm cutting out of work early today to drink. And I'm going to McDonald's.

|2.17.06 @ 10:26AM|#

Imagine pitching this project to your program director, and asking for a budget.

Where's the enterprising beeb reporter who wants to give this treatment to sex addiction?

|2.17.06 @ 10:29AM|#

Hey, if I lived on that loony, neo-Orwellian island, I'd be drinking a lot too.

|2.17.06 @ 10:48AM|#

I'm going to watch nothing but Super Size Me for 30 days straight, no other entertainment or news reading of any kind. I'm figuring my IQ drops 20 points.

|2.17.06 @ 10:58AM|#

Say, for what were hop-yards meant,

Or why was Burton built on Trent?

Oh many a peer of England brews

Livelier liquor than the Muse,

And malt does more than Milton can

To justify God's ways to man.

Ale, man, ale's the stuff to drink

For fellows whom it hurts to think

A.E. Housman, "A Shropshire Lad - LXII," 1896

|2.17.06 @ 11:01AM|#

Auric That was AWESOME! I'm going to print it, frame it, and hang it in my office right above my prize pint glass commemorating the 1996 Harvest of Shropshire Ales.

Thanks,
Ig

Sandy|2.17.06 @ 11:10AM|#

So in the UK now, life is so boring that you pay a TV license just to watch somebody else--not even a particularly attractive somebody else--get drunk instead of doing it yourself.

|2.17.06 @ 11:19AM|#

"I'm going to watch nothing but Super Size Me for 30 days straight, no other entertainment or news reading of any kind. I'm figuring my IQ drops 20 points."

That's actually a stroke of brilliance.

Do it.

Record it.

Edit it.

Release it as the tell-all that Morgan Spurlock doesn't want you to see.

R C Dean|2.17.06 @ 11:24AM|#

Over eight million Brits drink far more than they should every week.

Lost me right there.

Nicky goes out on the town with a bunch of girls half her age

A personal dream of mine.

|2.17.06 @ 11:49AM|#

Considering how insane Britain has become lately, I'm surprised some MP hasn't already proposed an alcohol rationing system, to ensure that nobody buys more alcohol than is good for them.

|2.17.06 @ 11:51AM|#

Meanwhile, there's also this study:

STUDY FINDS WOMEN WHO DRINK
WAY MORE FUN TO STUDY

Researchers Say Alcohol Affects Women's Blood Pressure, Researchers' Interest

Cambridge, Mass. (SatireWire.com) Update - According to a new study on female alcohol use and blood pressure, young women who consume two or three alcoholic drinks a week are much more fun to do research on than women who do not consume alcohol.

dhex|2.17.06 @ 12:41PM|#

that is a lot of booze though.

i will never forget being laughed at by several folk in ireland when i asked them what time the pubs opened. silly american!

|2.17.06 @ 1:00PM|#

I am here to celebrate the Drunk, not to mock him

http://www.moderndrunkardmagazine.com/

|2.17.06 @ 1:22PM|#

As with Spurlock, I haven't figured out what she was trying to prove. Isn't it pretty much common knowledge that averaging 18 drinks per day will leave you in rotten shape. If I have more than 6 or 7 drinks on a weekend night, I'm usually miserable.

Sure, I find it hilarious to see people giving themselves the kinds of doses that we'd give lab rats and being shocked by the results. I just don't see what her revelance her experience has for the person who "binges" occasionally.

|2.17.06 @ 3:13PM|#

I'm working on my own film.

It's called 30 Days - On Crack.

|2.20.06 @ 1:45PM|#

I saw a short story on the news the other day that mentioned crime was down around British pubs since the legal drinking hours were expanded.

Since most science suggets 1-2 drinks per day are OK, and I only have 1-2 per week, someone owes me a couple of kegs.