20 October 2001
There isn’t a precise sales figure for Ireland for Afroman’s ‘Because I Got High’. However, in the market closest to us, the UK, it’s certified as selling 600,000 copies, which equates to a copy bought by roughly 1% of the UK population. Assuming a similar sales reach here from its three weeks atop our charts, that equates to 40,000 copies sold here. In other words, that’s 40,000 morons of Ireland who bought this. Factoring in the—admittedly slim—possibility of them having since 2001 reproduced and passed on their dubious DNA, that’s a whole lotta moron at large in our community. Be afraid.
This strain of puerile frat-boy record, which had surfaced with US imports like The Outhere Brothers and The Bloodhound Gang, is a real curio of its time. Nowadays such ten-a-penny rubbish would flare up on social media for a while and then waft away, without crossing into the music charts from sheer mock-horror novelty value or bantz. Another aspect to ‘Because I Got High’ is that it’s a comedy record, so Afroman is essentially the American Richie Kavanagh but not as classy. Blocking him out for a moment, I admit the hook and backing vocals are catchy, but the dumbed-down drum fill at the end of each chorus gives away how tossed off and rubbishy this product is. As for the man himself and his quaint belief that the mere mention of smoking a joint is inherently hilarious, he ticks the depressingly predictable boxes of sexism and misogyny, reduces police brutality against persons of colour to a tasteless punchline about being paraplegic, and his constant laughing delivery is unbelievably annoying. I only post the radio edit video below in case you don’t believe that such a relentlessly stupid record could actually have topped the Irish and UK singles charts, or in case you’re a moron.
