You’ve probably seen it. A spider tries to build a web while high on caffeine, ends up building a hammock, and then just gives up to watch the sunrise. Or maybe the one where a spider on LSD builds a structure so geometric it looks like a blueprint for a silicon chip. It’s funny. It’s weird. It’s also totally fake—well, the video is, anyway.
When people search for animals on drugs episodes, they are usually looking for a very specific piece of Canadian comedy history. We're talking about the "Spiders on Drugs" parody. It’s a bit from a 2006 episode of a show called The Hinterland Who's Who—or rather, a brilliant satire of those iconic nature shorts. The video was created by Andrew Struthers and has racked up tens of millions of views over the last two decades. It captures that exact 1970s documentary vibe so perfectly that some people still think it’s a real National Wildlife Federation clip.
But here’s the thing: nature is actually weirder than the parody.
The Science That Inspired the Animals on Drugs Episodes
While the YouTube video is a joke, the premise is based on actual, peer-reviewed science. In 1948, a pharmacologist named Peter N. Witt started giving psychoactive drugs to garden spiders. He wasn't just being a jerk; he was frustrated that spiders built their webs at 4:00 AM, which was a terrible time for a researcher to be awake. He hoped that drugs like amphetamines would make them build webs at different times.
It didn't work. The spiders still built at 4:00 AM. But the webs? They looked insane.
Decades later, in 1995, NASA researchers took this a step further. They used computer image analysis to quantify the "toxicity" of various substances by looking at spider web patterns. It turns out spiders are incredibly sensitive. On caffeine, a spider loses all sense of symmetry. On chloral hydrate (a sedative), they basically pass out halfway through. This real-life research is the "DNA" of the animals on drugs episodes we see referenced in pop culture today.
✨ Don't miss: Why ASAP Rocky F kin Problems Still Runs the Club Over a Decade Later
Spiders Aren't the Only Ones Getting Into Trouble
Nature isn't a sober place.
If you look past the viral spoofs, you find stories like the "drunken" moose in Sweden. This isn't a myth. Every autumn, fermented apples fall from trees and sit on the ground. Moose eat them. Because moose are massive, it takes a lot of fermented fruit to get them buzzed, but when it happens, they get belligerent. There are documented cases of fire departments having to rescue "drunk" moose that got stuck in apple trees while trying to reach the "good stuff" at the top.
Then there are the Wallabies in Tasmania. This sounds like an urban legend, but it’s a matter of public record. Wallabies have been known to enter legally grown poppy fields (used for medicinal morphine) and eat the heads. They get high, start hopping in circles, and create "crop circles" in the fields. Former Tasmanian Attorney General Lara Giddings actually testified about this in a parliamentary hearing.
Why the Viral Parody Still Works
The reason the animals on drugs episodes parody remains a staple of internet culture is its tone. It uses a very specific type of "authoritative Canadian" narration. It mimics the Hinterland Who’s Who series, which was a real set of public service announcements produced by the Canadian Wildlife Service starting in the 60s.
By using that slow, deliberate, "National Film Board" voice, the parody tricks your brain into expecting a lesson on the life cycle of the beaver. Instead, it tells you that the "crack cocaine spider" decided that building webs was for suckers and instead waited for the "caffeine spider" to finish his web so he could "pop a cap in his thorax" and take it over.
🔗 Read more: Ashley My 600 Pound Life Now: What Really Happened to the Show’s Most Memorable Ashleys
It's dark. It's satirical. It taps into our collective memory of boring classroom documentaries.
Real Documentaries vs. The Parody
If you want to see what a real animals on drugs episodes looks like without the comedy, you have to look at shows like Nature on PBS or various BBC Earth segments.
For instance, there is the famous footage of dolphins passing around a pufferfish. Pufferfish contain tetrodotoxin, a potent neurotoxin that is usually fatal. However, in tiny doses, it appears to have a narcotic effect on dolphins. Scientists have filmed them gently chewing on the pufferfish and then floating near the surface in what appears to be a trance-like state.
They aren't "killing" the fish—they're using it like a joint.
How to Tell Fact From Fiction
When you’re diving into the world of animals on drugs episodes, it’s easy to get lost in the "funny" side of the internet. Here’s a quick reality check on what’s real and what’s "Spiders on Drugs" satire:
💡 You might also like: Album Hopes and Fears: Why We Obsess Over Music That Doesn't Exist Yet
- The Crack Cocaine Spider: Fake. Spiders do not build "crack houses" or use weapons. This is the climax of the famous Andrew Struthers parody.
- The Caffeine Spider: Real. NASA and Peter Witt both proved that caffeine is actually more disruptive to a spider’s brain than many harder drugs. A spider on caffeine cannot figure out how to bridge the gaps in its web.
- Reindeer eating mushrooms: Real. In Siberia, reindeer are known to seek out Amanita muscaria mushrooms. These are the red-and-white toadstools you see in Mario games. They have hallucinogenic properties, and reindeer have been observed acting erratic and disoriented after eating them.
- Elephants on Alcohol: Mixed. While there are many stories of elephants "raiding" villages for grain beer or eating fermented marula fruit, some researchers argue that elephants are too large to get truly drunk on fruit alone. They’d have to eat an impossible amount. However, they definitely seek out the taste, and their behavior changes.
The Evolutionary "Why"
You might wonder why animals do this. Most of the time, it’s accidental. A bird eats a berry that stayed on the bush too long and fermented. A bighorn sheep licks a specific type of psychedelic lichen off a rock because it's bored or hungry.
But some scientists, like Giorgio Samorini, suggest that "animals on drugs" isn't an accident. In his book Animals and Psychedelics, he argues that many species have a natural drive to alter their consciousness. It might be a way to break up monotonous patterns or find new ways of thinking—though that might be giving a drunken Swedish moose a bit too much credit.
Where to Find the Authentic Episodes
If you are looking for the actual video that started the meme, search for "Spiders on Drugs" or "Hinterland Who's Who Parody." It’s only about two minutes long.
If you want the real science, look for the 1995 NASA Tech Brief titled "Using Spider-Web Patterns to Determine Toxicity." It's a fascinating read that shows just how much "drug testing" was actually done on arachnids.
Actionable Steps for the Curious
If you're fascinated by the intersection of biology and chemistry, don't just stop at the memes.
- Check out the original Hinterland Who's Who: Watching the real, serious ones makes the parody ten times funnier. You can find them on the official HWW YouTube channel.
- Read about the "Drunken Monkey Hypothesis": This is a real scientific theory by Robert Dudley that suggests our own human attraction to alcohol comes from our ancestors seeking out fermented fruit for its high caloric content.
- Watch the Dolphin Pufferfish Footage: Look for the BBC's Spy in the Pod. It’s some of the best high-definition footage of animals actually using a "substance" in the wild.
- Verify your sources: Next time a video claims an animal is "high," check if it’s a controlled study or a "viral" clip. Often, what looks like "drug use" is actually a neurological disease or a parasite, which is way less funny but much more common in the wild.
The world of animals on drugs episodes is a weird mix of 90s science, 2000s Canadian comedy, and genuine evolutionary biology. It reminds us that nature isn't always a "noble" place of survival—sometimes, it's just a spider trying to figure out why its web looks like a piece of abstract art after a cup of coffee.
Next Steps for Deep Research:
For those interested in the actual chemical impacts, researching Trophic Ecology and Zoopharmacognosy (the study of how animals self-medicate) provides the scientific framework for these behaviors. You can find academic papers on Google Scholar under "interspecific drug use" to see how researchers are currently studying these phenomena in primates and marine life.