Arnold's Stogies

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Part of a series on Arnold Schwarzenegger. [View Related Entries]

About

Arnold's Stogies or Arnold Is Ballsy With His Cigars refers to a viral video of actor and politician Arnold Schwarznegger talking about his smoking habit. The interview, in which Schwarzenegger brags about being "ballsy" and "a stud" and smoking his cigars "anywhere he wants," gained viral popularity online, being used as source material for quotes and memes.

Origin

On August 3rd, 2016, YouTube^[1] user Ander Ferreras uploaded a one-minute clip of actor Arnold Schwarzenegger talking about his smoking habit taken from the 1996 documentary Cigars!: The New Rage!. In the clip, titled "Arnold is Ballsy with his Cigars," Schwarzenegger talks about his smoking habit, revealing that his wife's father introduced him to smoking cigars, or stogies, bragging that he doesn't have to hide his habit from his wife and mocking viewers about that.

"Because after dinner, everyone ought to have a cigar." So I tried it, well, the rest is history: I'm still smoking stogies, I love it, and he introduced me to something really good.
And I know now the next question! Knowing you, being the interviewer that you are, digging in deep all the time, you will say now, "What does your wife think about that?" Let me ask you something: when my wife's father has introduced me to stogies, what is she going to say? She is not going to say, "my father made a mistake," because her father never makes a mistake, so therefore it is okay. I can smoke stogies around her, I can smoke stogies in my house – first of all because her father introduced me to stogies, and second of all because I'm a stud. I’m ballsy. I don’t take no shit from anyone. I smoke my stogie anywhere I want! I don’t have to find a hideout place like you! Oh ho ho ho!

Spread

The video saw little spread until mid-2017, gaining 50,000 views by February 24th, 2017.^[2] On January 20th, 2017, now-defunct Instagram^[3] account i_hate_vegans_alot_v2 posted the video, with an iFunny^[4] reupload gaining 59 smiles. On June 1st, 2017, Instagram^[5] account shaqs0n posted the video, with the post gaining over 24,700 views and 1,700 likes.

On July 22nd, 2017, Instagram^[6] account oldrowofficial posted the clip, with the post gaining over 305,000 views and 38,300 likes. The video achieved viral status by mid-2018, when multiple posts with the video were made on social media and memes based on the video starting to appear online.

On June 7th, 2018, iFunny^[7] user MeltingSlurpee posted the earliest discovered meme based on the video, with the post gaining 61 smiles in three years (shown below, left). On August 8th, 2017, YouTube^[8] user wowflower posted music remix of the video. On August 18th, 2018, Facebook^[9] meme page Arnold Schwarzposting posted a meme that gained 37 reactions (shown below, right).

Starting in mid-2019, the video achieved moderate popularity in memes, with several quotes from the video being used as catchphrases and snowclones, most notably, "I'm ballsy, I smoke my stogie anywhere I want, I don't have to find a hideout place." For example, on May 24th, 2019, Instagram^[10] page thehighsociety posted a meme that received over 233,500 views and 27,900 likes in two years (shown below, left). On July 1st, 2019, iFunny^[11] user thememewaves posted a meme that received over 137,600 smiles in the same period (shown below, right).

The video maintained notable popularity in memes in the following years through references, catchphrases, snowclone memes and edits.