I saw an ad for a supplement designed to fight brain cloud. Wait, what?
I first heard the phrase “brain cloud” in John Patrick Shanley’s eccentric follow-up to Moonstruck. In Joe Vs. The Volcano, brain cloud is a ridiculous, made-up medical condition used to bamboozle Tom Hanks’ character into believing he has only months to live.
“You’d think they’d come up with something better than ‘brain cloud,’” Meg Ryan’s character laughs. And yet, now, 30 years later, you can buy a supplement — and probably pharmaceuticals — to combat brain cloud. What a world.
Big Pharma spends billions every year inventing diseases and peddling medicines for them. And why not? They collect billions more in sales. Yes, legitimately helpful medications have also been developed, but you need to take every new drug commercial with the proverbial carload of salt — especially the ones where the list of side effects and warnings comprises 42 seconds of the 60-second spot.
Brain cloud. Good grief.