776: Still No Sleep

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Still No Sleep
I'm not listening to you. I mean, what does a SQUIRREL know about mental health?
Title text: I'm not listening to you. I mean, what does a SQUIRREL know about mental health?

Explanation[edit]

Lack of sleep causes hallucinations different from insanity — insane people find it very difficult or impossible to distinguish between a hallucination and reality because the part of their brain that checks for normality in a situation is also broken. Level-1 sleep hallucinations do not make it through this "sanity filter" in a sane human being.

Cueball has been sleep deprived for quite a while now, and he begins questioning his reality. He wonders if he is awake, or he is dreaming. He also wonders whether or not he is hallucinating a tree, then proceeding to question whether his hallucination might be a hallucination, and he might actually be sane. This double negative would not work mainly due to the fact that if you are hallucinating a hallucination, you are still hallucinating, and most likely you are not completely sane. In the end a squirrel comes up to him, and tells him not to worry about the possibility that he might be sane, thereby proving that Cueball is at the very least, hallucinating.

In the title text, Cueball doesn't want to listen to the squirrel because, "what does a SQUIRREL know about mental health?" This is final proof that Cueball is insane, because he cannot distinguish between a hallucination and reality (talking to a squirrel).

Transcript[edit]

[Woozy Cueball walks and speaks.]
Cueball: The sleep deprivation madness worsens.
[Cueball examines his hands.]
Cueball: Things seem unreal. Am I even awake? Maybe I'm dreaming.
[Cueball approaches a tree with a squirrel on it.]
Cueball: I'm pretty sure I'm hallucinating this tree.
[Cueball is now in front of the tree, and the squirrel is on the ground. Cueball has his arms open.]
Cueball: But what if I'm hallucinating that I'm hallucinating, and I'm actually totally sane?
Squirrel: Listen.
Squirrel: I wouldn't worry about that.


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Discussion

I think the squirrel did not mean not to worry about his hallucination. The squirrel's comment is a joke that cueball should not consider the possibility that he is totally sane. He is not sane and this is obvious even to the hallucinated squirrel. 141.101.97.225 11:46, 9 November 2014 (UTC)

What if the squirrel is the one hallucinating? 173.245.54.151 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

I believe that the squirrel was telling him not to worry about "that" in particular, and that he has *bigger* problems. 162.158.79.71 00:39, 27 September 2017 (UTC)

There might be a missed joke in the title text: squirrels are "nuts" and are thus not experts on mental health. 162.158.238.223 01:05, 30 May 2023 (UTC)