This month marks the 55 year anniversary of one of the many attempted assassinations of one of the most notorious cigar smokers, Fidel Castro.
Throughout the eight years of attempts to assassinate Fidel Castro, the CIA created plans in an attempt to kill the dictator that would put James bond to shame, from poisonous pills to exploding molluscs, none of these plans are more creative than the alleged plan to lace his cigars with explosives.
It was later revealed that the exploding cigar plan was an intentionally silly idea created by the CIA, in an attempt to stop people questioning them about their plans for Fidel Castro.
Whether it was real or fake, the story of the exploding cigar inspired the October 1963 cover of Mad Magazine, which had the headline ‘you’ll get a bang out of this issue of mad magazine’ with the image of Castro smoking his cigar.
The explosive cigar has been a famous running gag for cartoons and even used for practical jokes since the 1950s. The exploding cigar was frequently shown on Warner Brother’s popular cartoon, Loony Tunes in the 1950s. In episodes such as ‘Mississippi Hare’Â and ‘Ballet Box Bunny’Â we see Bugs Bunny offering the exploding cigars to unsuspecting victims.
In a Chip and Dale 1954 short ‘The Lone Chipmunks’ the two replace an outlaws’ cigarette tobacco with gunpowder, but the plan backfires as the outlaw throws it away resulting in it exploding near the chipmunks instead.
In Mr. Magoo’s cartoon 1955 ‘Magoo’s Express’ two spies are seen boarding a train smuggling explosive inside a cigar, Magoo ends up in possession of the cigar. He is told by the porter it’s a non-smoking train, so he throws it out window. At this point a homeless person tries the cigar, not liking it he throws it back onto the train where it explodes in front of the spies.
It’s a funny old world. Fortunately at Tobacco Specialists all of our cigar products are top quality and explosive free.
Previously Ordered Items