Trivia / Puff the Magic Dragon

• Banned in China: The song was apparently banned in Singapore back in 1963 due to its lyrics allegedly being a metaphor for drugs (specifically marijuana). Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore do not mess around when it comes to drugs and depictions of it in the media. However, Malaysia and Thailand saw it (correctly, as it happens) as an innocent children's song and nothing more, and thus it wasn't banned in those countries.
• Referenced by...: In Meet the Parents, Greg and Jack listen to the song, and Greg brings up the common reading of it as a weed metaphor. Jack is unimpressed.
  Greg: Some people think that to "puff the magic dragon" means to smoke a marijuana cigarette.
  Jack: Well, Puff's just the name of the boy's magical dragon. Are you a pothead, Focker?
  • Although not directly referenced by name, the song is described in Wayside School is Falling Down as a massive Tear Jerker for Dana, and John and Joe often sing the song just to trigger her.
• What Could Have Been: In the late 1960s, Peter, Paul and Mary were to collaborate with Warner Bros. Animation (as Warner (Bros.) Records was the group's label at the time) on an Animated Adaptation of Puff the Magic Dragon to be released as a theatrical short, just as Paul Stookey did with Norman Normal (1968) (though this time Peter Yarrow would've likely been involved), but the closure of the studio in 1969 due to Kinney National buying Warner Bros.-Seven Arts prevented this from happening. Instead, an animated TV special was produced nine years later with Murakami-Wolf-Swenson (now Fred Wolf Films).

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