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calliemity · 8 months ago

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Orin and His Nitrous: A Mini-Analysis

Written by Calliope Avery

Hii :] As a precursor to my off-Broadway Orin analysis (which is very close to entering the editing phase), I wanna talk about Orin Scrivello's nitrous oxide use! Specifically, I wanna go through the different elements of it and discuss which parts are accurate, which parts are exaggerations, and which parts are just... not true. Hope you find it interesting!

Let's quickly define what nitrous oxide is. Nitrous oxide, also known as laughing gas, dinitrogen monoxide, and whippets (recreationally), is a type of colorless gas that has a slightly sweet smell. It's used to reduce anxiety, provide a mild sedation effect, and dull some of the pain during medical procedures, commonly used by dentists. It takes effect very quickly and fades after about 5-10 minutes, and it's incredibly safe! When on nitrous, you'll feel calmer and more euphoric, and you might also feel very heavy, like you're sinking into your chair. Nitrous oxide, when given to a patient, is always mixed and balanced out with oxygen, and the nitrous will be slowly increased until the patient gets a desired level of relaxation. A minimum of 30% oxygen will be used along with nitrous, but not many people will need it at its highest available dosage. As a drug, it's classified as an inhalant and depressant. While it is a very safe substance for the most part, there are risks when using it recreationally, and long-term abuse has side effects that include a vitamin B12 deficiency and hand tremors. I'll cap my infodump here, but if you'd like to read more, here's the Cleveland Clinic page on nitrous oxide, and here's a more extensive report by Decisions in Dentistry!

Disclaimer: I will be discussing recreational nitrous oxide use, both in ways that people use it, why people use it, the high it provides, and side effects/risks involved. This is all for educational purposes, I'm not suggesting or encouraging anyone to use nitrous oxide recreationally. Be safe and responsible!

Method of Use/How Orin Uses It

In the stage musical version, Orin is usually given an inhaler prop as his main source of whippeting, which he inhales through his mouth. In the 1986 movie, it looks as if Orin has a small canister of the gas (called a "charger", they're used to refill whipped cream cans), which he shoots directly into his nose. In terms of accuracy, both would be considered the least realistic aspect of his usage. The former, the nitrous oxide inhaler, is not something that actually exists, at least in my research. You can't really put a charger into an asthma inhaler and expect that to work. Hypothetically, it would probably be safer than the method he uses in the movie. Nitrous oxide, when stored in chargers, is extremely pressurized and extremely cold, it's usually down to -40°F/°C. So not only is that gas shooting out like a bullet, it's also cold as hell! Movie Orin is either getting frostbite or a nosebleed, or both.

Once we get to his "special gas mask", we find some more inaccuracies. First of all, getting the obvious out of the way: nitrous masks don't look like that. In the musical it's often depicted similarly to a spacesuit, with a fullhead transparent helmet, while in the movie it only covers his mouth and nose. The latter is more accurate, but y'know. In real life nothing is being strapped around your torso. Another inaccuracy is the fact that the special gas mask only supplies nitrous, and no oxygen. As established in my description of the gas, when given to a patient it's always mixed with oxygen, with 30% oxygen being included at the very least. Obviously if his mask had been supplying oxygen then the plot (seemingly) wouldn't work, so I'm not trying to Cinema Sins LSOH right now. I just think it's interesting (and also insane) that this guy was probably breathing in 100% laughing gas. As someone who's very sensitive to its effects, I would instantly die!

Laughing Gas Effects/Orin's Reactions and Why He Uses It

This part is very neat to me, since I wouldn't describe his reactions to nitrous as wrong, but it's definitely heightened. As we see in both the stage show and movie versions, as soon as Orin inhales his giggle gas, he bursts out into hearty, borderline maniacal laughter. However, as seen in all instances that aren't the special gas mask, the laughter quickly wears off and he returns to his normal self. This is very much a heightened and exaggerated version of what laughing gas really does. While it won't affect you instantly, you'll feel its kick in as little as a minute. And while you won't burst into uncontrollable laughter, you'll feel your sense of pleasure and euphoria increase. And, if not given a constant stream of nitrous, the effects will wear off relatively quickly. Orin's reactions play out much more quickly and more exaggerated than it does in real life, but it definitely mirrors it!

Now, why does Orin use nitrous? To answer this, I'll steer us back to a main effect that laughing gas has in its safe doses: elevated euphoria. Nitrous oxide just genuinely feels good when you're on it. Furthermore, laughing gas gives a particularly unique type of high, one that's partially caused by a mild restriction of oxygen to the brain. The result is a floaty, hazy high that enhances pleasure. Outside of him using it for the punchline of "dentist using his own supply", he's definitely using it because it feels nice.

There is another actually confirmed reason why he's using it, one that he blatantly says out loud. I'm gonna get a little educationally NSFW for a moment, so skip this paragraph if that would make you uncomfortable. Among those who use whippets recreationally, a common use is to enhance sexual pleasure. Because of its euphoria-enhancing effects, it can act like a mild aphrodisiac, making you more aroused if that's something you were already feeling. Furthermore, taking a hit of nitrous before you orgasm will heighten the sensation of it. And, as Orin blatantly tells Seymour (and the audience) in both versions: "I find that a little giggle gas before we begin increases my pleasure enormously!" So we can easily assume his whippet usage is mostly for the enhancement of the sexual pleasure he gets from inflicting dental torture. This would mean that this is actually the most accurate aspect of Orin's nitrous use, since enhanced sexual pleasure is an effect it can have, and it's often used recreationally for that exact purpose. I have mixed feelings about this.

Side Effects and Fatality/Could Orin Really Die From It?

When used in a controlled setting and provided by a medical professional, most of the risks that nitrous oxide has aren't something to be worried about. However, recreational use (espesically long-term) can have some serious risks and side effects. One of the main side effects of long-term recreational nitrous abuse is a vitamin B12 deficiency, as it causes your body to have trouble absorbing it. While this deficiency develops its symptoms slowly (and sometimes don't present at all) it does cause numerous issues, both physiological, neurological, and psychological. Anemia, fatigue, nausea and low appetite, numbness/tingling and shaking in your hands, difficulties with motor skills and talking, depression and irritability, and memory issues are some main symptoms that can be experienced. Nitrous abuse isn't the only way this deficiency can happen, it's more commonly experienced when you aren't eating enough food with the vitamin or if you have a condition that makes it more difficult for your body to absorb it. Aside from the vitamin B12 issues, nitrous oxide also restricts oxygen flow to the brain, and repeated instances of this can cause cerebral hypoxia (severe restriction of oxygen to the brain.) Cerebral hypoxia can cause cognitive issues, such as issues with memory and decision making, confusion, low attention span, and difficulties with motor skills. In it's most severe cases, cerebral hypoxia can cause seizures, a coma, and death.

Inappropriate tone-shift aside, let's discuss how all this relates to Orin! Obviously we see his repeated laughing gas abuse, which we can only assume has been happening for years, so we know he's vulnerable to these side effects. Despite this, he doesn't seem to exhibit... any of these, to be honest. I can't say anything about the majority of the physical symptoms; I have no idea what his red blood cell count is, which is truly a tragedy. But he doesn't seem fatigued, he doesn't exhibit problems with speaking or moving, his memory seems fine. The only thing I can unsurely say matches up is his irritability/aggression, which in the show is only demonstrated with his abuse toward Audrey. A second example is given in the movie with how he acts toward Arthur Denton. However, I am... extremely hesitant to attribute this behavior of his to a symptom of drug abuse. I don't really like the idea of Orin's harmful and abusive treatment of people is entirely because of a drug. The author intent is clearly for Orin to be a cruel, abusive person through and through, and I think it's obvious that Orin would be like this even if he had never touched any substance. Furthermore, there's a clear pattern regarding his aggression; it's always directed toward an intimate partner of some kind. He's dating Audrey, and the Denton scene is very obviously coded as a sexual encounter, not unlike a hookup. Compare this to how he treats other people: in the show, he has interactions with the chorus girls and Seymour, and in both instances he actually treats them... fine? He's definitely an intense and suffocating person, but he isn't verbally insulting to either the girls or to Seymour, and his instances of physical threats are either absent in the case of the girls (they actually instigate the violence, to which Orin surrenders and doesn't fight back) or not motivated by anger in the case of Seymour. In the movie he does exhibit some anger-motivated aggression toward Seymour, but within the context we can see he's worked up from his anger toward Denton, and as the interaction with Seymour continues, he actually calms down. I've gotten a little off-course here, but my point is that nitrous oxide and a vitamin B12 deficiency doesn't make someone super aggressive toward only their intimate partners. At most, it's enhancing an already existing trait he has.

So... I've concluded that Orin doesn't really exhibit any side effects. They aren't always very obvious in real life and in some people the deficiency has no symptoms, so it's always possible he just got lucky. It's also possible that his diet is rich in foods that are good sources of vitamin B12, which counteracts the side effect enough to keep him unaffected. So his lack of symptoms isn't something that wouldn't make sense, and even if it was I don't think there would be an issue. However, one avenue remains unexplored... is Orin's nitrous-induced death accurate? The short answer... is yes.

Getting the obvious out of the way, it's clear he ends up dying from good ol' asphyxiation. The implication is that his special gas mask only supplies nitrous oxide and no oxygen, and the mask restricts his nose and mouth one way or another. He definitely lasts longer than he would in real life, but in this case his cause of death is the mask itself and not the gas. This would be the case in real life, the external asphyxiation will cause death before the nitrous can. However, if someone is being supplied a massively uneven ratio of nitrous to oxygen, something like a 90%/10% split for example, the gas itself would be fatal. Remember how repeated nitrous abuse can risk someone getting cerebral hypoxia? Yeah, that can cause death. If Orin's gas mask was also supplying some oxygen, it's more than possible that he would at least pass out from cerebral hypoxia, especially if he was left unaided like we see in the scene. When considered like this, and considering how he doesn't immediately start suffocating and dying when in the mask, it's actually more than possible to read the scene in this way; he technically is getting some oxygen, but he ends up going unconscious because the gas is restricting oxygen to his brain. Which would also mean it's more than possible that he didn't actually die until Seymour dismembered him, which is... very brutal. RIP bozo.

Conclusion

So considering I spend a chunk of this post detailing how laughing gas could possibly kill people, I would just like to clarify that nitrous oxide, when being supplied by a trained professional in a controlled environment, is 100% safe and incredibly effective. So when you're getting it at your dentist appointment or any other medical appointment, you're at risk for basically nothing I just described. You're being given a safe mix of oxygen and nitrous, at the dentist the mask only goes on your nose so your mouth is uncovered, and if you have any kind of bad reaction, its effects can be very quickly reversed. The risks of cerebral hypoxia and vitamin B12 deficiency are only for people who are using it recreationally, and especially for people who abuse it long-term. I just want to make it clear that nitrous oxide is a safe and effective sedative and it really does help with anxiety. I've had to have a lot of dental work done over the years, so I've been on the gas at least a dozen times, and I'm totally fine! So like, please don't be scared of it! I would feel horrible if that's the message someone got for this.

The last thing I'll leave you with is this: I wrote this entire thing mostly for fun. Little Shop of Horrors is set in a very heightened reality setting, so the technical realisms of nitrous oxide symptoms and abuse don't really matter. Even if absolutely nothing about the depiction was accurate, I still think the story and Orin's character would work fine. His heightened reactions act as shorthand to the audience on what he's inhaling, even if they only know nitrous oxide by the name "laughing gas", and it also acts as some nice foreshadowing to his death. Furthermore, his stupid dumb space helmet mask is also like, extremely funny. So even the aspects that are either exaggerated or flat-out inaccurate serve valid purposes. Honestly, I'm just pleasantly surprised that there's parts that are weirdly accurate to the drug and how it's used. Anyway, I hope you found the information interesting in some way, and thank you very much for reading!

Oh, and since you read the entire thing, I have little treat for you: Alan Menken telling the story of his parents' reaction to Orin's death (his father was a dentist and an advocate for nitrous oxide safety. Oops!)

Original Video

Sources:

Cleveland Clinic (Nitrous Oxide) - Cleveland Clinic (Vitamin B12 Deficiency) - Cleveland Clinic (Cerebral Hypoxia) - Decisions in Dentistry - Oxford Treatment Center - National Library of Medicine - Them.us (Additional information about what it's like to be on nitrous oxide is sourced from my own personal experiences.)

#wrote this to be a short n sweet lil treat and then it. sigh.#lsoh #little shop of horrors #orin lsoh #orin scrivello #lsoh orin #orin scrivello dds

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