At some point in your life, you'll try alcohol.

I'm not trying to peer pressure anyone or anything, though I have been known to do that in the past. I'm just stating a likely outcome of living in the world today. Almost every culture embraces some form of drinking, but American culture specifically loves drinking. And it shows up in our pop culture.

We have TV shows and movies dedicated almost solely to alcohol, between Esquire's Brew Dogs and the Tom Cruise vehicle, Cocktail, coming to mind without really having to think too hard. North Carolina and this Asheville area specifically house tons of microbreweries that people frequently consume by the barrel. As a nation, we might be a little too obsessed.

But even as drinking becomes a fairly normal part of culture, characters drinking heavily in animated television really did not become a thing until Homer Simpson came around. And of course, not long after Homer, Family Guy followed suit with a whole host of characters who are drunkards.

Family Guy took animated drinking to a new level, with multiple episodes dedicated to the issues that can arise from drinking, from "Friends of Peter G." in season 9 all the way back to their first episode, "Death Has a Shadow", where Peter gets fired after a bachelor party. Of course, the introduction of this kind of TV mixed with South Park in the late 1990s gave rise and influence to ideas about drinking and how far people can take it with animated characters. Heavily drinking characters have become a staple in adult animated comedies over this past decade due to those ideas.

Look at a show like Archer. I love Archer. It's brand of irreverent and insane humor appeals strongly to my personality type. And everyone on the show is a steady drinker. Sterling Archer and his mother, Mallory, are by far the heaviest drinkers in the group, but even the smaller characters get routinely blitzed. Then there are shows like the semi-absurdist Netflix creation, BoJack Horseman, which takes a sobering (sorry) look at drinking and how it impacts the lives of celebrities. There's even the genius Rick Sanchez and his daughter Beth from the Adult Swim dynamite, Rick and Morty. Rick is constantly shitfaced drunk and Beth isn't far behind, drinking to cope with her failing marriage and disappointing children.

So why do our shows feature seemingly more drinking than ever before? Well there are probably a few reasons. First off, Americans on the whole drink a lot. According to a CDC report from 2014, 1 in 3 Americans is considered to be an "excessive" drinker. And even though animated comedies aren't expected to be real or close to reality, having characters do something "normal" like drinking helps the shows appear more grounded. Another solid reason is that my generation and the generation right above mine have been using pop culture platforms to discuss issues that our society has, drinking included. In multiple episodes of BoJack and Archer, it's clear to the viewer that the characters' drinking is having a negative impact on the world around them, even if the situation remains comedic.

Drinking has always been a strong part of American culture and my culture specifically. And I love shows and movies with heavy drinking and heavy drinkers, because I just do. And I love to drink. Sometimes it's fun to want to feel like these characters, with no real responsibility and consequences for their actions. In these shows, hangovers are gone within a half hour. You can get drunk, sober up, have an entire storyline, and get drunk again in the time it takes to cook a quick dinner. But it is important to remember that even with all of these characters that drink, they're never made to look cool. It's more of a function of who they are as people. And while that is okay for an animated secret agent or a horse-actor, we need to be careful to not to the same.

Drink responsibly, people.