A good friend just picked up a hookah the other day. Although I was happy, I couldn’t help but notice that he seemed confused by the purchase — even though he went out and bought one, he still wasn’t clear on exactly why people seemed to enjoy them.

Never one to shy away from making my friends feel better about their recent purchases, I came up with these 5 essential reasons why he should be happy with his recent hookah purchase. And here they are.

#5: No Question — You Look Damn Cool Doing It.

There isn’t really any sanctioned way to still remain cool-looking while smoking anything these days. Pipes, cigars, and cigarettes themselves have all become pretty problematic, and just don’t carry the same cultural signals like they once did. A hookah, on the other hand…

#4: It’s Like a Little Social Party Every Time.

Don’t huddle outside in the cold, grimly staring at the weathered faces of your fellow cigarette smokers, forced by law into a designated smoking area with all the charm of a highway underpass, and all the camaraderie of solitary confinement. A hookah is 100% a social event. Call your friends.

#3: You Can Have Loads of Fun With the Smoke.

There is no other way of smoking out there that lets you do so many cool-looking things with a smoke that isn’t going to burn the living hell out of your throat. When you’re using a hookah, you can puff away, send rings into the sky, or make a little cloud of flavored smoke around your head without a coughing fit every 3 seconds.

#2: Smoke Your Flavored Shisha Without A Problem.

The coolness rating when it comes to flavored tobacco is just about zero. If you’re buying fancy cigarettes with weird flavors, you’re just crazy, and all you’re doing is painting a piece of crap to make it look nicer, anyway. Stick with your shisha in the hookah, and get the flavored tobacco you can actually enjoy.

#1: You’re Smoking Out of a Fine Museum Piece.

Let’s say you go into a museum, take the nicest looking piece of middle eastern art you can possibly find, and then turn that into your own personal smoking pleasure-pipe. That’s pretty much what a hookah lets you do, come to think of it.

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