Yarrow had a contract with Canadian animators Nelvana that prevented him from using - or granting permission for anybody else to use - the song in a way that sullied Puff's reputation. The question of whether or not the song has a druggy subtext is old news - Newsweek magazine first raised the point back in 1965 with an article dismissed by Yarrow as "yellow journalism nonsense" - but the movie caused new problems. When the classic Peter, Paul and Mary song comes on the radio, Stiller explains that "Puff" refers to smoking marijuana, to which De Niro responds that "Puff is just the name of the boy's dragon." One of them has a hapless Ben Stiller riding in a car with his fiancée's domineering father, played by Robert De Niro. Meet the Parents, the 2000 comedy with more than a few memorable scenes. "You can't control that stuff, but you can refuse to contribute to the imbecility of it all." Puff, the Magic Dragon was used as nickname for fire-spitting gun ships. Puff for decades, his rebuttals not always believed. Yarrow, who reads and performs today at Casa Loma in Toronto, has dealt with the wrong associations to
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