This is for you (again) eightbitsamurai
Speaking of real life, and college parties, and not fitting in...I got invited to weekly college parties and I went. But I didn't drink and I was socially awkward. As a result I got a reputation for being "that stuck-up bitch" who never said hi to anyone and I not only didn't gain many (any?) friends from the experience but ultimately alienated a lot of people.
How I Met Your Mother has an episode about this, something about a drunk train. Everyone who's on the drunk train (last train out of Manhattan or whatever) is wasted. If you're on the drunk train and not wasted you have both a terrible experience and everyone on the train thinks you're looking down on them because you're sober. May not be true - you may not care at all that they're all drunk - but my observations have taught me that they will still think you're looking down on them, because you're excluding yourself from an activity you (supposedly) have access to that the rest of them are partaking in. I'm not saying get wasted. I'm just saying - sometimes, you don't even know what image you're putting off until it's too late.
Have you ever taken LSD? There is nothing more illuminating (or so I hear) in regards to how obnoxious drunks are than being around one when on LSD. They appear to be speaking in a slow-motion cave man language. The thoughts and conversations they have all seem to be equivalent to basic need grunts and moans. Want to make someone on LSD go nuts? Put them on the drunk train out of Manhattan.
Yes but no. I have not been on LSD around drunk people. I think honestly being sober around drunks is pretty illuminating :) The drunks can be funny but are mostly annoying. And then eventually...you become one of them, some time. One of the few paradigms I think most people get to experience being on both sides of with some frequency.
Last time I tried that, I ended up holding my two fingers to my friend's cat and said "look, i'm giving your pussy the two-finger test." For me it's more like a social laxative.