Holy smokes!
New York City was the site of what could have been the world's biggest cigarette break Friday, with more than 1,500 smokers assembling outsideWashington Square Parkto get their nicotine fix.
Park Slope native and social media sensation Bob Terry, a 75-year-old actor with a 60-year habit, organized the event to bring strangers together.
"People are pent up these days," Terry told The Post. "All the work and stress. Sometimes, you just gotta get people together and have a smoke. There's too much crap out there about health. Too much salad and jump rope — everyone's a nut.
"Kick back and light up," he said of what he called his first "cigarette party."
But make no mistake, the self-proclaimed "Cigarette Maestro" wants smokers to cut back — and for people who've never smoked to never start.
Terry — who has reduced his smoking habit but still burns through half-a-pack of Marlboro Reds a day — told The Post the party was an "occasion to speak to social media, and to be a force for good.
"If you're not smoking, don't start, and if you are, definitely quit. And if you can't quit, at least cut back."
On the day of, the crowd — which included a 4-foot tall animatronic Oscar the Grouch smoking a cigar –erupted in applause as he lit his first cigarette.
"I love you all," Terry, all smiles, announced. "Thanks for coming out, everybody. This is really something."
Survivor's "Eye of the Tiger" started playing from a portable PA system, and the smokers began chanting: "Bob, Bob, Bob."
A foggy haze hung over the crowd, which ranged in age from 18 to 78. Bob posed for selfies and handed out lighters he made himself.
Beyond the smoking circle, confusion reigned.
"What's going on?" an NYU student asked one of the smokers after exiting the Waverly Building.
"It's Conor McGregor," the smoker joked.
Terry has worked in stage, television, and film and recently moved back to New York from Los Angeles.
He's part of a comedy collective calledOld Jewish Men, and hosts his own Instagram show, "Breaking Bob." Recently, 33 million people watched him ace a "Blind Cigarette Taste Test" on social media.
"It was off the richter scale," said Terry, who was passing out fliers for the mass smoke break last weekend, promising to provide a cigarette to every person 18 and over who turned out.
Guiness World Records currently does not have a record for largest organized smoke break, and officials from the organization did not attend the event.
The smoke cleared after about 30 minutes when at least 20 NYPD officers arrived to break up the gathering.
"We should do this every Friday," someone in the crowd yelled, before the group burst into a chant of, "One more cig, one more cig, one more cig."
Terry obliged them, lighting up again to Frank Sinatra's "New York, New York."
"In the '50s and '60s, it seemed like everyone smoked," Terry saidabout the habit, which causesa host of deadly diseases, damaging the heart, lungs and other organs.
His doctors are amazed at how healthy his lungs are, but still want him to quit, he said.
"I would, but the stress would kill me," Terry said.
