July
30
What's Your Favorite Stoner Comedy?
[Posted by Peter Debruge]
Inspired by Pineapple Express (arguably the world's first coherent stoner comedy), Philadelphia Inquirer critic Carrie Rickey runs down the all-time greats of the genre:
- The Big Lebowski (1998)
- Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989)
- Dazed and Confused (1993)
- Dude, Where's My Car? (2000)
- Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982)
- Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle (2004)
- Half Baked (1998)
- Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (2001)
- Repo Man (1984)
- Up in Smoke (1978)
Click through to see her justifications. Carrie's choices strike me as a little recent (what about Easy Rider or the Jack Nicholson-penned Roger Corman classic The Trip?). It's not a comedy, but Jerry Garcia's favorite movie of all time, The Saragossa Manuscript, seems custom-made to be seen on LSD. And Donald Cammell/Nic Roeg's Performance virtually induces that mindset, no matter how sober the audience is.
But when it comes down to it, stoner movies have always annoyed me, since they're engineered to play best when the audience is high, thereby excusing egregious leaps of logic and/or continuity. Then again, they open the door to a sort of randomness simply not permissible in mainstream comedy. My favorite such example, the dude/sweet tattoo scene in Dude, Where's My Car?
Here it is dubbed for foreign television:
Thing is, Fox has a habit of yanking the clip down whenever YouTube users post it, all you can find on the site are reenactments. They're great fun, considering how bizarre the scene was to begin with. Enjoy a few below:
Are these kids even old enough to be watching stoner movies (much less listen to that song at the end)?
These two can't even get the line right:
Seriously, what is wrong with these people?
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Here's the thing, and correct me if I'm wrong, but when do Bill & Ted ever get high on screen? Just because they're a couple of Valley dudes who act like stoners doesn't mean they smoke weed. Questionable inclusion.
Posted by: Stonebag | July 30, 2008 at 08:41 PM
You don't need to visibly smoke weed to be a stoner. The Simpson's bus driver wasn't outed until the feature film, but it was pretty obvious from day 1.
Posted by: Liz | July 30, 2008 at 09:36 PM
I agree, they were clearly stoners but, using that methodology, pretty much any Pauly Shore movie could be included on that list.
Posted by: Hurley | July 31, 2008 at 07:57 AM
It's strange -- "Bill and Ted" features absolutely zero pot smoking or even pot references, and yet it's a definitive stoner movie. Whereas approximately 95% of the characters in "Dazed and Confused" are stoned for the entire running time, and yet I wouldn't call it a stoner movie at all.
(On a related note, "Dazed and Confused" is one of the best movies ever made. Seriously. I put it right up there with the Dekalog and "Jules et Jim." So maybe I'm touchy about seeing it dismissed as a mere "stoner movie.")
Other than that (and the inexcusable exclusion of "Head"), I think this is actually a pretty good list. And while I would've preferred to see it cut completely, I'm impressed that they put "Up in Smoke" in last place. There is no drug on earth powerful enough to make Cheech and Chong funny.
Posted by: Andrew | July 31, 2008 at 10:25 AM
By far, Dazed and Confused. Its one of the few movies that I can watch consistently and not be tired of. I am ALWAYS up for watching it.
Posted by: Steve | July 31, 2008 at 12:34 PM
As a stoner movie connoisseur, the below rankings are more appropriate:
1.) Dazed & Confused
2.) Half Baked
3.) Friday (trust me!)
4.) Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back
5.) Dude, Where's My Car
6.) Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle
7.) Dumb & Dumber
8.) Old School
9.) The Jerk
10.) Kentucky Fried Movie
11.) Caddy Shack
12.) There's Something About Mary
13.) 40 Year Old Virgin
14.) Anchorman
15.) Waiting for Guffman
16.) Flirting with Disaster
17.) Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure
18.) Young Frankenstein
19.) Simpsons Movie
20.) Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me
NOTE: Not all stoner movies require a depiction of smoking...DUH!
Posted by: Ximan | July 31, 2008 at 01:42 PM
Above list is a major FAIL!!!!!!!!!!
Posted by: ReidAnkulous | July 31, 2008 at 02:36 PM
Libowski didnt even make your list, not one of the Cheech and Chong films, their is more pot use in Knowcked Up than in the last 13 slecetions of list
Posted by: ReidAnkulous | July 31, 2008 at 02:38 PM
Homegrown anyone??? Not the typical stupid stoner film, but just look at the cast!
Posted by: Charlesgt82 | July 31, 2008 at 03:42 PM
BONGWATER -the movie....not to be left out.....luke wilson,jack black all star cast that keeps going...
Posted by: bongwater | July 31, 2008 at 04:53 PM
It was sent straight to dvd but Smiley Face belongs in the stoner annals for sure.
Posted by: Erin D. | July 31, 2008 at 05:28 PM
"Putney Swope." I don't find it remotely funny when I'm not high, but after I've taken a few tokes it's the funniest movie I've ever seen.
Posted by: Michael Blowhard | July 31, 2008 at 10:27 PM
ROCK OPERA! It's a kick ass stoner flick. Kinda obscure & cult, but awesome!
"Hilarious"
--Toronto Eye
"A hysterically funny slacker caper movie."
–Jerry Renshaw, The Austin Chronicle
"Rock Opera delivers the goods."
--Willamette Weekly
"RockOpera is damn funny."
--The Seattle Stranger
"If every pot user goes to see Rock Opera, I think you'll have a hit on your hands."
--Richard Linklater
"Tense, violent and funny,
Rock Opera is solid midnight movie fare."
--Variety
"The funniest celebration of unrepentant drug ingestion since Cheech & Chong's Up In Smoke... One of the year's great finds."
--San Francisco Independent Film Festival
"Genuinely warped...scathingly hilarious...a spot-on quasi-parody of the day-to-day existence of struggling Austin musicians and their wayward ways."
-- Marc Savlov, The Austin Chronicle
"I love Rock Opera!"
--Steve Bloom, High Times Magazine
Posted by: Rock Opera | August 04, 2008 at 03:03 PM
Dazed and Confused is 100 percent stoner movie. They get high the whole movie and every aspect of the day included is from a stoner viewpoint. I would know. I personally put Dazed and Confused in my top 3 stoner movies and at least top 10 all time movies.
Posted by: k simpson | November 21, 2008 at 01:05 AM