I’ve always loved a good stoner comedy — even as a child, when my favorite Snow White character was Dopey the dwarf, to now, when I count “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” and “Dude Where’s My Car” to “Wet Hot American Summer” and “Pineapple Express” among my favorite movies. Since the 80s, comedies focused on pot culture have grown exponentially in popularity, especially thanks to the efforts of Seth Rogan and James Franco. But what makes this humor so hilarious in comparison to dark sarcastic comedies like “Little Miss Sunshine” or the all-out slapstick movies of Jim Carrey?

I believe the situation is dialectic. On one hand, you have the ridiculous, otherworldly humor of the slapstick; on the other hand, you have the all-too-real and bitter quality of the sarcastic movie. The stoner comedy is the happy medium. Often, these movies star characters just like us, flawed and utterly average. I mean, who would have figured that actors like Rogen, Zach Galifianakis, Cheech and Chong would become celebrities? These very human characters are thrown into situations that exist on the fringe of possibility.

Whether it’s throwing the house party of a lifetime or getting mixed up in a drug cartel, the characters’ situations are more plausible than being in a “Rat Race,” and right now, relatability is key. When we’re living in a world so polarized, especially in terms of socioeconomic statuses, we crave stories that we can feel we belong in — ones that make us feel that anything is possible, the true core of the stoner comedy.

Furthermore, the stoner comedy carves out a place in cinema for movies about friendship. They exist right there next to Hallmark but are actually funny. In all the stoner classics, either a pair or group of dudes that are definitely not prepared for life faces the strangest situations and ultimately comes out as besties. Most mainstream movies only have room for romance, if that works with the hero-villain narrative. Yet, the key component of the stoner comedy is the camaraderie. Viewers leave these movies feeling like they just made some new friends, like they too faced the challenges of aliens trying to get the continuum transfunctioner back. And in a world of tension and isolation, that is extremely valuable — and marketable.

Essentially, the stoner comedy gives us what most of mainstream cinema is failing to give us — a movie about us, for us, real but not too real. But it’s also coming at a major boom for pot culture in mainstream society. Yes, getting high has always been a thing, but considering that marijuana is probably going to be legalized recreationally in California this November, I would say that it’s reaching a heyday.

With this comes the emergence of a pot-related market, and that includes movies. Pot is culturally relevant, and isn’t that what comedy is made of? Cultural relevance? That’s why people still watch SNL after 40 years of the show being aired. That’s why most comedies that are succeeding out there right now could be classified as stoner comedies.

There will never be a comedic genre quite like it, and that is what I love about the stoner comedy.

 

Contact Arianna Lombard with your top stoner comedies at ariannal ‘at’ stanford.edu.