Splitsider

Never have I found myself defenseless against the undead, or an ex-pat African prince, a thirty-something careerist shopping for surrogates, in limbo, the possessor of superhuman senses or abilities, or with an aptitude for science if it’s not being explained to me by Bill Nye or Michio Kaku. Despite that, I love zombie movies, Coming to America, Baby Mama, Defending Your Life, and comic book and sci-fi films. It follows, then, that I, a person who’s never lit up, could count a few stoner flicks among movies I like, right? That said, watching certain stoner movies leaves me feeling like a sociologist.

I harbor no [...]

Let us sing a few words in praise of the stoner, for the stoner is the last of the American heroes. From the streets of Los Angeles to the streets of New Jersey, the stoners have traveled this great nation, and in those adventures we ride passenger with them into the heart of the American dream.

We should agree at the start the stoner is indeed a hero. Movies are populated with characters, stock characters and clichés. We may encounter jocks, or nerds, or preppies. Sometimes they share the same screen with our stoner, but that is only circumstance. Though the stoner may walk among [...]

Stoner comedy on television is a different breed than stoner films. Sure, there are the occasional five minutes of screen time on a comedy series where one or more characters get stoned, get the munchies and then freak out. But usually the mixture of television and marijuana is limited to various cop shows and episodes of Intervention. But in 2005, Showtime premiered a show entirely about weed: dealing, growing, baking, consuming, everything. And the biggest shocker is that the main characters were not your typical gangbangers or drug dealers. Instead, the dealer in question is a suburban mother and widow, trying to keep her family [...]

Pot and comedy: two things that go together like peanut butter and jelly, or pot and peanut butter and jelly. As marijuana has become less and less vilified in American culture over the past few decades, it's become much more acceptable for it to be portrayed as a harmless and fun drug in movies and on TV. There are movies dedicated to lovable stoners acting in a hilarious fashion under the effects of the drug, and entire blocks of programing on TV (*cough*Adult Swim*cough*) that seemingly cater to those under the influence. Many comedians are open about their love for the drug, while others find humor in their less-than-awesome [...]

It wasn’t until relatively recently, the mid 1990s specifically, that weed was a topic that could be discussed in network comedies. Of course marijuana has played a major role in the creation in some of TV’s funniest shows, like Saturday Night Live, but its importance was downplayed due to censorship fears. And if pot was ever mentioned, it was used to serve a message on how dangerous it was.

But as marijuana has become a more and more socially acceptable topic, sitcoms have begun working it into plots that didn't revolve around parents finding a joint and teaching their kids a lesson. Below is [...]

Hollywood has had a rocky relationship with marijuana. As a plot device, weed has been depicted as both a wondrous, life-giving MacGuffin and a poisonous, mind-shattering tool of the Devil. Because of marijuana's tricky connotation with an audience, screenwriters can adjust the drug to fit a wide variety of scenes to evoke a particular reaction. And often that means bending the reality of the situation.

Only in recent years has marijuana been consistently portrayed as the innocuous social drug it truly is. Before then, we had glimmers of accuracy in a sea of fictional dropouts, biker gangs, and "Just Say No!" ads. There was Dazed [...]