If your idea of a good laugh comes rolled up in Half Baked, Friday or any of the other films from a seemingly bottomless crop of stoner cinema, you have Cheech & Chong to thank. They spent the '70s proving you can make good money with cannabis comedy, as shown by eight movies, nine best-selling comedy albums and a top-20 hit (Basketball Jones).
Tommy Chong talked to the Rocky's Mike Pearson about their old films and how they helped hook our country on stoner humor.
Do you revisit your old material?
Every chance I get I'll listen to one of the old routines. Cheech and I together watched the 30-year anniversary of Up in Smoke. We went to a screening and did a Q&A afterward. It was the first time I've seen it start to finish in a movie theater. When I watched it before, I walked out when I knew it was a hit. There's all sort of emotions going through when you screen a movie. It's a make-or-break thing. If a screening goes well, the movie does well, usually . . .
What do you remember about making those movies?
It was so quick. That's the danger of making movies. You're a young man and you wake up one day and you're old. Time has a habit of shifting gears when you're doing a movie. Long days and hours. You almost go into another plane of existence. It was over faster than I wanted it to be. I was just getting into a groove when Cheech pulled the plug on me.
What about today's stoner movies?
I saw Pineapple Express last night. It was OK. Being a stoner expert, I kind of took issue with the effect pot had on the guys after they smoke it. The violence didn't work for me. The only way to explain it is that it wasn't real.
Why do stoner movies continue to sell?
The attraction of stoner movies is that it's crazy and fun, much like the old slapstick movies of the Charlie Chaplin era. You don't have to deal with life- threatening situations. You can be silly and laugh and everyone has a good time. The best stoner product out there now in my estimation is Weeds, the television show. You talk about stupidity - that TV show is beautiful.
And yet your humor still holds up.
The more things change, the more things stay the same. What I told one reviewer - America has gone through so much with the wars and corrupt politicians that America needs a hug. That's what Cheech & Chong are going to do.
You did a show called The Marijuana- logues, but you stopped. Why?
I was on probation (Chong spent nine months in prison in 2003-04 for distributing drug paraphernalia over the Internet). It was in Seattle. When you're on probation, you're technically still in jail, on furlough, but have to report to your probation officer every week. If you see a crime being committed and you don't report it, you're in violation. (Fans were openly smoking pot at Chong's show.) Given that the government was out to get me one way or another, I couldn't take that chance. My probation officer immediately revoked permission (for me) to be on the show.
Now I'm totally free and clear. We have a new administration coming in, so I don't think it will be paying attention. (We) won't be high on their list.
You take away the political implications and a lot of people who were in political life in the '70s and were against pot became advocates for legalization once they got out of office. I've had Japanese fans come up and say, "I learn my English from your records." There was a guy in a Turkish prison for drug smuggling. He started doing one of our routines in prison - The Dogs - and made prisoners laugh so hard they became friends rather than their enemies.
News Hawk- Ganjarden 420 MAGAZINE ® - Medical Marijuana Publication & Social Networking
Source: Rocky Mountain News
Author: Mike Pearson
Contact: Rocky Mountain News
Copyright: 2008 The E.W. Scripps Co.
Website: Tommy Chong Describes How Drug Humor Intoxicated America
Tommy Chong talked to the Rocky's Mike Pearson about their old films and how they helped hook our country on stoner humor.
Do you revisit your old material?
Every chance I get I'll listen to one of the old routines. Cheech and I together watched the 30-year anniversary of Up in Smoke. We went to a screening and did a Q&A afterward. It was the first time I've seen it start to finish in a movie theater. When I watched it before, I walked out when I knew it was a hit. There's all sort of emotions going through when you screen a movie. It's a make-or-break thing. If a screening goes well, the movie does well, usually . . .
What do you remember about making those movies?
It was so quick. That's the danger of making movies. You're a young man and you wake up one day and you're old. Time has a habit of shifting gears when you're doing a movie. Long days and hours. You almost go into another plane of existence. It was over faster than I wanted it to be. I was just getting into a groove when Cheech pulled the plug on me.
What about today's stoner movies?
I saw Pineapple Express last night. It was OK. Being a stoner expert, I kind of took issue with the effect pot had on the guys after they smoke it. The violence didn't work for me. The only way to explain it is that it wasn't real.
Why do stoner movies continue to sell?
The attraction of stoner movies is that it's crazy and fun, much like the old slapstick movies of the Charlie Chaplin era. You don't have to deal with life- threatening situations. You can be silly and laugh and everyone has a good time. The best stoner product out there now in my estimation is Weeds, the television show. You talk about stupidity - that TV show is beautiful.
And yet your humor still holds up.
The more things change, the more things stay the same. What I told one reviewer - America has gone through so much with the wars and corrupt politicians that America needs a hug. That's what Cheech & Chong are going to do.
You did a show called The Marijuana- logues, but you stopped. Why?
I was on probation (Chong spent nine months in prison in 2003-04 for distributing drug paraphernalia over the Internet). It was in Seattle. When you're on probation, you're technically still in jail, on furlough, but have to report to your probation officer every week. If you see a crime being committed and you don't report it, you're in violation. (Fans were openly smoking pot at Chong's show.) Given that the government was out to get me one way or another, I couldn't take that chance. My probation officer immediately revoked permission (for me) to be on the show.
Now I'm totally free and clear. We have a new administration coming in, so I don't think it will be paying attention. (We) won't be high on their list.
You take away the political implications and a lot of people who were in political life in the '70s and were against pot became advocates for legalization once they got out of office. I've had Japanese fans come up and say, "I learn my English from your records." There was a guy in a Turkish prison for drug smuggling. He started doing one of our routines in prison - The Dogs - and made prisoners laugh so hard they became friends rather than their enemies.
News Hawk- Ganjarden 420 MAGAZINE ® - Medical Marijuana Publication & Social Networking
Source: Rocky Mountain News
Author: Mike Pearson
Contact: Rocky Mountain News
Copyright: 2008 The E.W. Scripps Co.
Website: Tommy Chong Describes How Drug Humor Intoxicated America
