Make some brownies: Cigar supplies dope view on top five stoner comedies

02/20/09 - The stoner comedy is a fairly formulaic genre. You take two buddies, add a big bag of weed and have them encounter a problem. From there the adventure begins and hilarity ensues as the duo run into various strange characters and problematic situations.Five movies exemplify the genre and perfect the noble stoner comedy. Here they are in no particular order:



1. "Friday" catches Ice Cube in a movie back when he was still a respected rapper and before he became better known for crappy kiddy comedies like "Are We There Yet?" The movie focuses on Cube and his friend Smokey, played by Chris Tucker, and everything that happens on this one Friday.

Tucker steals the movie by being the fast-talking and quick-witted dope dealer. John Witherspoon is another highlight, stealing scenes as Cube's cranky father. "Friday" has some very quotable lines like Tucker's "You got knocked the f*** out" and Witherspoon's delivery of "Don't nobody go in there for 35, 45 minutes" after exiting the bathroom.



2. "Pineapple Express" may have only come out last summer, but it can already be considered a classic stoner flick. Again, the film focuses on a duo, this time process server Seth Rogan and his pot supplier James Franco. When Rogan accidentally witnesses a murder, the two begin an adventure to outrun the killers. The movie is more of an action comedy, and the fight scenes are some of the funniest in the film. Two stoned 20-somethings do not fight like Steven Segal. Franco gets his foot stuck in a car's windshield trying to kick it out, and both he and Rogan engage in some of the most awkward fist fighting captured on film.



3. "Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle" puts the stoner flick formula right in the title. Two buddies, Harold and Kumar, go on an adventure to get White Castle hamburgers.

There are plenty of funny scenes between the two titular characters, but the funniest moments come from what amounts to a cameo. Neil Patrick Harris, also known as NPH and Doogie Howser M.D, joins Harold and Kumar on their adventure briefly. But during that time, he reveals himself as a hard-partying, stripper-addicted and coke-fueled maniac. His lecherous character plays both on his squeaky clean Doogie Howser past and the fact that Harris is homosexual in real life.



4. "Half Baked" is one of Dave Chapelle's early endeavors. Chappelle's friend Harland Williams gets arrested for killing a police horse while on a snack run. The rest of the movie involves Chappelle and Jim Breuer attempting to raise bail to free Williams. The film features numerous cameos from various comedians. Steven Wright makes an appearance as a Canadian Mountie and Bob Saget makes a memorable appearance in a dealing-with-addiction meeting with a great rant that isn't fit to print.



5. "Super Troopers" is the story of a group of Vermont state troopers attempting to save their station branch from being shut down due to budget reasons by trying to take down a major drug trafficking ring.

While this may seem like an anti-stoner flick from this description, it's not. These troopers are not typical and are known for their pranks, which include seeing how many times they can say "Meow" instead of "now" to a driver they pulled from a car full of stoners after taking them on a false high speed pursuit.



Some other stoner flicks to check out are "The Big Lebowski" and "Dazed and Confused", both of which are good enough to transcend being just stoner comedies. Of course, the list wouldn't really be complete without mentioning the original stoner duo: Cheech and Chong. Their original trilogy of movies stands the test of time for the most part, but stay away from anything after that, especially "The Corsican Brothers.