Christmas has Santa Claus, the Fourth of July has Uncle Sam, and 420 has Cheech and Chong. Or at least it should. I can think of no better ambassadors of the almighty herb than comedy legends Cheech and Chong.
Formed in Vancouver, BC, in 1969 by Canadian comedian/musician Tommy Chong and L.A.-born Richard “Cheech” Marin (who had moved to Canada to avoid the Vietnam War draft), the duo began performing in clubs with their unique brand of free-love, counterculture, and cannabis-inspired comedy. Cheech often played the fast-talking, streetwise schemer, while Chong embodied the clueless, Zen-like hippie stoner.
Their self-titled album, released in 1971, peaked at #28 on the Billboard charts and was followed by six more successful albums throughout the ’70s and early ’80s. I’ve listened to a few of these, and while not everything holds up, their character-driven drug culture satire remains undeniably charming.
Some of their songs aren’t bad either. I mean, “Basketball Jones”? That’s as good as any earnest soul ballad from the 1970s. Which isn’t surprising, considering the song features musical backing from George Harrison, Carole King, Ronnie Spector, Billy Preston, Darlene Love, Michelle Phillips, Nicky Hopkins, Klaus Voormann, and Jim Keltner, to name a few. It was even good enough to be covered by Barry White and Chris Rock for the Space Jam soundtrack.
But I’ll always know Cheech and Chong best for their movies, even though, for years, the only ones I’d seen were Up in Smoke and a few scenes from Cheech and Chong’s Next Movie, pieced together from sporadic airings on Comedy Central. These laid-back, seemingly improvisational slapstick comedies are the ultimate stoner comfort food.
So what better way to celebrate 420 and over 50 years of Cheech and Chong than by revisiting their six theatrical releases from 1978 to 1984, along with their 1985 short-form video Get Out of My Room, their 2010 concert film Hey, Watch This!, and their 2013 straight-to-DVD animated film.
Cheech and Chong even have a new documentary, Cheech and Chong’s Last Movie, in limited release right now, which I’ll probably check out when it hits Peacock on April 25th.
So, without further ado, it’s time to turn on, tune in, and drop out into the list:
Up in Smoke follows Pedro De Pacas (Cheech Marin) and Anthony “Man” Stoner (Tommy Chong), two aimless pothead musicians who cross paths while hitchhiking in Los Angeles. After bonding over their shared passion for the devil’s lettuce, they embark on a misadventure that puts them on the run from incompetent narcotics officers.
Their journey takes them to Mexico, where they unknowingly smuggle a van made entirely of marijuana (it was the ‘70s) back into the U.S., all while evading the inept Sgt. Stedanko (Stacy Keach). The film builds to a “Battle of the Bands” at LA’s famous Roxy Theater where guitarist/vocalist Pedro and drummer Man under the guise of “Alice Bowie” (again, it was the ‘70s) win over the crowd (and the cops) with their Frank Zappa-esque stoner rock classic, “Earache My Eye”.
A side note: the song “Earache My Eye” was originally included on Cheech and Chong’s 1974 album “Cheech and Chong’s Wedding Album” and reached #9 on the Billboard charts in the US and #4 on the Canadian charts.
The film moves at a leisurely pace with the “plot” slowly unfolding in-between various gags like smoking dog shit, getting stuck on a traffic median after taking LSD, and buying weed from a PTSD-riddled Vietnam vet named “Strawberry” played by Tom Skeritt.
I think the endearing charm of Up in Smoke has to do with the fact that it actually feels like the movie equivalent to getting stoned. Characters say dumb things, constantly forget their objective, and listen to and play some killer tunes. In addition to Cheech and Chong’s music (which I enjoy), the film employs the slick ‘70s classic “Low Rider” by War as the film’s unofficial theme song.
The film was released on September 15, 1978, “written” by the duo and directed by their long time record producer Lou Adler, who even contributed an additional $800,000 to the film after Paramount refused to give them more than $1 million for the budget. Yet the film was a hit, grossing $44 million domestically ($104 million worldwide) and going on to be the 26th highest grossing movie of 1978.
And I thought Up in Smoke rambled. But I don’t watch these to be riveted by the plot. Cheech and Chong movies are the definition of hangout movies. As long as there are enough funny bits and cameos, I’m happy, and Next Movie has some of the best of both.
This time around, Cheech plays Cheech and Chong plays Chong, easy enough. Cheech works as a crew member at a movie studio, and Chong gets by selling roaches (blunts), though his number one customer is himself.
The film kicks off with one of my favorite scenes, when Cheech and Chong try to siphon gas from a truck with a garbage can. They try to act nonchalant carrying the can down the street, spilling gas everywhere, and then fill their tank with a mix of gas and garbage that later makes it explode.
Though my favorite scene, without a doubt, is when Cheech shows Chong his new song “Mexican Americans,” which is like a protest tune. It’s so good I could have sworn it was in the first one. I could explain why it’s great, or instead, you could watch it right now:
The ”plot” is “loosely” about Cheech and Chong trying to find stability. Living in a condemned house in Los Angeles, Chong looks for work at the unemployment agency, but gets distracted by that sound effects guy from Police Academy, Michael Winslow, while Cheech is trying to romance Donna (Evelyn Guerrero).
But any semblance of stakes or escalating action collapses when the film introduces Cheech’s cousin Red (also played by Marin), who is a crazier version of Cheech with a blonde wig. Chong takes Red out on a night on the town, and HIGH-jinks ensue.
HIGH-lights (look, I did it again) include Chong arguing with a desk clerk (played by Paul Reubens) over a hotel bill that Red can’t afford, pissing in a jacuzzi, and then ending up at the mansion that belongs to the parents of a girl they meet. Why? Because the mom is played by the beloved Edie McClurg from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, and for whatever reason, her peppy Midwest energy is a perfect counterbalance to Chong and Red’s stoner energy.
Edie McClurg’s character is so taken by the pair she gets high with them, and the group take the family Rolls Royce to a comedy club where Red, Chong, and even Edie McClurg attempt stand-up to varying success. We also get a reprise of Paul Reubens performing as Pee-wee Herman.
You know what I realized? Both this movie and Pee-wee’s Big Adventure feature Pee-wee, cameos from Cassandra Peterson (aka “Elvira”), and the song “Tequila.” What’s up with that?
The Red and Chong stuff is hit or miss, but the Cheech plotline is entirely unmemorable. Cheech spends the back half of the film preparing for his date with Donna and then falls asleep and has visions where he’s a love viking. Not sure what’s going on there.
Cheech wakes up in the morning to find Chong (who was abducted by aliens alongside Red) bursting in with a jar of “space coke.” The “space coke” causes Cheech to go berserk and start trashing their next-door neighbor’s house.
The film concludes with the duo bursting through their neighbor’s roof into outer space, dropping the “space coke” back to Earth which then leads to an animated sequence with Cheech and Chong ascending into a blunt, which then takes off, displaying the caption “That’s It Man!”
Good jokes. Total mess.
I was worried after Next Movie that any semblance of plot would fully evaporate, so you can imagine my excitement when I discovered Nice Dreams not only has a plot, it has stakes.
This time around, Cheech and Chong (playing Cheech and Chong) run a successful weed business out of an ice cream truck, where they’ve painted over the words “ICE CREAM” with “NICE DREAMS”. The pair steals this experimental weed from their pal Weird Jimmy (James William Newport). I say “experimental” because too much of this weed turns you into a lizard. Go with it.
Stacy Keach returns as Cheech and Chong’s arch nemesis from Up in Smoke, Sgt. Stedanko, who still leads his drug task force despite becoming a stoner himself. A stoner who is turning into a lizard. What does that entail? Stacy Keach having green claw hands and a big tail. Stacy Keach must be a chill guy to take on a part this dumb.
But honestly, I like all this. We have an interesting setup, people after them, and a sense of momentum we didn’t get with Next Movie. After police choppers investigate the plantation where the weed is being grown (they are in search of a drug kingpin named Mr. Big), Cheech and Chong go on the run.
Cheech and Chong’s dream, or dare I say, “Nice Dream”?, is to use the money they’ve made to open a theme park. Cheech wants to call it “Vatoland” and have all the rides be LOW rides, but Chong says he wants to make it “Guitar Land.” Like guitar rides? No, just guitars. Gang fights too. Sometimes these movies are so stupid they become borderline brilliant.
Cheech and Chong go to a Chinese restaurant where they run into Cheech’s ex-girlfriend Donna (Evelyn Guerrero) from the last film, who has now become a loose coke addict, and her friend Howie “Hamburger Dude” (Paul Reubens), an escaped mental patient who supplies the coke. So they all do coke.
Paul Reubens is hilarious, spewing non sequiturs as Howie. My favorite of his lines is when he tells Chong, “The future of rock and roll? Bruce Springsteen is fucking it all up!” He prefers New Wave music.
Meanwhile, Cheech and Donna are trying to hook up in a car outside, only for Donna to pass out. Cheech, unsure if he should still go through with it, then turns to the audience for a vote as to whether or not he should still sleep with Donna. Wow, a choose-your-own-adventure movie! But the scene cuts away before we see anything happen.
Cheech and Chong take Donna back to her place, and after she’s regained consciousness, she pitches the idea of a ménage à trois. But as they get ready, we discover that Donna’s biker husband Animal (Michael Masters) has broken out of prison and has arrived at the apartment complex.
So we get a cheeky sequence of Animal chasing Cheech around the complex naked. When Cheech reunites with Chong, he discovers that Chong traded their drug money to Howie for a fake check they can’t even cash because they don’t have ID.
The duo visits Howie’s mental asylum, only for Cheech to end up as a patient and Chong as a doctor, for some reason. Chong finds a doctor to help, and it’s none other than TIMOTHY LEARY, who medicates Cheech with LSD. This leads to a drug hallucination featuring little people and Michael Winslow doing his iconic Jimi Hendrix impression.
The mix-up is discovered the next morning, and Sgt. Stedanko (now in full lizard mode) and his men show up—only to mistake Howie as the drug kingpin they’ve been looking for. Cheech and Chong are free to go and try to make it as male strippers.
Nice Dreams has no shortage of comedic set pieces, and for the most part, they work. The situations are varied, and it feels like there’s a real impetus to keep the story moving. Not to mention some great lines. My favorite might be when Cheech blames Chong for giving away their money because he was coked up, and Chong says, “A lotta smart guys do coke. Sherlock Holmes does coke.”
This is Cheech and Chong at the top of their game.
After Next Movie, I prayed to the Ganja Gods that future installments would have more in the way of story structure, and based on Nice Dreams and Things Are Tough All Over, it appeared my prayers had been answered.
What I didn’t expect was for that wish to curl like the finger of a Monkey’s Paw, because although Things Are Tough All Over has structure, it’s not that funny.
This film begins with a flourish we haven’t seen thus far in the Cheech and Chong franchise: narration. Cheech and Chong are driving a limo through the desert as Cheech launches into the story of how he and Chong used to be low-level employees at a car wash in Chicago.
It’s a nice change of pace seeing the duo in a new, snowy locale, and the movie starts strong as they struggle to get by in set pieces that include getting stuck in a convertible going through a car wash and Cheech getting trapped inside a washing machine. I was enjoying myself until the introduction of their bosses. Ugh… Mr. Slyman (Marin) and Prince Habib (Chong).
Yes, Cheech and Chong are playing a pair of bumbling Arabic men, and yes, it is offensive. Not just because of the big fake noses or wacky accents, it’s offensive because it’s not funny. The whole joke is that they’re clueless Middle Eastern men with zany voices. It’s not interesting as satire or commentary, it’s hacky.
I didn’t realize that, despite being the creative force behind their movies (often as director), Chong is limited as a performer outside of his brain-dead stoner archetype. He can’t do accents and he can’t do drama. Cheech, on the other hand, is a solid actor with range, but does it matter when the material is this bad?
Mr. Slyman and Prince Habib come into possession of a large amount of illegal money and recruit their two dimwitted employees to drive a limo (with all the cash hidden in the seats) to Las Vegas, under the pretense that it’s for a “rock tour.” In reality, the money is meant for a group of mobsters.
It’s a good premise, and comical because along the way, Cheech and Chong start removing parts of the car (including the seats) for “better mileage” as they run out of gas or get too hot. They also cook a rotisserie chicken over the engine, and at one point give a ride to a woman—Donna (frequent collaborator Evelyn Guerrero)—and her “friends,” i.e., twenty migrants traveling across the country who pile on top of the car.
This movie has the bits. Unfortunately, it also has Mr. Slyman and Prince Habib, who get almost as much screen time as Cheech and Chong. Their scenes mostly involve wandering around, bickering, and looking for the duo. “Ha, they don’t understand how tipping works.” “Ha, they don’t get why women in America are so assertive.” Real outdated stuff. Earlier I said it was offensive, but honestly, it’s almost too lame to be offensive.
Rip Taylor (as himself) shows up to drive Cheech and Chong the rest of the way to Vegas, but ends up driving Chong to tears with his nonstop shtick. See? That’s funny. It works because Cheech and Chong are established, original characters, and we’re putting them in an unusual situation. That’s comedy.
The film climaxes (literally) when Slyman and Habib chase Cheech and Chong into a Vegas porno theater, only to discover that they filmed themselves messing around with Slyman and Habib’s French girlfriends (played by Cheech and Chong’s real-life wives, Rikki Marin and Shelby Chong). But instead of wanting to kill them for losing the money, they decide to go into the porn business with Cheech and Chong.
It’s funny how multiple Cheech and Chong movies end with them becoming sex workers of some sort. I only wish the movie itself was funny.
Still Smokin’ is everything I feared a bad Cheech and Chong movie could be. It’s the antithesis of comedy. You know how the arch nemesis of a superhero is often their exact opposite? Like in Unbreakable? Well, if Comedy were a superhero, then Still Smokin’ is the villain.
The film begins innocuously enough when Cheech and Chong arrive for a film festival in Amsterdam. They’re met by a crowd of excited Dutch fans holding posters for The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. The event promoter (Hans Man in ‘t Veld) even thinks Cheech is Burt Reynolds. It’s cute.
Soon after, we learn that Burt Reynolds and Dolly Parton were supposed to headline the festival, but funding has fallen through, leading the promoter to contemplate suicide, but, you know, it’s supposed to be silly.
Cheech and Chong suggest putting on their first live comedy show in four years (which was true of the real Cheech and Chong as well), so most of the film is them hanging out in Amsterdam trying to come up with ideas for the show.
They eat at a café where all the food is marijuana-infused. Chong even eats a salad made of marijuana leaves. Again, cute. Where the film goes off the rails is any time Cheech and Chong daydream or get high and we cut away to a supposed “comedy idea” for the show.
Yes, this is a sketch movie, which should work in theory. Cheech and Chong started their career doing sketches on their albums. They were comedy rockstars throughout the 1970s. But for whatever reason, the jokes here are not hitting. Not only are they not hitting… they’re just gone, man.
I mean, this film has a Star Wars “parody” called Queer Wars that’s nothing more than Cheech and Chong wearing flamboyant costumes in a dressing room and saying things like, “Han Solo? More like, hands-so-low you can barely see what they’re doing!” There isn’t even a sci-fi element to this “parody.”
We get Cheech and Chong as wrestlers going head to head with the Invisible Man, which is just them fighting thin air for what feels like an eternity. There’s “Con Talk,” a gang-member talk show that feels like a cut-for-time SNL bit. Oh god, and how could I forget Blind Melon Chitlin?
Now, I’ve heard the “Blind Melon Chitlin” sketch on Cheech and Chong’s first album, and it’s fine. It’s a bit where Cheech is trying to set up an old blind blues musician to record music, but since the musician can’t see, he does stuff like blow into nothing instead of a harmonica, bump into the mic. You know, dumb, low-hanging fruit like that. On screen, it’s Chong in blackface. And you know, “different times,” but man… It looks horrifying.
When the best “sketch” is Cheech pretending to be a horny alien named “E.T. a.k.a. Eddie Torres the Extra Testicle” chasing a maid around, you know something has gone wrong.
The last twenty or so minutes of the movie is an actual 1982 live recording of Cheech and Chong performing at the Tuschinski Theater in Amsterdam, most of which falls flat. Come on guys, this is a movie! You gotta bring your A-game!
I don’t know if they simplified their material for an international audience or were out of practice, but the only sketch I found amusing was Cheech and Chong playing their dog characters, Ralph and Herbie, from the Big Bambu album (1972). Even then, most of the jokes are predictable: they sniff each other’s butts, Chong does an impression of a dog taking a poop, etc.
The whole time I’m watching, I’m thinking, “I wonder if this show is going to be a success and the promoter is going to thank them for saving the event?” But after the last sketch, the film freeze-frames and ends. There’s no epilogue, nothing that bookends the film. That’s it.
Never thought I’d miss Cheech and Chong being abducted and turned into cartoons to end a film.
Easily the most puzzling thing Cheech and Chong ever made. I’ve watched it and I still have no idea what the joke is here. Either the guys are big Alexandre Dumas fans or they were looking for another famous duo they could portray on screen. How they landed on a pair of swashbuckling French guys is beyond me.
The film opens with Cheech and Chong playing a pair of rockabilly musicians named “Los Guys” performing on the streets of Paris. Not sure what this has to do with anything or how it thematically connects, but afterward the pair visits a café where they meet a Gypsy (played by Chong’s real-life daughter, actress Rae Dawn Chong) who tells them the story of the Corsican Brothers.
Wait a minute… The Corsican Brothers isn’t an old myth or ancient folktale, it’s a published novella from 1844. This is like if she sat them down and then launched into the forgotten tale of “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” which would have been a better fit for the pair.
The Corsican Brothers, to my understanding, is the story of twin brothers, Louis and Lucien de Franchi, who are born conjoined but separated at birth and raised apart—Louis in Paris as a refined gentleman, and Lucien in Corsica. Despite the distance, they share a mysterious psychic bond, feeling each other’s emotions and pain. One of the brothers is later killed in a duel and the other seeks revenge.
THIS version of The Corsican Brothers is about Luis (Cheech) and Lucian (Chong), born connected at the dong, who can feel each other’s farts, among other things, and who lead a revolution against the tyrannical Queen (Edie McClurg) and her dandy regent, “Fuckaire” (Roy Dotrice). Cheech plays the more naive and comical brother while Chong plays it straight as a swashbuckling hero fighting against injustice.
I appreciate Chong playing against type, but like I pointed out in my review of Things Are Tough All Over, the man isn’t a dramatic actor. A lot of Chong’s line readings fall flat. I would have preferred him to work his classic stoner character into the plot of this story instead of trying to play it so seriously. A noble effort, but a failure.
The Corsican Brothers isn’t a total misfire when it comes to comedy. Coincidentally, my favorite gag is when the fathers of the Corsican Brothers (also played by Cheech and Chong) challenge each other to a duel and keep misfiring. This crescendos in their guns jamming and them shaking and blowing on their guns to try and get them to work. They even trade guns at one point to see if that makes a difference. A very Three Stooges-inspired moment.
It’s fun to see Cheech and Chong with a decent budget and there are good jokes, but the ones that miss aren’t just bad, they’re embarrassing. Do you think it’s funny to see two grown men, Chong (46) and Cheech (38), acting as babies in diapers? If so, this is the movie for you.
After back-to-back duds, Get Out of My Room was the palate cleanser I needed. It’s only 53 minutes long, has memorable songs, an Elvira cameo, and is easily available to watch online. Honestly, if any of these films deserves more attention, it’s this one.
Written and directed solely by Cheech Marin, Get Out of My Room is a “video album” film. What that means is: it’s four music videos based on songs from Cheech and Chong’s 1985 album of the same name, sandwiched between a mockumentary about the making of said videos.
John Paragon, best known for his work on Pee-wee’s Playhouse (he also played Jambi the Genie) and his longtime collaborations with Elvira, hosts the special as a clueless interviewer. He talks to Cheech and Chong about their process, their origins, and interviews fans and random people on the street. The best of these interviews? When John asks an ice cream man who doesn’t speak English if Cheech and Chong are selling drugs.
The first music video we get is the title track, “Get Out of My Room,” a British punk-inspired rock song where Cheech dons the persona of “Ian Rotten.” The video is filmed in a gym where Cheech and Chong try (and fail) to get a group of basketball players to leave, so the players end up in the video, too.
The video ends with the text: “Insert Ian Rotten Tour Information Here.” The Spinal Tap influence is obvious. Also, if you’re a millennial who grew up watching Doug, this song sounds A LOT like something the band “The Beets” would’ve recorded. Meaning: I love it.
Behind the scenes, Cheech and Chong feud over who wrote “Get Out of My Room.” More “drama” comes from Cheech being an incompetent director and Chong goofing off, flirting with all the girls playing extras in the videos.
This leads into the next video, “I’m Not Home Right Now,” where Cheech sings about trying to find a new job and make money, while Chong repeatedly tries to reach him by phone after they’re invited to judge a “Miss Nude Everything” contest in the Bahamas. The joke is that Cheech needs money, and Chong keeps trying to tell him about a dream job.
After that, we get real interviews with people on the street about Cheech and Chong. Fans are asked who their favorite is, who’s hotter, what they’d like to see them do like join the circus. I thought this was a sweet addition. It’s fun to see how the public perceived Cheech and Chong in their heyday. This is the first time I realized they were kind of like the Beavis and Butt-Head of their time.
The next video is “Love Is Strange,” a new wave song about a guy desperate for a date, reaching borderline stalker status… as aliens spy on him. Yeah, not sure where this one came from. Cocaine? Regardless, it’s another bop. I love the weird, walking eyeball aliens that follow Cheech around L.A.
Speaking of L.A., if there’s one video people remember from this mockumentary, it’s the iconic “Born in East L.A.” The video is set up after the production runs out of money and Cheech goes to the store. The music starts as he’s accosted by a police officer (Jan-Michael Vincent) demanding to see his green card.
Cheech tries to explain that he was “Born in East L.A.” (sung to the tune of “Born in the U.S.A.”), but after being unable to answer who the president is (he says “John Wayne”), he’s deported to Mexico.
This thing is so catchy and funny. I’m talking about a Weird Al–caliber parody. Cheech sings about arriving in Tijuana and then sneaking back into the States. There’s a musical break with mariachi horns, Cheech wanders through the desert, makes his way back to L.A., and gives Elvira a ride in a convertible. The video even used to play on MTV. I’ve rewatched it a bunch. Give it a quick watch and you’ll see what I mean:
Get Out of My Room is Cheech’s baby, which means Chong takes a backseat. That makes sense considering the duo broke up not long after this mockumentary. Cheech focused on his acting career, starring in a feature-length version of Born in East L.A. in 1987. The two appeared together sporadically over the next decade, mostly in voiceover work, but it wasn’t until 2008 that Cheech and Chong fully reunited.
Which leads us to our next entry…
I didn’t plan on including this live comedy special (it doesn’t even have a Wikipedia page!), but once I saw that Wikipedia listed this “movie” as one of Cheech and Chong’s “Primary Films,” I felt I had to.
As I mentioned in my Get Out of My Room review, Cheech and Chong were broken up between 1985 and 2008. They did a couple of voice spots in movies like FernGully and an episode of South Park (they recorded their lines separately), but otherwise, they were off doing their own thing.
What happened? According to Chong in Hey Watch This, “We broke up because we got rich.” Ha. I know he’s joking, but there’s probably a kernel of truth in that. Cheech and Chong had been a successful comedy duo for 14 years… it was time for a smoke break.
In between, Cheech had a successful run co-starring in the show Nash Bridges, along with numerous movie roles, particularly in Robert Rodriguez films. Chong starred in the 1990 movie Far Out Man, had a part in National Lampoon’s Senior Trip, but is probably best known from this period for his recurring role as Leo on That ’70s Show.
Of course, we all know about Chong getting busted for selling bongs across state lines in 2003 (which was total bullshit), landing him in prison for nine months. Did you know his cellmate was Jordan “Wolf of Wall Street” Belfort? Chong actually inspired him to write his memoir, which later led to the Scorsese biopic. That’s crazy, man.
After Chong got out of jail, he started doing solo comedy shows. Coincidentally, Cheech had also started touring solo. Occasionally, the two would be booked at the same festivals, and after some encouragement from Shelby Chong, they finally reunited in 2008.
Hey, Watch This! is a live comedy special recorded at the Majestic Theatre in San Antonio, Texas, on March 14, 2009. The special blends live concert footage with backstage skits, revisiting their classic routines, characters, and songs. The backstage bits include Cheech and Chong playing generic stoners critiquing the show from the balcony, like a baked version of Statler and Waldorf, as well as a sketch where they play a flamboyantly gay duo commenting on the costumes and stage design. Why we needed both, I have no idea.
Cheech and Chong perform “Dave’s Not Here,” “Let’s Make a Dope Deal,” “Mexican Americans,” “Born in East L.A.,” and the opening scene from Up in Smoke, just to name a few sketches and songs.
There’s nothing new here for die-hard fans, but it’s a joy to see Cheech and Chong still having fun together, even if some of the material hasn’t aged all that well. Fortunately, it was easy to watch for free on Plex. There are worse ways to kill an evening, but at this point, I’m ready to be done.
I was so not excited to watch this movie, I started coming up with excuses for why it didn’t count. “It’s animated… it was made way later… it’s just a bunch of rehashed sketches, but animated.” So you can imagine my surprise when I had an okay time.
Cheech and Chong work surprisingly well in a post-Adult Swim animation world. Their haphazard comedic style, even their aimlessness, feels right at home in a culture raised on websites like eBaum’s World. The animation is primitive, but that tracks. Most of us millennials came of age watching random, low-budget internet cartoons, and there’s a certain nostalgic charm in that.
The “plot” feels a lot like their first two movies: a series of set pieces loosely strung together by the thinnest of narratives. Come to think of it, the only connecting thread is a genital crab that leaps off a woman and tries to track down Chong after getting high off his weed-scented hair. Yes, that is exactly as gross and dumb as it sounds—and somehow still funny.
Cheech and Chong head to a drive-in, where they forget their friends are locked in the trunk. I’m not sure if this is a repackaged old bit, but it’s mildly amusing. Most of the midsection is just the duo watching TV. And again, I couldn’t help but notice a shared comedic DNA between Cheech and Chong and Beavis and Butt-Head.
They watch a game show called “Let’s Make a Dope Deal,” where a stoner gets busted after a series of easy questions. There’s a spoof of an American Bandstand-style show, and my personal favorite: a commercial for a building specifically designed for committing suicide. “Take that big jump today!” It’s as dark as it is hilarious.
Outside of TV, we get Cheech and Chong’s dog characters, Ralph and Herbie—who I actually enjoy. They make the strongest case for why this should be an animated film. Otherwise, it’s a lot of the same old record bits we’ve seen before: “Sgt. Stedanko,” “Sister Mary Elephant,” and of course, the iconic “Dave’s Not Here.”
It is fun to see the classic sketches visualized, but I’m getting tired of Cheech and Chong recycling the same jokes. I’ve now watched three different movies where Cheech does “Earache My Eye” as Alice Bowie. Don’t get me wrong, they write good songs, but come on, can’t we get a new one?
And Jesus, man… the runtime. Even though Cheech and Chong’s Animated Movie only runs about 76 minutes before credits, it feels like an eternity. This thing should’ve been thirty minutes, tops. At least it ends on a high note: Cheech and Chong pilot a rocket ship that crashes into the moon, only for the moon to light the rocket like a joint and blow weed smoke back down to Earth. Now that’s peace on Earth, man.
Conclusion
What did I learn from watching all of these stoner classics? I learned that Cheech and Chong are special because they captured a countercultural moment that still resonates. They weren’t just making jokes about stoners, they were satirizing authority, poking fun at cultural stereotypes, and giving voice to the working class.
And I love how these guys play off each other. Cheech’s high-energy, fast-talking persona is the perfect contrast to Chong’s slow, spaced-out delivery. There’s a lovable goofiness they bring to everything they do.
Cheech and Chong are stoner icons, and as far as I’m concerned, we should celebrate them every 420 for the rest of time.
Fuck Easter.