{"id":8109,"date":"2018-03-03T18:50:19","date_gmt":"2018-03-03T18:50:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.420magazine.com\/?p=12651"},"modified":"2018-03-03T18:50:19","modified_gmt":"2018-03-03T18:50:19","slug":"why-cant-hollywood-get-weed-right","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/why-cant-hollywood-get-weed-right\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Can\u2019t Hollywood Get Weed Right"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"wp_fb_like_button\" style=\"margin:5px 0 5px 5px;float:right;height:100px;\"><script src=\"http:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\"><\/script><fb:like href=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/why-cant-hollywood-get-weed-right\/\" send=\"true\" layout=\"standard\" width=\"450\" show_faces=\"false\" font=\"arial\" action=\"like\" colorscheme=\"light\"><\/fb:like><\/div><p>Most Friday nights in high school ended the same way. We\u2019d return in the wee hours from a desolate stretch of Marin County wilderness we\u2019d decided would make for an ideal party location and cram into someone\u2019s living room with a mountain of Jack in the Box tacos. Then we\u2019d watch Half Baked.<\/p>\n<p>The film, which stars Dave Chappelle as a janitor who loves to get high, was filled with all the popular tropes of stoner life: A man who is perpetually asleep on the couch flies off into the night sky, snacks at a 7-Eleven appear oversized and extra-delicious, and Jon Stewart insists that everything is enhanced \u201con weed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>We watched this film incessantly, and other cannabis-themed cinema later joined our repertoire. There was How High, where Method Man and Redman literally smoke the ashes of their deceased genius friend and somehow find themselves at Harvard. Later came Harold and Kumar, who love to get \u201cnot low\u201d and hang with Neil Patrick Harris while on a quest for burgers from White Castle.<\/p>\n<p>For decades, weed has served as a simple comedic device for films \u2014 a portal for delving into absurdist humor that is both relatable and harmlessly illicit. It was a path Cheech and Chong first forged in the 1970s, and one that continued until the early 2000s. It was only then that filmmakers and show runners decided to combine the inherent humorous properties of cannabis with a more sincere look at a supply chain that, until recently, operated outside of the law.<\/p>\n<p>Most notably there was Showtime\u2019s Weeds, which placed star Mary-Louise Parker into increasingly unbelievable scenarios as she rose from a suburban drug dealer into an industry kingpin. Like a ganja Grey\u2019s Anatomy, Weeds had drama, but not the kind one finds in reality. Supporting characters Doug Wilson and Andy Botwin \u2014 played by Kevin Nealon and Justin Kirk, respectively \u2014 hung around to ensure an element of stoner humor remained in each episode.<\/p>\n<p>Following the announcement in February that Netflix would not renew Disjointed \u2014 a series starring Kathy Bates as a cannabis dispensary owner in Los Angeles \u2014 a question that has long plagued Hollywood has once more re-emerged: Why don\u2019t series and films about marijuana work?<\/p>\n<p>While Weeds ran for eight seasons, critics and fans alike noted that the show began to lose its spark midway through its tenure. Stoner comedies like Pineapple Express \u2014 which blended a bit of action with its bong-rips \u2014 have certainly enjoyed cult followings, but the box office dollars and lowbrow humor handcuff the potential of this subgenre to have true longevity. Disjointed was Hollywood\u2019s attempt to take an authentic look at our modern-day cannabis industry, but despite Netflix\u2019s track record of showing patience with its original programming, it was given a hasty burial.<\/p>\n<p>What do all these things have in common? It\u2019s simple: Weed isn\u2019t funny.<\/p>\n<p>Don\u2019t get me wrong \u2014 Cheech and Chong driving a bong-car is hilarious, but it\u2019s not because of cannabis. That\u2019s slapstick humor wearing a marijuana costume, just as Half Baked is a wonderfully imaginative view of New York City through the red eyes of an outsider looking in. Smoking weed may make everything funnier, but the plant itself is just that \u2014 a plant. The more Hollywood tries to focus on cannabis, the clearer it becomes that marijuana may be a viable plot device, but it is not a source of humor.<\/p>\n<p>Likewise, Disjointed failed because it did too good of a job at reflecting the day-to-day life of a dispensary owner. Cannabis enthusiasts don\u2019t need a Netflix subscription for that; they can just walk down the street and experience the conceit of the series firsthand. This isn\u2019t to say that there isn\u2019t an opportunity to do a show about a dispensary, but if Hollywood still hopes to do one properly, there has to be much more to it than the fact that it\u2019s a store that sells weed.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s also a bit of a closed cycle system that aids cannabis-centric programming. Back in those high school days, it would\u2019ve been considered downright sacrilegious if we didn\u2019t toke up before pressing \u201cplay\u201d on Half Baked. If comedies and TV focused on weed often enjoy the added benefit of their audiences being high, it\u2019s not hard to see why easy jokes and soft plots were sufficient. However, it also explains why those who aren\u2019t fans of marijuana may not find much with which to relate.<\/p>\n<p>So what\u2019s the solution?<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps, instead of creating characters who are experts in the world of cannabis, it\u2019s time to explore stories that more closely mirror the real-life exploits of people who are just now coming into contact with marijuana for the first time.<\/p>\n<p>HBO\u2019s High Maintenance is a series that\u2019s started to toe these waters. Its narrative \u2014 which follows a Brooklyn man who delivers weed on his bicycle \u2014 offers the seeds of a story that uses cannabis not as a punchline, but as a jumping-off point.<\/p>\n<p>Hopefully, more Hollywood projects will follow in its bike tracks, with the result being stories that stop using marijuana as a comedy crutch, but instead embrace a wider audience by ironically resorting to weed\u2019s ultimate clich\u00e9: a gateway to something more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Most Friday nights in high school ended the same way. We\u2019d return in the wee hours from a desolate stretch&#8230; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.420magazine.com\/420-news\/international-cannabis-news\/cant-hollywood-get-weed-right\/\" class=\"read-more\">[Read More]<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1616,9,1,3],"tags":[4184],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8109"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8109"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8109\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}