If the name “Your Highness” makes you giggle, chances are you’ve inhaled a time or two.
The new medieval comedy starring Danny McBride, James Franco and Natalie Portman is from the director of “Pineapple Express,” one of the newest films in the Stoner Comedy canon.
McBride and co. aren’t selling their own brand of pot in the new comedy, which came in 6th place in this weekend’s new film roundup. But the film’s parade of vulgarities and juvenile humor is directed squarely at the stoner set.
Forgive me for not sharing much enthusiasm for the genre.
My inability to appreciate stoner comedies began in the ’80s when I worked at a Mom and Pop VHS shop. My bosses couldn’t keep any of the Cheech and Chong movies in stock. They weren’t rented out repeatedly. They were checked out and never returned. Why bother buying new copies of “Up in Smoke” when a few weeks later they’d go up in smoke?
|
|
And have you watched “Smoke” recently? Talk about aging badly.
I never got into the whole pot sub culture beyond eating a suspicious brownie during a visit to Amsterdam. But movie lovers don’t have to make a direct connection to a film genre in order to appreciate it.
The 1993 comedy “Dazed and Confused” and 1998’s “The Big Lebowski” stand as the genre’s best efforts, but neither rocked the box office during their initial releases. Arguably the most mainstream stoner hit remains “Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle.” That film delivered some big laughs, but it hardly ranks alongside non-drug comedies like “Knocked Up” or the original “Arthur.”
Speaking of “Arthur,” that 1981 classic could be considered a drunk comedy, except the gags aren’t aimed at drunks. The alcohol humor works on anyone. No adult beverages are required to laugh along with Arthur.
Besides, do other drug forms have their own comedy canon? We don’t have alcohol comedies, heroin comedies or even crack comedies. What makes stoner comedies so special? The short answer is, you need to be baked to appreciate them.
You know a comedy genre needs help when a mediocre entry like “Pineapple Express” quickly enters its pantheon of classics.
Smoking pot can be funny on screen. Consider the comic high point of “It’s Complicated,” the mature rom-com starring Meryl Streep and Steve Martin. The actors play a middle-aged couple who sneak a few tokes before arriving at a big party. Martin squints his eyes as if reading from an eye chart, while Streep chortles like a school girl. Two fine actors sell the stoner moment.
So forgive me for being less than eager to check out “Your Highness.” I prefer comedies that require little in the way of “preparation” to enjoy.
(Photo: James Franco and Danny McBride take a stab at the stoner comedy genre with “Your Highness,” a Universal release)
Related posts:
on 
on 
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
I’d have to agree with this take on the whole genre. The only stoner comedy that I really like, and I’m not even sure if it is classified as such is SuperTroopers. Outside of that, the rest just seem to be boring retreads or ideas that never quite got off the drawing board.
I never really got the whole stoner movie/comedy thing either although I did enjoy some of Cheech and Chong’s albums.
Stoner comedy doesn’t have to be bad. It was widely claimed in the 70s that the best way to enjoy W.C. Fields work was with a quart of liquor or several joints on board.
Right there with ya, CT, my partakings of the sweet leaf exclusively being the second hand variety at many, many concerts since the mid-80s (Robert Plant’s Manic Nirvana and Tom Petty’s Into the Great Wide Open tours — wow!). However, I still can’t believe how much I love Grandma’s Boy, which I watch repeatedly.
“Don’t judge me, monkey.”
You forgot to mention the awesome “Half-Baked.” Personally, I think “Dazed and Confused,” “The Big Lebowski,” and “Pineapple Express,” were hilarious. I don’t think you have to be a stoner to enjoy a good stoner flick.
I think Richard Linklater put it best when he said, at the premiere of his movie Waking Life: “those of you in the audience who don’t do drugs, just bear with me.”
I’m not a big fan of the genre, but if the filmmaker can find a way to make the movie accessible to non-users, then it can be enjoyable. But when a movie like Up in Smoke is clearly made by stoners, for stoners, then the rest of us are shut out of being able to enjoy it.
No one beats Cheech and Chong for Stoner Comedies.
Watched Your Highness this weekend and while I only had a few chuckles in the movie it was entrtaining. I wish they had tried a little harder though with the acting from some of the cast, James Franco, but all in all it wasnt bad. But it wasnt good either so it sits in the mediocre pile waiting for someone to do it better.
Booby Trap!!!!
It’s not a recent movie, but I thought the pot smoking scene from “Animal House” was pretty funny.