Top 5 – Movie Stoners

Ah, 4/20, a national holiday in America dedicated to smoking weed.  Whether you partake in the event or not, everyone can enjoy a good stoner movie.  The fact that it’s its own genre is amazing.  The one thing that all great stoner movies have is a great stoner.   So let’s look at the best movie stoners and see who lands the highest (zing!).

5 – Saul Silver from The Pineapple Express (David Gordon Green, 2008)

There is not one moment in The Pineapple Express where Saul is not stoned.  Even in the most intense, life threatening situations, Saul always finds time to light up a joint.  The best part of Saul is how sweet he is.  Most stoners in movies are nice, but Saul is arguably the nicest.  He’s just looking a friend and finds one in Dale Denton (Seth Rogen) even if Dale doesn’t see it that way.  Saul is always trying to do his best and even though his judgement is skewered a times, it’s the thought that counts.  They say don’t dip your pen in company ink.  I would totally dip in Saul’s ink, bro.

4 – Jay and Silent Bob from The View Askew Universe (Kevin Smith, 1994 – 2008)

The Cheech and Chong for millennials, Jay and Silent Bob are your friendly neighborhood drug dealers.  These are the kind of guys you’d want to buy drugs from.  They’re cool, weird, funny, and filled with random pop culture references.  Well, at least Jay is.  Silent Bob is, well, silent, but is the serious one of the two and handles the business.  They go on a number of journeys, taking them from a New Jersey Quick-Stop all the way across America to California and back again.  These are the stoners I grew up with.

3 – Cheech and Chong from Up in Smoke (Tommy Chong, Lou Adler, 1978)

The originators of the stoner film, Cheech and Chong are the prototype for stoners in stoner comedies.  They set the standard for what a stoner film is and what a stoner should be.  They go on wild adventures while getting as high as possible.  These guys set the bar for stoner duos like Jay and Silent Bob and Harold and Kumar.  The only reason they are not number one on the list is because the stereotype these guys set has been extremely overplayed.  Still, these guys are icons and will live forever in film history as the classic stoners.

2 – Smokey from Friday (F. Gary Gray, 1995)

Smokey loves his weed.  Every waking moment of the day he has a joint lit in his mouth.  However, this love for weed is his biggest weakness and makes him the worst drug dealer ever.  He smokes as much as he sells, which gets him and his best friend Craig (Ice Cube) in trouble with local drug dealer Big Worm (Faizon Love).  Smokey means well and just wants Craig to have a good day after he gets fired on his day off.  Funny, twitchy, sweet, and a neighborhood staple, Smokey is a man who uses weed more than anyone I’ve see on screen and we are all better for it.

1 – Jeffrey ‘The Dude’ Lebowski from The Big Lebowski (The Coen Brothers, 1998)

The Dude is the perfect stoner.  Having no job and spending his college life occupying various administrations, The Dude loves bowling, White Russians, and of course, smoking.  When he’s thrown into a case of mistaken identity, he tries his best to stay as chill as possible, even if it causes him to lose his room-tying rug or if his Vietnam-veteran friend Walter (John Goodman) pulls out a gun in the middle of bowling.  What’s best about The Dude is that he always makes times for his friends and wants to do the right thing no matter what. The Dude always makes it to bowling, will see an interpretive dance from his landlord, and will dump the ashes of his friend over a cliff.  The Dude is one of the greatest characters ever put on screen and best movie stoner of all-time.

Who are your favorite movie stoners?  Comment below or hit me up on Twitter @kevflix or on Facebook at Kevflix.