DrunkenMessiah
Member
Some parts of stoner-related-fiction, especially more recently produced ones, seriously piss me off! I have great reguard classic stereotypical stoner characters such as Cheech and Chong because they where breaking into new territory. Sure, 99% of real stoners aren't anything like those guys acted, but at the time cannabis in cinema was a big taboo and I applaud their exaggerated stoner antics for showing just how harmless and funny the use of THC is. What fuckin irritates the hell out of me is that more than three decades later we've not advanced the role at all. Fuck that, we've gone backwards. Popular culture still sees the 'stoner' as a dopey half-wit who couldn't remember what you said 30 seconds ago, much less something reasonable like what he had for breakfast. Stoner characters in pretty much all mediums of fiction stumble through the storyline, barely aware of what's going on. Their constant state of high makes them completely disconnected with reality to the point where they are written to hilariously make no sense, or hallucinate or otherwise always be doing something ridiculous.
Case-in-point: Pineapple Express. I couldn't even sit through the whole thing, settling for a synopsis from someone who finished it. It's one thing to make a stoner movie such as "Harold and Kumar go to White Castle". That was a film about the misadventures of two idiots who happened to smoke the ganja. They got into trouble equally wheather or not they where high! Pineapple Express on the other hand features completely absurd situations that the main characters get into because they are high. The whole thing apparently culminates in an intense action-film style shootout that is fought in a grow house. No real stoner has ever participated in such a thing! Sure, drug dealers shoot eachother over their products (sometimes being marijuana) all the time, but Pineapple Express was a depiction of pot-users that just didn't sit well with me at all. Perhaps the writers where trying to make fun of the fact that this absurdity went on because of the illegality of pot. A sort of social commentary on how ridiculous the ban on cannabis is. Two harmless stoners ending up in a gun fight because their chosen activity is arbitrarily illegal. That is something I can strongly endorse and will rant more on later. However, the way the two guys just bumbled through the plotline and behaved in general irritated me to no end.
Frankly, this flies in the face of reality. Most people who's lives revolve around the cannabis plant are nothing like this. A deep relationship with THC tends to make them more connected and capable with their mental faculties, not less. The fact that they commit a felony nearly every day means that real long-term stoners are almost always shrewd and resourceful rather than dopey and weak-willed. They are unique people. They do not adorn themselves and their homes and their cars and everything else with the trappings of cannabis use. They don't always wear a pot-leaf T-shirt and/or rasta hat. In fact, these things are much more commonly indicative of a poser than a real cannabis connoisseur. I would be fine with all of this if authors of fictional content drew a line of distinction between this kind of stoner and a normal cannabis user much as they do with drunks and people who regularly drink. A regular drinker may do silly things while drunk or be over-enthusiastic about consumption or perform any other number of booze-related shenanigans while still by and large being considered a reasonable person in the context of the story line. A drunk on the other hand is the embodiment of intoxication. He/she is constantly an asshole, always voicing inappropriate opinions, being needlessly violent, having embarrassing sex, etc. The drunk encapsulates of all the typical side-effects of drinking and then turns the volume up to 11. The drunk is a caricature. Most importantly, the number of drunks in any given storyline are nearly always outweighed by the number of reasonable drinkers and the final group of characters roughly resemble what may be seen in life. Rarely is this seen translated into a distinction between pot-head and pot-user in popular fiction. Just once I would like to see a fictitious storyline which portrays habitual cannabis users in the light of what normally goes on. Unique, interesting people who have a powerful relationship with THC and the convoluted lives they are forced to live because of the government-enforced social stigma against the sacred herb.
Why don't writers expound on the irony of the illegal activity that surrounds the consumption of the safest mind-altering substance known to man. Why isn't there fiction about all of the violence and prejiduce and lies and shattered lives that have occurred and continue to occur because of the ban on a plant that is so obviously meant to live in harmony with mankind. There is a treasure trove of irony, plot-twists, suspense, jokes, action and overall drama to be derived from this absurd social dynamic. Why the fuck isn't anybody using it!? Eight bajillion uninspired, unoriginal webcomics loosely based on videogames and not a single one out there based on this endless source of material. All of the same goddamn jokes about lag or Slippy being an annoying twit or n00bs or Samus-Aran's tits or how the Metal Gear Solid series makes no fucking sense or how the cake is a lie being re-told and re-cycled over and over again! How is it that this can go on and yet not a single internet user has taken the time to boot up MS paint in order to make a joke about a pussy-ass tree-hugging hippy being tossed in jail for the ganjas and then getting shanked by a rapist. Come on! That's hilarious. Or what about the vast body of cops who arrest people for mary jane by day and then smoke the confiscated stashes at night? You can't tell me that its because there aren't enough stoners on the internet. I would wager that there is a higher ratio of pot-users among the heavy net-trawling populace than there is among the public in meatspace. There are a ton of webcomics that heavily feature a bar, why aren't there any where a number of the characters regularly meet somewhere to get stoned and then explore the resulting dynamic. I would also wager that the majority of webcomic readers would find the latter more relevant to their own lives than the former. I am totally confounded. I've scoured the internets and only been able to find two ganja-centric webcomics. One is about a stoner who dies, gets satan blazed and then sneaks back into the living world where nearly everyone has become a zombie for some reason. The other is about an anthropomorphic flower, bong, two mushrooms and other creatures who live in a woodland setting and make jokes about drugs. I must admit both of these comics are pretty well done and each made me laugh as I flipped through them. That said, they aren't anything like I describe.
What do you think ICMag? Am I on to a real paradox here or am I just ranting about something that nobody would think was funny or interesting? Would you any of you enjoy fiction based on the real-world cannabis-user dynamic? Especially in new age formats such as webcomics or indie films? Or is it just me?
Case-in-point: Pineapple Express. I couldn't even sit through the whole thing, settling for a synopsis from someone who finished it. It's one thing to make a stoner movie such as "Harold and Kumar go to White Castle". That was a film about the misadventures of two idiots who happened to smoke the ganja. They got into trouble equally wheather or not they where high! Pineapple Express on the other hand features completely absurd situations that the main characters get into because they are high. The whole thing apparently culminates in an intense action-film style shootout that is fought in a grow house. No real stoner has ever participated in such a thing! Sure, drug dealers shoot eachother over their products (sometimes being marijuana) all the time, but Pineapple Express was a depiction of pot-users that just didn't sit well with me at all. Perhaps the writers where trying to make fun of the fact that this absurdity went on because of the illegality of pot. A sort of social commentary on how ridiculous the ban on cannabis is. Two harmless stoners ending up in a gun fight because their chosen activity is arbitrarily illegal. That is something I can strongly endorse and will rant more on later. However, the way the two guys just bumbled through the plotline and behaved in general irritated me to no end.
Frankly, this flies in the face of reality. Most people who's lives revolve around the cannabis plant are nothing like this. A deep relationship with THC tends to make them more connected and capable with their mental faculties, not less. The fact that they commit a felony nearly every day means that real long-term stoners are almost always shrewd and resourceful rather than dopey and weak-willed. They are unique people. They do not adorn themselves and their homes and their cars and everything else with the trappings of cannabis use. They don't always wear a pot-leaf T-shirt and/or rasta hat. In fact, these things are much more commonly indicative of a poser than a real cannabis connoisseur. I would be fine with all of this if authors of fictional content drew a line of distinction between this kind of stoner and a normal cannabis user much as they do with drunks and people who regularly drink. A regular drinker may do silly things while drunk or be over-enthusiastic about consumption or perform any other number of booze-related shenanigans while still by and large being considered a reasonable person in the context of the story line. A drunk on the other hand is the embodiment of intoxication. He/she is constantly an asshole, always voicing inappropriate opinions, being needlessly violent, having embarrassing sex, etc. The drunk encapsulates of all the typical side-effects of drinking and then turns the volume up to 11. The drunk is a caricature. Most importantly, the number of drunks in any given storyline are nearly always outweighed by the number of reasonable drinkers and the final group of characters roughly resemble what may be seen in life. Rarely is this seen translated into a distinction between pot-head and pot-user in popular fiction. Just once I would like to see a fictitious storyline which portrays habitual cannabis users in the light of what normally goes on. Unique, interesting people who have a powerful relationship with THC and the convoluted lives they are forced to live because of the government-enforced social stigma against the sacred herb.
Why don't writers expound on the irony of the illegal activity that surrounds the consumption of the safest mind-altering substance known to man. Why isn't there fiction about all of the violence and prejiduce and lies and shattered lives that have occurred and continue to occur because of the ban on a plant that is so obviously meant to live in harmony with mankind. There is a treasure trove of irony, plot-twists, suspense, jokes, action and overall drama to be derived from this absurd social dynamic. Why the fuck isn't anybody using it!? Eight bajillion uninspired, unoriginal webcomics loosely based on videogames and not a single one out there based on this endless source of material. All of the same goddamn jokes about lag or Slippy being an annoying twit or n00bs or Samus-Aran's tits or how the Metal Gear Solid series makes no fucking sense or how the cake is a lie being re-told and re-cycled over and over again! How is it that this can go on and yet not a single internet user has taken the time to boot up MS paint in order to make a joke about a pussy-ass tree-hugging hippy being tossed in jail for the ganjas and then getting shanked by a rapist. Come on! That's hilarious. Or what about the vast body of cops who arrest people for mary jane by day and then smoke the confiscated stashes at night? You can't tell me that its because there aren't enough stoners on the internet. I would wager that there is a higher ratio of pot-users among the heavy net-trawling populace than there is among the public in meatspace. There are a ton of webcomics that heavily feature a bar, why aren't there any where a number of the characters regularly meet somewhere to get stoned and then explore the resulting dynamic. I would also wager that the majority of webcomic readers would find the latter more relevant to their own lives than the former. I am totally confounded. I've scoured the internets and only been able to find two ganja-centric webcomics. One is about a stoner who dies, gets satan blazed and then sneaks back into the living world where nearly everyone has become a zombie for some reason. The other is about an anthropomorphic flower, bong, two mushrooms and other creatures who live in a woodland setting and make jokes about drugs. I must admit both of these comics are pretty well done and each made me laugh as I flipped through them. That said, they aren't anything like I describe.
What do you think ICMag? Am I on to a real paradox here or am I just ranting about something that nobody would think was funny or interesting? Would you any of you enjoy fiction based on the real-world cannabis-user dynamic? Especially in new age formats such as webcomics or indie films? Or is it just me?
I didn't dig it either.
