Hey folks! It’s time again for your weekly (occasionally every other week depending on how sleepy I am) blog post which has been meticulously constructed to delight and inform you. Meticulously might be too strong a word, but the effort is there.
Anyway, this week on November 21st it’s World Television Day so we’re going to be following up on our trend of observing cannabis’ impact on various forms of media by looking at how it has influenced and inspired the shows we watch and how we watch them.
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Watching TV while you’re high is a common pastime for stoners everywhere. After a long hard day of grinding, it can be hard for a lot of people to turn off their brains and relax; and make no mistake, if you don’t turn off your brain occasionally that thing will overload. While I’m more of a “Get stoned read book” type, the luxury of smoking a fat doobie then chilling out to marathon episodes of “Family Matters” is not lost on me.
Much like with music, one of the reasons why I can tune out the world around me and laser focus on Carl Winslow’s frustrations with Urkel is because cannabis can help the brain to filter out the background noise and concentrate on whatever task, conversation or media you imbibe.
However, cannabis’ impact on television extends way past the individual experience, with the whacky tabacky and its culture influencing and impacting not just character arcs on popular shows, but also inspiring the creations of television series themselves.
Weed on the Small Screen
I’m not going to exhaustively list every show that has every reference to cannabis or its culture, because to do so would take forever. However, let’s look at some of the highlights. Pun devilishly intended.
Being a teenager growing up in the early 2000’s, television was one of my dearest companions. Through days off and long sleepless nights, the soft glow of the tv helped to take me away from the trials and tribulations of adolescence. One of my favorite shows was the absolute classic “That 70’s Show”. It’s a timeless tale about friendship, coming of age and smoking ganja. The scenes of the main cast sitting around their table in the basement surrounded by a hazy cloud of smoke are iconic. If somehow you have managed to not see this show, I can’t recommend it enough. It even has Tommy Chong of Cheech and Chong fame on the show as a regular cast member.
A lot of the cannabis consumption on “That 70’s Show” was implied; you never saw them smoke a joint. However, in the show “Weeds” nothing is implied. This HBO show is about a woman who loses everything and turns to selling cannabis illegally to make ends meet and support her family. Of course, hijinks ensue. While other series deal with the fun side of cannabis, this series shows that while the sticky icky is a great thing, the illicit market that used to sell it was chock full of seedy and oft times ridiculous characters.
That brings us to the newest wave of cannabis-based television: Reality tv. There are a few shows out there that use the reality style to educate, inform and titillate viewers who want to learn more about cannabis. The one I’m going to mention today is one that I’ve occasionally watched myself, “Bong Appetit”. Aside from having an exquisitely punny name, this cooking competition show features some of my favorite things: Cannabis education, Cooking, and a crap ton of the sticky icky. If you are a fan of cooking shows like Iron Chef and the like, I very much recommend checking this little show out.
And that about wraps up my little sojourn into the world of weed and tv. There are honestly more television shows that feature cannabis either as a cultural reference or focus on the science behind the plant than you can shake a stick at. I’m crossing my fingers and hoping that we’ll soon have Canna-Lympics airing on ESPN like some kind of hazy stoner version of American Ninja Warrior but instead of feats of physical acumen, the competitors see who can smoke three bong loads and survive a family dinner. Anyway, till next time folks!
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