10 stoner comedies: Hilarious or half-baked?

The more the merrier

Some illegal pastimes simply aren’t funny under any circumstances, but it’s safe to say smoking pot isn’t one of them. Let’s face it—anything that turns a perfectly sane person into a babbling, red-eyed zombie with a monstrous appetite can be easily mined for comedy gold. “Pineapple Express,” which hits theatres August 6 trailing some heady pre-release buzz, is the latest to prove that point.

But will it follow the lead of the best weed-themed comedies (movies so well-constructed they work even for those who don’t know their kush from their Thai stick) or the worst (the ones that shamelessly pander to potheads at the expense of sober moviegoers’ enjoyment)?

Here’s a compendium of seminal stoner comedies, along with our own unique rating of how high you have to be to find each of them funny. And, to get the fuzz off our backs, we should clarify that we’re not encouraging our readers to inhale (get high on life!), but for those of you who like to party…read on. —Brett Buckalew, Special to Metromix