It’s been twenty-one years since Half Baked hit theaters. The stoner comedy starring a fairly unknown Dave Chappelle, along with Harland Williams, Jim Breuer, Guillermo Díaz, Tommy Chong, Steven Wright, Snoop Dogg, Willie Nelson, Bob Saget, Janeane Garofalo, Jon Stewart, and the list goes on. It was stacked with high-brow talent.
I saw it in a theater with my friends in high school and it was instantly the stoner classic of our generation. The theater erupted with laughter and smoke and played in an off-the-beaten-path theater in a rundown mall that we had to drive far out of the way in a blizzard for. But there it was in all it’s glory, calling to us with it’s bright psychedelic poster.
Dave Chappelle as co-writer and lead, really flexed his young comedic muscles in it. In fact, everyone in the movie kills. Really, there are a ridiculous amount of quotable lines pouring out of this thing.
It was about good times amongst friends in a communal setting of diversity and love. Sure there was a deadly drug kingpin after them, but even that was was a good time. Plus, it had a cute romance in there. What wasn’t to love?
If you haven’t seen this movie, I highly (sorry, can’t help it) advise you to put it at the top of your comedy watch list. And if you have seen it, go back and rewatch it. Because it turns out, that instant classic, really does hold it’s classic status.
Now two decades later, we still wait in wonderment , will we ever see this cast get Fully Baked? It would be so great to see where everyone ended up all these years later. What would they look like in the current climate of the world and with the new pot laws. It really would be an evolutionary chapter rather than just a continuation of what they already did.
Cheech and Chong knocked a number of good movies out in their day and I have no doubt this group could do the same if they wanted to. I’m sure Dave Chappelle isn’t really thinking about going back to it but we can dream.
And if he were to go back, it would be interesting to see if he’d bring his own real life experiences into his Thurgood Jenkins character. Maybe having him a bit more of a serious guy but reconnecting to his old friends and unwinding. Or maybe have them turn Mr Nice Guy into a legit weed company in Colorado and Thurgood’s now in a boss position. The possibilities are endless. Whatever it would be, I’d watch the shit out it.
#LetsGetDaveFullyBaked