Yo…
Is Superbad considered a stoner comedy?
How much “Dave’s not here!” does a movie require to be a stoner comedy? How many airport “baby don’t get on that airplane!” speeches does a rom-com need to be considered romantic?
What about Ted? That’s even more borderline than Superbad as a stoner comedy. (Ted is stupid dumb fun. I even watched the recent TV show.)
The ABCs of Sammy: I’m not a weed guy and yet weed culture has been so good!
You know how much outstanding music weed has facilitated? Cue the opening song from the good Wonder Years:
Plus like what…three quarters of hip hop? (As weed becomes legal the outlaw symbol of blowing smoke in music videos is gonna go up in smoke. What’s the new way to signal outsider and outlaw status? That is…if anybody makes music videos anymore.)
Anyways…stoner comedies. Here’s 5 stoner comedies I ah…chronic…ally watch:
Fast Times at Ridgemont High
Half Baked
21 Jump Street
Ted (why not!)
Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle
Do you have a favourite stoner comedy?
No need for being a bogart….share! Pass it on, comments are below.
All of which brings us to Extremely Unique Dynamic. Behold…
Extremely Unique Dynamic is an Asian stoner comedy, so that’s always fun.
Meet Daniel and Ryan, two best friends who moved to LA to make it big in show biz. But a decade later, neither one is a Crazy Rich Asian or even famous.
And now, Ryan is moving with his fiancé to Edmonton, Alberta. (Just in time for the Oilers to play in the NHL Finals? Go, Orange Team…)
Daniel feels this is a big turning point that deserves doing something special: so they decide to shoot a movie over the weekend to commemorate their fun friendship.
This sounds Half-Baked already.
To make a movie means they need a plot; it can’t be about two Asians going to White Castle…nobody will wanna watch that. Heh.
So, how about a movie about two guys, Gregg and Tim, making a movie! And what will their movie be about? How about two guys — named Jasper and Jake — making a movie?
It’s all meta as in meta-confusing but they both feel this is a showcase for their…extremely unique dynamic.
Extremely Unique Dynamic is written, directed and stars Ivan Leung and Harrison Xu as Daniel and Ryan (and Gregg and Tim and Jasper and Jake). I know: it left me Dazed and Confused as well.
(One of the running subplots I appreciated is that Ivan (I dunno which character he is at this point…) is also confused by all the meta. At least he’s stoned…I just lost the breadcrumbs and couldn’t find my way back to reality.)
This attached My Summer Lair conversation with Ivan and Harrison talks about Extremely Unique Dynamic, which had its international premiere at the 2024 Inside Out Film Festival.
We also get into Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey (yes the recent horror movie), adidas tracksuits, how Asian Fame is different than White Fame (that was a compelling conversation) and as if all that wasn’t enough…we also talked about poutine. For his first time in Toronto Ivan wanted to try poutine.
(Oh! I was recently speaking to a girl who grew up in Montreal and moved to Toronto when she was 20. Half-joking I said do you miss Montreal-poutine.
She answered honestly by shaking her head: “Toronto poutine is way better.”
I took a step back…is that even legal to say? Toronto has fantastic poutine but...way better?
Felt like it was one of those barbed comments fiery people make in those dark countries where the government has secret police monitoring the citizens and anybody who spits political smack is kidnapped in the middle of the night in an unmarked white van and is never seen or head from again.
I instantly moved on.)
Enjoy my conversation with Ivan Leung and Harrison Xu talking about their "dope" movie Extremely Unique Dynamic.
As you’ll hear…we’re now "bud…s." #RimShot
AI is the new weed.
A "sobering" observation…with "loaded" implications.
As AI (Artificial intelligence) proliferates in our society it’s starting to garner the same moral panic that burdened weed for decades.
Can you use it at work?
Should we establish random testing to make sure nobody is using it at work?
What are the workplace rules, anyways?
Will it make people lazier?
Will that laziness ruin our economy?
Bottom Line: “Oh, won’t somebody please think of the children?”
As weed is slowly legalized the same “Oh, won’t somebody please think of the children?” panic will naturally and effortlessly transfer to AI.
It’s the exact same moral panic: we already went through all this angst. Must we do this again?
The coming war on AI will be as futile as the war on drugs: look how that turned out. And all it cost. (Yes, I know the coming war on AI is Terminator 2. Outstanding ruckus.)
Drugs have given us so much quality pop culture. I dunno how you balance what we gained with what we lost.
The war on drugs has been brutally stupid. It’s taken so many lives, harmed so many families; curtailed pop culture. It is and has been awful.
Was the war on drugs truly the most effective method to combat what was perceived as a problem?
You know how many ‘80s sitcoms confronted the scourge of weed?! First season of The Cosby Show:
Clair: “Theo: I accidently knocked your geography book off the table and found this…” [she holds up a joint]
Theo: “That was in my Geography book?”
Cliff: “Your book.”
Theo: “Well, how did it get there?”
Cliff: “I don’t know. Joints don’t read, do they?”
(Joints don’t read is dumb but it always made me laugh.)
Our track record with weed means we’ve tried propaganda, Just Say No campaigns (D.A.R.E.), celebrities peer pressuring kids to stay in school, after school specials, prohibition, hard prison times and aggressive policing.
Yet after all that we’re slowly legalizing it. For better or for worse.
“I have always thought that narcotics should be legalized so that it wouldn’t be such a street problem.
Why should someone like Billie Holiday have to die from trying to kick a habit, from trying to start over again?
The drugs should have been made available to her, maybe through a doctor, so she wouldn’t have had to hustle for it.
Same goes for Bird.
But that’s the way life is.”
~ Page 164 of Miles: The Autobiography by Miles Davis
I have no legalize it position.
I have a strong stance against demonizing it because that creates a clumsy fear.
A fear is a markable opportunity. It doesn’t matter if it’s they’re coming to take your guns, “those damn immigrants,” the Red Scare, weed or AI.
Fear is commercial. And ideally I’d prefer we skip formalizing an AI boogeyman cottage industry.
Weed was a highly profitable fear. Oprah, most daytime shows cashed in. As did conservative radio hosts, churches…so many books and documentaries. And to that cultural cacophony we can now add influencers (who put the phony in cacophony).
Do we really and truly want to go through all of that again?
Those vague yet incendiary panics…your kids are using AI right now! We’ve done with this over and over again…with Dungeons & Dragons, comic books, "The Devil’s music" and even video games. And now we’re committed to doing with AI?
Do we really and truly want to empower scaremongers and enforce a feeling of powerlessness?
The Alex Jones of AI is coming…and it’s not John Connor.
Do we really and truly want ignorant voices pimping feelings and emotions to compete with rational and nuanced AI perspectives?
We’re the adults who hafta look under the bed to make sure there are no AI monsters.
I’m not suggesting the impact of weed and AI are similar: AI is a profoundly contagious virus and it’ll infect everything it touches: from Grade 7 homework to the American military to making Hollywood movies.
We’re gonna hafta do a lot of hard work and establish different AI guidelines for different industries.
I’m saying the reaction and panic to AI are duplicates. It’s started.
This is the war on drugs template: propose no effective solutions, fail to establish viable metrics to determine the war’s success and wage war at any cost. Especially on people who cannot defend themselves.
Knowing this…why would we willing do this again?
With weed we behaved badly.
With AI we still have a choice: tranquility or terror.
These are the "high" stakes as we go down this AI road…probably in a self-driving car.
Weed is the new AI.
But this time…to be blunt…if we want…we can finally weed out the fear.
The John Connor In The War On Pants…
Sammy Younan
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Sammy Younan is the affable host of My Summer Lair podcast: think NPR’s Fresh Air meets Kevin Smith: interviews & impressions on Pop Culture.
An Extremely Unique Dynamic To Living With AI