Back in the late 70s and early 80s, comedy duo Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong were pretty much the first and last word in stoner comedies. Now, more than thirty years since their last big screen appearance, the pair are planning to light up again in a new film courtesy of Super Troopers director Jay Chandrasekha, of the Broken Lizard’s comedy troupe.
Tommy Chong broke the news of a new Cheech and Chong film to the aptly named CelebStoner.com website (via /Film). According to Chong, Chandrasekha is hard at work on a script that will have him and partner Cheech Marin heading to a pot festival. Here’s what Chong said:
[Jay Chandrasekhar] is working a script right now for us. We’ve had some preliminary meetings. It looks really good. It looks really funny. It will be about us going to a festival called the Burning Joint. All sorts of shenanigans happen. It’s going to be a lot of fun.
It does well to remember that Broken Lizard promised a “Potfest” comedy to go along with their previous Beerfest outing, so turning that idea into a Cheech and Chong film makes a lot of sense. I cannot think of a better writer/director than Chandrasekha to make a movie for the original pot comedy team – one that will hopefully be just as weird, over the top, and hilarious as Super Troopers.
The question now remains if the film will ever actually get off the ground. Tommy Chong is not always the most reliable source of information, but why would he want to push a comedy that isn’t going to happen? More importantly, will people want to see two 70 year old stoners on the big screen? Cheech and Chong are still funny in retrospect, but it remains to be seen if they can be funny in the contemporary period.
As always, we’ll keep an eye on developments for the new Cheech and Chong film, if and when it ever happens. Until then, I suggest you fire up Up In Smoke from 1978, if you want to see what some quality stoner humor looks like.
