We’re celebrating Autostraddle’s Fifth Birthday all month long by publishing a bunch of Top Fives. This is one of them!
Honest confession time: I’ve loved stoner comedies since before I ever smoked my first joint. I don’t know what exactly it was that first drew me to genre: the four-letter words, the low-brow shenanigans, the inherent goofiness. Or maybe it was the underlying message that usually had to do with standing up against authority and letting your freak flag fly. What can I say, I’m a sucker for an underdog story. While the stoner comedy world is mostly populated with men, there have been a few notable exceptions. The following are five of my favorite fictional female stoners, culled from film and television. These ladies have a standing invitation to the smoke circle of my heart.
1. Sarah Silverman in The Sarah Silverman Program
Notable Episode: “High, It’s Sarah” Season 2, Episode 7
When Sarah starts smoking weed with her best friend Brian, she discovers that she has brilliant ideas while she’s high and starts leaving voice mails for her sober self. For anyone who has ever had great ideas while they were stoned, consider this episode a warning: one minute you might be complimenting strangers, the next you might kidnap Garry Marshall while wearing your old prom dress. IT’S A SLIPPERY SLOPE, PEOPLE.
2. Dolly Parton, Jane Fonda, and Lily Tomlin in Nine to Five
If you haven’t seen 9 to 5, you need to seriously re-examine your life choices. I mean, it’s Parton, Tomlin, and Fonda smashing the patriarchy ’80s style! After a rough day at work, these three ladies bond over a stolen joint and their hatred of their misogynistic boss. Several puffs later, we get to see their weed-induced fantasies about revenge. If you want to see Lily Tomlin play a stoned Snow White, then this is the movie for you.
3. Kristen Bell in Reefer Madness: The Movie Musical
In this hilarious musical, one puff turns straight-laced Veronica Mars into a leather bound S&M goddess. I mean, I loved Frozen, but this movie has Kristen Bell singing and dancing in fishnets and holding a whip. That’s kind of all you need in life.
4. Bridget Fonda in Jackie Brown
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8g3XXLTUpo
So many female smokers are depicted as one-timers, often “learning a lesson” about the dangers of smoking weed. Hell, even Nancy Botwin from Weeds only lights up a handful of times during the entire run of the series! That’s what is so much fun about Bridget Fonda’s character Melanie: she really is a 24/7 devoted pothead with no plans beyond her next bowl and whatever else is on TV. Keep on dreaming the dream, you stoned little angel.
5. Anna Faris in Smiley Face
Smiley Face is the female stoner comedy of your dreams. Anna Faris stars as Jane, a pothead actress who accidently eats all of her roommates pot cupcakes and spends one day completely tripping ovaries. It also gives us this GIF, which basically sums up my life.
My favorite thing about this movie is that it perfectly captures the feeling of being so incredibly high that simple tasks become epic journeys. Whether it’s re-parking her car, making a phone call, or inciting a worker’s strike at a sausage factory, Faris’s Jane approaches each task with wide-eyed confusion and a goofy smile. This is not just the best female stoner film ever, it’s the best stoner movie bar none. BRB, framing pictures of President Garfield forever.
Header by Rory Midhani
