On this 420th episode of the world famous Sofa King Podcast, we discuss the consummate stoners of all time, Cheech and Chong. This comedy duo hit the scene in the early 1970s and were an international phenomenon within a decade. They made several smash comedy albums, half a dozen movies, and defined what it meant to be a stoner (or a chollo) for nearly four decades after. They were so successful in their characters that they fooled a several generations (including the hosts) into thinking they were kind of slow stoners who stumbled into fame. The truth couldn’t be more different, as we learned researching these two comedic geniuses and how they made such an indelible mark on popular culture.

Tommy Chong was born in Canada, and was half Chinese and half Irish. He was a very talented musician who once played for a band who had Jimmy Hendrix as their guitar player! He got out of the music business after a band member gave him his first joint and a comedy record, and the world was never the same since. He took over his father’s burlesque club and started doing improv comedy there in between the naked women, and that’s where he met Cheech. Richard “Cheech” Marin was born in east LA and moved to Canada to avoid the draft to Vietnam after dropping out of college. He was delivering carpet for a living and went into Chong’s club, and the two hit it off right away. The two of them found success being an improv duo, and they honed their acts and their craft for several years. Like Richard Pryor, their acts pushed boundaries and were very risqué, but it is what put them over the top.

They toured, doing over 300 shows a year on the road, and they eventually put out their first album, called Cheech and Chong in 1971. They released an album a year from there on, and their fame and following grew continuously. Five years later, they had their first movie deal for Up in Smoke, and the rest was history. They had an amazing run of movies playing the same two characters, and their performances were convincing enough to make people believe they were really stoners. Well, maybe Chong was a little, but they were professionals, and their improv skills make their movies and albums come to life in ways that only the Marx Brothers and few others could match. Though dated, their comedy still holds up as legendary.

So, how did Cheech and Chong manage to get a feature film made by Paramount studios when instead of a script, they had three and a half pages of notes on a yellow legal pad? Did Cheech even smoke weed at all? Why did US prosecutors come after Tommy Chong in 2003, and what type of jail time did he serve? How did the same prosecutors harass him five years later when a DVD of their raid on his house was just about to go on sale? What made the duo split up, and when did they finally get together to tour and sell bongs? Why the hell does Stacey Keach turn into a lizard? What's up with Brent and the little bee machines? Is he really Trent on this episode? Listen, laugh, learn.

 

Visit Our Sources:

http://www.cheechandchong.com/

https://www.cheechandchongglass.com/

https://www.rollingstone.com/movies/movie-features/cheech-and-chong-on-40-years-of-up-in-smoke-real-life-drove-everything-629983/

https://www.thewrap.com/heres-the-biggest-misconception-about-cheech-and-chong/