Cheech & Chong

Cheech & Chong are a Grammy Award–winning comedy duo consisting of Richard "Cheech" Marin and Tommy Chong who found a wide audience in the 1970s and 1980s for their films and stand-up routines, which were based on the hippie and free love era, and especially drug and counterculture movements, most notably their love for cannabis.

Career

The duo met in Vancouver, British Columbia in the late 1960s. Chong was a Canadian citizen, and Cheech had moved there from Southern California to avoid the draft at the height of the Vietnam War. The pair performed stand-up shows, released many successful comedy record albums, and starred in a series of low-budget films. Some of their best-known comedy routines and songs include "Earache My Eye", "Basketball Jones", "Santa Claus and His Old Lady", and "Sister Mary Elephant". Perhaps their most famous line is "Dave's not here", from their self-titled debut album.

Their early success culminated with the release of their first feature-length movie, Up in Smoke, in 1978. It became something of a cult classic, and was also successful enough at the box office (grossing over $44 million despite a low budget) to warrant two sequels: Cheech & Chong's Next Movie in 1980, and Nice Dreams in 1981. These were followed by the less successful Things Are Tough All Over (1982) and Still Smokin (1983). The pair attempted a departure from their stoner comedy with 1984's Cheech & Chong's The Corsican Brothers.

Up in Smoke

Up in Smoke, directed by Lou Adler, is Cheech & Chong's first feature-length film, released in 1978 by Paramount Pictures. It stars Cheech Marin, Tommy Chong, Edie Adams, Strother Martin, Stacy Keach, and Tom Skerritt.

Cheech & Chong had been a counterculture comedy team for about ten years before they started reworking some of their material for their first film. Much of the film was shot in Los Angeles, California, including scenes set in Tijuana, while scenes set on the Mexican border were actually filmed at the border in Yuma, Arizona.

While negatively received upon its release, Up in Smoke is viewed more positively today, and is credited with establishing the stoner comedy genre.

Plot

Tommy Chong plays Anthony "Man" Stoner, a jobless, marijuana-smoking drummer who is told to either get a job by sundown or be sent off to military school by his parents. Anthony leaves the house in a 1967 Volkswagen Beetle convertible (which had his father's Rolls Royce radiator grille on the front), a car which is subsequently left smoking on the side of the road. Anthony is picked up while hitchhiking by the equally enthusiastic smoker Pedro de Pacas (Cheech Marin). The license plate reads MUF DVR ("Muff Diver"). They share a large joint, which Man says is made with "mostly Maui wowie" and "Labrador" (essentially dog feces, as his dog, a Labrador Retriever, had eaten his stash). Police find their car parked on a traffic median with them in it, discover that they are clearly stoned and arrest them. At trial, the pair are released on a technicality after Anthony discovers that the judge is drinking vodka.

Cheech

Cheech may refer to: