BROMANCING THE STONED (boho buddies in popular culture.)

  Over the last 60 years or so, a distinct sub-genre has emerged across film, TV and literature: the slacker buddy narrative. Inspiring devoted cult followings, these often comic tales follow the misadventures of two males on the bohemian underbelly of society who are usually co-habiting in conditions of abject squalor.

At least one of the pair is often dreaming of stardom in some creative field, but drug-taking or general chaos derails their plans.

The two main characters generally fall into two distinct types: a relatively grounded and rational individual who instigates most of the pair’s schemes and adventures, and a more hedonistic figure who lives purely for kicks and has no sense of consequences.

Plot is often of limited importance in this genre, the events being as spontaneous as the characters themselves. It’s a world where women are on the periphery, but this has less to do with any homo-erotic subtext than the fact that the characters are so warped.

On The Road (Book 1957, Film 2012)

Jack Kerouac’s stream-of-consciousness novel introduced the world to two quintessential beatnicks: aspiring writer Sal Paradsise and hyperactive drifter Dean Moriarty (based on Kerouac’s friend Neal Cassady).During their road trip across America, Sal and Dean write-off several cars, party with friends in different cities, listen to jazz, visit Mexico and essentially, live in the moment. This book laid the ground for the ‘beat generation’ and the importance of getting ‘kicks’ over a conventional lifestyle.  

 

Midnight Cowboy (Book 1965, Film 1969)

Sick of his kitchen job, self-proclaimed ‘stud’ Joe Buck (John Voight)leaves his native Texas for New York with the aim of becoming a gigolo. After he falls on hard times, Rizzo (Dustin Hoffman)puts him up in his unheated squat and offers to be his ‘manager’. Having little success in their business venture, the two survive by petty crime, conning and hustling their way through New York’s seedy underbelly. After mixing with bohemians at an arty ‘happening’, Joe’s fortunes pick up, but Rizzo has fallen seriously ill and persuades Joe to take him to Florida, but he dies on the Greyhound bus.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (Book 1972, Film 1998)

This novel is a semi-factual account of Thompson’s journalistic assignment to cover a three-day car race in Los Angeles in 1971, which is actually an excuse for herculean feats of drug-taking. Thompson is accompanied by his ‘attorney’, who resembles a demented Dionysis on a mission to imbibe, snort and fuck everything in his path, Thompson documenting the chaos while also ruminating on the demise of the 60’s counterculture. On one level the book is a wild drug adventure, but it is also a diatribe against what Thompson found frightening in America – the forces of police, capitalism and conservatism.

Up in Smoke (Film 1978)

The first film featuring perpetually stoned hippy musicians Richard “Cheech” Marin and Tommy Chong. Up in Smoke is a road movie wherein the twosome drive around California in search of dope, get deported to Mexico, then re-enter the states driving a van made of hashish. On the way they pick up a pair of girl hitchers, goof around in a police station and say “man” a lot. A LOT. Cheech and Chong went on to release eleven albums and twelve films, the latest Cheech and Chong’s Animated Movie, in 2012.

 

Withnail and I (Film 1987)

Two aspiring actors live in a cold, filthy flat in 60’s London. Out of work and drinking heavily with only their menacing drug dealer for company, they decide to escape to the countryside and stay at a decrepit cottage owned by Withnail’s uncle Monty. At first unable to handle rural life, they struggle to look after themselves until the amorous Uncle Monty arrives…This film has built up a huge cult following, in no small part due to an unforgettable performance from Richard E Grant as the tortured and iconoclastic drunk, Withnail.

Bottom (TV 1991-95)

This grotesque, anarchic comedy series features two seedy batchelors (a continuation of characters they had played in the brilliant The Young Ones) living in a filthy flat. Richie (Rik Mayall) and Eddie (Adrian Edmonson)are both equally sordid, immoral and broke, but Eddie has the edge in terms of stupidity. Their schemes involve such things as trying to attracting women, going on holiday and attempting to get rich quick, with large helpings of comic grossness and cartoon violence.

 

Peep Show (TV 2003-) This comedy differs from the other scenarios in that one of the characters (Jez) is a hedonistic slacker while the other (Mark) is an uptight square with a conventional job. Jez rents a room in Mark’s flat and the comedy comes from the tension in their relationship and their hapless attempts to relate to women, workmates and rivals. The stroke of genius in this series is that we hear the characters’ inner dialogue as well as their spoken dialogue, exposing the chasm between what people say and what they think.

Flight of the concords (TV 2007-)

In this show, New Zealand comedy duo Flight of the Conchords star as fictionalised versions of themselves as struggling musicians trying to make it in New York. Brett and Jemaine share a tiny apartment, struggling to find gigs, part-time jobs and female company. Each episode is punctuated by their songs , which comment on the events in the show. Despite, or because of the efforts of their manager, Brett and Jemaine suffer continuous humiliations and failures, but their one fan/stalker stays obsessively loyal.

These examples are part of a wider culture depicting slackers, stoners and struggling creatives. Other examples include: The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers (Comic 1968-), This is Spinal Tap (Film 1984), Slackers (Film 1991), the comedy music duo Tenacious D and Kevin Smith’s films featuring the characters Jay and Silent Bob.

 

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