The Dust Off: Cheech and Chong

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The pending release (August 12) of Tommy Chong’s unauthorized biography of the infamous comedy duo Cheech & Chong shouldn’t be the only reason to revisit the duo’s raunchy, 70s- and 80s-era, marijuana-laden humor, such as:

According to Cheech and Chong News, the duo will hit the road in September to do a stand-up tour and there is talk of a new movie together.

But let’s not forget Up in Smoke, the 1978 flick that scores of stoners since have quoted at least once in their life:

Book, stand-up tour, movie: all of this big news begs the question, “but why?” Chong already wrote a New York Times bestseller about his arrest and imprisonment. Cheech went on to appear in that super lame, post-Miami Vice Don Johnson show, Nash Bridges and do a whole slew of voice-overs for animated features, not to mention star in a bunch of Robert Rodriguez films.

But I guess the bottom-line question is “why not?” We’ve revisited more family-friendly, 60s- and 70s-era entertainment such as The Brady Bunch, and Bewitched and Get Smart, so I guess it was inevitable that some late-70s raunch would resurface as well.

I mean, when your main interests are low-ridin, checkin’ out sexy mamas on the strip, and smoking labrador, an old (and probably new) fan base will no doubt resurface.

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