On the air in Britain since 1960, the world’s longest running television soap opera is closing in on 10,000 episodes.
In a 1993 episode arc, a senior citizen named Sylvia bought a few weed brownies to deal with her arthritis, and then started sharing them with fellow geriatrics. Over the course of time, she healed a lot of pain, made some new friends, and had a lot of a laugh.
Once caught, she proclaimed defiantly:
“I will not be vilified for attempting to relieve the suffering of my friends. I broke the law and I would do it again.”
We’ll light one up for Sylvia.
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“Mr. Show with Bob and David” never reached a large audience during its original late-night run on HBO, but the show’s legacy lives on as a cult classic that helped inspire an entire generation of alt-comedy. Hosts Bob Odenkirk (Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul) and David Cross (Arrested Development, Alvin and the Chipmunks) both got their start with this anarchistic take on sketch comedy.
In an episode poking fun at how easy it was to get a medical cannabis card in California, the duo visit a “pot doctor,” only to discover they’ve got to “hang out” a bit before getting their medicine.
For an elderly female patient, the doctor procures cannabis to treat her glaucoma, adding, “and here’s some creeper weed fudge brownies, they’ll fuck your ass up!”
That 70s Show, “Garage Sale” (Season 2, Episode 1; Originally aired in 1999)
Shortly after learning that the plant where he works is closing, Red Forman—the family’s gruff but lovable patriarch—accidentally eats some weed brownies, along with his wife. They are in their basement, deeply baked but unaware of their condition.
Red makes a startling statement.
“I’m glad the plant closed, it will free me up to do my own thing.”
His wife (also stoned) laughs hysterically at the idea that a man defined by his anger and his scorn of nonconformity now wants to “do his own thing.”
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Frasier, “High Holidays” (Season 11, Episode 11; Originally aired in 2003)
When Dr. Frasier Crane’s even more uptight brother Niles realizes that he’s never rebelled in his entire buttoned-up life, he lands on weed as way to rectify the situation (note: cannabis was illegal in Washington State at the time). Unfortunately, Niles’s best-laid plans to get baked go awry when the pot brownie he acquires accidentally falls into the hands—and then the stomach—of his father, ex-cop Marty Crane.
Through a series of operatic misunderstandings typical of the beloved series, Niles soon believes himself to be high when he isn’t, while Marty can’t stop dropping his house keys and laughing.
Desperate Housewives, “The Game” (Season 4, Episode 3; Originally aired in 2007)
When the episode opens, Lynne Scavo (one of the show’s four main protagonists) is suffering through chemotherapy treatments—bed-ridden, miserable, and in severe pain. So her mother concocts a plan to buy weed from Andrew, the show’s resident bad-boy, and bake it into a batch of medicinal brownies.
Doubting that her daughter will ever knowingly try her THC-laced treats, and well aware that she’s having trouble eating anything due to severe nausea, she has one of her grandson’s hand deliver the brownies to her in the hospital, claiming that he made them himself. Naturally Lynne forces some brownie down to please her child, and before long she’s out of bed.
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Martha Stewart Living, “Holiday Brownies with Snoop” (Originally aired in 2013)
This clip doesn’t actually show you how to make weed brownies (or even brownies for that matter), but it’s pretty silly and surreal, so I recommend saving this one for after your brownies have had a chance to kick in.
Chris Gethard Show, “Pot Brownie Roulette” (Season 3, Episode 23; Originally aired in 2018)
Immediately prior to a taping of The Chris Gethard Show, the host flew himself and three comedian friends via helicopter to Massachusetts, so they could legally eat cannabis brownies. Then, he flew them directly back to New York City to start the show. The timing worked out so that the brownies were kicking in just as they reached the studio.
The catch: Out of the four brownies consumed (Chris took part in his own experiment), only two had actual weed in them. The other two were double-blind placebos.
And so began a series of challenges and tests designed to help the audience (and the participants) guess who was really stoned and who ate a bunk brownie.
