Top Five Fictional Female Stoners

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We’re celebrating Autostraddle’s Fifth Birthday all month long by publishing a bunch of Top Fives. This is one of them!


Honest confession time: I’ve loved stoner comedies since before I ever smoked my first joint. I don’t know what exactly it was that first drew me to genre: the four-letter words, the low-brow shenanigans, the inherent goofiness. Or maybe it was the underlying message that usually had to do with standing up against authority and letting your freak flag fly. What can I say, I’m a sucker for an underdog story. While the stoner comedy world is mostly populated with men, there have been a few notable exceptions. The following are five of my favorite fictional female stoners, culled from film and television. These ladies have a standing invitation to the smoke circle of my heart.

1. Sarah Silverman in The Sarah Silverman Program

Notable Episode: “High, It’s Sarah” Season 2, Episode 7

sarahsilverman

When Sarah starts smoking weed with her best friend Brian, she discovers that she has brilliant ideas while she’s high and starts leaving voice mails for her sober self. For anyone who has ever had great ideas while they were stoned, consider this episode a warning: one minute you might be complimenting strangers, the next you might kidnap Garry Marshall while wearing your old prom dress. IT’S A SLIPPERY SLOPE, PEOPLE.


2. Dolly Parton, Jane Fonda, and Lily Tomlin in Nine to Five

If you haven’t seen 9 to 5, you need to seriously re-examine your life choices. I mean, it’s Parton, Tomlin, and Fonda smashing the patriarchy ’80s style! After a rough day at work, these three ladies bond over a stolen joint and their hatred of their misogynistic boss. Several puffs later, we get to see their weed-induced fantasies about revenge. If you want to see Lily Tomlin play a stoned Snow White, then this is the movie for you.


3. Kristen Bell in Reefer Madness: The Movie Musical

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In this hilarious musical, one puff turns straight-laced Veronica Mars into a leather bound S&M goddess. I mean, I loved Frozen, but this movie has Kristen Bell singing and dancing in fishnets and holding a whip. That’s kind of all you need in life.


4. Bridget Fonda in Jackie Brown

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So many female smokers are depicted as one-timers, often “learning a lesson” about the dangers of smoking weed. Hell, even Nancy Botwin from Weeds only lights up a handful of times during the entire run of the series! That’s what is so much fun about Bridget Fonda’s character Melanie: she really is a 24/7 devoted pothead with no plans beyond her next bowl and whatever else is on TV. Keep on dreaming the dream, you stoned little angel.


5. Anna Faris in Smiley Face

Smiley Face is the female stoner comedy of your dreams. Anna Faris stars as Jane, a pothead actress who accidently eats all of her roommates pot cupcakes and spends one day completely tripping ovaries. It also gives us this GIF, which basically sums up my life.

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My favorite thing about this movie is that it perfectly captures the feeling of being so incredibly high that simple tasks become epic journeys. Whether it’s re-parking her car, making a phone call, or inciting a worker’s strike at a sausage factory, Faris’s Jane approaches each task with wide-eyed confusion and a goofy smile. This is not just the best female stoner film ever, it’s the best stoner movie bar none. BRB, framing pictures of President Garfield forever.

Header by Rory Midhani

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Chelsea

Chelsea Steiner was born and raised in New Orleans, which explains her affinity for cheesy grits and Britney Spears. She currently resides in sunny Los Angeles, where she works as a screenwriter/blogger/sex educator. She's the writer/director of Thank You Come Again, a queer sex positive web series based on her experiences working the Pleasure Chest, which you can follow on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. She’s obsessed with dachshunds, Buffy, 90's dance parties, and roller derby. She loves the word "Jewess" and wishes more people used it to describe her. Follow her ramblings on Twitter and her cute puppy pics on Instagram.

Chelsea has written 46 articles for us.

18 Comments

  1. don’t smoke weed, hate stoner movies, love smiley face way more than anyone on earth, have had parties where my friends and i watch it over a spread of lasagna, tostitos and orange juice. anna faris is a genius in that film.

  2. I loved smiley face but it made me kinda mad, in male stoner flicks they guys do the same dumb shit but everything works out in the end, and for the most part people just laugh off their antics. In smiley face everyone is super rude to Anna faris’s character, and treat her like shit. Add to that the fact that she’s pretty solo throughout her journey, while the other stoner movies are buddy comedies, makes me think that Hollywood thinks that chick stoners are friendless losers that such at life. I’d really like to see a female buddy stoner comedy, honestly. Where the women aren’t treated like shit the whole time.

  3. Definitely clicked on this for the Anna Faris. Girl is so underrated. And now I’m leaving with 5 great film recs. Well done, AS. Well done.

  4. No shit, on my drive home today I was thinking about how I don’t have any female stoner idols (like nonfictional ones). I think of Carl Sagan (aka Mr. X), Bob Marley, and other cannabis icons who are all men. I love them, but where the ladies at?

  5. You missed the adorable stoned sister in Mike And Molly. She is probably my favorite fictional stoner ever.

  6. abbi and ilana from broad city are the newest and probably most important additions to my dream stoner circle

    also also also cosima from orphan black

  7. I played piano for Reefer Madness a couple months ago, and Little Mary Sunshine was always the most fun to play… jazz solos and great audience reactions are all a pit musician could ever ask for.

  8. I had a framed picture of President Garfield in my apartment for a long time. It made me smile every day.

  9. A new character that totally deserves to be on this list is Ilana Wexler from Broad City. It’s a hilarious show and she’s a stoner babe!

  10. anyone who loves lady stoners needs to watch BROAD CITY ! it’s a new show on comedy central that’s been described as “sneak attack feminism” by the wall street journal. you can find the first season online (also Amy Poehler is the exec producer if i haven’t already given you enough reason to watch the show ;)

  11. I just joined Autostraddle, and I also just found the High Femme blog: YES! This article is coalescing with my life! My (totally-not-real-and-hypothetical) glass bong’s name is “Ideas”- based off of the aforementioned Sarah Silverman episode! Love that you included Dolly Parton!

Comments are closed.