Times of London: Super High Me reveals the secrets of a rolling stoner
Last week, Steve Jelbert profiled Super High Me for The Times of London, highlighting the Roll Your Own Screening program. The article, titled Super High Me reveals the secrets of a rolling stoner, opens with the choice teaser:
For once the heads have got it together. A documentary that began life as an offhand gag from America’s “second-best pot comic” (as rated by the toker’s bible High Times) has made a tiny bit of cinema history.
Steve has an interesting background for a journalist, and talking with him was a gas. The article has some great POV from Doug on the background for the film.
Benson […] plays Super High Me for laughs - and all his antics are actually legal in California. “It would be difficult for anyone who has obligations to do,” he says. “So I wouldn’t break the law. I didn’t operate a motor vehicle for the 30 days of filming. The crew drove me everywhere. It’s a showbusiness thing. Someone outside showbusiness should try it and see how it works for them. But not a brain surgeon. There may be car mechanics that are already doing it, though.”
Steve grasped on to the idea of Roll Your Own as an exercise in “motivating the supposedly unmotivated.”
The film holds the record for the widest documentary opening ever. It was shown in more than 1,000 venues on the holiest day of the smoking year, April 20, 4/20 in American parlance. Supposedly named for the after-school meeting time of a gang of Californian teen-agers in the Seventies, 4:20 is now a universal smokers’ code. Knowing that the film could not get television advertising or a wide release, the producers approached the indie marketing and distribution specialists b-side, which simply made screening copies available to anyone who wanted one and could offer premises.
[…]
From college campuses to comedy clubs, sympathisers joined in. An Illinois couple showed the film at their wedding reception. A San Fran-cisco “guerilla drive-in” outfit projected it on the wall of a local store.
Check out the full article here.
Discussion
12 comments for “Times of London: Super High Me reveals the secrets of a rolling stoner”
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I just got done watching the movie on netflix’s “watch instantly” thing and it was good. I’m gonna have to buy a copy to show my stoner friends who don’t have enought initiative/money to get their own copy… and i’m gonna buy em’ some visine too… oh and some munchies.
Wow. What a horrible movie. I heard Benson on a morning radio show complaining (not terribly, but he was griping) about how the DVD wasn’t doing too well because places (like Wal Mart) wouldn’t sell it, and how even if the movie made a substantial profit that he was not likely to see any of the money because the studio would somehow hide the fact that the film made any money….
I have an idea. How bout your movie isn’t selling because it sucked. It wasn’t funny. It made no point whatsoever about pot smoking. Actually, I think Benson is kind of a phony. On the same radio show I remember him saying that he calculated that he and his buddies smoked $2000 during the 30 day period. Is that it? Real potheads are laughing at you. I easily smoked that much a month my Sophomore and Junior years in college, and I wasn’t buying expensive medical weed like Benson. What a laugh.
Basically, I think that Benson is a mediocre comic at best, and a very boring person at heart. He had nothing to contribute to the film: no opinions, no antics, nothing to get behind. There were no clips with him and his friends hanging out doing funny stoner stuff…he just sat around and talked about pot and smoked a little bit. I guess all you have to do these days is be mediocre at something and claim that you smoke pot and a bunch of stoners will turn you into some sort of cult icon.
Honestly i thought the movie was amazing if i didn’t get a dwai for smoking weed a week ago i probably would have been stoned while watching it but since i’m not able too i can only wish i was completely fucked up right now and that movie made me want to smoke pretty much everyday and all day
Doug, What a great movie… i myself smoke weed and LOVE IT! although it would be nice to be able to walk into a store and buy it. Im now thinking about moving out to california and pretty much just making friends that are allowed to get medical marijuana. i love you for making this movie… maybe ill see you in cali…. later
Sooo high when wathing this movie.
And it make so much sense.
Lot of it is true.
But still some missing elemensts.
Just seen Doug live, he is NOT funny AT All. The only thing I will give him credit for is he convinces people to pay him for standing on stage and doing nothing but being a complete JackASS. more than %
Super High Me: Volcano Vaporizer smoking at 4:20 first day — they used the vaporizer incorrectly!!! You’re supposed to use the vape with the light OFF, not ON. Also, it produced smoke not mist, so you basically ruined the Vaporizer’s effect, plus put yourselves in danger of melting/damaging the vape.
Apparently testing for psychic ability after smoking pot was completely forgotten.
will you ever come to tulsa,oklahoma to will rogers high school.
come to tulsa,oklahoma to will rogers high school.
This is a terrible movie.
Doug Benson doesnt ever inhale in SHM,and whenever he takes a tiny nibble from any potfood the camera instantly cuts away,this and the fact that its sold as ‘comedy’ when hes as funny as toothache,both surely defeat the object of the film??
The idiot also manages to discredit all the hard work others have done for the medical marijuana cause.
Anyone who’s smoked for a while can see he’s a fraud,who’s desperately trying to cash in on the nieve teen stoner laughs,and make himself seem more interesting than he is.
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