Last week, we observed that Ang Lee’s Taking Woodstock is the latest in a long line of movies to suggest that getting high by accident is way more fun than doing it on purpose. So we asked Slate readers to send us their favorite examples of the phenomenon. You responded with quite a batch of films, but the three most cited were:
I Love You, Alice B. Toklas! : A number of readers pointed out this classic 1968 Peter Sellers film. Sellers plays Harold, a thirtysomething square living in Los Angeles, who, though engaged, unexpectedly falls for Nancy, a groovy hippie flower girl. When he, his parents, and his fiancé unknowingly eat Nancy’s pot brownies, his fiancé tries to undress him publicly, his mother does a Fiddler on the Roof- style jig, and his father demands to play miniature golf.
History of the World Part I : Mel Brooks and Gregory Hines are fleeing from a company of first-century Roman soldiers when Hines discovers some gigantic marijuana plants by the side of the road. He quickly grabs some spare papyrus, rolls a massive joint, and lets the smoke billow out in the wake of their chariot. The Roman soldiers giving chase become impossibly mellow, stumble off into a field, and eventually dance the Lindy Hop .
Saving Grace : The Brenda Blethyn comedy has not one but two scenes of unwitting pot consumption. Blethyn plays Grace, a down-on-her-luck widow who tries to solve her financial problems by cultivating a crop of marijuana in her greenhouse. Hijinks ensue. In one scene, a pair of matronly friends come over for supper, and, finding no one home, brew a pot of fresh tea from the leaves of Grace’s remarkably fragrant plants. They don some googly eyed glasses, munch on a box of cornflakes, and get the giggles over the silkiness of Grace’s hair. Later, Grace sets fire to her whole harvest, and the smoke intoxicates everyone in the village, leading to a Hieronymus Bosch-style garden party .
