Cartoon Characters, who are Secret Stoners

Cartoon creators have found both explicit as well as creative, subtle ways to include cartoon characters who smoke weed in their shows. Most of us have at least one person in our life that loves weed. A few cartoon creators were kind enough to make sure they were represented on the television. Here is some evidence to help prove that these animation artists created cartoon characters who smoke weed.

Smoking marijuana has become a practically omnipresent activity throughout popular culture. The observation that most children ask their parents about “pot” before the age of 10 goes to show just how frequently marijuana is mentioned in movies, TV shows, video games, and the news.

Often times, those who smoke marijuana are referred to as “stoners” by the popular media. The term “stoner” can be quite polarizing since many marijuana smokers don’t fit under the umbrella that society has cast in their attempt to categorize the behaviors of someone who regularly smokes. I, for one, don’t appreciate being lumped into the categories of lazy, messy, and insatiably hungry. Stoners have had to take the offensive and demonstrate their success in order to combat such erroneous stereotypes.

The writers behind popular programming are partially to blame, but understandably so. They want to be able to have their characters relate to as wide a demographic as possible. Since smoking marijuana is such a common activity, but it can’t be explicitly shown or states across all age groups due to FCC regulations, writers must cleverly insinuate that one person or another is a stoner. The perpetuation of the stoner stereotype is the easiest way for a writer to tag a character as “high” and, thus, set the stage for the viewer/reader to imagine what it would be like for that character to experience subsequent events while in this heightened state.

Thus, while it continues to reinforce a rhetoric that doesn’t faithfully represent the demographic it is attempting to connect with, insinuative writing about stoners at least gets us the ability to recognize a character as a marijuana smoker without compromising familial values.

With that being said, we’d like to feature some of the best ways writers have slyly worked the concept of marijuana into cartoons – a perfect display of how to balance the desire to convey a persona-type (quite possibly for the enjoyment of the parents that also watch these shows) while responsibly avoiding exposing children to material they may not be ready for.

Michaelangelo (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles)

Michaelangelo had the voice and attitude of a “party dude,” as the 1987 theme song calls him. You don’t really find people that chill in NYC unless they’re hitting the bong.

Everything from the way he talks to his insatiable appetite is leading us to believe he might have a hidden stash somewhere.

The Partnership for a Drug-Free America had a PSA that featured Michaelangelo suggesting a kid who was offered pot get some pizza to go with it.

However, Donatello was there to shoot the idea down with the popular saying from the early 1990s, “get real.”

“Drug dealers are dorks, don’t even talk to them,” Donatello added.

Beavis and Butt-Head (Beavis and Butt-Head)

You may not have thought Beavis and Butt-Head were smokers but we wouldn’t doubt it. Most of their time was spent lounging on a couch, laughing at the smallest things and doing outlandish things most sober people wouldn’t.

There’s plenty of evidence of them getting recreational. They were unemployed and probably dry most of the time but a few episodes have hinted at the fact they liked to get high.

So, we couldn’t imagine them turning down a joint. Their show consisted of them sitting on a couch, watching TV and they loved eating junk food like nachos.

There are even a few episodes of Beavis & Butt-Head taken out of circulation that feature the boys getting high off of gas oven fumes and trying to be drug mules.

There’s also a scene from Beavis and Butt-Head Do America where they unintentionally trip on peyote.

Grandpa Phil (Hey Arnold)

A quote from a particular episode of Hey Arnold made it clear that his grandpa was absolutely a stoner. He tells Arnold that he never finished elementary school and that a diploma is the one thing he always wanted but never earned.

After Arnold encourages him to go back to school and finish, Grandpa Phil insists that he has lost too many brain cells.

“You still have plenty of brain cells,” Arnold says.

“No,” Grandpa replied. “Not since Woodstock.”

That’s a pretty clear indication that Grandpa Phil smoked his fair share of weed and probably tripped on psychedelics as well.

Towelie (South Park)

Cartoons made for adult television are less subtle with their character’s love for weed. In fact, there are a couple of South Park’s cartoon characters who smoke weed.

It’s hard to argue that Towelie wasn’t a weed smoker when the only two things we really know about him is that he doesn’t like being called a towel and he loves to get high.

In fact, one of the phrases he is most known for is, “You wanna get high?”

Towelie’s been getting high on TV for several seasons now. In one episode, Towelie is scolded by a main character, Cartman, for not remembering a code.

“You just have no long-term memory because you get high all the time,” Cartman says.

Brian (Family Guy)

Family Guy is another adult cartoon show that doesn’t need to be subtle when covering the topic of cannabis. It’s no secret that the family dog, Brian, loves smoking weed.

He’s occasionally seen with a bag of weed or dazed, smoking a bong on the living room couch.

The creators dedicated a whole episode called “420” that focuses on Brian after he is arrested for drug possession. He then launches a campaign to legalize cannabis.

Randy Marsh (South Park)

Here’s another nomination from South Park. 

In an infamous episode, Randy Marsh, the father of one of the main characters, gives himself testicular cancer with a microwave oven so that he could get a medical marijuana card and smoke legal weed.

For those who aren’t familiar with South Park, the program takes place in a fictional town in Colorado.

Although Randy is a cartoon character who smokes weed, his behavior here is quite hypocritical, as, in another episode, he and his wife come up with an elaborate ploy to dissuade their son from experimenting with weed.

Shaggy (Scooby-Doo)

It’s a common theory among fans of both cannabis and Scooby-Doo that this is one of the iconic cartoon characters who smoke weed.

Everyone know these too are stoners. And the creators don’t even try to hide it.

For one thing, Scooby Doo’s middle name “Doobie” is a synonym for a joint and Shaggy is the “shaggie” looking hippie stoner.

They always have the munchies, giggle all the time and even get a bit paranoid at times. They live in a “mystery van” (which leaves clouds of smoke in its wake), disappear for long stretches of time and display general confusion. Scooby and shaggy are clearly high for the entirety of the show.

Oh, and in the 2002 movie, Shaggy fall in love with a girl called Mary-Jane. Coincidence?

That’s the reaction we’d expect from a pair that just hotboxed the whip.

Popeye

During the 1920s and 1930s the era when Popeye was created, “Spinach” was a popular slang term for marijuana. In addition, anti marijuana propaganda of the time claimed that marijuana use induced super-strength.

With this information, maybe the super-strength Popeye got wasn’t from eating spinach as the creators would have us believe, but from another green herb. Popeye has also been know to smoke his spinach at times. which begs the question: “What’s really in Popeye’s pipe?”

Garfield

Garfield hated Mondays, and spent all his time at home sleeping or eating. He couldn’t fit the stoner stereotype more if he tried.

Winnie the Pooh

A overweight bear never able to find his pants and always on the hunt for his favourite snack – honey. With his belly always forcing his shirt up, honey smear on his face and hands and a general tendency towards clumsiness, Winnie the Pooh is a typical stoner always looking for snacks.

Its hard to imagine Pooh didn’t smoke some trees in the Hundred Acre Woods.