Cheech and Chong did it.
So did David Chappelle, Guillermo Diaz, Method Man, Red Man, Ashton Kutcher and Seann William Scott.
They all played stoners on missions that got more complicated as the blitzed-out heroes got higher.
In Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle, opening locally today, a couple of Asian buddies smoke a lot. Just when the munchies hit, an ad comes on TV for White Castle burgers, a bite-sized version of America's favourite fast food.
Off they go on a mission that turns into an odyssey.
Danny Leiner, who wrote and directed Harold and Kumar, has much more of a mission than he did in his Dude, Where's My Car? He's not simply going after a series of gross-out, juvenile or stupid laughs. This time, Leiner also wants to play hardball with ethnic stereotyping.
Harold (John Cho) is a Korean American who works for an investment firm. He's the shy computer nerd who becomes the lackey of the Caucasians in the office.
This particular evening, Harold has to write up an enormous report for two of his co-workers who are presumably on a big assignment, but really have hot dates.
Roommate Kumar (Kal Penn) wants to celebrate because he just sabotaged another interview for medical school. Kumar is determined not to follow in the footsteps of his father and brother who are devoted, over-worked emergency-room doctors.
Everyone makes fun of Harold and Kumar, including a quartet of rednecks who follow them around and corrupt cops who love to intimidate the respectful Asians.
Of course, the audience is just waiting for Harold and Kumar to turn the tables on their tormentors.
Cho and Penn are the reason Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle works as well as it does despite its thin, cliched material and frenetic direction. These are two charismatic actors, with Cho playing the straight man to Penn's abrasive wit.
Cho's eyes are like beacons scoping each new situation whereas Penn is led by his mouth, blathering on without thinking.
It's up to Kumar to get the duo into trouble and Cho to extricate them.
Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle is packed with cameos, including a totally unrecognizable Christopher Meloni as a tow-truck driver with a boil-erupting face, a sex-starved nymphette wife and an understanding heart.
Meloni, detective Stabler on Law & Order: Special Victim's Unit, is hysterical if you can stomach his makeup.
The same is not true of Neil Patrick Harris, who plays a lecherous version of himself. Ryan Reynolds - Alanis Morissette's fiancee - is effectively creepy as a emergency-room doctor who's more interested in Kumar than he is the patient on his operating table.
The most bizarre sequences involve a cheetah and an enormous bag of marijuana that comes alive, both of which are genuinely hysterical.
The scene in a jail with an chubby African-American who accepts the abuse he receives from white cops is the best moment of satire.
Harold and Kumar is the kind of unapologetically dumb movie that really shouldn't be as funny as it is.
When the 90 minutes are up, you'll likely wonder why you laughed so hard and so often at something so silly.
(This film is rated 14-A)
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