Stoners have been found in cartoons since before Popeye first slurped “spinach.” Cannabis is part of our collective culture, it’s mapped into our DNA. Even if you’ve never consumed it, you’ve likely seen some part of yourself reflected in one of the many relatable stoner-implied characters from your favorite funnies. But since it takes one to know one, many of the dankest characters fly under the radar.
For every obvious Shaggy/Scooby Doo slacker pot pal personification, there is a couch-locked Snorlax, medicinal-use Eeyore, and high-functioning Jane Lane/Daria Morgendorffer clique. The last few decades of animated programming lines up immaculately with the widespread normalization of cannabis, and the requisite animated pothead has become an expected supporting, if not outright main, character.
Here are a few animated characters we like to assume partake in an occasional puff puff pass, and some strains that might help you get on their level.
Futurama: Fry
Phillip J Fry grew up in the ’80s in NYC. He was in a breakdancing crew, he delivered pizzas on a bike, and he had an adorable dog. We have all smoked mids from an acrylic bong with this dude.
Fry’s strain: It was probably a Northern Lights b-bud grown by somebody’s cousin. Ahh, memories.
Adventure Time: Marceline
If you’ve heard the repertoire of Marceline the Vampire Queen, then you probably already caught a whiff of her cool-art-stoner aesthetic. Homegirl wrote an entire epic ballad transmuting intense feelings of parental abandonment into a parable about a dad stealing his daughter’s hot fresh French fries. Iconic stoner-art-girl behavior, truely.
Marceline’s strain: Her favorite strain? Red Congolese of course.
Spongebob Squarepants: Patrick
Patrick feels like the ultimate affable, cuddly stoner. The friend you would get silly high with, eat a pile of food, then babble at until you both laughed yourselves to sleep.
Patrick’s strain: He kinda feels like a full-spectrum, low-cannabinoid type of bruh who keeps a bag of Harlequin in the stash box in case things get too spacey.
Hey Arnold!: Grandpa Phil
This dude made several references throughout the entirety of Hey Arnold! as to how much of a baked hippie he was.
Grandpa Phil’s strain: Considering how often he mentioned the number of brain cells he’d lost in his “youth,” I’d peg Phil for a fan of strains like Alaskan Thunderfuck or Purple Chemdog.
Find Alaskan Thunderfuck strains
Clarence: Chad
Cartoon Network’s Clarence features a father figure named Chad whose suggested poteheadedness is a running, yet wholesome, joke. Viewers in the know can even catch a glimpse of his stash when the two take a camping trip in season one and an open glove box reveals, for a brief moment, a ziplock bag half packed with green.
Chad’s strain: What’s in his bag? Most likely Pineapple Express.
Find Pineapple Express strains
We Bare Bears: Ice Bear
Ice Bear is the polar bear of this program’s titular trio of brothers/roommates. His monotone pacing, unflappable disposition, and give-no-effs vibe is literally chill AF — also, Ice Bear lives in a freezer.
Ice Bear’s strain: He probably smokes weed strains like Ice Cream Kush, Ice Cream Cookies, and Ice Cream Cake, but whether or not he’s hotboxing the deep freeze, this character is clearly imbued with immaculate stoner energy.
The Simpsons: Otto
Otto, an elementary school bus driver, stumbling out of a culinary shop called Stoner’s Pot Palace while grumbling, “That is flagrant false advertising, man,” will never not be funny.
Otto’s strain: Even though he’s drawn as more of a cautionary tale than an aspirational stoner, I still think Otto would smoke top-shelf flower. Probably something in the Cheese family.
Jem and The Holograms: The Misfits
Jem and the Holograms may have been the headliners, but all the cool kids wanted to hang out with the Misfits, arch enemies to the Holograms, and perennial bag gal archetypes.
The Misfits’ strain: These ladies were partying in parking lots, making out with whoever they wanted, and smoking so much LA Confidential before their shows that they should’ve gotten a key to the city.
The Amazing World of Gumball: Richard Watterson
The stoner guardian as a comedic trope has really evolved to fit the era, evidenced by Richard Watterson, animated father of three, including Gumball‘s titular character. Richard is a good-natured, airhead dad who anyone familiar with wholesome stoner dads would recognize at once. He eats everything, he naps everywhere, he understands next to nothing, but he loves his family.
Richard’s strain: To me, he sounds like a dad that just dabbed some uplifting White Papaya.
