Half Baked
Encyclopedia
Half Baked is a 1998
stoner comedy film
starring Dave Chappelle
, Jim Breuer
, Harland Williams
and Guillermo Díaz. The movie was directed by Tamra Davis
, and co-written by star Dave Chappelle
and Neal Brennan
(Brennan was later a writer on Chappelle's Comedy Central
show Chappelle's Show
). Cameo appearance
s include Steven Wright
, Tommy Chong
, Janeane Garofalo
, Willie Nelson
, Tracy Morgan
, Snoop Dogg
, Jon Stewart
, Stephen Baldwin
and Bob Saget
.
), discovers that he works for Mr. Nice Guy. Soon, all of their lives are in danger once Samson Simpson, a local drug lord, learns that Mr. Nice Guy is costing him business, including his former client rapper Sir Smoke-a-Lot. He threatens to kill them if they do not pay him 20 grand every week. Brian buys a pouch that is supposed to contain the ashes of Jerry Garcia
with some of the money they are making, and Scarface buys a rottweiler named Killer.
Thurgood tells police about a future meeting he has with Samson Simpson after they arrest him for stealing marijuana from the laboratory. The police agree to drop the charges if Thurgood wears a wire, that way they can get the proof they need to arrest the drug lord. Before the guys go into Samson's home they smoke a joint in the police van. The cops get high from the second hand smoke. The cops tell them to say abracadabra when they have purchased the drugs. During the interview, Samson discovers that Thurgood is wearing a wire and is about to kill them. They scream abracadabra into the wire to try to get the cops to save them. But the cops are high from second-hand smoke and busy mocking a letter Thurgood wrote to Mary Jane. A fight breaks out with Samson and his army of women. Brian throws the pouch he bought earlier on the ground. The ghost of Jerry Garcia emerges and hits Samson with a guitar, knocking him out. The police then rush in and recover all of the drugs, and arrest Samson after he wakes up. Thurgood, Brian, and Scarface's deal with the police works to get Kenny a pardon from jail. Thurgood gives up smoking and is able to win back Mary Jane.
. Some shooting locations included the R. C. Harris Water Treatment Plant and Yonge Street
.
On Inside the Actors Studio
in 2006
, Chappelle lamented that his original Half Baked script was actually much better than the film turned out to be, specifically that he had intended for the film to be more adult-oriented, and thought that his script had been turned into "a weed movie for kids".
7,722,540 in its opening weekend (#6; #1 at that weekend was Titanic
), and grossed in total over $17,000,000. Given the movie's $8,000,000 budget, it can be considered a commercial success. It is now considered to be a cult classic
.
It holds a 29% on Rotten Tomatoes
.
Despite its positive success in America, Half Baked was never shown in Australian cinemas, most likely because of the movie's indiscreet drug topic. Half Baked is #81 on Bravo's "100 Funniest Movies."
available on the "Fully Baked Edition" DVD release as a deleted scene
, it is revealed that after Kenny returns home from jail, all of the roommates sit down to smoke from "Billy Bong Thornton," an act that was thwarted earlier in the movie due to Kenny still being in jail. This scene implies that it is Thurgood's last time smoking.
The next scene is an extended version of the theatrical ending, in which Thurgood meets Mary Jane on the bridge, and after a short talk with his "joint" he throws it over the side of the bridge, then walks off with Mary Jane. In this version, he has a longer talk with his "joint," throws it off the side of the bridge, and slowly walks away with Mary Jane until they almost disappear on the horizon, but then Thurgood comes running back yelling, "Hold on, weed, I'm coming!" as he hops over the side of the bridge at the spot where he threw the joint over.
In the same alternate ending, it is revealed that Jan may not really be "a big dyke" as she is caught on the couch with Steven Wright
's "guy on the couch" character, when Kenny and the roommates return home from bailing Kenny out of jail.
The "Fully Baked Edition" includes a segment called "Five Minutes with the Guy on the Couch." The five minute clip depicts a stationary camera filming a man who resembles Steven Wright, as he sleeps on the couch. As clouds of smoke waft in and out of the scene, he turns over several times, farts, scratches his head, removes his socks, and at the end of the scene, he rolls over and falls off of the couch. This feature is reminiscent of the Yule Log
, in which a stationary camera films a burning log in a fireplace
which is intended for people who do not have a fireplace.
1998 in film
-Events:* February 14 - Sharon Stone marries Phil Bronstein.* Former child star Gary Coleman is charged with assaulting a young female bus driver at a California shopping mall.-Top grossing films:...
stoner comedy film
Stoner film
Stoner film is a subgenre of films that revolve around the use of marijuana. Typically, such movies show cannabis use in a comic and positive fashion...
starring Dave Chappelle
Dave Chappelle
David Khari Webber "Dave" Chappelle is an American comedian, screenwriter, television/film producer, actor, and artist. Chappelle began his film career in the film Robin Hood: Men in Tights in 1993 and continued to star in minor roles in the films The Nutty Professor, Con Air, and Blue Streak. His...
, Jim Breuer
Jim Breuer
Jim Breuer is an American stand-up comedian, actor and radio host. He is most noted for his time as a cast member on Saturday Night Live and starring in the 1998 cult "stoner comedy" Half Baked, alongside Dave Chappelle....
, Harland Williams
Harland Williams
Harland Williams is a Canadian actor, comedian, author, artist, musician and radio personality.-Personal life:Harland Reesor Williams was born on November 14, 1962, in Toronto, Ontario, to Lorraine , a social worker, and John Reesor Williams, who worked as a member of the Ontario Provincial...
and Guillermo Díaz. The movie was directed by Tamra Davis
Tamra Davis
Tamra Davis is an American film, television and music video director.-Biography:She is known for directing films such as Billy Madison, CB4 and Half Baked and television shows such as My Name Is Earl and Everybody Hates Chris. She also directed the film Crossroads, starring Britney Spears.She...
, and co-written by star Dave Chappelle
Dave Chappelle
David Khari Webber "Dave" Chappelle is an American comedian, screenwriter, television/film producer, actor, and artist. Chappelle began his film career in the film Robin Hood: Men in Tights in 1993 and continued to star in minor roles in the films The Nutty Professor, Con Air, and Blue Streak. His...
and Neal Brennan
Neal Brennan
Neal Brennan is an American writer, stand-up comedian, director, and producer. He is best known for co-creating the Comedy Central series Chappelle's Show.Brennan and Dave Chappelle met when both were aspiring stand-ups...
(Brennan was later a writer on Chappelle's Comedy Central
Comedy Central
Comedy Central is an American cable television and satellite television channel that carries comedy programming, both original and syndicated....
show Chappelle's Show
Chappelle's Show
Chappelle's Show is an American sketch comedy television series created by comedian Dave Chappelle and Neal Brennan, with Chappelle hosting the show as well as starring in various skits. Chappelle, Brennan and Michele Armour were the show's executive producers. The series premiered on January 22,...
). Cameo appearance
Cameo appearance
A cameo role or cameo appearance is a brief appearance of a known person in a work of the performing arts, such as plays, films, video games and television...
s include Steven Wright
Steven Wright
Steven Alexander Wright is an American comedian, actor and writer. He is known for his distinctly lethargic voice and slow, deadpan delivery of ironic, philosophical and sometimes nonsensical jokes and one-liners with contrived situations.-Early life and career:Wright was born in Mount Auburn...
, Tommy Chong
Tommy Chong
Tommy Chong is a Canadian-American comedian, actor, writer, director, activist, and musician who is well known for his stereotypical portrayals of hippie-era stoners...
, Janeane Garofalo
Janeane Garofalo
Janeane Garofalo is an American stand-up comedian, actress, political activist and writer. She is the former co-host on the now defunct Air America Radio's The Majority Report. Garofalo continues to circulate regularly within New York City's local comedy and performance art scene.-Early...
, Willie Nelson
Willie Nelson
Willie Hugh Nelson is an American country music singer-songwriter, as well as an author, poet, actor, and activist. The critical success of the album Shotgun Willie , combined with the critical and commercial success of Red Headed Stranger and Stardust , made Nelson one of the most recognized...
, Tracy Morgan
Tracy Morgan
Tracy Morgan is an American comedian who is best known for his eight seasons as a cast member on Saturday Night Live and currently known for playing the role of Tracy Jordan on the NBC series 30 Rock.-Early life:...
, Snoop Dogg
Snoop Dogg
Calvin Cordozar Broadus, Jr. , better known by his stage name Snoop Dogg, is an American rapper, record producer, and actor. Snoop is best known as a rapper in the West Coast hip hop scene, and for being one of Dr. Dre's most notable protégés. Snoop Dogg was a Crip gang member while in high school...
, Jon Stewart
Jon Stewart
Jon Stewart is an American political satirist, writer, television host, actor, media critic and stand-up comedian...
, Stephen Baldwin
Stephen Baldwin
Stephen Andrew Baldwin is an American actor, director, producer and author. One of the Baldwin brothers, he is known for his roles as William F. Cody in the western show The Young Riders and as Stuart in the movie Threesome...
and Bob Saget
Bob Saget
Robert Lane "Bob" Saget is an American stand-up comedian, actor, and television host. Although he is best known for his roles as Danny Tanner in Full House, host of America's Funniest Home Videos and Future Ted Mosby on How I Met Your Mother, Saget is also known outside of television for his blue...
.
Plot
Thurgood Jenkins (Chappelle) and his friends Brian (Breuer) and Scarface (Diaz) are forced into selling marijuana stolen from the lab where Thurgood works as a "master of the custodial arts" (janitor) in order to bail their friend Kenny (Williams) out of jail, after he accidentally kills Buttercup, a diabetic police horse, by feeding it junk food. Their business, named Mr. Nice Guy in honor of their good-natured incarcerated friend, becomes immensely popular, even attracting famous clientele. Thurgood's personal life is ruined once his adamantly anti-drug girlfriend, ironically named Mary Jane Potman (Rachel TrueRachel True
Rachel India True is an American film and television actress.-Career:In 1991, True had some appearances , beginning a string of TV jobs, including turns on Beverly Hills, 90210, The Drew Carey Show, Once and Again, and HBO's Dream On. By 1993, she had moved to Los Angeles and appeared opposite...
), discovers that he works for Mr. Nice Guy. Soon, all of their lives are in danger once Samson Simpson, a local drug lord, learns that Mr. Nice Guy is costing him business, including his former client rapper Sir Smoke-a-Lot. He threatens to kill them if they do not pay him 20 grand every week. Brian buys a pouch that is supposed to contain the ashes of Jerry Garcia
Jerry Garcia
Jerome John "Jerry" Garcia was an American musician best known for his lead guitar work, singing and songwriting with the band the Grateful Dead...
with some of the money they are making, and Scarface buys a rottweiler named Killer.
Thurgood tells police about a future meeting he has with Samson Simpson after they arrest him for stealing marijuana from the laboratory. The police agree to drop the charges if Thurgood wears a wire, that way they can get the proof they need to arrest the drug lord. Before the guys go into Samson's home they smoke a joint in the police van. The cops get high from the second hand smoke. The cops tell them to say abracadabra when they have purchased the drugs. During the interview, Samson discovers that Thurgood is wearing a wire and is about to kill them. They scream abracadabra into the wire to try to get the cops to save them. But the cops are high from second-hand smoke and busy mocking a letter Thurgood wrote to Mary Jane. A fight breaks out with Samson and his army of women. Brian throws the pouch he bought earlier on the ground. The ghost of Jerry Garcia emerges and hits Samson with a guitar, knocking him out. The police then rush in and recover all of the drugs, and arrest Samson after he wakes up. Thurgood, Brian, and Scarface's deal with the police works to get Kenny a pardon from jail. Thurgood gives up smoking and is able to win back Mary Jane.
Production
Much of Half Baked was shot in Toronto, Ontario & New York CityNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. Some shooting locations included the R. C. Harris Water Treatment Plant and Yonge Street
Yonge Street
Yonge Street is a major arterial route connecting the shores of Lake Ontario in Toronto to Lake Simcoe, a gateway to the Upper Great Lakes. It was formerly listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the longest street in the world at , and the construction of Yonge Street is designated an "Event of...
.
On Inside the Actors Studio
Inside the Actors Studio
Inside the Actors Studio is a series on the Bravo cable television channel, hosted by James Lipton. It is produced and directed by Jeff Wurtz; the executive producer is James Lipton. The program, which premiered in 1994, is distributed internationally by CABLEready and is broadcast in 125 countries...
in 2006
2006 in television
2006 in television may refer to:*2006 in American television*2006 in Australian television*2006 in British television*2006 in Canadian television*2006 in Japanese television...
, Chappelle lamented that his original Half Baked script was actually much better than the film turned out to be, specifically that he had intended for the film to be more adult-oriented, and thought that his script had been turned into "a weed movie for kids".
Reception
Half Baked hit U.S. theaters on January 16, 1998, grossing $United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
7,722,540 in its opening weekend (#6; #1 at that weekend was Titanic
Titanic (1997 film)
Titanic is a 1997 American epic romance and disaster film directed, written, co-produced, and co-edited by James Cameron. A fictionalized account of the sinking of the RMS Titanic, it stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Jack Dawson, Kate Winslet as Rose DeWitt Bukater and Billy Zane as Rose's fiancé, Cal...
), and grossed in total over $17,000,000. Given the movie's $8,000,000 budget, it can be considered a commercial success. It is now considered to be a cult classic
Cult film
A cult film, also commonly referred to as a cult classic, is a film that has acquired a highly devoted but specific group of fans. Often, cult movies have failed to achieve fame outside the small fanbases; however, there have been exceptions that have managed to gain fame among mainstream audiences...
.
It holds a 29% on Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
.
Despite its positive success in America, Half Baked was never shown in Australian cinemas, most likely because of the movie's indiscreet drug topic. Half Baked is #81 on Bravo's "100 Funniest Movies."
DVD features
In an alternate endingAlternate ending
Alternate ending is a term used to describe the ending of a story that was planned or debated but ultimately unused in favor of the actual ending. Generally, alternate endings are considered to have no bearing on the canonical narrative...
available on the "Fully Baked Edition" DVD release as a deleted scene
Deleted scene
In Entertainment, especially the film and television industry, Deleted scenes are parts of a film removed or censored from or replaced by another scene in the final "cut", or version, of a film...
, it is revealed that after Kenny returns home from jail, all of the roommates sit down to smoke from "Billy Bong Thornton," an act that was thwarted earlier in the movie due to Kenny still being in jail. This scene implies that it is Thurgood's last time smoking.
The next scene is an extended version of the theatrical ending, in which Thurgood meets Mary Jane on the bridge, and after a short talk with his "joint" he throws it over the side of the bridge, then walks off with Mary Jane. In this version, he has a longer talk with his "joint," throws it off the side of the bridge, and slowly walks away with Mary Jane until they almost disappear on the horizon, but then Thurgood comes running back yelling, "Hold on, weed, I'm coming!" as he hops over the side of the bridge at the spot where he threw the joint over.
In the same alternate ending, it is revealed that Jan may not really be "a big dyke" as she is caught on the couch with Steven Wright
Steven Wright
Steven Alexander Wright is an American comedian, actor and writer. He is known for his distinctly lethargic voice and slow, deadpan delivery of ironic, philosophical and sometimes nonsensical jokes and one-liners with contrived situations.-Early life and career:Wright was born in Mount Auburn...
's "guy on the couch" character, when Kenny and the roommates return home from bailing Kenny out of jail.
The "Fully Baked Edition" includes a segment called "Five Minutes with the Guy on the Couch." The five minute clip depicts a stationary camera filming a man who resembles Steven Wright, as he sleeps on the couch. As clouds of smoke waft in and out of the scene, he turns over several times, farts, scratches his head, removes his socks, and at the end of the scene, he rolls over and falls off of the couch. This feature is reminiscent of the Yule Log
Yule Log (TV program)
The Yule Log is a television program which is broadcast traditionally on Christmas Eve or Christmas morning , originally by New York City television station WPIX but now by many other Tribune Company-owned television stations, including WGN America, and by Antenna TV starting in 2011...
, in which a stationary camera films a burning log in a fireplace
Fireplace
A fireplace is an architectural structure to contain a fire for heating and, especially historically, for cooking. A fire is contained in a firebox or firepit; a chimney or other flue allows gas and particulate exhaust to escape...
which is intended for people who do not have a fireplace.