Cheech & Chong

At their peak in the 1970s, Cheech And Chong represented the mainstream embodiment of the attitudes and lifestyles of the underground drug culture. Much as W.c. Fields shot to fame by making alcohol the focus of his act, the duo of Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong emerged from a cloud of pot smoke, simultaneously championing and lampooning the stoner community which became the team's most ardent supporters; although derided by critics and dismissed by the general populace, the team's stature as counterculture heroes was unquestioned, and for both aging hippies and dazed-and-confused teens, their comedy defined an era.



The team began to take shape in the late 1960s when, after entering show business as a guitarist in a rock band, Chong established City Works, a wild improvisational troupe later joined by Richard "cheech" Marin. When City Works dissolved, Cheech And Chong continued as a duo, formulating a musical comedy act. The music proved short-lived, however, when audiences began reacting favorably to the team's spacy pothead raps; after establishing their comic persona, the duo rarely deviated from the course -- for record after record and film after film, they remained blissed-out stoners, their humor locked in the druggy stasis of the doper mentality.

Read More