A Brief History of Pop Culture’s Stoned Female Characters

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There are relatively few female stoner characters in pop culture — a fact that seems surprisingly given a recent study that shows that while teen boys are more likely to smoke pot than their female counterparts, the girls are more likely to become addicted. And while there is currently a stoner road trip comedy in development with Natalie Portman entitled Best Buds,who knows when the mom-to-be will actually find time to star in and produce it. So in the meantime, we’ve come up with a list of women from film and TV to help you get your heavy-lidded lady fix.

Annie Hall in Annie Hall

The androgynous bohemian Annie Hall (Diane Keaton) isn’t really a stoner in the classic sense of the word; she just needs to smoke a little grass to “relax” before she gets it on with Alvy Singer (Woody Allen) — or anyone, really — in order to enjoy herself. As she tells him, “You’ve been seeing a psychiatrist for 15 years. You should smoke some of this. You’d be off the couch in no time.”

Judy Bernly, Violet Newstead, and Doralee Rhodes in Nine to Five (1980)

The idea of three women (played by Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, and Dolly Parton) getting stoned and then swapping revenge fantasies about killing their “sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot” of a male boss was pretty subversive ground for this office comedy to tread given the time period. While the trio of pot-fueled “dream sequences” are all pretty hilarious, we think Violet’s Snow White-inspired version was the best.

Roseanne in Roseanne (1994)

In a classic episode from Season 6 of the series, Roseanne gets mad at David when she stumbles upon what she assumes is his stash of weed. Then Dan informs Rosie that the pot is actually her own. In what is obviously the adult way to deal with the situation, Roseanne, Dan, and Jackie all get high in the bathroom while sharing a popsicle.

Melanie Ralston in Jackie Brown

Sure Melanie Ralston (as played by Bridget Fonda) may be a little past her prime, and she may run around with a tough crowd, but in many ways she’s your typical stoner dream girl — a little blond surfer who only cares about getting high on watching TV — her words, not ours.

Lindsay Weir in Freaks and Geeks (1999)

In “Chokin’ and Tokin'” after a weed shortage at shortage at McKinley, Lindsay (Linda Cardellini) tries marijuana for the first time, forgetting that she has to babysit for the neighbors later that day. When paranoia strikes, her estranged childhood best friend Millie helps her out with the kid and talks an anxious Lindsay through the “side effects” of being high. As Millie tells her: “I know what high people look like. I went to a Seals and Crofts concert last summer.”

Lucille Bluth in Arrested Development (2004)

Of course we realize that Lucille is usually more of a drunk than a stoner, but in “Afternoon Delight,” from Season 2 of Arrested Development, Oscar spikes her brownie with some pot as a stress reliever. As a result, a high Lucille ends up running over Tobias and crashing her car into the banana stand, trapping Gob (who is wearing a banana costume) inside in the process. Luckily Buster is there to rescue him with the Bluth Company crane, claw vending machine-style.

Olivia in Friends with Money (2006)

In Nicole Holofcener’s depressing indie drama Friends With Money, Jennifer Aniston plays Olivia, an ambitionless stoner who cleans houses for a living in Los Angeles. While her friends are all way more successful financially than she is, most of them are just as miserable, which we guess is supposed to be comforting.

Jane F. in Smiley Face (2007)

At last, a female-fronted stoner comedy! In this Sundance favorite from director Gregg Araki, the always adorable Anna Faris plays Jane, a young actress who accidentally eats an entire batch of her roommate’s pot-infused muffins and spends the rest of the movie scrambling to replace them. Lots of things go wrong: she buys a bunch of weed that she can’t afford from her dealer; she blows an audition and then tries to sell the casting agent some of her pot; she channels Norma Rae and delivers a speech at ameat-packing plant. Oh, and did we mention that Jane ends up stealing an original copy of Marx and Engels’s “Communist Manifesto”?

Jodi in Knocked Up (2007)

Before everyone was convinced she was Michael Cera’s girlfriend because of Paper Heart, Charlyne Yi had a hilarious scene-stealing cameo in Knocked Up as Seth Rogen’s roommate’s weird stoner girlfriend. Her best line, which was directed at a pregnant Katherine Heigl: “You must be angry at the baby whenever it steals your food, huh?”

Tara Lindman in Weeds (2008)

In Season 3 of Weeds, Silas starts dealing for his mom and as a result, meets Tara (Mary-Kate Olsen), a crazy evangelical Christian stoner girl, at the Magestic Senior Center. She later tells Nancy that she believes that the Lord wants her to help Silas sell pot and use the money to buy a BMW.

OK – so those are 10 of our favorite fictional stoned ladies. Who did we miss?