Couch-Locked: The 10 Best TV Shows to Stream While You’re Stoned
It’s April 20, every stoner’s favorite “holiday.” Unsurprisingly, it’s really easy to celebrate. Just locate your favorite strain of marijuana, spark up and relax. For those who like to completely dissociate and watch things while you relax, we’ve compiled this list of our favorite stoner TV shows, perfect for getting couchlocked during a small-screen binge session.
(We’ve also got the 10 best films to watch while stoned, plus the 10 best music albums to listen to while stoned.)
1. Adventure Time
It’s Adventure Time, c’mon grab your friends. Pendleton Ward’s brilliantly strange post-apocalyptic cartoon is about to end its run once and for all, but this stoner TV show is one of the best things to watch when you’re a little burnt. The loopy logic, the bright primary colors and the hilarious non-sequiturs are great. But it’s episodes with surprisingly deep themes — like the one about the idea of death being a comfort — when the true quality of the show surfaces. (Also, it’s hella queer.)
2. Broad City
Another show about to end its run, Broad City‘s female protagonists Abbi and Ilana probably love weed more than you do. These two stoner girls live fabulously flawed lives, picking up odd jobs and having deliriously bad sex all across New York City. Their unabashed sluttiness, unapologetic character flaws and jaw-dropping social gaffes make nearly every episode a screamer. If you haven’t yet met Abbi and Ilana, they’ll probably become your new stoner heroes.
3. Space Ghost Coast to Coast
Space Ghost Coast to Coast re-defined the talk show. It’s been a huge influence on Eric Andre, Tim & Eric and just about any American comedian that came of age in the ’90s. And this surreal chat show still holds up, whether it’s Space Ghost asking his guests if they’ve got enough oxygen or a black-and-white art film-styled episode with quotes from Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra as subtitles. (Or, the same episode, rerun a few months later, with different subtitles riffing on Pablo Neruda — yup, ultimate stoner TV show here.)
4. Don’t Hug Me, I’m Scared
One part Sesame Street, one part David Lynch, this six-episode surrealist horror comedy webseries takes the form of a Muppet-filled educational kids show only to go darkly, horribly, nightmarishly wrong. Each episode of this stoner TV show explores a different theme — like creativity, computers and healthy eating — with overly aggressive hosts and subtextual violence that is delightful and fun to watch, if not a little disturbing. Try it — you’ve never seen anything quite like it!
5. Mystery Science Theater 3000
If there’s anything in this world better than Mystery Science Theater 3000, we don’t know it. The show, created by Joel Hodgson, is a perfect celebration of B-movies. But it’s not simply making fun of them; this show is more about laughing with the movies. (After all, even the worst movies required many people to work together to make it.) Though the latest, brand-new season is only on Netflix — who even put out a strain of weed to go with this stoner TV go-to — episodes from the original 10-season run are available just about everywhere.
6. Avatar: The Last Airbender
If you want action, spirituality, goofiness and a bit of uplifting drama, check out this three-season American cartoon about Aang, a 12-year-old boy who’s also the reincarnation of the Avatar, a spiritual figure meant to bring harmony between the warring Fire nation and the Earth and Water tribes. Yes, M. Night Shyamalan adapted the first season into a horrible 2010 live-action film, but the original series has much more nuance, heart and imagination. And once you’re done with it you can always check out its shorter (and more lesbian) follow-up series, The Legend of Korra.
7. Off the Air
Let’s be clear — you don’t need drugs to enjoy Off the Air, [adult swim]’s late night collage program. (Show creator Dave Hughes has criticized that stereotype of his viewers, saying “People who watch [Adult Swim] seem very engaged to me. And very passionate. Often, they feel offended when we air something that they don’t think is up to snuff. Where else do you see that kind of passion for a network as a whole?”) Off the Air is a beautiful, experimental collage program, influenced by things like MTV’s outstanding ’90s animation showcase Liquid Television. Though while that show was a mini-animation festival, Off the Air is something more — it works as a whole, rather than a collection of different shorts. Stoned or not, you must give Off the Air a chance.
8. Planet Earth II
Who needs tripped out animation and fictional storylines when Mother Nature has provided all the visuals and life-and-death drama you need? This series’ unparalleled camera work lets you hop tree-to-tree with rainforest creatures, soar with birds of the savannah and hunt with hawks and other natural predators, making it perfect stoner TV. It’s a great companion to the equally mind-blowing show Blue Planet and will probably make you say “Whoooooooa” at least twice an episode.
9. Too Cute
OK, sometimes you just want something that won’t challenge you when you’re stoned. Too Cute is perhaps the least challenging show on the planet. I mean, its name is also a perfect description — it’s baby animals learning about the world. It’s as fluffy as the puppies and kittens on the show, and that’s a good thing. The world’s scary enough. Sometimes you just want to get blazed and watch kitties.
10. The Golden Girls
If you liked these four fierce friends while sober, you’ll downright love them when baked out of your mind. Each episode of this longtime gay favorite has bits of sexual innuendo and shady insults sprinkled into heartwarming scenarios of silver sisters defending their dignity. Plus, each episode usually has an ‘all’s well that ends well’ conclusion, so you’ll always leave your stoned viewing on a high note.
