Crossing Borders

by Melanie Cross

Up in Smoke, released in 1978, was both written by and stars the comedy duo of Richard Anthony ‘Cheech’ Marin and Tommy Chong; more commonly known as simply “Cheech and Chong."  Tommy Chong is an Irish and Chinese Canadian born American actor, although in the movie he is referred to as the white guy who’s going to play the drums, and he gets mistaken for an illegal immigrant and deported alongside of his comedic sidekick Cheech, who happens to be an American-born Mexican American. 

Early in the film, the first time Cheech and Chong are about to get stoned together, Cheech makes the tongue-in-cheek comment to Chong, “Let’s get Chinese-eyed.”  This is just one of many jokes based on stereotypes that Cheech and Chong use to address the issue of race in Up in Smoke. Cheech also uses common stereotypes of Mexican-American people and turns them up a few degrees. His character, Pedro’s, thick Mexican accent, his exaggerated mustache, his obsession with his lowrider, complete with gaudy modifications and his machismo bravado with the ladies all poke fun at the mostly negative generalizations that are often associated with Mexican males, especially in American society. Geoff King discusses Cheech Marin specifically in his book, Film Comedy. “The exaggeration to the point of absurdity of negative stereotypes has also been identified, as a strategy of subversion, in the performances of Richard ‘Cheech’ Marin in the highly successful Cheech and Chong comedies.”  (King, 2002, pg. 152) 

Ultimately, it seems to me that Cheech and Chong use comedy to highlight stereotypes in order to challenge the mainstream way in which several different ‘groups and types’ of people are portrayed while pointing out the absurdity of these typecasts. This applies not only to racial and cultural stereotypes, but can also be seen addressing gender and stoner stereotypes as well.  For example, the females in this film all fall into one of two very distinctive caricatures: bimbo or nun. These exaggerations are used for comedic effect, since obviously not all women can be simplified and categorized in these ways. Stoners in this film, on the other hand, are portrayed as laid-back, somewhat forgetful, fun-loving people who enjoy the munchies from time to time; another exaggeration with only some basis in reality...