Today is April 20, otherwise known as 420, which of course is the unofficial holiday celebrating the consumption of marijuana. So naturally Jimmy Kimmel spent a lot of time talking about weed-related things.
For instance, he dove into the history of the term 420, and also got his sidekick Guillermo high as hell and then quizzed him on math, geography and so on. But perhaps the most amusing part of the very cannabis-friendly monologue on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” was a supercut Kimmel showed of newscasters all across the country talking about it as if it wasn’t a big deal.
“It’s 4/20. Do you know the origin of 4/20? It’s kind of interesting. In the ’70s, in San Rafell, California, north of us here, a group of high school boys called themselves ‘The Waldos,’ because they would hang out and smoke next to a wall every day at 4:20,” Kimmel said at the start.
“Did that and somehow it caught on. And spread all over. And this is what the Waldos look like now,” Kimmel continued, showing a photo of the now middle aged Waldos. “Gaze upon those who are the founding fathers of 4/20. Arranged from most to least high. How many people invent a holiday though? It’s just them, and Jesus, and a groundhog I think.”
“Now cannabis is out in the open. It used to be you couldn’t even talk about it on television, unless you were talking about how bad, what a menace it was,” Kimmel continued. “But now it’s so widely accepted that even our shiny morning newscasters feel comfortable bringing it up.”
Then Kimmel rolled the supercut, which really is hilarious. Just clips of extremely normal morning newscasters talking at length about cannabis and 420, all with big smiles. Then a rapid series of clips of people saying “happy 420” again and again, and talking about having the munchies. The clip ended with an amusing clip in which during a very early morning broadcast Wednesday, CBS 5 reporter Justin Andrews in San Francisco said “yeah, for people who are into this, they’re probably already awake lighting up, I’m told they call that ‘wake and bake.’”
Kimmel found that one particularly amusing. “Yes, I’ve uh, heard that, I’m told that they call that. I’m told that by the guy who sells me my weed in the morning,” Kimmel joked.
Watch the whole monologue in all its 420 goodness — including the aforementioned quizzing of Guillermo, and Kimmel noting a new poll that shows the vast majority of Americans want cannabis to be legal — above.