Esoteric Movie Review: Half Baked (1998)

Even though there was a time when weed culture intrigued me, I was never particularly interested in Half Baked (1998).  It wasn't until a lot more recently, upon becoming a Dave Chappelle fan, that I decided to give it a try.

One of the reasons I wanted to watch it was to study Chappelle's cinema history, as he has this tendency to imply that he's not a sellout and furthermore, as an outspoken standup comedian, is a champion of free speech.  He and some of his peers like to argue or insinuate that standup comedy is the last genre in American mainstream entertainment whereas artists can freely express themselves, as in openly make politically-incorrect statements.  That's sorta true, and it's also sorta not true.

For instance, Chappelle is considered controversial and cutting edge in large part due to his tendency to make fun of homosexuals.  This is at a time in the history of Western civilization when criticizing the gay community can get a person in a lot of trouble.  Or in the case of a celebrity like Chappelle, it can negatively affect his overall market value, which to some degree has already happened.

But in virtually all of his comedy specials, Dave also goes out of his way to point out that he's very much cool with the LGBT community.  The same goes for virtually all A-list standup comedians (who I've come across) who utilize gay jokes.  Dave has even expressed his admiration for gays on more than one occasion, in addition to boasting of once having a transgender bestie, who sadly committed suicide, in part due to being the victim of homophobia.

In terms of not being a sellout, Chappelle committed one of the most profound individual acts of celebrity protest against Hollywood when, in 2005, he walked away from a $50 million contract and relocated to Africa.  By the looks of things, he only bounced for a few months, even though it felt longer.  That said, the way he left the industry and then returned to it kinda reminded me of that quote from the Bible about a man 'putting his hand to the plough and then looking back'.

According to statements made by Dave throughout the years, it can be ascertained that one of the main reasons he left is because he didn't want to sell his soul to Hollywood, as in sacrifice his beliefs and convictions for money.  For example, when speaking to Oprah in 2006, Chappelle strongly implied that amongst the factors which compelled him to step back was the powers-that-be's insistence that he dress in drag.  More recently, Katt Williams inferred that in order to have secured that aforementioned contract, Chappelle would have also to engage in homosexual acts, which he refused to do.

Either way, even if Dave did return to Babylon, he obviously has heart, as in a lot more courage than your average celebrity.  So I wanted to watch Half Baked to see if he was always this resistant or perhaps to identify some of the things which turned him off to acting.

REFERENCES TO DEATH

As expected, being a major (American) motion picture and furthermore a comedy, Half Baked features a number of esoteric references and questionable content.  Let's start with the image below, of the "After School Special smoker" (Daniel DeSanto):

You will notice that the kid's room is decorated with images of skulls, and as the camera shifts to the left:

...a white one, which is presumably made of plastic, is prominently displayed.

You don't need me to tell you that skulls represent death.  I know that some teenagers are 'gothic' or even flatout demonic, but I can't say in all of my youth that I ever entered a buddy's room which is as thoroughly decorated with skulls as this one.  You would think, if nothing else, that the parents would object.  In any event, it's interesting that the makers of Half Baked chose that particular backdrop.

In this scene, we see "Thurgood" (Dave Chappelle) chillin' in the bedroom of his girlfriend, "Mary Jane" (Rachel True).  On her wall hangs a mask of what looks like a man with horns.  This, at least to me, is reminiscent of depictions of the Baphomet.  Images of human-like figures with horns are traditionally used (as far as I know) to represent the devil or demons. 

This movie came out in the 1990s, before the internet really took off, and the masses came to know about the Baphomet and stuff like that.  But even now, as you watch movies, TV shows and other visual media, notice the common occurrence of characters with horns or what may resemble two horns on their heads.

REFERENCES TO LUCIFER

The way the 666 hand sign often pops up when displayed by actors isn't overtly obvious but rather in the midst of the character doing something which may require him to form his fingers in such a fashion.  For instance, here we see Dave Chapelle doing so while holding a spliff:

The duration and blatancy in which he does so appears to verify that he is in fact using the opportunity to hold up the 666,  And notice what he says in the process...

What further convinced me that was in fact the 666 sign is a couple of later scenes in the film.  For instance, take a look at this image:

If you were the study the locker door closely, you'll notice that near the bottom there's a sticker on it, depicting a hand holding up a marijuana leaf while concurrently making a (more correct) 666 sign.

Then of course, there's this scene when one of the characters, "Kenny" (Harland Williams) is defacing a picture of "Nasty Nate" (Rick Demas), the homosexual inmate who intends to rape him.  While doing so, he draws a couple horns onto Nate's head and also, amongst other things, scribbles the image with "666" while proclaiming:

You will notice that Kenny also makes a few marks specifically over Nasty Nate's penis.  Hollywood, if not American society as a whole, has this sort of weird fascination with Black penises.

DEPICTIONS OF BLACK MEN

To help put that scene in context, both Kenny and Nate are locked up.  It's no secret that Black men are disproportionately incarcerated in the United States.  So seeing a Black character in a prison setting, especially when said facility is based in or near New York City (where the film is set), isn't unusual.

What is a bit peculiar though is that first of all, Nasty Nate appears to be the only Black inmate in the entire prison.  Second, he also seems to be the only overtly-gay character in the film.  There's another inmate, "Squirrel Master" (Tommy Chong), who is White and refers to Kenny as his "bitch", defending him from Nate and thus implying that he also has a romantic interest in him.  But unlike Nate, there aren't any direct references to the Squirrel Master being homosexual.

It's all laughable within the context of the film, but I have found it kinda weird how gay characters in Hollywood are often Black.  That seemed to be especially true back in the late 20th century, when homosexual characters first started appearing mainstream.  My working theory is that it all goes back to centuries' old racist, stereotypical beliefs of Black people being sexually uninhibited.

With that in mind, we also have this...

The character wearing the hair rollers, "Samson Simpson" (Clarence Williams III) is a drug dealer who's also apparently some kind of pimp.  Many American pimps, and let's say Black ones in particular, do at times favor effeminate fashion styles.  But all things considered, it's interesting that they chose to feature yet another feminized Black man in this movie, one that actually has an African-American.

USE OF THE WORD "NIGGER"

It is through programs with Black leads that Hollywood has managed to perpetuate the ubiquity of the N-word.  Black comedians like Dave Chappelle get away with the questionable use of the word "nigger" more than any other group of celebrities.  For instance, look at the caption on this pic...

There is a difference between the word "nigger", a derogatory terms towards Black people and "nigga", a term of endearment or general reference,  In this particular instance, Chappelle is clearly using the former, jokingly stating that he doesn't want to be the first Blackman killed by a crossbow.

WHITE SUPREMACY?

There's a scene in which the late Jerry Garcia (as portrayed by David Bluestein) magically appears.  He proceeds to violently swing his guitar at the antagonist, prompting another character, "Scarface" (Guillermo Diaz) to duck.  While ducking, it appears that Scarface, who is Latino, is bowing down to Garcia, a Whiteman.

Jerry Garcia, who passed away in 1995, was the de facto frontman of the Grateful Dead, a very famous 20th century rock band.  He was also a known marijuana aficionado, which would explain why they decided to honor him in Half Baked.  But given all of the above, I decided to google "Grateful Dead 666" and was led to this blog post, which is largely based one of the band's songs titled Friend of the Devil.

According to Wikipedia, that Grateful Dead track, which came out in 1970, is highlighted by a passage that reads:

You can borrow from the devil.

You can borrow from a friend.

But the Devil will give you 20, when your friend got only 10.

I found that observation on behalf of Garcia and co. interesting, because I'm convinced that's the reason we have so many celebrities publicly acknowledge Lucifer, which is for monetary reasons.  In terms of making money, the devil does offer more lucrative opportunities than remaining on the straight and narrow.  So with a lot of these celebrities, I think the decision they face is to either play the game or be willing to give up their fame and fortune.   

MALE NUDITY

Hollywood seems to have this affinity for male nudity.  Many movies have scenes in which a man's naked ass is shown.  Such scenes often popup in a way that the viewer is not expecting to see such a thing, thus basically flashing the audience.  Half Baked outdid itself in that regard, as the male nudity scene it unexpectedly featured, in the shower of a men's prison, shows a number of naked asses, whereas most other movies would have just one.

As to why Hollywood has dedicated itself to showing men's asses, including those of a number of A-list stars, of course I wouldn't know the exact reason why.  One of my working theories is that it has something to do with appeasing the gay male members of the audience.

It should perhaps also be pointed out that nudity, as far as the Bible (i.e. the Book of Genesis) is concerned, is taboo, as in people aren't supposed to be appearing naked in public.  As matter of example, Ham was cursed for looking at his father, Noah, naked.  Now, through Hollywood (and pornography) we're all being fed images of naked men whether we want to see them or not.

CONCLUSION

One interesting thing about Dave Chappelle, giving his standing as an A+ list comedian, is that he doesn't appear in a lot of movies.  It looks like he served as the lead actor in only one film, which is Half Baked.  He also led his own television program for a couple of seasons but, after walking away from that gig hasn't engaged in much acting.  And all things considered, it wouldn't be out of the way to conclude that the reason he's grown adverse to Hollywood proper is due to some of the practices as noted above.