Scooby-Doo’s Shaggy was the first influential stoner in a horror movie

Only a few things are certain in life: death, taxes, and if you smoke a lot of weed in a horror movie, you’re going to die. Since the early days of the slasher movie’s moralistic war on teenage bodies, stoners have been a regular part of abundant body counts. And while these distant bags of meat haunt the blood-soaked R-rated campgrounds of slasher history, their much friendlier fictional ancestor debuted in a children’s cartoon in 1969.

Norville “Shaggy” Rogers made his first appearance at the Scooby Doo! Where are you? episode “What a night for a gentleman.” Created in response to complaints about violence in children’s programming, The series introduced viewers to four crime-fighting kids: preppy Fred, pretty Daphne, nerdy Velma, and goofy Shaggy (with his similarly humorous dog, Scooby-Doo). It’s clear from the moment he enters the screen that Shaggy was meant to be a counterculture pastiche. Shaggy was based on a character from The many loves of Dobie Gillis, Maynard G. Krebs, who is cited as the first beatnik on television. Shaggy is laid back to the point of inaction with a tattered bowl cut and an endless hunger for snacks. It made for the perfect comedic relief for the creepy supernatural of Scooby Doo and his somewhat honest mystery-solving teammates.

Shaggy’s stoner status has become known to pop culture over the years. In fact, in 2002 Scooby Doo live action movie there are several jokes that hint at just that. And if it was inspired by beatnik culture, then the obvious subtext that Shaggy, and maybe Scooby, were stoners makes perfect sense. But according to the show’s creators, that was never the intention. or even something that crossed their minds. Despite that, it can be said that the character has become the template for the stoner stereotype. Making a name for himself by chasing, and hiding from, ghosts, demons, and monsters, there’s no mystery why Shaggy’s influence is particularly potent when it comes to the nature and characterization of slasher movie stoners.

The premise of Scooby-Doo is essentially an uncut horror movie – people are being terrified, bad things are happening, and it’s someone with a mask or something (questionably) supernatural behind it all. Shaggy’s stoner archetype translates directly from his own innocent surroundings to the malice of the horror movies we love. Her playful demeanor and lazier personality can provide relief from comedy and surprising reality in equal doses. That probably explains why the stereotype of the Shaggy-style stoner has become such a slasher staple. After all, who doesn’t love to see a fiery sweet head bite the dust?

Image: New Line Cinema

The things that made viewers so sure that Shaggy was a stoner are the exact archetypes that we see in some of the more well-known cannabis lovers in slasher movies. Friday the 13th III introduce not one, but two stoners. One of the most memorable examples is Freddy vs. Jason ≈. Sharing Shaggy’s facial hair and positive attitude, he has one of the most epic stoner deaths in horror movie history. Even as he embarks on an adventure to stop Freddy with his own Scooby Gang, Freeburg just has to smoke a little. This leads him to smoke a hookah with caterpillar Freddy Kruger, but then he’s drowned out by that same Alice in Wonderland-inspired nightmare.

On Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare, Spencer (Breckin Meyer) embodies Shaggy in every “cool” and “whoa.” Her straight dad even echoes Scooby’s best friend’s background. It also features what would become a future stoner classic: the love of video games. That passion, along with your choice to do those baaad Drugs – Leads him to death when Freddy uses his elevated status and imagination to trick him into believing he’s in a video game. Unfortunately, Spencer is actually being thrown into the real world, where he eventually dies after being thrown down a flight of stairs into an inconvenient hole. His death also presents its own metamoment, as it is preceded by an anti-drug public service announcement starring Johnny Depp.

During the very conscious false opening of 2009 Friday the 13th In the film, Wade (Jonathan Sadowski), another video game-loving stoner, comes face to face with Jason Vorhees as he searches for a crop of mythical pot. Like Shaggy, Wade is rejected by his friends, passionate about his hobbies, and a bit slow on assimilation. His nerdy character is key to his character and, ultimately, unfortunately for Wade, his disappearance.

Photo: Lionsgate

Drew goddard’s The cabin in the woods He targets many horror tropes in his satirical spear, including the stoner from the slasher movie. Marty (Fran Kranz) can also be a Shaggy clone. Kranz’s tousled hair, cheeky humor, and increasingly paranoid personality make him instantly recognizable as the stereotype of exhaustion that will disappear before the final act. Here, however, Marty’s junkie status really saves his life … for a time. Your stash is what helps you survive, as it gives you knowledge and hyper-awareness, helping you discover the truth at the heart of The cabin in the woods. But Marty has smoked too high to really survive; After all, there are rules, so when the movie ends, he is left with the fate of the world in his hands and decides to let it end. Shaggy never would.

Now, of course, smoking marijuana in horror movies isn’t always fatal. But even in cases where the characters don’t die, smoking marijuana often heralds the nightmarish events to come. Before being chased by her sometimes brother Michael Myers in Hallowe’en, Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) shares a joint with her soon-to-be-dead friend Annie. It’s not just teenagers like Elf so cleverly warns viewers. Parents of the soon-to-be-haunted family are shown casually smoking in bed just before their lives are turned upside down by their decision to move into a house built on an indigenous cemetery. So be careful if you smoke marijuana in genre movies, your luck is about to run out. However, if you look and / or act like Scooby-Doo’s best friend, your days are much more likely to be numbered.

Over the years, the slasher stoner has gone from crude tales of morality in movies like Sleepaway Camp II: Unhappy Campers and Friday the 13th III to the subversive comic relief. Despite all that, Shaggy has remained a core influence. But where does the trope go now? As recreational cannabis becomes legal across the country, is the stoner getting less disposable? Only the future of horror can answer, but it’s interesting to remember that when Shaggy debuted the legal status of marijuana was also changing. Perhaps as that landscape changes once again, Shaggy’s influence may even change the way stoners are treated in horror. After all, Shaggy has survived for decades, so maybe one day a true stoner can too.