Wednesday, October 11, 2023

CHEECH IS NOT MY REAL NAME: ... BUT DON'T CALL ME CHONG

By Cheech Marin. New York: Grand Central Publishing, 2016.


I was first properly introduced to Cheech and Chong at age 14 and was immediately obsessed. That obsession has cooled and changed over the years, but I was nonetheless glad to have read this memoir as I had never before known the story of this legendary comedy duo.


One dominant thought prevailed, however. You see, I read this book the same week the left-wing government of British Columbia restricted drug use in public places after having decriminalized hard drug use not all that long ago. This really reminded me of how the sixties counterculture which Cheech and his comedy partner helped spread and further popularize has totally jumped the shark.


Firstly, a few young people smoking pot or doing some harder stuff turned into the crack crisis and now the opioid crisis. It's all fun and games until you have to step over homeless people blitzed out of their minds or until a heroin dealer moves next door.


Secondly, "Born in East LA" doesn't look so hot in light of the illegal alien and refugee crises the Western world is currently experiencing. It sounds nice to throw the door wide open but where do you put them all?


Purchase it here. 

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