When Super Troopers hit theaters in 2001, cannabis was still firmly in the realm of counterculture. Today, legal dispensaries, terpene discussions, and debates over cannabinoids have become part of everyday conversation in much of the United States. That’s changed more than consumer habits and comedy.
Ahead of the release of Super Troopers 3, Cannabis & Tech Today sat down with the members of Broken Lizard to discuss how cannabis fuels their brainstorming sessions, why legalization has changed what audiences find rebellious, and whether artificial intelligence will ever be capable of writing comedy.
The interview has been edited for clarity.
Cannabis & Tech Today: It’s been more than 20 years since Super Troopers first hit theaters, and the world has changed quite a bit. What does the creative process look like now when you’re writing a new film?
Jay Chandrasekhar: We already know who the main characters are, so it’s really about putting them into compelling situations. There’s usually a little weed smoking at the beginning. We tend to smoke sativa, even though somebody recently tried to tell us the whole sativa versus indica thing is a myth.
Steve Lemme: I think that’s bullshit. You go into a dispensary and there are dozens of different products that all do different things. I’ve experienced that firsthand.
JC: We smoke, we make jokes, and once we figure out what the movie actually is, we stop smoking and start organizing the outline. Then we really get to work.
C&T Today: So cannabis has a place in the creative process, but only up to a point?
Paul Soter: We’ve figured out that being high is great for riffing. It’s terrible for structure. Once you’re trying to figure out the mechanics of storytelling, you really need to be sober. But for generating ideas? That’s where cannabis shines.
SL: There is no wrong. Just a bunch of people will have notepads writing things down. Eventually one guy becomes the point man. Being high and throwing out great ideas is awesome. Being the point man and being high and trying to keep track is a terrible job because then you’re just overwhelmed and you’re like, at a certain point, it’s just like there’s all these words on the paper. Your penmanship sucks. You’re flipping through the pages. You also kind of want to get it on the riff, but you can’t because you’re trying to write everything down. But it’s a delightful process.
C&T Today: Are you always collecting ideas, even when you’re not officially writing?
JC: Constantly. The idea machine never stops. We all keep notes in our phones for movies, television, stand-up, whatever we’re working on.
SL: Some of our best material actually comes after we’re done writing for the day. You’re out having dinner or traveling together, not thinking about work at all, and suddenly somebody says something hilarious. Those moments end up becoming scenes.
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C&T Today: Cannabis has become mainstream since the first Super Troopers. Has legalization changed comedy?
JC: R-rated movies need rebellion. Once cannabis became legal, simply having characters smoke weed wasn’t rebellious anymore. So suddenly you’re looking at mushrooms or something else if you want that same feeling.
PS: The opening scene of the first movie works because those guys are terrified of getting caught. I don’t know that younger audiences experience that same fear today because cannabis has become so normalized. Pop culture changes, and comedy changes with it.
C&T Today: One thing that hasn’t changed is the relationship between Super Troopers fans and law enforcement.
Erik Stolhanske: Everywhere we go, police officers tell me they have somebody at the station who looks exactly like Farva.
PS: What’s funny is our audiences are basically split between cops and stoners, and they’re all laughing at the exact same jokes.
SL: When Colorado first legalized cannabis, people started handing us weed right in front of police officers during meet-and-greets. We’d look at the cops and they’d just shrug. That was a surreal transition to watch happen.
C&T Today: AI has become impossible to ignore. Has it changed the way you think about creativity?
SL: I actually just started using ChatGPT. Yesterday we spent way too much time making pictures of Willie Nelson with different hairstyles.
PS: It’s actually a good counterargument to the idea that AI is replacing creativity. Before AI, we’d have spent ten minutes imagining Willie Nelson with a mohawk. Now you can generate the image instantly and everybody laughs.
SL: I’m not worried about AI. Everyone was like, “Oh, AI is going to start writing scripts.” And we typed in write us an episode of Tacoma FD a few years back. And it basically gave us the pilot episode, but with no jokes. It was like a new firefighter comes to the station and they give her a hard time. And we’re like, that’s the pilot we wrote, but with jokes. So I was like, all right, I’m not really threatened by that because it’s never going to come up with new jokes. It can’t go out with us and riff and come up with the meow scene.
PS: It can’t get high. When AI can get high, then maybe we’re in trouble.
C&T Today: What do you hope audiences take away from Super Troopers 3?
JC: The movie follows my character’s sister, played by Hannah Simone, after she’s rescued by Farva and develops a condition where she falls in love with the person who saved her. It’s basically Meet the Parents meets Super Troopers.
PS: It’s still the same style of comedy people expect from us, but we’re putting these characters into new situations involving weddings and family dynamics.
ES: We’re also hoping to bring back that classic R-rated theatrical comedy. It feels like audiences haven’t had enough of those lately.
SL: Watching packed theaters laugh together during the test screenings reminded us how much fun that experience still is. That’s exactly what we hope people take away.
