THE 7TH ANNUAL STONY AWARDS

The seventh annual Stony Awards celebrate the best films and television shows that are best watched baked, the ones that tickle the Stony bone. A Stony-nominated film doesn’t have to be about getting high (though it helps), nor does it have to be bursting with Purple Urkel in every shot (though I’d probably vote for that film). A Stony Award is more often about you, the viewer, with senses properly stimulated along the wide-open avenues of appreciation that emerge when you take that first puff, pop in that new DVD and press “Play.”

The Stonys are about the cultural community that grows out of the stoner experience and blossoms onto the modern screen, large and small—the best TV shows and films that each year build upon our world.

To garner a coveted Stony nomination, a film or TV show must have a moment of connection with the marijuana ethos. It can be a fully realized appreciation, like Seth Rogen’s lovable-stoner-gets-the-girl comedy Knocked Up, or it can be a simple but meaningful nod to potheads at large, as with Otto’s long-overdue bong rip in this year’s best animation, The Simpsons Movie.

This year, the Stony Awards are going to Los Angeles, in a benefit for the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. NORML is necessary because we live in an age when our own government spends millions of dollars each year just to let everyone know that people who smoke marijuana are lazy, mindless morons who might shoot you in the face. (Remember that commercial?) Then, every Sunday night when the bud brothers in HBO’s Entourage take the screen, the government’s lie is exposed. Each week, 15 million Americans and millions more worldwide laugh along with Vince, Eric, Turtle and Drama as they take beaucoup bong hits, and the world by storm. Their loyalty to each other, like their affection for the kind, is never in question.

Affable, laughable and very, very high, the stoners on Entourage are not just what we want to be; they’re also what we should be, and we think they deserve a Stony Award.

This year, for the first time, we’ve included video games in the Stony Awards, because let’s face it: A good movie, a good TV show and a good video game are the couch-potato trifecta, and at the end of the joint, we’re just as interested in the digital dealings on Saints Row as we are amused by the stoned shenanigans on House.

So if your mother watches one of these Stony Award winners, she may be less likely to think of you as a lazy, mindless moron the next time the subject comes up. (We’re not making any promises, though.) Jack Black, Sarah Silverman, Seth Rogen, Mary Louise Parker, Turtle, Drama, Otto and all the rest have shown her that stoners can be funny and likable, charming and smart, and we thank them for that. And as for shooting your best friend in the face? Tell your mom she must be thinking of the vice president.