Simultaneously Stupid and Smart, ‘Time Traveling Bong’ is One Hilarious Hit

With a title like Time Traveling Bong, it wouldn’t be out of line to assume that this three-part miniseries on Comedy Central will likely be incredibly dumb. Yet this three-part saga of time traveling stoners isn’t only dumb, it’s also really smart in its blending of modern social commentary through the smoke-filled haze of its time travelers. Therein lies the brilliance of this collaboration between Broad City’s Ilana Glazer and Paul W. Downs, mixing the moronic with the high-minded (pun intended) in a raucous comedy fueled by THC.

Sharee (Glazer) and Jeff (Downs) are cousins living together in a condo, each with their own set of life problems. Sharee is stuck in a dead-end relationship with a married man and Jeff has a crippling addiction to pornography. One night the two discover a mysterious smoking apparatus with a mysterious language on it. Using a translating app, they discover the text refers to it as a “time traveling bong.” The two smoke from the bong and find themselves transported to Salem, Massachusetts during the height of the Salem Witch Trials. Things take a turn for the worse when the bong is damaged by the frenzied citizens of Salems. While Sharee is apprehended and labeled as a witch, Jeff is free to do as he pleases while the town’s glass blower fixes the busted bong. Once able to escape the frenzied witch hunt, the duo find themselves transported to the dawn of man, the segregated South of the ‘60s, Ancient Greece, and a dystopian future. All Sharee and Jeff can do is keep smoking until the bong eventually brings them home.

Among the funnier aspects of the Time Traveling Bong is the way that the two inept stoners attempt to do good by trying to rewrite history, only to make matter much worse. In a brief stopover on a plantation, the two take the slaves with them to the segregated South, where each of the recently emancipated slaves immediately sign up for military service in Vietnam. This rolls right into a sequence where Sharee and Jeff encounter a young Michael Jackson, but the details of this meeting is best not to be spoiled. Take my word for it, these scenes are funny and push the boundaries of taste, yet still honor and mock the twisted legacy of the King of Pop.

Thematically, the Time Traveling Bong hits upon some important aspects of our culture over the centuries, including history’s abhorrent treatment of women. Repeatedly, Sharee is subjected to forms of degradation that society deems acceptable, while Jeff just skates on by solely because of his gender. Amusingly, it gives the somewhat self-absorbed Sharee a character arc which sees her understanding the difficulty of women throughout history. Conversely, Jeff’s arc consists solely of being able to masturbate without the aid of pornography. As with most everything within the Time Traveling Bong, it is at once a smart observation about society and history presented through the lens of incredibly stupid pot comedy.

Written by Ilana Glazer, Paul W. Downs, and Lucia Aniello, with Aniello also directing, Time Traveling Bong should easily appeal to fans of Broad City, though Abbi Jacobson is nowhere to be found. This miniseries works in areas concerning sexuality and drug use that one could find on their hit Comedy Central series, raunchy and outrageous with a streak of striking intelligence. The talent on display here in getting laughs by appealing to shocking and smart sensibilities is rare.

Set to debut on 4/20, Time Traveling Bong genuinely surprised me with its idiocy and intelligence working in unison. The fact that laughed as much as did during Time Traveling Bong just goes to show that you can never truly tell the quality of a given project without actually watching it. Here’s a comedy miniseries with a sharp sense of history and comedy, as well as understanding that time travel can be employed as a storytelling cheat. At the conclusion of the show’s final installment, Jeff and Sharee are about to explain any gaps in logic that the viewer might had, and then it cuts and goes to the credits. Pot comedy is absurd. Time travel stories are absurd. Combine the two and you get one wonderfully absurd miniseries entitled Time Traveling Bong.