Culture
Jimmy Kimmel Proclaims October 20—Snoop Dogg’s Birthday And Midpoint To 4/20—As New Marijuana Holiday Called ‘DoggFather’s Day’
Recognizing Snoop Dogg’s “significant contributions to the popularization of marijuana,” comedian and late-night TV host Jimmy Kimmel proclaimed the rapper’s birthday of October 20—this Friday—to be the “new high holiday” of DoggFather’s Day.
In a mock-proclamation unveiled on Jimmy Kimmel Live on Thursday night, Kimmel noted that “Mr. Dogg’s birthday falls on the exact midpoint to 4/20—a coincidence that is totally tripping me out right now.”
Explaining the origin of the celebration to Snoop, Kimmel said half-birthdays are big in his family—”We sing Halfy Birthday, we have half a cake”—and on 4/20 last year, “I was sitting there thinking, ‘I wonder what the half-birthday of 4/20 is.'”
He opened his calendar and realized that “It’s my friend Snoop Dogg’s birthday on 10/20,” he said. “It absolutely blew my mind. And I thought, ‘Why shouldn’t this be a holiday?'”
Kimmel then pulled a large document out of an oversized rolling papers box—carried by Kimmel’s sidekick Guillermo Rodriguez—and read the text of the proclamation:
Whereas, Calvin Cordozar Broadus Jr., known worldwide as Snoop Doggy Dogg, has made significant contributions to the popularization of marijuana—AKA weed, pot, ganja, herb, bud, trees, cheeba, kush, chronic, reefer, dank, sticky icky icky and jolly green giggle sticks.
Whereas, Mr. Dogg’s birthday (miraculously) falls on the exact midway point to 4/20—a coincidence that is totally tripping me out right now.
We encourage tokers around the world to lift their goblets of Gin N’ Juice, blaze their blunts, scooby their doobies, and share their Satan’s Spinach—to pay tribute—as I, Jizzimy Kizzimel, proclaim the 20th day of October to be DoggFather’s Day.
Kimmel then encouraged the audience to bow their heads and join him in concluding, “Bow-Wow-Wow Yippie-Yo-Yippie-Yay-men.” He presented Snoop with what he said was the new “Presidential Medal of Weedom.”
Snoop initially said he was speechless, then addressed what he referred to as “one nation under a bud leaf,” saying, “We gon’ blow one for the po’ one” and pantomiming hitting a blunt.
While Kimmel’s interview with the rap superstar wasn’t exclusively about cannabis, the bulk of it was. At one point, talk turned to how Snoop’s love for marijuana is known around the world. “In a way that is your green card into every country, isn’t it?” Kimmel asked.
“It’s good to have friends that have friends internationally,” Snoop said, “and able to get you, you know, medicated and dedicated no matter where you at.”
Kimmel quizzed Snoop on where in the world he knew someone who could connect him with cannabis, and Snoop answered affirmatively to Mexico, Ireland, India, and possibly Estonia. (“I’ve probably got some people over there,” Snoop said.)
“What about North Korea?” asked Kimmel. Snoop admitted that was the limit after initially confusing it with South Korea.
Snoop Dogg is, of course, a fixture in the marijuana community—one that’s become even more mainstream as more jurisdictions legalize cannabis. Four years ago, in October 2019, he and actor Seth Rogen appeared on The Howard Stern Show to offer smoking advice to first-time cannabis consumers.
During that appearance, he said he pays someone between $40,000 and $50,000 per year to roll blunts for him—which Rogan seemed to confirm.
“He knows how to gauge the look on somebody’s face when it seems like they want a blunt, and if they do, he gives you one,” Rogen said of the employee.
Replied Snoop: “Timing. That motherfucker’s timing is impeccable.”
Snoop has at times taken more serious positions on reform, for example in 2021, when he called on sports leagues to stop testing players for marijuana and instead allow them to use it as an alternative to opioids.
In April of this year, he applauded the National Basketball Association over reports it would drop cannabis from its list of banned substances.
He said that he supported the reform based on the “medical side of it, the health benefits and how it could actually help ease the opioids and all the pills that they’ve been given and the injections.”
“As long as it doesn’t enhance your skills to make you play better or to give you an advantage, you should be able to treat yourself and to heal yourself,” he said.
Colorado Marijuana Retailers Have 99% Compliance Rate In Underage Sales Checks, State Regulators Say
Photo courtesy of ABC/Randy Holmes.
