"Dude, there's a universe in all of us."
The number 420 is used in reference to the recreational use of cannabis. It originally began as a code word utilized by five Californian high school stoners who met at 4:20 pm, and eventually grew into a number intrinsically affiliated with the act of smoking weed. Today, 420 represents grass, hash, pot, Mary Jane, whatever you may call it, with April 20th being the (un)official stoner holiday.
Because of this affiliation, 420 is seen as an Inherently Funny Word on par with the numbers 69 and pi. It's often joked about and referenced both in media and in real life. The Stoner, the New-Age Retro Hippie and the Granola Girl are the most likely to get excited when the number is encountered in the wild.
Contrast Calculator Spelling for another source of funny numbers.
Examples:
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Advertising
- Memes on Slim Jim's Instagram account reference this number frequently, along with 69. Fake text memes often have the time 4:20.
Fan Works
- In 50% OFF, Nagisa resists making a joke about the joint swim practice with Samezuka High School for being "low-hanging fruit", but when Gou tells him it begins at 4:20, he says "You're killin' me right now!"
- According to the Smurfs Fanon Wiki, Smurfnip Day (which is a celebration of the legalization of the Smurfs' Fantastic Drug analog to pot) occurs on April 20 (4/20) in the Empath: The Luckiest Smurf series.
- In Healin' Good 💖 Host Club, Kaoru's online username is "hitachiin420". Hikaru matches him with "hitachiin69".
- Sorrowful and Immaculate Hearts: In "Nominal,"
item number 420 on Bruce's list of petty reasons to be sad is "I am a grown man and I cannot take this number seriously."
- This Zootopia fan comic plays with this and other common number gags: Nick and Judy come across a road sign with a 69 mph speed limit. They think it's hilarious, as well they do a 420 address number, and even when they go to the store and get charged $6.66 for supplies.
Films — Live-Action
- Love Hard: The Lin household is at 420 Holt Street. Natalie's Uber/Lyft driver recognizes the street address immediately because he smoked a lot of stuff in the basement with their son Josh. He even hands her a joint to pass onto him.
- In Neighbors (2014), a movie full of stoner characters, Mac figures out that the combination to the lock on the door to the fraternity attic has to be 420.
- In the sequel, when Mac tries to smell his way to finding the bag of weed that Shelby dropped at the tailgate due to being scared by Jimmy as a clown, upon detecting it, a voice chimes in "420!", complete with a drawn visual of said weed.
- The clocks within the pawn shop in Pulp Fiction are set to 4:20. There is an Urban Legend that every prop clock within the movie is set to 4:20, but closer inspection shows that this is not the case.
- Reefer Madness: The Musical uses the number 420 wherever possible, as a street address, as the time on a clock, and as a hymn number.
Live-Action TV
- The Good Place: In "Best Self", when the cast is discussing which iterations of them from the hundreds of Groundhog Day Loops were the best people, Jason suggests it could have been the 69th (itself another inherently funny number) or the 420th. Eleanor high-fives him for it.
- The Neighbors (2015): Tony, a stoner, lives in Apartment 420.
- Disjointed has a musical number centered on April 20th.
- Modern Family: in the episode "iSpy" Claire and Phil are digitally tracking Luke's location after he lies to them about being at a friend's house. When they find him on the map, Haley recognizes where he is:
Haley: That's the old salvage yard where kids go to get high.Phil: Are you sure?Haley: I'm gonna answer, and then I'm gonna walk away. Deal? (Claire and Phil agree) I'm 420% sure.
- A Freeze-Frame Bonus in Heroes reveals a diary entry in which Dr Chandra Suresh asked a man the time, and the man checked his watch and started laughing before telling him it was 4:20 PM. Chandra considered the man "odd" and "out of it" (that he was almost certainly higher than a kite is left to the reader to conclude).
- A 2008 episode of Saturday Night Live, hosted by James Franco, featured a skit in which Franco plays a secret agent in a parody both James Bond and Saul Silver from Pineapple Express (which Franco starred in earlier that year). The agent, dubbed "420", is tasked with stopping the evil Dr. Huang from activating a laser that could destroy the Extel communications satellite. His plans are foiled when 420's weed stash, that he kept hidden in his crotch, begins to smoke and burn and causes everybody in the room to get stoned.
Music
- Richard Swift had the song "Half Lit" which is exactly 4 minutes and 20 seconds long. (Lest you think that's just a funny coincidence, Swift also self-identified as a stoner, and pulled off a similar Easter Egg with track lengths on at least one other occasion: his mini-album The Novelist was 19 minutes and 23 seconds long because it was a story set in 1923.)
- AJR's song "No Grass Today", which is about the singer's opinions on smoking weed, is exactly 4 minutes and 20 seconds long. Considering the minute-long instrumental outro at the end of the song that could have easily been removed, this is likely not a coincidence.
- The date that Eminem started his sobriety from is 4/20. He insists this is a coincidence, but acknowledges that he finds it extremely funny.
- Bob Dylan's 1966 Blonde on Blonde song "Rainy Day Women #12 & 35" has the famous refrain "Everybody Must Get Stoned" (the Trope Namer). The fact that 12×35=420 is a coincidence, because the 420 trope hadn't been invented yet.
Pro Wrestling
- Rob Van Dam. One of his original catchphrases, playing off of "Stone Cold" Steve Austin's "Austin 3:16," was "RVD 4:20: I just smoked your ass!"note
Video Games
- Epic Battle Fantasy 5:
- Herbs can be bought in shops for 420 gold each. The Flavor Text mentions that it's a plant with medical and recreational uses.
- Inside the stable in Redpine Town, is a weed grow operation, of a sort. By completing the stable's puzzle, a chest holding the Peace Badge, 4 herbs, and 20 herbs, appears.
- In Frog Fractions, one possible answer to a history question in the Pop Quiz is, "420. I swear, they counted them twice, that's not just a pot joke." Like most of the other answers in this quiz, it doesn't make much more sense in context.
- GAME OF THE YEAR 420BLAZEIT: As one can see from the name, this parody game makes many jokes and references about the number 420, usually accompanied by "BLAZE IT".
- In Kittens Game, having exactly 420 of any resource causes the number to flash rainbow colors.
- Mutant Football League:
- This is the entire premise of the Mile High Chronic (a parody of the Denver Broncos.) One of their dirty tricks is the drug-induced "Strawberry Fields" that reverses the controls and slows down movements of the opposing team. Their stadium at Indica Springs, Colorado is literally filled with giant psychedelic mushrooms, and the announcers mention having the munchies and partaking in the delectable brownies they bake at the food vendors.
- One of the penalties a bribed ref may call on the other team is because life is harsh, unfair, and punishing, and nobody brought him any substances to cope.
- Pokémon GO: Possibly unintentional, but the Community Day event for April 20, 2024 (or 4/20/2024) was for Bellsprout, a Grass/Poison-type Pokémon, and if evolved into Victreebel during the event, it learns the move "Magical Leaf". For bonus points, Bellsprout is the 69th Pokémon.
- In the Saints Row series, there's a radio station called 103.6 Four-20, which plays reggae music.
- Crazysonic is a ROM hack of Sonic the Hedgehog where players play as the Crazybus itself throughout Sonic The Hedgehog and has 420 Blaze It as a game mode.
Visual Novels
- Dream Daddy: If the Dadsona tries impressing Lucien with his knowledge on drug lingo during his second date with Mat, he stumbles on the drug number and says "520" instead of "420", making Mat unimpressed.
- Psycholonials: The story takes place on 4/20/2020, a date Z. has circled on her calendar with a marijuana leaf, and she notes that the date is funny. In addition, the final part is set to release on 4/20/2021.
Webcomics
- Homestuck: Gamzee (who is the troll equivalent of The Stoner) offers to sell Jane some brightly-colored "potions" for 420 boondollars apiece. Lampshaded when the narrative then explains the joke by pointing out that 420 is "the weed number", but Jane is too innocent to understand that.
- In Ozzie the Vampire, Kimmy's birthday is given as April 20, aka 4/20, for comedic purposes.
- Sleepless Domain: Chapter 13, page 24 has the Alt Text:
This is page 420 of the comic, so time for everyone to calm down with some weeeeeeeeeeee—
- Bob and George once celebrated April 20th by cutting away from the current storyline just to show Roll smoking weed. Exactly at 4:20 pm, no less.
- Unwinder's Tall Comics: When The Stoner Lion-Man goes to a job interview, the calendar behind him shows the current date is April 20th. The Alt Text for that page lampshades this and says that isn't actually the date; Lion-Man just exudes "a powerful and mystic 4-20 aura" that alters calendars in his vicinity.
- SWAP Ensemble: At the conclusion of Day 18, Corbin Harmony explains that he never accepts cake as a gift on his birthday, April 20, due to a Noodle Incident. That page was released on April 20, 2021.
Web Original
- On Twitter, one tweet by the Surreal Humor account dril combines this trope with another number that gets a lot of chuckles:
the doctor reveals my blood pressure is 420 over 69. i hoot & holler outta the building while a bunch of losers try to tell me that im dying
- SCP Foundation: Behold, SCP-420-J, in which some weed is improved by running it through a couple of SCPs, and then tested by having many other SCPs get stoned.
- Channel Awesome has a Twitch alert for someone cheering 420 bits: a clip from a The Nostalgia Critic episode where the characters smoke giant blunts, set to a "Smoke weed everyday" audio clip.
- My Brother, My Brother and Me intentionally skipped over episode #420 (August 2018) and went straight to episode #421 since they couldn't decide on a concept that would do the occasion any justice. A few years later (April 2021), they ended up properly doing an episode #420 to commemorate the shutdown of Yahoo Answers.
- Tumblr: The about page is formatted to look like actual Tumblr posts, complete with fake note counts displaying "69,420 notes".
Web Video
- Twitch streamer The 8-Bit Drummer has an alert for when someone cheers 420 bits.
- Atop the Fourth Wall: Parodied during the Youngblood #9 review. Linkara gets to the point where Badrock sees a group of weightlifters on Malibu Beach and starts laughing at them. When one takes offense...
WEIGHT LIFTER (Voice by Linkara): Hey you wit da skin condition!! You tink dis is funny I can press 420! (Cuts to Linkara still doing the voice) I can really blaze it! (Beat, Looks around confused) Why is everybody laughing?
- Most of David Dobrik's vlogs are 4 minutes and 20 seconds long. Smoking weed often happens or is joked about in his vlogs.
- Subverted in a Drew Gooden Vine where he holds the camera on his mileage, which reads 419, building up to a comic switch... then it somehow goes down to 418.
- A popular Vine has a girl assume her brother is smoking weed (he's holding a crayon), so she calls the police by dialing 911 on a microwave. The sequel video has the brother spot his sister with the police and "call the weed" by dialing 420 on the microwave.
- YouTube cover artist Jonathan Young's All Star cover was intentionally made to be as meme-y as possible, and thus was made to last exactly 4 minutes and 20 seconds, with padding mid-song to reach that specific mark.
- In the Oxventure episode "Out of Order", Merilwen attempts to explain her plan through charades (being a bear and incapable of speech). Her plan is to create a skunk smell in the courtyard. This causes certain confusion over what she means by "skunk". DM Johnny immediately gives the gem of a line "Four and twenty and blazin' it."
- Jim Browning, a scambaiting YouTuber, has a video titled "Making life hell for TomTom scammers", in which "Queen Anna of Arendelle" makes a complaint about her purportedly malfunctioning "DeskJet 420". It is by no coincidence that such a printer exists, albeit a legacy model dating from the Windows 9x era, though the printer model was chosen due to the number's association with cannabis.
- MrBeast and his group enjoy pointing out instances of this in videos, second to LOL, 69. During the Squid Game recreation video, Jimmy indicating four minutes and twenty seconds left on the Green Light, Red Light timer cuts to Karl hollering "That's the number!". It was also three digits of a set of Minecraft coordinates during a treasure hunt video.
- In a now-deleted DeviantArt post, The Mysterious Mr. Enter noted that his review of The Nutshack was uploaded at 4:20 AM EST.
- The Quarter Guy referred to Blaze Heatnix in his Top Fifteen Worst Mavericks list as "420 Blaze It Heatnix" in the subtitles... while describing how horrible the aforementioned Maverick and his stage were.
- How It's Actually Made:
- In How It's Actually Made - Bicycles, the narrator is really excited to mention that the paint on the bicycle frames are baked at 420 degrees, pointing out "That's the weed number!"
- In How It's Actually Made - Bread, the narrator explains that the multi-grain breads are baked at 420 degrees for about "weed joke" minutes.
Western Animation
- Code Monkeys: In "The Story of 420", the main characters search for a fabled stash hidden by one of the greatest stoners of all time in a Whole-Plot Reference to The Goonies.
- Family Guy: One episode, in which Brian campaigns for the legalization of pot, is called "420".
- Futurama: In "The Farnsworth Parabox", one of the alternate universes the cast visits is full of stoners; naturally, it's identified as Universe 420.
Real Life
- There is an unofficial holiday on April 20th, aka 4/20 in the American month-day system, where people celebrate the act of consuming weed and advocate the legalization of marijuana. Coincidentally, April 20th also happens to be Hitler's birthdaynote , which has naturally resulted in many jokes being made involving Hitler and weed.
- In India, 420 can also mean Con Man, derived from the Section 420 of the Indian Penal Code in regards to cheating and dishonesty. It can be compared to the 419 Scam in Nigeria by number and similar laws.
- As marijuana is increasingly legalized, many hemp and cannabis-based products have used the number as part of their brand and advertising.
- Street sign theft, just as for similarly funny numbers 69 and 666, is common for signs that are unfortunate enough to have 420 on them. Solutions to the problem have included renaming the 420 mile markers to 419.99 and renaming 420th Street to 42X Street.
- California Senate Bill 420, which established California's medical marijuana program. Intentional or not, it's pretty funny.
- Kentucky Route 420 is a 5.1 mile route in the state capitol of Frankfort. Part of the route is named High Street.
- While making a $420 or $69 bid on The Price Is Right isn't exactly discouraged, the audience and viewers from home do generally frown upon it since it's seen as a cheap throwaway bid that shows that the contestant wasn't taking the game seriously. Notably, there was one contestant that only made $420 bids for the whole episode.
- When the New Mexico state legislature passed a bill legalizing the use of recreational marijuana in March of 2021, Governor Michelle Lujan Grimes was given a three-week deadline to sign the bill into law. The last day she could have signed the bill? April 20th. She signed it on April 12th.
- An urban legend about the Columbine High School massacre is that the killers chose to shoot up their school on April 20 because all their stoner classmates (who they never had a problem with) would be skipping class that day and therefore would remain unharmed. In reality, it occurred on April 20th because some of the ammo they ordered was delivered later than expected, so they pushed the date back by a day.
- Indiana University's "IU Day" (a day for celebrating and supporting the school) happened to fall on April 20, 2022. Despite numerous jokes about the students being stoners, the school's website explained that the date for IU Day actually varies from year to year, with it falling sometime in mid-to-late April due to the (usually) pleasant weather.
- Just barely Averted by New Jersey, which legalized recreational marijuana sales on April 21st, 2022. Many prospective users in the state expressed their disappointment that the state didn't start it one day earlier(the state's Cannabis Regulatory Commission claimed that doing so would have put too much bureaucratic pressure on both them and the dispensaries involved).
- Although (probably) a coincidence, NightJet's Innsbruck to Amsterdam sleeper train is numbered the NJ420.
