Grammy and Emmy award-winning comedian and actress Tiffany Haddish is celebrating a new partnership between cannabis brand Cookies and the animated series The Freak Brothers that was marked by a 4/20 product launch in California. Haddish, who voices one of the characters in the show and serves as an executive producer, recently appeared at a Cookies dispensary in Los Angeles to kick off the collaboration. Entrepreneur and Billboard-charting rapper Berner, co-founder and CEO of the international cannabis and lifestyle brand, will join the show in future seasons of the animated series celebrating weed culture.

The Freak Brothers hit the cannabis scene in 1968 with the debut of the underground comic “The Furry Fabulous Freak Brothers” by creator Gilbert Shelton. The franchise, considered by many to be one of the most influential underground comics ever, soon became a counterculture hit, with more than 45 million comic books sold around the world. 

In 2022, the Freak Brothers concept was translated into an animated series for the Fox streaming platform Tubi. In the television show, the protagonists Fat Freddy Freekowtski (voiced by actor John Goodman), Phineas T. Phreakears (Pete Davidson) and Franklin Freek (Woody Harrelson) are transported from the freewheeling 1960s to modern times after getting so high that they pass out for five decades. After waking up, still in their San Francisco basement apartment after 50 years, the Freak Brothers try to find their way in the seemingly futuristic setting, with highly hilarious results.

Haddish, who plays the brothers’ sassy cat Kitty, says the collaboration between Cookies and The Freak Brothers was a natural fit. 

“The Freak Brothers is an old stoner comic book from the ‘60s and in the new show they smoke that good weed that transports them 50 years into the future,” Haddish said in an exclusive statement to High Times, “and we knew Cookies had that good weed that the Freaks would smoke so it was like BAM!”

Co-Branded ‘LSD Joint’ Hits Store Shelves

Last month, The Freak Brothers joined Cookies to celebrate the collaboration and launch of a new co-branded pre-roll dubbed the ‘LSD Joint,’ which hit store shelves just in time for 4/20. The launch also celebrated Berner’s upcoming addition to the star-studded cast of “The Freak Brothers” alongside Harrelson, Goodman, Haddish and Davidson. 

“We felt like ‘LSD Joint’ was an appropriate name for our collab given the Freak Brothers are from the ’70s, from San Francisco, and this joint is EXTREMELY strong,” Berner said in a statement about the collaboration, adding “I love that the animated show is so weed-friendly and done with class. I’m incredibly excited to announce that I am joining the Freak Brothers show alongside an epic cast.”

Greg Goldner, head of brand and strategy for Freak Brothers, says the new collaboration with Cookies celebrates the two brands’ shared heritage.

“This is the first-ever official cannabis product for ‘The Freak Brothers,’ so we wanted to lean into the cool trippy Bay Area heritage shared by both brands while producing a product the Freaks themselves would have loved to spark up,” Goldner said in a statement to the press.

“From the intricate details of the engraved, reusable wood tips to the vibrant, psychedelic designs of the package, every aspect of this collaboration perfectly captures the creative ethos both ‘The Freak Brothers’ and Cookies are renowned for,” Goldner added.

Haddish says she leaned into the partnership when she heard about the exclusive cannabis products planned for the collaboration.

“Berner and the Cookies team talked to the Freak Brothers team to come up with something cool, and once I knew there was going to be a marijuana line, I said let’s do this because she ready over here – and we just getting started,” said Haddish.

The first two seasons of The Freak Brothers are currently streaming for free on Tubi. The show is executive produced by Courtney Solomon and Mark Canton, along with award-winning showrunners Alan Cohen and Alan Freedland. Haddish, Harrelson, Davidson, Shelton and Manfred Mroczkowski also serve as executive producers of the series. 

“We’re excited to welcome Berner to the show. His proven track record of innovation and his authentic love of cannabis culture is a perfect marriage with the Freak Brothers,” said Courtney Solomon, Freak Brothers’ CEO and show executive producer. “We look forward to a long collaboration together.” 

Season 3 of The Freak Brothers animated series is currently in the works, although a release date for new episodes has not yet been announced.

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FOX’s free streaming service Tubi hosted the premiere of a pop-up experience on December 6 at Fred Segal’s flagship Sunset location in Los Angeles, California to honor the platform’s animated ode to smokers new and old—The Freak Brothers. 

Most members of the epic voice cast attended, including Pete Davidson (Saturday Night Live), John Goodman (The Connors), Blake Anderson (Workaholics) and Andrea Savage (Veep), Phil LaMarr (Futurama) and Danny Gendron.

The Freak Brothers is the story of three fictional characters who regularly venture out on escapades that inevitably involve pot. It’s the tale of Freewheelin’ Franklin Freek (Woody Harrelson), Fat Freddy Freekowtski (Goodman), Phineas T. Phreakers (Davidson) and their cat Kitty (Tiffany Haddish).  

The series debuted on Tubi on November 14, 2021, after it was resurrected from the original comic series by artist Gilbert Shelton that debuted in the late ‘60s and into the ‘70s, amid a wave of hippie writers and artists who tested the legal boundaries of publishing.

To showcase this modern interpretation, the Fred Segal Sunset location has been transformed into The Freak Brothers universe, bringing the animated series to life—complete with gigantic cartoon mushrooms under fluorescent light and faux pot plants aplenty. Running through January 15, the immersive pop-up experience at the Fred Segal is open to the public.

High Times was on-scene as Anderson and Davidson hotboxed the room. Davidson wore the Fred Segal Reverse Logo Hoodie ($108). I couldn’t help but notice a High Times back issue with the Freak Brothers on the cover, chilling on the glass coffee table in front of them. I did a little digging, and found out it was the November 1990 issue—one of multiple times that the Freak Brothers graced the cover of the magazine.

“Really the two characters are just an extension of me and Adam [Devine]. So, it’s kind of cool being in the booth and recording [our voice roles]. It’s improv and all of that. It’s pretty cool.”

– Blake Anderson

The juxtaposition of the old and new timelines is a testament to changing customs surrounding cannabis. After smoking a magical strain of weed in 1969, the Freak Brothers are transported 50 years into the future to 2020, bringing their counterculture lifestyle to the modern world. Legal cannabis is everywhere.

Things get funny when they confront current-day smokers. Blake Anderson and Adam Devine—two-thirds of the Workaholics trio—play Chuck and Charlie, stoners who live in the present day.

“They’re really stoners of modern times,” Anderson told High Times. “They’re really working the system. They know that weed is legal—weirdly. So they’re in a whole different realm from The Freak Brothers.”

A culture clash is the result—and some of it includes a pinch of reality. Today, you can practically take a hit from a pen inside a store, instead of hiding in the woods.

“Really the two characters are just an extension of me and Adam [Devine]. So, it’s kind of cool being in the booth and recording [our voice roles]. It’s improv and all of that. It’s pretty cool. I’m here representing both of us.”

The voice cast includes some of the top Hollywood veterans—many of whom grew up reading the original underground hippie comics. Goodman plays Fat Freddy, the kind-hearted ginger stoner who in the comics, usually loses money or gets burned for weed. Goodman said that he has been collecting The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers comics by Gilbert Shelton for some time, which prepared him for creating the voice of Freddy. He went more into detail about it at the New York Comic Con last year.

When asked if the comics’ lasting power will be accepted by younger generations, Goodman is optimistic. “I hope so,” Goodman told High Times. “I wouldn’t have believed it” continues to impact readers as much as it did then today, he explained. “I still have a bunch of the comic books at home. I leaf through them every once in a while.” 

“I still have a bunch of the comic books at home. I leaf through them every once in a while.” 

– John Goodman

The generational differences are especially evident in the way cannabis has become commercialized and how the plant was mostly removed from its taboo status, circa the Nixon era, when the comics were first popular, and when Goodman was reading them. “It was back then in the 70s—there were a lot of [drugs],” he said with a grin.

Goodman voiced the experienced monster Sulley in Monsters Inc. alongside Billy Crystal—paving the way for his new cartoon role as Freddy. Freddy’s voice is his new work of art, and he’s ready to share it with a new audience. “I hope it does” reach a new generation,” Goodman said. “It would sure be nice.”

New Episodes of The Freak Brothers drop every Sunday on Tubi through December 26. Visit the Fred Segal on 8500 Sunset Blvd in Los Angeles for an immersive Freak Brothers experience now through Saturday, January 15, where you can grab a selfie in front of towering mushrooms and faux fields of pot.

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