If you're a regular or daily toker, you've probably spent your fair share of hours on the hunt for the right videos to accompany your sesh. Whether you're in a group setting, a solo couch-lock state, or traversing the psychedelic corners of YouTube while nursing a mild joint, we've got eight trippy videos to heighten your next sesh.
For this list, we tracked down a selection of videos from YouTube that will be equally great for a) getting high and watching solo, b) getting high and having on in the background, and c) having on in the background or watching during a sesh with friends. Next time you're putting together a video playlist for your next extra-sensory toke-and-chill, keep these guys in mind.
Trippy Compilation Of Cartoons — LoFi Music
The functional, straightforward title says it all. Trippy remixes of classic cartoons set to lo-fi hip-hop and electronica reign supreme among the ranks of great YouTube videos to watch while stoned. This one, featuring remixed animation from Disney's early “Silly Symphonies” shorts, is a trippy little treasure that no stoned-viewing playlist should be without.
Blockhead — The Music Scene
This music video for Blockhead's “The Music Scene,” featuring the mind-melting animation of Anthony F. Schepperd, has been taken and put to several other pieces of music around YouTube — a clear indication that there's something inherently primal, psychedelic, and profoundly overwhelming about the vid that begs to be experienced while lit. Watch this at the peak of an edible high and you may just walk away with a few stoney new insights on your relationship with the universe.
Midnight Television
You may already be familiar with vaporwave — a genre birthed from the internet, typically defined by remixed '80s synth tracks accompanied by spliced visuals of '80s and '90s consumer culture. “Midnight Television” is a nearly-hour-long compilation of TV commercials and segments from the '80s you're bound to enjoy sifting through while stoned alone on your couch, or having on in the background for a laid-back communal nostalgia trip at your next social sesh.
Simpsonwave — S U N D A Y S C H O O L
Hold up, folks, we're not quite done with vaporwave yet. Welcome to Simpsonwave, a subgenre that utilizes our generations-spanning nostalgia for “The Simpsons” by infusing imagery from the show with the stoney, melancholy, lo-fi dankness of the vaporwave aesthetic. This particular Simpsonwave entry by Lucien Hughes is one of several couch-lock gems of you'll find on his YouTube channel.
'La Forme d'une Ville'
In artist Benjamin Bardou's own words, this fascinating, and oddly soothing bit of photographic manipulation, called “La Forme d'une Ville” (“The Shape of the City”) “is the result of a trip of several days and nights made in the city of Nantes, France, at the invitation of the Motion Motion festival.” Letting the cannabis high wash over you as you swim through this uncanny dreamscape is a couch-lock adventure you won't want to miss.
Mandelbulb 3D — The Depths of Europa
You've likely already seen a number of fractal zoom videos or graphics over the course of your various scrolls while high through the Internet's universe of passively trippy content. This 3D piece of fractal art by digital artist Sherry Grandy is one of the most seamlessly rendered fractal compositions you'll ever have the joy of getting lost in while dabbing or nursing an edible high.
'These 3D Motion Designs are Your Daily Dose of Satisfaction'
The term “oddly satisfying” may easily be considered its own content genre at this point — popularized by autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR) videos and the type of graphics compiled in this video, designed to stimulate multiple senses for a brief viewing experience that's equal parts odd and soothing. For optimal effect, put this on as your smoke sesh with friends is winding down, or watch on your phone as you settle into bed after a midnight toke.
'blank vhs covers were kinda beautiful'
Once again, the title says it all. Some of us older tokers will remember the blank VHS tapes we'd use to record shit off of TV. Well now we can smoke a bowl and take this oddly psychedelic nostalgia trip through the sleek, simple, colorful designs of yesteryear's blank VHS covers with this video, which blends them all together in one immensely satisfying moving graphic.
Feature Illustrated by Madeline Donegan/Weedmaps.
