Showroom Funny Fortnight: Cult Comedy Incoming

As a much-needed tonic to the frights of Celluloid Screams, the Showroom is swapping heart-stabbing for side-splitting for the rest of the year in its Funny Fortnights season.

In a joint enterprise with the BFI, Tuesday and Saturday nights will showcase four mixed bags of comedy. The first fortnight's 'bag' is one full of contraband, as stoner and cult comedy comes to the screens. After a full house of dressing gowns and White Russians for The Big Lebowski last month, you can expect a good turnout for cult classics Pineapple Express (Tue 30 Oct), Friday (Sat 3 Nov), Dazed and Confused (Tue 6 Nov) and Harold & Kumar Get The Munchies (Sat 10 Nov).

Quite appropriately, the fortnight is ending on a high with Harold & Kumar. Despite perfect grades and promising futures, Harold and Kumar find more use of their textbooks for making roaches than for revision. They're stuck in a timeless jam of 21st-century unfulfillment: pigeonholed in their racial stereotypes, socially incompetent, proverbially kicked around by the boss and literally kicked around by the cops. Their road trip to find the perfect food at White Castle Burgers is about more than just burgers - it's about the American Dream.

Granted, it's a road trip that makes less sense in a Google Maps age, and the CGI is more Windows screensaver than silver screen, but Neil Patrick Harris looks pretty much the same. Just like Lebowski's The Dude, stoners never change. Despite being old enough to hit puberty and tell its parents to 'shove it', 14-year-old comedy still hits the spot better than 40 White Castle burgers.

If it gets you hungry, the Showroom has a brownie making class before the screening, with fresh brownies ready once the credits roll - but you'll have to stick to the ingredients list.

Comedy Genius is a celebration of comedy on screen, led by BFI, the Independent Cinema Office and BFI Film Audience network, supported by funds from The National Lottery.