WILLIAMSBURG — With a self-satisfied smile, Ohio transplant Juliette O’Connor gets ready to hit post on her latest Instagram. In it, she’s leaning against her window, surrounded by her favorite plants (“my babies,” she calls them), exhaling a plume of smoke. The photo, which has been edited heavily using presets Juliette purchased from her favorite influencer, is captioned: I can FINALLY celebrate 4/20 now that weed is legal in NY!! 😉 #legalizeweed#justintime
“I’m so glad Zaddy Cuomo legalized weed just in time for 4/20,” she says while taking a hit out of a bowl that is at least 3 years old. She bought the weed six months ago from an NYU student.
Despite it being a Tuesday afternoon, Juliette takes another hit. Her laptop is open and a Zoom meeting is taking place in the background.
“Oh it’s fine, I turned my camera off and I’m muted,” she says. “Plus, they’ll understand. I mean, who makes a meeting at 4pm on 4/20? It’s like they want me to be high for this.”
Juliette’s 4/20 celebrations included a wake and bake at 8am, faking a doctor’s appointment to avoid doing work, followed by an afternoon of setting up her celebratory Instagram shot and some distracted social media scrolling. In fact, she scrolled right past multiple educational infographics about the war on cannabis, the racist enforcement of marijuana possession laws, and how to contact her reps about expunging cannabis convictions.
Quickly after posting her Instagram, the likes and comments started rolling in.
“OMG! The caption!” Wrote one commenter.
“Caption 💯” read another.
Soon she was overwhelmed with captions praising the ingenuity of her caption.
“I see what you did there!!” Praised another commenter.
In fact, the comment was so clever and original that it caught the attention of the National Comics Association, the nation’s leading humor organization. The NCA awarded Ms. O’Connor the designation Comedic Genius, an honor the association gives out twice a year to recipients who advance the field of humor with ideas and jokes that have never before been expressed.
A spokesperson for the NCA said, “Declaring Ms. O’Connor a Comedic Genius was a no-brainer, since she used her platform to point out on 4/20 that marijuana had recently been legalized in NY, which nobody else had ever said before. In fact, few people noticed the fortuitous timing at all.”
When asked what she intends to do with the award, Juliette said, “Well I’ll obviously put it in my Instagram bio.” She said she wants to “do something really big,” adding that she hopes to be the first Brooklyn resident to start a weed-inspired merch brand.
Image: SOROKAJPG / Shutterstock.com
