Bill Maher wants America to break out those bongs.
The “Real Time With Bill Maher” host announced on his show Friday that he has started a Change.org petition to make 4/20 a national holiday.
Maher said that given the fact marijuana is now legal, in one way or another, in 24 U.S. states, it was time to make the unofficial stoner holiday an official one.
“It’s more worthy than Columbus Day,” Maher said. “Why should we celebrate that racist psychopath?” Maher then treated his panelists to a reading of the not-so-children’s book “Twas the Night Before 4/20.”
Set in the style of a nursery rhyme, the book included lines like, “Then out of the shadows I saw it myself. It was Willie Nelson and Snoop [Dogg], his jolly old elf.”
At the time of this publishing, the petition has been live for 19 hours and has garnered 3,118 signatures of its 5,000 signature goal.
The 20th of April is traditionally held up as a unofficial holiday for those who enjoy smoking pot. The prevailing urban legend goes that a group of high school students from Northern California would meet up after school every day at 4:20 p.m. to smoke.
People in cities like Denver and Seattle, where marijuana is legal for recreational use, have weekend-long events planned in preparation for Monday’s “holiday.”