Doug Benson is all about jokes and tokes. Somehow he managed to combine these two slacker pastimes to create the ultimate dream job.

College students should learn from him. After all, we all have something we are good at. Now is the time to figure out how to make money doing what you love.

For Benson it means being stoned and laughing at silly nonsense.

Seeing as marijuana is not legal yet, most stoners have to keep their own high-times under cover. This comedian is not only known for telling pot-jokes and laughing at pot-jokes but being a living and breathing pot-idol.

More than 200 surprisingly-high energy students came to the University Union to see Benson on Thursday. Some were high, some were bored, and some like me, did not really expect to laugh quite so hard. I was wrong about Benson; this funnyman was prepared to entertain me. He even had a list of jokes in his hand on the off-chance he forgot his place.

“Marijuana: why forget something tomorrow when you can forget it today?” Benson asked.

Looking at his list, Benson was reminded to begin his act with “Hey everybody” and end with “Thanks and goodnight,” a bit of a spoiler alert for his crowd.

He also had his phone on stage so he could refer to his own comedy diary: Twitter.

There was something calming and ridiculously entertaining about the way that Benson spoke. Every imitation you have ever made of a stoner was fulfilled in his walk, his voice and his deep thoughts.

Whether or not the joke was finished, or even that funny, was irrelevant. You could not help but laugh, maybe even to the point of tears. Maybe it was because of his goofy smile. Or maybe it was because he giggled at his own jokes. Or maybe it was because he was the most motivated stoner I have ever seen.

He managed to point out the necessity for college students to vote, especially in light of Proposition 19 and the chance that Marijuana could finally be legal.

“Even if you are 18,” Benson said, “My advice to you is: plan for your future.”

For all stoners out there, this man is your hero.

“A message to parents who think legalizing weed will make their kids want to try it: they will anyway,” Benson said on Twitter.

The crowd at the show was one of the most excitable I have seen at Sacramento State. There was yelling from the back row, a few red-eyed students crying tears of laughter and a crowd of people excited to meet Benson and his opening act comedian, Graham Elwood.

“Benson was so pleased with himself,” Amber Sanborn said, junior nursing major. “It was hilarious because if I repeated the jokes I don’t think they would be that funny.”

Sanborn could not stop laughing even after the show ended. Maybe because she was not stoned, so she did not forget that Benson’s jokes were funny, even an hour later.

For anyone that missed the show, or cannot remember it, Benson is performing at Sacramento’s comedy club, the Punch Line for the Sunday matinèe.

Leia Ostermann can be reached at [email protected]