So, out of all the unwatched DVDs I have scattered around the house, including everything from all five seasons of The Wire to much-lauded French thriller L’Appartement, what did I settle down to watch earlier?  Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay.

The first outing for these two amiable ethnic stoners featured their efforts to buy cheap and nasty burgers, and you could easily look at teen comedies of this nature as being the cinematic equivalent of greasy fast food.  So what am I doing watching trash like this when I haven’t even smoked a joint for years pretty much equal to the target age of the audience?

Answer is, that Harold and Kumar, despite being in formulaic comedies that have an execrable attitude to the portrayal of women, still stand out for a certain freewheeling anarchic attitude I find attractive.  And that outlook I find is a refreshing contrast to the machismo of much American cinema.

I’m also interested in seeing how America itself responds to the kind of noxious crap that the country is known for in headlines the world over.  And a film that ridicules Guantanamo Bay through the antics of a pair of students; one Indian, one Korean, both thoroughly American, counts as a fascinating response.

The two heroes even meet up with George Bush Jr, and – sharing a joint and listening to Hendrix — empathise with his problems living up to George Sr’s expectations.  OK, maybe not very nuanced, but as an example of young America it’s got a lot more going for it than Hannah Montana.

What will be interesting is seeing if Harold & Kumar can stretch to another film in the Obama presidency.  How will the two heroes get on in an America led by a man who seems to share their liberal outlook, never mind their non-white colouring?  Let’s hope they still find room to fall out – Harold and Kumar deferring to someone just because he’s a president with something in common with them would stick in the throat.

It’s possible that Obama could even become a third member of this double act, if his shouldn’t-have-said-that comments about the Special Olympics are anything to go by.  And wouldn’t that be something?  A President finding fraternity with a pair of witless substance abusers – it’ll be like the Kennedys all over again.

In the absence of Bill Hicks and his searingly intelligent comedy, you’ve got to settle for what you can get.  And Hicks was a one off.  What makes Harold & Kumar interesting is that a lot of people need to get together to agree a concept like this and put money into it.  The fact that it went well enough first time to justify another outing counts as a small victory in my eyes, a counterblast — or at least a fart gag — in response to much of what’s out there that people associate with America.

I’d like to know why we don’t have similar films being made in Britain.  Perhaps the nearest is Tormented, which I reviewed recently, and provides a twisted look at school bullying.  For the most part, British movie comedies are made by people associated with being funny on television, and it’d be satisfying to see younger and more diverse faces get involved in the act than the same old names that keep cropping up in dismal film outings.