Cheech and Chong light up the big screen once more

The irony tickles Cheech and Chong: The Palisades fire smoked them out of their homes.

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"I had to de-smoke my house," Tommy Chong says, giggling. "Can you imagine that?" Chong and Cheech Marin 's houses, both in the Pacific Palisades, didn’t burn down. But as two of the few homes left standing ("We're under suspicion," jokes Chong), they've been uprooted. But being on the road has always been a more natural state for Marin and Chong.

No comic act has ever gotten so much mileage out of driving nowhere in particular. In their new movie, "Cheech & Chong's Last Movie" (in theaters Friday), they reflect on their odd journey while cruising through the desert, looking for a place called The Joint.

Marin, who grew up in Watts the son of an LAPD police officer, met Chong, whose father was Chinese and whose mother was Scotch Irish, after fleeing to Canada to avoid the Vietnam War draft. They met through an improv troupe and immediately felt a rare kinship.