Hello 11W Nation:
A couple days ago I responded to CowCat’s post about banding together to fight boredom as social distancing continues. I had the idea to post videos of some of my favorite SNL skits from days gone by. For me, the late 80s/early 90s of SNL was the ultimate Golden Era of the show.
Chris Farley, Phil Hartman, Mike Myers, Dana Carvey, Adam Sandler (not my fav TBH, but a big star). The list of cast members goes on and is quite remarkable. I was born in 1985 so too young to see these as they aired originally, but my favorite thing in the mid-to-late-90s was to come home from school and watch the re-runs on Comedy Central.
I had the idea to do this because I recently was speaking with a younger co-worker and I made a "Tommy Boy" reference (“fat guy in a little coat”) and she had no idea what I was doing. I quickly then found out that she had never even heard of Chris Farley. I was blown away, both by the indicator that I am getting older, and by the sadness that his comedic accomplishments are now lost to the ages among the current young generation.
I am a teacher, and honestly I’ve been much more busy than I first anticipated as Ohio begins the days of the school shutdown. So today I am doing this not out of boredom, but to give myself a break from the challenges I’ve already experienced with adjusting to remote learning.
Today I bring you some of my favorite CHRIS FARLEY skits from his SNL days. I only picked 4, and I think in total they may run about 20 minutes. There are a great deal more good ones out there, that I’m hopeful some of you will add in the comments (please try to keep it to Farley skits only today...we'll have plenty of time to explore the entire SNL catalog). But I hope this will serve as a distraction from these crazy days we’re all navigating. If I manage to make you forget about the world for just a moment, my goal is accomplished. I know I need it myself, which is why I’m kind of rambling at this point.
I hope for some of you this brings a nostalgic smile, and for others you may get a chance to discover a legend that we lost too soon.
As the days go by, I’ll plan to dive into other cast members (I can’t wait to show you younger Dubbers the genius of Phil Hartman). But Farley is the first man up due to his being the inspiration for this in the first place.
- First up, the all-timer. Matt Foley. Motivational Speaker. I love how he goes out of his way to get David Spade to break character.
- Next, Chippendale’s. Another classic. Totally leaning into the comedy of his body.
- Mayor Giuliani’s Inauguration. An esoteric character, but a great performance nonetheless. Couldn’t find this on YouTube, but it’s worth following the link.
- Finally, Zaggat’s review. Another hilarious part of Farley’s work was when he’d play women. This probably isn’t even the best example, but again a fun skit where he’s mostly just trying to get Adam Sandler to break.
If you’ve got other Farley moments you want to share, please do! Movie clips would be great too in addition to SNL skits.
Enjoy, and be safe out there.
