Saturday Night Live
Along with
Chris Rock, Farley was one of two new
Saturday Night Live cast members announced in the spring of 1990.
[2][3] On
SNL, Farley frequently collaborated with his fellow cast members
Adam Sandler, Chris Rock,
Rob Schneider, and
David Spade, among others. This group came to be known as the "Bad Boys of SNL."
[12]
Popular characters performed by Farley included
Matt Foley, an over-the-top
motivational speaker
who constantly reminded other characters that he "lived in a van, down
by the river". The name of the character was drawn from a real life
friend of Farley's named Matt Foley, who, during a troubled period,
lived in a van near a river. He later became a Catholic priest and
appeared in the 2015 documentary "I am Chris Farley". In early
renditions of the character, Farley used other names, depending on whom
he knew in the audience, until the real life Foley went to the show and
had his name used, at which point Farley felt the name best suited the
character and refused to change it. Some of the mannerisms of the
character were a combination of the positions Farley noticed his Rugby
teammates take (at the pitch), coupled with the angry, high pitched yet
low volume/muffled voice his father used when he was angry;
[13] Todd O'Connor of
Bill Swerski's Superfans, a group of stereotypical Chicagoans who constantly shouted
"da Bears!";
[14] a
Chippendale's dancer, in a famous sketch that paired him with guest host
Patrick Swayze;
[15] one of the "
Gap Girls", who hung out together at a local mall; a stereotypical
lunch lady, to the theme of
Lunchlady Land performed by Adam Sandler;
[16] Bennett Brauer, a
Weekend Update commentator who often divulged his personal and hygienic problems via
air quotes; and himself on
The Chris Farley Show, a talk show in which Farley quite often "interviewed" the guest, regularly getting very nervous.
Some of these characters were brought to
SNL from his days at Second City. Farley also performed impersonations of
Tom Arnold, who gave Farley's eulogy at his private funeral;
Andrew Giuliani,
Jerry Garcia,
Meat Loaf,
Norman Schwarzkopf,
Dom DeLuise,
Roger Ebert,
Carnie Wilson,
Newt Gingrich,
Mindy Cohn,
Mama Cass,
Hank Williams, Jr., and
Rush Limbaugh.
[17]
Off-screen, Farley was well known for his pranks in the offices of
Saturday Night Live. This would refer to Sandler and Farley making late-night prank phone calls from the
SNL offices in
Rockefeller Center, with Sandler speaking in an old woman's voice and Farley
farting into the phone and
mooning
cars from a limousine. He was also known to frequently get naked and do
various stunts for laughs. Chris Rock once claimed that he probably saw
Farley's private parts more than Farley's girlfriend did.
[18][19][20] Sandler told
Conan O'Brien on
Late Night that
NBC fired him and Farley from the show in 1995.
[21]
Film career
During his time on
SNL, Farley appeared in the comedy films
Wayne's World,
[22] Coneheads,
[23] Airheads,
[24] and uncredited in
Billy Madison.
[25] He also appeared in the
Red Hot Chili Peppers music video for "
Soul to Squeeze", which was a song featured on the
Coneheads soundtrack.
[26]
After Farley and most of his fellow cast members were released from their contracts at
Saturday Night Live following the
1994–1995 season, Farley began focusing on his film career. His first two major films co-starred his fellow
SNL colleague and close friend
David Spade. Together, the duo made the films
Tommy Boy and
Black Sheep. These were a success at the domestic
box office, earning around $32 million each and gaining a large
cult following on
home video.
[27][28]
The two films established Farley as a relatively
bankable star and he was given the title role of
Beverly Hills Ninja, which finished in first place at the box office on its opening weekend.
[29]
Drug and alcohol abuse-related problems interfered with Farley's film work at this time. Production of his final film,
Almost Heroes,
was held up several times so Farley could enter rehab. He was known
among comedic contemporaries and friends to be sensitive about how his
comedy was perceived ("fatty-fall-down"), and was particularly hurt by
harsh critical reactions to
Tommy Boy, a film he enjoyed making. He was particularly dissatisfied with
Black Sheep, an attempt by the studio to recapture the chemistry on
Tommy Boy
and was only 60 pages into the script when the project was green-lit.
As a result, he relapsed again the night of the premier, which required
further rehab before he would begin to work on
Beverly Hills Ninja.
[30] After his death on December 18, 1997, his final completed films,
Almost Heroes and
Dirty Work, were released
posthumously.
