Wayne’s World Is Still “Excellent” After 25 Years

I’m a film geek. My world shines through celluloid strips of film as I study the editing and Goodfellas or consistently go back and examine that lobster scene in Annie Hall.

Despite my love for dramas about criminal empires or Jewish writers falling in love, comedy has been such a fascinating drama to me.

Making people laugh is no easy task.  Making me laugh is even harder. As pretentious as I am, I do love things that are funny.

So when I find a movie as funny as The Big Lebowski or Hot Fuzz, it’s a big deal.

Twenty five years ago, one of the greatest examples of the genre was released. Wayne’s World  was the second and most successful attempt at taking a Saturday Night Live sketch and turning it into a movie. I’ve seen a couple of these movies with my three favorites being Wayne’s World, A Night at the Roxbury and Macgruber (which is a criminally underrated comedy in my opinion).

The last two are funny, but they are still leagues below Wayne’s World.

It all starts with its delivery. The movie opens with something familiar to fans of the sketch where rock and roll fans Wayne Campbell (Mike Myers) and Garth Algar (Dana Carvey) run a public access show from Wayne’s parents’ basement.

From there, we get a simple story of how these Aurora natives go from underground fame to network TV stardom. A television producer played by Rob Lowe in his first villain role in a ‘90s comedy until Tommy Boy, buys rights to Wayne’s World and the rest is a bunch of jokes and non-sequiturs.

Sure, story is important in any film, but this gets a pass in my book. Much like the sketch it’s based off of, the focus is on jokes. So many jokes.

The film is consistently funny. Laughs are delivered at a rapid fire rate, ranging from punchlines about ‘90s culture to the insane amount of quotable lines this side of Airplane! or Lebowski.

It did the whole “breaking the fourth wall” thing before Deadpool.

It may seem like I’m giving this film too much credit, which I am known to do, but I feel like I’m valid in my praise. What Wayne’s World did for comedy in the ‘90s can be compared to what movies like Ghostbusters and Caddyshack did in the ‘80s.  

I tend to look back at the past  too often, and I will admit that it’s a habit. As a self-proclaimed cinephile, I do a bad job of looking at the present.

But here’s the thing, I’m young. I’m discovering most of this stuff for the first time. As a writer, I constantly look for new sources to inspire my writing.

Comedy is something I struggle with. Wayne’s World is a master-class on the topic. One on how to perfectly combine so many comedic elements to create a perfectly cohesive comedy.

For the sake of preserving the humor, I’ll assume some people reading this have not seen this film, so I won’t spoil the best jokes. Even if you haven’t, I assume that the lines have made their way into your lives at some point.

I will say that those who have somehow missed out on this comedic masterpiece should correct that immediately. It’s by no means a perfect film, as no film is (though Goodfellas and Empire Strikes Back make strong cases for themselves), but it is a perfect comedy. Something that is hard to find.