Not only did the Mike Myers brainchild based on the same-named Saturday Night Live sketch establish itself as a pivotal pop-cultural footprint mere minutes in with a head-banger’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” delight; it maintained its iconography throughout the full run.
The stoner comedy devoid of on-screen toking was released exactly three decades ago this Valentine’s Day. The surprise hit single-handedly revived the belief “not ready for primetime players” could bust the block. Found in every conversation from the junior high lunch table to the office water cooler pow-wow, Wayne’s World paved the way for Billy Madison, Tommy Boy and even Wayne’s World 2, among others, to come screaming into the fold soon thereafter.
Everyone knows the story – the rock-worshiping, warped Peter Pan syndrome-inflicted Wayne Campbell (Myers) and Garth Algar (Dana Carvey) struggle to keep their cable access show’s “man cave” roots amid evil Rob Lowe’s onslaught of advertisement-appeasing agenda items.
What made the Penelope Spheeris-directed flick transcend, if not its unparalleled quotability: the sheer commitment to tasteful entertainment whilst simultaneously subverting against, and conforming to lowbrow expectations. Suspension of disbelief allows moviegoers to buy a cartoon character come to life thrust into a whirlwind romance with a musician so far out of his league she’s playing a whole different sport entirely. But we’re not for a second stunned by Cassandra’s (Tia Carrere) vocal stylings still stuck in our dream-weaving minds nearly a third of a century later.
Furthermore, the triple whammy ending revived a bit from the past decade’s overlooked but since cult-appreciated Clue film. Overall, Wayne’s World parodied as much other timeless media like Terminator 2: Judgment Day and Scooby-Doo as it could until its last “fishy-faced” breath.
Earlier gags featured Alice Cooper and his bandmates deadpan-waxing intellectual on the history of Milwaukee while clad in full makeup; the smacked-over-your-head ironic premise of Wayne and Garth likening themselves anti-corporate shills while product-placing Doritos and decked out in Reebok, respectively; and a Laverne & Shirley spoof… just for the hell of it.
All of these instances, and plenty more humble emotionally-invested parties. They remind them this is a tale born from a variety show writers room where anything can happen when they channel their inner weird and afterparty fuel.
Wayne’s World hypnotized comedy fans head-over-heels for The Naked Gun, but longing for the antithesis to late-blooming leading man, the late Leslie Nielsen. They needed someone who could surfer-smile through every juvenile utterance.
They needed a Mike Myers, who, thankfully, is adept enough at character transformation that he wouldn’t limit himself to just becoming Wayne. The Canadian sensation ultimately forewent “Wayne’s World 3” to instead foster his British-parented upbringing into a handful of James Bond-meets-Dr. Strangelove creations too big for SNL, but too rich to fail on the biggest screens; especially with box-office gold laser beams attached to their frickin’ heads.
