‘Infinitely quotable’: Why Wayne’s World is my feel-good movie | Mike Myers

WWhen a conversation about the most overrated band in history comes up, I often want to bring up Queen as my suggestion. Their ubiquitous songs represent the worst of bands that favor stadium-sized grandeur over true ambition. However, I could never support the idea of ​​destroying Freddy and co when their music helped create one of my most beloved scenes in cinematic history.

In early 1992 at Wayne’s World, a group of rockers pushes an AMC Pacer with a custom flame painted on the side. As they pass auto shops, car washes and meat stands in downtown Chicago, “Bohemian Rhapsody” plays on the car stereo. The song’s operatic verses are used for laughs (the “Let me go” line turns into a cry for help from a party-engaged friend who might “beep” in the backseat) while a breakdown in the middle creates space for a splatter of high-speed headbanging. To me, it’s as exciting a car scene as anything else in the Bullitt or Mad Max series.

At its core, the scene, and Wayne’s World as a whole, revolves around the friendship between Wayne (Mike Myers) and Garth (Dana Carvey). They’re best friends who, when they’re not behind the wheel, host a show on public television. They’re basically a pair of irreverent YouTubers in the pre-Internet era, wearing ripped jeans and Def Leppard T-shirts while chatting with weirdos like the inventor of the Suck Kut, a self-made hair-cutting device. The DIY show has given them minor celebrity status, as Wayne dates Cassandra (Tia Carrere), the singer in a band he meets at the local Gasworks club.

Wayne, who has run his own merchandise and played sports, wants to make something big happen (or “cachunga” in heavy ’90s slang) while his alien host is happy to chew red licorice and contemplate Bugs Bunny’s appeal when dressed as a woman. It’s not clear what Wayne specifically wants in life, but having enough money to buy the guitar of his dreams, a classic white 1964 Fender Stratocaster, nicknamed “Excalibur,” would probably help.

Enter Benjamin, a television executive, played by Rob Lowe with a slippery corporate menace. He spots an opportunity to take over the pesky Wayne’s World and make it mainstream, lining his own pockets in the process. What ensues is a bawdy tale that warns of the dangers of accepting a quick profit and what can be lost by selling.

The film is endlessly quotable with both Wayne and Garth breaking the fourth wall to address the audience directly. They praise their heroes with the phrase “We’re not worthy” and lovingly refer to attractive women as “Babraham Lincoln.” “I don’t even have a gun. What am I going to do with a gunslinger?” Wayne asks his ex whose idea of ​​a birthday present is a bit unconventional. It’s a line that runs through my mind anytime I receive a disappointing gift.

And the film’s rock credentials are unwavering. Alice Cooper makes a cameo and big laughs are extracted from Led Zeppelin tracks. Filmmaker Penelope Spheeris, best known for the Decline of Western Civilization trilogy of music documentaries, memorably turned down an offer to direct This Is Spın̈al Tap over concerns it mocked metal bands. However, she saw in Wayne and Garth true fans.

As a millennial viewer watching from the UK thanks to endless repeats on Sky Movies, I wasn’t always aware of the Gen One of the most beloved scenes in Wayne’s World involves Wayne and Garth mocking product placement while blatantly advertising Reebok and Pepsi products. This cultural aversion to chasing money in everything had been eliminated by the time I graduated into a post-financial crash economy where influencer brand deals and “securing the bag” became a means of survival. Maybe it’s idealism, or rosy nostalgia, but I can’t shake the idea that Wayne’s generation was right. I know for sure that any dreams I have of fighting against “the man” (I refuse to say late-stage capitalism) have their origins in Wayne’s basement in Aurora.

The idea of ​​a modern-day Wayne’s World is almost impossible; If you need an explanation of why the dynamic is no longer working, watch the troubling 2021 Super Bowl ad for Uber Eats of all things. Maybe this is for the best. To me, Wayne and Garth will always be the time-travelling slackers from the 90s to instill their idealistic and unconventional wisdom when I needed it most.