You can argue that The Blues Brothers is a bigger movie, but it's hard to deny any SNL film had a more lasting impact on big screen comedies than Wayne's World. Although the entire movie hinged on a couple of dopey, slacker cable access hosts, they managed to craft a surprisingly lush movie landscape chockfull of quirky characters, pop culture references, and even small, realistic moments between characters that are more nuanced than most would care to admit. Plus, Wayne's constant breaking of the fourth wall put forth a winking playfulness that would be borrowed heavily by other mainstream comedies in the ensuing years. Also, this is one of the rare instances where an SNL feature hit big with a compelling storyline and likeable characters, which seems to be curiously difficult for them to procure in most instances. Wayne's World takes the basic premise and blows it up to the extreme, with their little public access show now on the way to the big time thanks to a well-meaning but mostly clueless TV exec (the always wonderful Brian Doyle Murray). Sure, there's some obvious attempts at padding the stat sheet, utilising a hefty pile of catchphrases from the SNL sketches and bringing in surefire cameos from Meatloaf, Alice Cooper, and Robert Patrick (spoofing his role in Terminator 2), but it's likely Wayne' World would have won over audiences based on its endless quotability and sheer charm even without all that extra fluff. What's your favourite SNL movie? Share you ranking with us down in the comments.
