T's Take on WAYNE'S WORLD

Party on, M.

I quote Wayne's World much more than I realized before re-watching this movie. Mike Myers can't help but be hilarious in his winsome, goofball way. The funniest bits weren't the rediculous catch phrases or the storyline aspects - most of those were weak and forced. It was the parts when Wayne was allowed to get carried away with silliness. The Milwaukee bits, the obtuse product placement, basically every time he reacted to something, distracting his girlfriend while she's on the phone with mummy-humping and crossdressing...

That's the Wayne Campbell I wanted to hang out with. I realize he was doing the rocker thing over-the-top on purpose, but Wayne's World is a necessarily gimmicky movie that plays on a lot of low-hanging fruit. Most of that fruit, of course, is considerably more commonly overdone and much less hilarious now, but I felt like a giggling little kid again for about a half hour of its combined one-hundred and seventy-four. The first half isn't very... Erm... Compelling(?) and in the beginning I often wonder why I ever liked this movie, but by the end I'm always won over.

One of the reasons I like Wayne's World is that most of its jokes are immediately appologized for afterward. Mike Myers did not want anyone mad at him, clearly. Like when the boys are hassling a cop, but it quicky turns into chummy guy-time... The spoofy montage about how boring Milwaukee is with a follow-up sarcastic jab to Alice Cooper, quickly followed by a short diatribe about how the town really is more than meets the eye:

Wayne: So, do you come to Milwaukee often? (facetious grin)
Alice Cooper: Well, I'm a regular visitor here, but Milwaukee has certainly had its share of visitors. The French missionaries and explorers began visiting here in the late 16th century.
Pete: Hey, isn't "Milwaukee" an Indian name?
Alice: Yes, Pete, it is. In fact , it's pronounced "mill-e-wah-que" which is Algonquin for "the good land."
Wayne: I was not aware of that.

PS: you can't appear informed, politically correct and enlightened if you're casually referring to First Nation peoples as "Indian".

The funniest thing about Wayne's World is that a lot of metal enthusiasts I've known referred to the movie as being Excellent, loving it to pieces and quoting it often, having no idea that the entire MTV character concept was a complete mockery of the kind of douchebaggery that surrounds the rock scene. When asked to stretch his three minute bit on how useless and empty-headed hardcore rockers tend to be, I think the end result came out as a little more loveable and straightforward than what was originally intended.

Still, the movie is fun and I have fun when I watch it. There's a very Bill and Ted too-stupid-to-hate goodness here that leaves you with the notion that some people are still decent and occasionally the good guys win. It's easy, it's a fun ride, and it brings back memories.

"... Entertaining, whimsical yet relevant, with an underlying revisionist conceit that belied its emotional attachments to the subject matter." - Wayne Campbell