Silly Is Funny

The Wisdom Of "Wayne’s World" (1992)

Oct 18, 2022

Two smiling yellow plush toy figures sit next to each other on a bench displaying the words ‘happy’ and ‘keep on smiling.’

Image by L.E. Wilson from RedBubble based on work by Alexa on Pixabay

You become what you understand.

Wayne’s World (1992) is one silly movie. And silly is endearing. Silly is fun! Silly is the lighthearted joy and nice, beautiful ride you’ll experience if you watch this film. But above all, silly is hilariously funny.

Wayne’s World (1992) is a comedy directed by Penelope Spheeris about Wayne Campbell (Mike Myers) and Garth Algar (Dana Carvey), two underachieving friends who host a public-access cable show that is bought by a sleazy tv executive, Benjamin Kane (Rob Lowe).

Life Lesson: Be optimistic: You’ll find better solutions.
- 🍿Movie Scene Link (movie quote)

The main character, the center, if you will, of Wayne’s World is Wayne Campbell, who is optimistic but does not have any illusions. Imagine that for a moment. Imagine the complexity of a character who is happy with everything as is, yet has dreams to make things better, but is realistic enough that he makes self-deprecating jokes about achieving his big dream. “It might happen,” he says, “yeah, and monkeys might fly out of my butt,” he replies to himself. And all of this is done with a smile, because as you’ll recall, Wayne is an optimistic and happy person.

Wayne doesn’t believe he can make a living doing his cable access TV show, but he’s happy anyway. He’s happy trying. He also has a goal to purchase an expensive guitar, a “64 Fender Stratocaster in classic white, with triple single-coil pickups and a whammy bar.” Garth, his best friend, tells him, “Stop torturing yourself, man. You’ll never afford it. Live in the now!” Wayne’s reply is full of optimism, “It will be mine.”

Wayne and Garth don’t just board a car, they ride in the “mirth-mobile,” because they still know how to party, how to play, how to have fun and tell silly jokes to make each other laugh. For example, when talking to a police officer, Wayne says, “I smell bacon, does anyone else smell bacon?” And Garth replies, “Yeah, I definitely smell a pork product of some type.” And the best part, of course, is that the police officer, Officer Koharski (Frederick Coffin), chuckles, “Yeah, yeah. I know what you’re doing, Campbell. Bacon. Pig. Oink, oink. Police officer. I used to say that to cops when I was your age.” He laughs along with them—with us. What a nice world this is. Lighthearted. Fun. Funny. It’s a good time.

Talking into the camera. Winking at the audience. Self-referential. Playful. Party on! This movie is inventive. “Ex-squeeze me. Baking powder?” Yes, Wayne’s World is party time. Excellent. It’s so silly! But it’s also earnest and wise. Consider the following exchange between Wayne and his love interest, the rock-babe Cassandra (Tia Carrere), who says, “That is very funny. But labeling people can be dangerous.” To which Wayne, in Cantonese, replies, “Was it Kierkegaard or Dick Van Patten who said, ‘If you label me, you negate me’?” And isn’t it in fact true that if we stopped labeling people—especially when it’s meant to degrade or separate them—that we’d probably live more peacefully with each other?

But to paraphrase Wayne, “We’re not mental or anything, so don’t be afraid.” The point is that this movie about a pair of guys who just want to hang out, have a good simple life, and play their music is a million laughs. And it’s also a movie that shows us the thrilling, exciting, energetic, child-like glee that comes from everyday common experiences when you know that what you want is to have fun in life no matter what. Watching this movie is like playing games with your best friends.

You think you’ve got problems? Things going badly? Don’t worry, you’ll figure something out! We should do a mega-happy ending!! That’s what Wayne and Garth would say. Make everything fun; it’s the essence of positive thinking. Imagine going through life with this attitude, instead of being cynical, indignant, self-righteous and humorless. Wouldn’t that make a world of difference?

Anytime you end a movie with joy in your heart, we all win. The world wins. Wayne’s World is one of those rare movies that makes it possible to say that we’re better people for having seen it.

It’s relatable. Clever. Brilliant. Endearing. Whimsical.

Ahh, good times.

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