Wayne's World

Wayne's World was originally a recurring sketch from the NBC television series Saturday Night Live. It evolved from a segment titled "Wayne's Power Minute" (1987) on the CBC Television series It's Only Rock & Roll, as the main character first appeared in that show. The Saturday Night Live sketch spawned two films, and several catchphrases which have since entered the pop-culture lexicon. The sketch centered on a local public-access television program in Aurora, Illinois, hosted by Wayne Campbell (Mike Myers, the same actor from "Wayne's Power Minute"), an enthusiastic and sardonic long-haired metalhead, and his timid and sometimes high-strung, yet equally metal-loving sidekick and best friend, Garth Algar (Dana Carvey). Wayne lives with his parents and broadcasts his show "live" from the basement of their house every Friday evening at 10:30. The first "Wayne's World" sketch appeared in the 13th Saturday Night Live episode of 1988/1989.

Format of sketches

The "show" would open with Wayne and Garth singing the lyric to the opening theme, "Wayne's World! Wayne's World! Party time! Excellent!", accompanied by Wayne's frenetic strumming of his guitar, and Garth drumming on his lap with drum sticks. The two would introduce themselves (Garth: "Party on, Wayne." Wayne: "Party on, Garth.") and then proceed to go into their various exploits, including discussions of their love of hard rock bands and "babes", as well as juvenile antics, such as the "Extreme Close-Up" (where a camera would zoom in on Wayne and Garth as they screamed) and tricking their unsuspecting guests into saying vulgar words. Garth would frequently get overexcited and lose control, upon which Wayne would have to tell him, "Take your Ritalin."

Wayne's World (film)

Wayne's World is a 1992 American comedy film directed by Penelope Spheeris and starring Mike Myers as Wayne Campbell and Dana Carvey as Garth Algar, hosts of the Aurora, Illinois-based public-access television cable TV show Wayne's World. The film was adapted from a sketch of the same name on NBC's Saturday Night Live.

The film grossed US$121.6 million in its theatrical run, placing it as the tenth highest-grossing film of 1992 and the highest-grossing of the 11 films based on Saturday Night Live skits. It was filmed in 34 days.

Wayne's World was Myers' feature film debut. The film also featured Rob Lowe, Tia Carrere, Lara Flynn Boyle, Brian Doyle-Murray, Robert Patrick (spoofing his role in Terminator 2: Judgment Day), Chris Farley, Ed O'Neill, Ione Skye, Meat Loaf, and Alice Cooper. Wayne's World was released on February 14, 1992, and was a critical and commercial success. A sequel, Wayne's World 2, was released on December 10, 1993. In 2000, readers of Total Film magazine voted Wayne's World the 41st-greatest comedy film of all time.

Wayne's World (video game)

Wayne's World is an action video game based on the film Wayne's World and released in 1993 by THQ. Different versions of the game were released; the NES and Game Boy games were developed by Radical Entertainment and feature both protagonists Wayne and Garth as playable characters. The Super NES and Sega Mega Drive/Genesis games were developed by Gray Matter and feature only Wayne as a playable character.

Gameplay

In the NES and Game Boy games, the player controls both Wayne and Garth in different levels; however, the Super NES version had only Wayne as a playable character. In the former, Garth's main attack is a laser gun and Wayne has a kick. In the Super NES version, Wayne uses his guitar as a weapon.

Reception

According to Flux magazine, Wayne's World was the 19th worst video game of all time.

Other games

An adventure game based on the film was released for personal computers by Capstone. Argonaut was also developing a version for the unreleased Super NES CD-ROM upgrade. Nothing is known of the gameplay, just that Argonaut planned to include footage from the movie and "a lot of heavy metal music".