CinemaStix

Notes from the Cutting Room Floor: Wayne's World

Added 2024-08-20 23:53:14 +0000 UTC

I’m Danny Boyd, this is Wayne’s World, and these are the Notes from the Cutting Room Floor: the bits from the script that didn’t make the final cut.

// We can see the evolution of the character through these various sources of media, culminating in the 1992 movie, the most successful SNL movie ever, and one that sparked a whole wave of them in the 90s.

// After that he appeared regularly on the Canadian music channel MuchMusic in 1986. Here he still hadn’t fully transformed into his signature self and signature uniform. Here he would discuss road hockey, as he plays in the movie.

// Proto Wayne is distinctly more Canadian

// It was in 1987 on Wayne’s Power Minute that he would evolve into his near final form. Black t shirt and hat, incorporating catchphrases like… no way, way.

// Meyers grew up with people like this, and the parody aspect of it all came to him pretty much immediately.

// Meyers believes you can only write what you know.

// It’s by no means not a broad comedy, a silly comedy. But there’s such a reality to it that grounds it.

// The movie was made really fast in the summer of 1990, during a short window of time between SNL work. So scenes were done quick. 2 or 3 takes and that was it.

// Which worked because these characters were so well developed. They deliberately made the film as modular as possible, in Lorne Michael’s words.

// Every scene is in many ways a standalone sketch. If something didn’t work it could be taken out and the movie would still work.

// But it was ultimately the culmination of everything, of years developing this character, that resulted in a nearly flawless, timeless comedy.

// The Stairway to Heaven riff gag was changed in international releases of the film, and TV and DVD releases, due to a copyright claim by Led Zeppelin. I never realized that, and always thought it was strange how unlike Stairway the thing he played was.

// The original riff has been restored in the 4K release.

// Zeppelin is famous for not allowing their stuff to be used in movies.

// But it might’ve been unfounded, since apparently the riff is in the public domain, having been written by the Italian Composer Giovanni Battista Granata a couple hundred years ago (Sonata di chitarra).

// On another musical note, a new Bohemian Rhapsody music video was released due the popularity the film created for it, that included footage from the film. Mercury died during its production, but apparently got to see a rough cut of the scene first, which is how he was able to give permission.

// But it meant he didn’t get to see the song’s meteoric rise in popularity in the U.S. after.

One more thing:

// The film was directed by Penelope Spheeris who had previously done primarily documentary work, including the sequel to The Decline of Western Civilization, which focused on the heavy metal scene, where she even interviewed Alice Cooper.

// Makes sense given the style they went for here. She wasn’t a comedy director. She’s a documentary director who loves heavy metal.

// Maybe the most significant gag from SNL that the movie picks up is that of a famous rock star being super down with culture and social politics. Cooper did this a bit more naturally than, say, Aerosmith.

// As a kid I didn’t get that it was a gag at all. Cooper thought he’d only have one line in the movie.

// The monologue was just handed to him sight unseen and he had to memorize it. The reason it works so well is that he is in fact apparently a bit of a history buff?

// Cooper says it was a lot of riffing as a result of needing to learn five pages in 20 minutes.