Chris Farley Died 20 Years Ago Today

Hard to believe it’s 20years. Tell the ones you love that you love them. Remembering Chris Farley 20 years after his death: 'People talk about him like he's alive. In many ways he still is' https://t.co/XsHCP6B6rf via @WiStateJournal

— Kevin Farley (@Imkevinfarley) December 17, 2017

A quick ode to one of the funniest people to ever live, a comedic hero of mine, Chris Farley.

Twenty years ago today Chris Farley the world lost one of the funniest people ever. Chris Farley died at the age of 33 from a drug overdose in an eerily similar way to his comedic hero, John Belushi. Same age, same way, basically lived the same life. That coincidence always kind of freaked me out.

Growing up, Tommy Boy was probably my favorite movie. I must've watched that VHS tape 200 times. When DVD's came out it was one of the first ones I got, no more rewinding yay! Now being so young in the 90's I honestly can't remember if I saw it before he died or not. I'm guessing slash hoping it was after because I was 6 when he passed away, but honestly I couldn't have been much older the first time I saw it, which looking back is a little frightening, and maybe explains a lot about why I am the way that I am. But I digress.

I can remember being allowed to watch Tommy Boy and the Nutty Professor when I was in like first grade. I loved and still love Tommy Boy, it has so many classic moments and lines, fat guy in a little coat, faking an attack by bees to avoid a DUI, the utter destruction of Richard's car....we've all seen it I don't need to keep going. What stands out to me the most looking back is how funny I found the scene where Tommy catches Richard jerking off in the hotel room, cause I thought it was funny for all the wrong reasons. Being that young and dumb I thought it was funny because he referenced The Little Rascals, which at the time was probably my second favorite movie. 

Being a goofy, chubby kid it was easy to look up to Farley's style of comedy and was something I mimicked in school growing up. Being the funny guy, making fun of yourself is a classic defense mechanism that I still use to this very day. In high school I wanted to reenact the Chippendale's SNL Skit during my Junior Variety show, which IMO is one of the best SNL skits of all time. Shame that never went down!

Chris Farley was an absolute comedic legend. what really shows that is the legacy he's left in comedy despite not having a very long career, he was on SNL for 5 years, and starred in only three movies while he was alive (Tommy Boy, Black Sheep and Beverly Hills Ninja), so he's basically the James Dean of comedy, and one more released posthumously (Almost Heroes). If he didn't die the course of comedy history would've been soooo different. Mike Myers career would've ended even earlier because Farley was going to be Shrek.  I'm pretty sure he would've been Sully in Monsters Inc too. While we'll never know what would've happened, the point remains it's an absolute shame that he was taken so soon. 

S/o this random dude who hit a kid in school that made fun of his death. 

I punched a kid in school cause they told me he deserved it. Best detention ever!

— Kyle (@cobb_kyl) December 17, 2017

Just a shame the world lost such a funny person so soon, twenty years ago today. 

R.I.P. Chris Farley
February 15th, 1964-December 18th, 1997.