Comedians Are People, TooLists of fun facts, hilarious stories, and things you didn't know about the real flesh & blood human beings behind the mics, lights, and cameras.
Chris Farley was a uniquely talented physical comedian – in fact, some say he's the greatest of his generation. Even though he died at the young age of 33, these crazy Chris Farley stories will live forever. The sweet Wisconsin boy was raised as a devout Catholic, and found his way into comedy at Second City in Chicago, IL. Fame soon followed, as he was cast on Saturday Night Live and starred in movies like Tommy Boy and Black Sheep. Along the way, he created fodder for plenty of stories. Some are hilarious, some are tragic, and some of these insane Chris Farley tales have entered the realm of comedy lore.
Farley was a larger-than-life persona, and literally a large man, a fact he used to push his comedy even further by creating absurd characters. The difference between Farley and every other physical comedian was a sense of risk; Farley didn't break his falls with his hands. He always went for every ounce of comedy gold he could dig up. But that go-for-broke attitude had a dark side. Farley struggled with drug addiction throughout his life, and he eventually died of an overdose of cocaine and morphine.
These true stories from the life of Chris Farley, as told by his close family and friends, reveal a man who was generous, gifted, and more than a little eccentric.
One night, Jay Mohr and fellow Saturday Night Live writer Dave Attell were struggling to work in their offices at 30 Rockefeller Plaza. They had been awake for nearly two days straight and were experiencing a severe case of writer's block. Then, in walked Farley.
After a while, Mohr offered Farley $100 to defecate out of the 17th story window. Farley got the money up front, pulled down his pants, pried opened the window, and did the deed – though the, uh, evidence ended up inside. The story ended with Farley sprinting after Mohr and Attell, threatening to wipe his excrement-covered hand on them.
"Another time, in front of 20 or 25 people in a very crowded writers’ room – mixed company, women, men – Farley came in naked. He has his dick tucked between his legs, and he was doing Jame Gumb from Silence of the Lambs. He took a golf club and shoved it about three inches up his ass, then pulled the golf club out and started licking it."
When It Came To Food, He Would Always Double Down
Photo: NBC
It's no secret that Farley was a large man; the medical examiner listed the comedian's weight at 296 pounds at the time of his death. During an appearance on Conan in 2015, Farley's close friend and fellow Saturday Night Live co-star Adam Sandler talked about what it was like to go out to dinner with Farley in the 1990s:
"He would say, 'You got the T-bone steak, uh, yeah, okay, and do you have...' And he'd name like six things. You're like, 'Wow, he's getting six things?' And then he would say, 'Ok, I'll take two of those'... He'd always double down."
O'Brien added, "Chris Farley loved to eat, to a degree I've never seen since, by any human being."
He Scared Mike Myers
Photo: NBC
In the 2015 documentary I Am Chris Farley, Saturday Night Live co-star Mike Myers explained why the energetic comedian scared him to death: "I improvised with Chris, and I was scared to death, because he had already knocked someone’s tooth out and [given] someone else a scar just from being so crazy."
Fat Guy In A Little Coat Came From An After-Hours Bit
Photo: Tommy Boy / Paramount Pictures
During his 2014 Reddit AMA, David Spade explained how one of the most memorable scenes from Tommy Boy came about:
"Chris was always doing that bit to me at work. We shared an office... and Chris's desk was behind mine, and he didn't really know how to write, or read, really (kidding!) but he would come in bored... and he would say, 'Davey... Turn around,' and I said, 'If this is "Fat Guy in a Little Coat," I'm not turning around. It's not funny anymore.' And he would say, 'No, I've got a whole new thing I'm doing.' And then I'd turn around, and it would be him in my Levi jacket, and he would say, 'Fat guy in little coat! Don't you give up on it!'
"And so when we did Tommy Boy, we were just looking for jokes and scenes to make them better, and we decided that was funny to us, maybe it would be funny to there people. So we put 'Fat Guy in a Little Coat' in, and he sang it (which was funny, and not the plan), and then we had to cut the coat in the back to make sure it would rip."
Saturday Night Live fans know Farley's popular sketch featuring motivational speaker Matt Foley, who tried to steer young kids away from having to live in a van down by the river. There is an actual Matt Foley, and he is the head pastor at St. James Catholic Church in Arlington Heights, IL. Farley met Foley on the rugby field when the pair were both at Marquette University. They became fast friends and remained close throughout Farley's life; Foley even presided over Farley's funeral.
In the documentary I Am Chris Farley, Foley described meeting Farley for the first time: "He was kind of a prepster. Rugby is a rugged group, and I thought he might have a difficult time. But he fit right in and he was a pretty decent athlete, too."
Farley invented the down-on-his-luck, loud, motivational speaker character when he was at Second City in Chicago. "My name is Matt Foley, and I'm a motivational speaker," Farley said one night when Foley was in the audience. When Farley got to SNL, he brought the character with him.
On May 8, 1993, Foley got a call from Farley. "Matt Foley is going to be on tonight; you've got to watch it," he said. Foley tuned in and heard his name on national television. "It was a little shocking," he admitted. "But I thought the skit was hilarious."
