New Again: Wayne’s World

In New Again, we highlight a piece from Interview’s past that resonates with the present. 

Wayne’s World (1992) director Penelope Spheeris and its stars, Mike Myers and Dana Carvey, have reportedly made public amends after years of feuding. Alongside the film’s co-stars Rob Lowe and Lara Flynn Boyle, and producer Lorne Michaels, the trio attended a reunion screening Thursday night sponsored by the Academy. The screening was followed by a panel discussion with Academy president Hawk Koch—also an executive producer on Wayne’s World—as moderator.

Released in 1992, Wayne’s World centered on local radio-hosts Wayne Campbell and Garth Algar, the famously head-thrashing duo originally depicted in a recurring Saturday Night Live sketch. Though Carvey and Myers seemed to be a lighthearted pair of metalheads onscreen, the two have a notoriously tense relationship. After Myers’ turn in Austin Powers, Carvey claimed that Myers based hi Dr. Evil character on Carvey’s own impression of Lorne Michaels. To add to that heat against Myers, Spheeris nursed a long-standing grudge against him for reportedly blocking the director from joining the 1993 sequel.

Now that Myers and Carvey seem to have grown up and made up, we hope to see one more rendition of their once-glorious goofy banter in the future. To celebrate their reunion, we dug up a phone chat between the two in our March 1992 issue, when Wayne’s World was still in theaters. Both actors in character, Myers’ and Carvey’s conversation is like most that take place between the pair of fictional metalheads: mostly incoherent, and totally awesome. —Suzanne Hodges

Wayne’s World
By Robin Ruzan

GARTH: Hello? Wayne?

WAYNE: [disguising his voice] No, my name is Bill O’ Goods, and I’m calling from a market research company. We’re taking a survey, and I wonder if you wouldn’t mind answering a few questions.

GARTH: Not at all, Mr. O’Goods. Go right ahead.

WAYNE: We wonder, in your household, do you have a sphincter-says-what?

GARTH: What?

WAYNE: Exactly.

GARTH: Hey, leave me alone! For heaven’s sake, just leave me alone!

WAYNE: Hey, Garth. Chill, man. It’s me.

GARTH: Oh, thank the Lord.

WAYNE: What’s up with you?

GARTH: My mom and dad went to the notions-and-gifts trade show in Chicago and I’m here all alone. I hate being alone. It’s
really scary. I get so freaked out.

WAYNE: OK. I have the perfect antidote to get you out of your freak-out. Just close your eyes. Now, imagine you’re in a cabin in the woods. You’re lying in front of a fire on a bearskin rug, safe and warm in the clutches of Heather Locklear. Schwing! Feel better?

GARTH: Yeah.

WAYNE: Good. By the way, Garth, I’m calling you from the ATTIC!!!

GARTH: Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!

WAYNE: Fished in! Get the net! Fished ya right in!

GARTH: Very funny, Wayne.

WAYNE: Hey, did you know that the word “gullible” isn’t in the dictionary?

GARTH: Really?

WAYNE: Fished in a second time! Caught ’em, cleaned ’em, and fried ’em right up! Wayne the Bassmaster!

GARTH: You’re being such a gimp.

WAYNE: No way!

GARTH: Way! You’re majorly gimpish.

WAYNE: What about you? It’s a gimpathon.

GARTH: You’re a gimpoid.

WAYNE: You’re in-the-style-of-the-gimp.

GARTH: You’re gimplike.

WAYNE: You have simulated gimp-look.

GARTH: You’re gimp-ed.

WAYNE: You’re gimpesque.

GARTH: You’re gimpish.

WAYNE: You’re be-gimped.

GARTH: You’re gimpy.

WAYNE: In terms of gimpness, it’s no quarter asked and no quarter given!

GARTH: Good work, my friend.

WAYNE: I am thanking you. Listen, I’m sorry if I’m acting a bit caffeinated tonight. I guess I’m just excited about the release of the movie.

GARTH: Do you mean Wayne’s World, a Paramount production playing now at theaters near you?

WAYNE: Yeah, the one starring us and Rob Lowe, along with a host of celebrity surprises. You know, the one produced by Lorne Michaels and directed by Penelope Spheeris.

GARTH: Oh, yeah. That movie.

WAYNE: I’m just a little uncomfortable about having to promote the film. I hate when people subtly try to work plugs for their movies into, say, magazine articles and such.

GARTH: I know what you mean. That’s pretty bogus. Or even, like, when they try to plug a book they’ve written.

WAYNE: Yeah, like the one I wrote called Wayne’s World: Extreme Close-Up, published by Hyperion.

GARTH: Exactly!

WAYNE: I know, I hate that. Oh, hang on, that’s my call waiting.

GARTH: OK.

[click]

MADONNA: Wayne, it’s me, Madonna.

WAYNE: Madonna, you’ve got to stop this. You can’t keep calling me up and begging to see me all the time.

MADONNA: But, Wayne, you’re all I think about. My life has no meaning if you’re not in it.

WAYNE: Here we go again. Hang on a second. I got Garth on the other line.

MADONNA: Come back!

[click]

WAYNE: Garth, guess who’s on the other line for a change?

GARTH: Oh, no. Not Madonna—again!

WAYNE: I’m afraid so.

GARTH: How sad.

WAYNE: I should talk to her. She’s all mental again.

GARTH: Poor Madonna. Just be easy on her. Deep down, she’s a really sweet kid.

WAYNE: Yeah, I know. O.K., until our next conversation, goodnight and party on.

GARTH: Party on, Wayne.

WAYNE: Party on, Garth.

THIS INTERVIEW INTIALLY APPEARED IN THE MARCH 1992 ISSUE OF INTERVIEW.

New Again runs every Wednesday. For more, click here.