49 Fun Facts About Wayne's World

Backstage with a rock idol in Wayne's World, Wayne and Garth chant which phrase?

We're not worthy! The rocker they bow to later said Myers and Carvey dragged the chant out for minutes of outtakes trying to make him laugh, and fans still kneel to him in airports.

A sign in the Wayne's World guitar shop stops Wayne from playing which rock classic?

Stairway to Heaven: the sign reads 'No Stairway', and Wayne gasps 'Denied!' Licensing rules let him play only a few notes, and even those were changed for home video.

In which Illinois city do Wayne and Garth broadcast their public-access show?

Aurora, a real city near Chicago, embraced the joke: for the film's 25th anniversary in 2017 it staged months of events, including a replica of Wayne's basement.

Which Queen song do Wayne, Garth and friends headbang to in the car?

Bohemian Rhapsody: the scene sent the 1975 single back up the US chart to number 2, and a video mixing in clips from the film won Queen an MTV Video Music Award.

What make and model is the Mirthmobile, Garth's car in Wayne's World?

An AMC Pacer: the baby-blue 1976 car with flame decals no longer ran when it turned up on Pawn Stars in 2015, but it was restored, stereo and all, and auctioned a year later.

Who plays Cassandra Wong, the singer and bassist Wayne falls for?

Tia Carrere, a trained singer, performed her own songs in the film; she walked away from the final round of a Baywatch audition to go for the part.

What is the name of Cassandra's band in Wayne's World?

Crucial Taunt is the heavy metal band Cassandra fronts; the film runs through three different endings before the group finally lands its record deal.

Which actor plays Benjamin Kane, the slick TV producer in Wayne's World?

Rob Lowe was a Brat Pack heartthrob with no name for comedy; after playing the smarmy Benjamin he went on to more of it in Tommy Boy and Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me.

Which rock star lectures Wayne and Garth backstage on the history of Milwaukee?

Alice Cooper turned up expecting only to perform a song; he was handed pages of freshly written dialogue on the set and memorised the history lesson on the spot.

In Wayne's World, which guitar does Wayne covet in a shop window and buy with his $5,000?

A 1964 Fender Stratocaster in classic white: Cassandra wins Wayne over by spotting it as 'pre-CBS', built the year before the broadcaster bought Fender, the era collectors chase.

Lying on a car hood in Wayne's World, Garth asks if Wayne ever found which cartoon character attractive?

Bugs Bunny, when he put on a dress and played a girl bunny: Wayne answers with a flat no, and Garth hastily agrees that neither did he, he was just asking, as planes roar low over the hood they are lying on.

Which catchphrase did the Wayne's World sketches and film help popularise?

'... Not!' tacked onto a sincere-sounding sentence spread so widely that the American Dialect Society voted it Word of the Year for 1992.

Which Terminator 2 character pulls Wayne over in a Wayne's World cameo, asking about a boy?

The T-1000: Robert Patrick reprised his shape-shifting cop the year after Terminator 2, holding up a photo and asking if Wayne has seen this boy; Wayne screams and speeds off.

Who directed Wayne's World?

Penelope Spheeris got the job partly because her heavy-metal documentary, The Decline of Western Civilization Part II, showed she understood headbangers; she was 45.

Which song plays whenever Wayne gazes at Cassandra in Wayne's World?

Dream Weaver: Gary Wright re-recorded his mid-1970s hit specially for the film, where it swells the moment Wayne first sees Cassandra on stage.

In Wayne's World, Wayne refuses to bow to any sponsor while showing off a takeout box from which chain?

Pizza Hut: the scene mocks product placement by doing it, as Wayne and Garth sneer at selling out while plugging Doritos, Reebok, Nuprin and Pepsi.

What is the donut shop in Wayne's World where Garth's dream woman works?

Stan Mikita's Donuts is Mike Myers's homage to Tim Hortons, a chain named for a hockey star; he renamed it for a Chicago Blackhawks great to suit the Illinois setting.

In Wayne's World, what kind of business does the show's sponsor Noah Vanderhoff own?

Video arcades: Noah's Arcade, billed as Chicago's largest chain, bankrolls the slicker new show, and Wayne is fired after insulting Vanderhoff on air.

Record boss Frankie Sharp in Wayne's World is played by Frank DiLeo, the real-life manager of which pop star?

Michael Jackson: DiLeo managed him from 1984 to 1989 and was called back in 2009 for the This Is It concerts; on screen he also played the gangster Tuddy in Goodfellas.

Wayne and Garth replay the ending of Wayne's World as a parody of which cartoon?

Scooby-Doo: in the do-over, Benjamin is unmasked as Old Man Withers, who runs the haunted amusement park, before the pair opt for a third, 'mega happy' ending.

Which SNL cast member cameos as the well-informed security guard at the Milwaukee concert in Wayne's World?

Chris Farley made his film debut as the guard, who knows a record mogul's travel plans in suspicious detail; he came back in the sequel as a different character, Milton.

What language does Wayne learn to impress Cassandra in Wayne's World?

Cantonese: Wayne learns enough to tell Cassandra she looks pretty, and she tells him she picked up her English at college and from the Police Academy movies.

Which sitcom's opening credits do Wayne and Garth recreate when they drive to Milwaukee in Wayne's World?

Laverne & Shirley: the pair chant 'Schlemiel! Schlimazel!' outside the Shotz Brewery, where the sitcom's two heroines capped bottles in 1950s Milwaukee.

Which song by Sweet does Cassandra's band cover in Wayne's World?

Ballroom Blitz: the actress sang the cover herself, and the soundtrack album spent two weeks at number one in April 1992, knocking a different Garth, Garth Brooks, off the top.

Wayne's World was only the second film based on an SNL sketch; which comedy was the first?

The Blues Brothers began as an SNL musical act for John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd, and their live album had already topped the US chart before the 1980 film was made.

By Mike Myers's account, which band did the studio want for the Wayne's World headbanging scene instead of Queen?

Guns N' Roses, says Myers, who had no jokes for them and fought for Queen. The film's director calls that an urban myth, having fallen out with the band over an earlier documentary.

After Hawaii and Texas, Wayne's blue-screen tour in Wayne's World stalls with 'Hi, I'm in...' which state?

Delaware: the new studio's effects whisk the hosts to Hawaii and Texas with a gag for each, but for the First State Wayne can only announce where he is.

Which rock band jammed with Wayne and Garth in the SNL sketch ranked the show's most unforgettable moment?

Aerosmith: Tom Hanks, hosting that night in 1990, played their deadpan roadie Barry, Garth's cousin, before the band tore through the Wayne's World theme with Wayne on guitar.

Who played Garth's father, Beev, in the early Wayne's World sketches on SNL?

Phil Hartman's Beev was the first guest on the very first sketch in February 1989, quizzed by Wayne about why he had moved the pop cooler in his convenience store.

What does Wayne tell an overexcited Garth to take on their Wayne's World show?

His Ritalin: Wayne was already telling Garth to take it in the SNL sketches. Dana Carvey modelled Garth, gadget tinkering and all, on his older brother Brad, an engineer.

Which hockey legend guested on Wayne's World while hosting SNL in May 1989?

Wayne Gretzky hosted that night, and the sketch found a part for his wife, actress Janet Jones; in the film, Wayne and Garth still shout his name playing street hockey.

Which sitcom star plays Glen, the darkly disturbed donut-shop manager in Wayne's World?

Ed O'Neill, TV's Al Bundy, had guested in a Wayne's World sketch when he hosted SNL in 1990; his Glen keeps breaking off to brood about killing a man in the heat of passion.

Which Jimi Hendrix song does Garth dance to when he daydreams about his dream woman in Wayne's World?

Foxy Lady: asked why he doesn't just go and talk to her, Garth drifts into a fantasy instead and mimes passionately to the Hendrix track right there in the donut shop.

Which John Ritter comedy spoofed Wayne's World as 'Duane's Underworld'?

Stay Tuned drops Ritter's couch potato into a hellish satellite-TV world, where a zombie host called Duane and his 'slightly decaying' sidekick Garf welcome him to their show.

The advice 'If you book them, they will come' in Wayne's World 2 riffs on a line from which film?

Field of Dreams: its whispered 'If you build it, he will come' becomes a dead rock star's instruction, delivered in a desert vision, to stage a festival.

What is the name of the music festival Wayne and Garth stage in Wayne's World 2?

Waynestock: the tickets sell but the bands fail to show, so Wayne and Garth play out two bleak endings before settling on one in which the acts arrive.

Which late rock singer appears in Wayne's dreams in Wayne's World 2 to tell him to hold a concert?

Jim Morrison, reached through a desert with a Native American guide, sets the plot going and sends Wayne off to England to find a veteran roadie.

Who plays Cassandra's new producer Bobby Cahn in Wayne's World 2?

Christopher Walken's smooth record producer tries to spirit Cassandra away to Los Angeles, and gets as far as the altar before Wayne crashes the wedding.

Which star plays Honey Hornée, the femme fatale who seduces Garth in Wayne's World 2?

Kim Basinger shot the unbilled role in three days; she said Dana Carvey had written it himself and that it gave Garth his first screen kiss.

Ralph Brown's roadie Del Preston in Wayne's World 2 revives his drug dealer Danny from which British cult film?

Withnail and I: Brown's spaced-out Danny returns in all but name as 'the greatest roadie that ever lived', whom a dream sends Wayne all the way to London to recruit.

Mike Myers's first Wayne's World 2 script was scrapped for borrowing from which 1949 British comedy about a London district seceding?

Passport to Pimlico: sets were already going up when Paramount learned nobody had bought the rights; studio chief Sherry Lansing threatened to sue Myers, and the script was rewritten.

Which Hollywood legend plays the 'good actor' gas station attendant in Wayne's World 2?

Charlton Heston: Wayne stops the scene to ask for a better actor in the bit part, and the Ben-Hur star steps in to give the same directions as a wistful monologue about a lost love.

Which classic film's finale does Wayne recreate when he crashes Cassandra's wedding in Wayne's World 2?

The Graduate: after bursting into the wrong wedding first, Wayne flees with the bride, as Dustin Hoffman does in the 1967 film.

Which song do Wayne and friends perform in a gay club while fleeing Bobby Cahn in Wayne's World 2?

Y.M.C.A.: Wayne has been caught spying on Cassandra and Bobby, and the gang shake off their pursuer with an impromptu Village People routine on the club's stage.

Wayne's World 2 opened at number one by knocking which comedy off the top spot?

Mrs. Doubtfire slipped to second that weekend, but the sequel faded fast: it finished with about $48 million in North America, well under half the original's $122 million.

Which actress plays Bjergen Kjergen, the Swedish receptionist in Wayne's World 2?

Drew Barrymore took the unbilled bit part at a radio station, where Garth wins her over by reciting facts from his eighth-grade project on Sweden.

In Wayne's World 2, Wayne's fight with Cassandra's father is staged as a badly dubbed spoof of what kind of film?

Kung fu films: James Hong plays the martial-artist father, and the two trade blows with out-of-sync dubbed voices and a loud whoosh every time an arm moves.

Mike Myers co-wrote the Wayne's World theme with which SNL bandleader, once Hall & Oates's guitarist?

G. E. Smith led the SNL band from 1985 to 1995; the short theme he wrote with Myers was later stretched into a five-minute hard-rock version for the film's soundtrack album.

Which rock singer plays Tiny, the Gasworks bouncer who waves Wayne and Garth past the line in Wayne's World?

Meat Loaf's Tiny also reviews the night's bill: when Wayne asks if a rudely named Beatles act is any good, he deadpans that they suck, so the name is simply accurate.