9 of the Most ‘90s Jokes in ‘Wayne’s World’
The 1990s might have been comedy’s peak pop-culture-reference era. Right before the internet destroyed monoculture, comedians could mention some obscure late-night infomercial and be assured that 90 percent of the audience would get the joke. The apex of that kind of reference humor might be Wayne’s World, the Mike Myers/Dana Carvey hit that’s stuffed with gags that only teens or young adults in 1993 could possibly understand.
Here are nine of the most ‘90s jokes ever, courtesy of Wayne’s World…
The Suck Kut
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Wayne’s World opens with a special guest for Wayne and Garth, an inventor who’s developed a “totally amazing excellent discovery” called the Suck Kut.
Watching Garth get destroyed by the hair-cutting and sucking device is pretty funny, but to really get the joke, you had to be familiar with a 1988 infomercial for the Flowbee.
Cable Access
To understand the entire premise of Wayne’s World is to have some idea of what a “cable access” TV show was. For the uninitiated — cable TV providers, as part of their license to wire communities, devoted one channel to local talents who wanted to put on their own shows. Those channels became an oddly entertaining repository for any town’s resident weirdos.
Cable access was kinda like having a YouTube channel, except only on a specific time and date and with zero chance of ever getting paid.
Claudia Schiffer Tribute
Wayne and Garth give a lusty Wayne's World salute “to the Guess jeans girl, Claudia Schiffer. Schwing! Schwing! Tent pole! She’s a babe. She’s magically babe-licious. She tested very high on the strokability scale.”
But it’s highly unlikely that anyone born after the release of Wayne’s World has any recollection of Schiffer — or the popularity of Guess jeans, for that matter.
Calming Down Garth
After Garth gets traumatized by the Suck Kut, Wayne talks him off the ledge in the most ‘90s way possible — reminding him to take his Ritalin and imagining himself walking in a warm forest with Heather Locklear.
Noah’s Arcade
Wayne sells out via a sponsorship from Noah’s Arcade. It’s hard to imagine now, but video arcades were monstrously popular in the early 1990s. “One day, I had a four-hour layover in Tulsa,” explains clueless middle-aged white guy Noah Vanderhoff. “These kids in the airport kept pumping quarters into a game called Pong. They must’ve gone through 50 bucks. I sat there watching and said, ‘Hell, I’m in the wrong business.’ Fifteen years later, I’m a millionaire. It’s so huge.”
The guy was probably bankrupt by 1998.
The ‘70s References
Wayne’s World isn’t so much full of ‘90s pop-culture references as it is packed with ephemera from the 1970s, the decade in which Myers grew up watching TV and listening to the radio. That’s why we get a Mirth Mobile singalong to “Bohemian Rhapsody” (1975), Meat Loaf acting as a bouncer outside the local music club, Alice Cooper headlining in Milwaukee, Cassandra landing a record deal with a cover of 1973’s “Ballroom Blitz” and a Scooby-Doo ending.
A trip to Milwaukee also means a loving, shot-by-shot tribute to the theme song to 1976’s Laverne and Shirley, an interlude that has to have modern viewers scratching their heads.
Selling Out
The idea of “selling out” drove a lot of ‘90s comedies — see Singles and Reality Bites, for example — and Wayne’s World picked up the thread by accepting corporate sponsorships from any brand that would have them. It’s funny to see Wayne pimping for Pizza Hut and Doritos, but does anyone remember Pepsi’s slogan, “The choice of a new generation”? And nothing ages worse than the forgotten “little, yellow, different” commercials for obscure pain reliever Nuprin.
Cassandra’s Language Lessons
How did Wayne’s girlfriend Cassandra learn English? Easy — by studying the Police Academy movies. Oh, she was the one who watched them.
Wayne Gets Pulled Over
While on his way to win back Cassandra, Wayne gets pulled over by a cop. Oh wait — it’s the guy from 1991’s Terminator 2: Judgment Day! Funny enough in the moment but a reference that’s likely a stretch today.
