Saturday Night Live: Top 10 Chris Farley sketches of all-time

1. Matt Foley

And now we get to the most famous character that Farley has ever played: motivational speaker Matt Foley. He has said that Foley is based on someone he used to know on his rugby team. He also said that some of his mannerisms come from his dad, who would inexplicably lose control at times.

Everyone loves to make fun of motivational speakers, but none more so than Chris Farley. But while most of them are cheesy and try to act positive, yet come off as fake, Farley is the opposite. He’s not so much a realist as he is a pessimist, since he believes that anybody who needs him will end up being 35 years old, eating a steady diet of government cheese, thrice divorced, and living in a van down by the river.

In Foley’s first appearance he tried to council Christina Applegate and David Spade, who failed to keep a straight face through the whole thing. When Spade told him to be a writer, Foley responded with “la-di-freakin’-da” and made fun of him for not being Bill Shakespeare. But Christina Applegate successfully made a fool of him when she told him she wants to live in a van down by the river, and he had no choice but to agree.

While what Foley is saying is hilarious, it’s the mannerisms that make it. Since motivational speakers are always over the top, that’s what Farley is trying to achieve here with his body language. And his initial fall onto the table was unintentional, but it became such a hit that he did it every time.

With endless quotables, an infinite supply of energy, and hilarious mannerisms, Matt Foley is the embodiment of what made Chris Farley a comedic genius. It’s a real shame that he was taken from us so soon because to this day, people are still entertained by him. But with everything he has provided to SNL over the years, he has ensured that nobody would ever forget the legacy he left behind.