David Spade remembered meeting Farley and finding him to be “a genuine, sweet guy” and they became buddies instantly. Chris Rock, who was hired the same day, said, “Two guys named Chris … one’s a black guy from Bed-Stuy and one’s a white guy from Madison, Wis. Now, which one is going to OD?”
And Ottawa comedy scene alum Norm “Why isn’t he Death on Family Guy Anymore” MacDonald on Chris Farley:
Norm MacDonald remembered Farley’s way of telling a story: “Like, anyways, Norm. Did I tell ya I seen my friend Bill the other day, and I says to him, I says, I look him right in the eye and I says to him, I says, I says to Bill, I says to him, get this, what I says to him is, I says, get this, what I says you won’t believe what I says to him, I says …”
MacDonald said, “The joke was that he’d never get to what he’s actually said to the guy. And Chris could keep this going for twenty-five minutes straight … It would just get funnier and funnier.”
So, MacDonald got him to do it on “Weekend Update,” and the idea was that he would do it for 30 seconds, but MacDonald knew that wasn’t long enough for it to catch on, so he told Chris to do it for four minutes. That was when he realized he should have told him to go eight minutes.
“But he never got to do it on air, because Lorne went ballistic on me,” MacDonald said.
