David Spade Explains Why He Didnt Attend Chris Farleys Funeral

Its been nearly two decades since Chris Farley died. But his Tommy Boy and Black Sheep costar, David Spade, said that he thinks of the physical comedy genius every day in a Reddit AMAsession Wednesday. Recalling stories about their time together on Saturday Night Live to his decision not to attend Farleys funeral, Spade wrote his answers with detail and candor. He also discussed his film and TV career beyond Farley, including a surprising number of questions about his 2001 movie The Adventures of Joe Dirt and his magazine-themed sitcom Just Shoot Me. Here are the five most revealing moments from the discussion.

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1. Chris Farley had no inhibitions in real life.
Me, him and Adam Sandler were walking to dinner, during SNL, and this cute girl was getting in a cab, and we commented how pretty she was, Spade wrote. So Chris ran over and climbed in the cab with her, and said, Hey, you goin downtown? Lets share a cab! and she started yelling at him and kicking him. And he finally came back, and we said, Chris, if they dont know who you are, you are just a crazy fat guy trying to climb in a cab with them. And then we all laughed, it was very funny to us. He would do stuff like that for us every day to make us laugh.

2. Farley used to do Fat Guy in a Little Coat around the office.
Chris was always doing that bit to me at work, Spade wrote. We shared an office, and you had to walk through our office to get to Chris Rock and Adam Sandlers office, so these two microscopic offices were back to back, and Chris desk was behind mine, and he didnt really know how to write, or read, really (kidding!) but he would come in bored, because I would have to write my sketches to try to get on but they would always let him on, so he would get behind me and be bored, everyone would write him sketches, and he would say, Davey. . . Turn around, and I said, If this is Fat Guy in a Little Coat, Im not turning around. Its not funny anymore. And he would say, No, Ive got a whole new thing Im doing. And then Id turn around, and it would be him in my Levi jacket, and he would say, Fat guy in little coat! Dont you give up on it!

And so when we did Tommy Boy, we were just looking for jokes and scenes to make them better, and we decided that was funny to us, maybe it would be funny to there people, he continued. So we put Fat Guy in a Little Coat in, and he sang it (which was funny, and not the plan), and then we had to cut the coat in the back to make sure it would rip. So that was a long answer for the question of Did he really rip it? We had to make sure it would rip, and sound funny, so we had to help it a little bit.

3. People misunderstood why David Spade did not attend Farleys funeral.
I think about him all the time, he wrote. We had such a good time for so long and we were crammed together for so long that we did have our squabbles, but I think people misunderstood me not going to that funeral. It was nothing about that. It was just too. . . emotional and I wouldnt be able to handle it.

4. Spade had to ask Def Leppards permission for Kid Rock to yell Def Leppard sucks in Joe Dirt.
When you do a movie, and you use a song, or a band, or an image on a T-shirt of a band, theres a quiet clause stating that you cant say anything negative about them, he wrote. And its sort of just understood if theyre selling you a song, or letting you use a T-shirt, youre going to be respectful. So that line was not in the script, but I asked Kid Rock to yell it to me when I ran off, so I could make an extra whimper, like that was a real dagger. And so when we did it, we couldnt put it in the movie yet until I talked to Def Leppards manager to make sure that was OK. So I called someone, cause we originally couldnt put it in, and said, Hey, is there any way we can do this? And I had to explain that Kid Rock is the bad guy, he doesnt like Def Leppard, but the good guy does. And they were very cool because they got that and let us use it.

5. Spade knows the value of a good magazine cover (and a good TV show).
If I didnt have Just Shoot Me, I wouldnt have had a lot of stuff, he wrote. I would have never gotten a cover of Rolling Stone, I never would have gotten the house I had, and I got to work with fun people and do a show that I was proud of. He also credits a certain magazine with giving Kid Rock an edge over him with impressing women around the time he made Joe Dirt. It was my movie, but he had a slight advantage, because he had a Rolling Stone cover during the shooting, he said. Which is a real good move. So I had to compete with that.