Book #44: “Wayne’s World: Extreme Close-Up” by Mike Myers & Robin Ruzan
Wayne's World: Extreme Close-Up
Mike Myers and Robin Ruzan
Released: January 1st, 1992
My 14th book for 2024 was Mike Myers and Robin Ruzan's "Wayne's World: Extreme Close-Up".
I am a diehard Wayne's World fan. Ever since I was a young child, I obsessed over Wayne and Garth. Honestly, I wanted to be Wayne Campbell growing up. Playing guitar, street hockey in the streets, meeting up at a donut shop, going to rock concerts, and hanging out with friends.
These days, Wayne's World seems to sadly have fallen off the radar. I was helping to manage a Walmart back in 2020, and I saw two young guys stocking shelves. One had long brown hair and a hat, and the other had long blonde hair and big glasses. I joked that they both looked like Wayne and Garth. Both gentlemen looked at me funny and went "Who are they?" I was laughing almost in shock and went "You know, Wayne's World" and ran through the theme song like they always did. Straight faces. That was the day I first felt old. How have people not seen this classic? Granted we're over 35 years from when Mike Myers debuted the Wayne Campbell character in Canada, and Wayne's World debuted as a skit on Saturday Night Live. The movie at least should be remembered, but it shocks me that it has become lost in the modern day. You would think that with the rise of Tik-Tok, Streaming, Podcasts, Vlogs, and other things, Wayne's World would be held up as the originals...
I remember doing a cross-country trip in Canada back in 2021. I had a fascination with Tim Horton's donut shop. This normally should not really be a thing that mesmerizes people. It's akin to going to McDonalds in America and thinking you've discovered the holy grail of restaurants. My fascination was how Wayne's World showed the importance of the donut shop to the outside world. They simply retooled it in Stan Mikita's after the Chicago Blackhawks legend, vs the late Toronto Maple Leaf's star who bore his name and likeness for the global chain. The idea of meeting up with your friends at the donut shop for coffee, sugar, and to just talk about life. Like a bar, only for breakfast or a snack.
Wayne and Garth lived rather simplistically. But it was just a version of their generation growing up as young adults and adapting to a modern world full of responsibility while trying to hold on to youthful things such as partying and having fun in a humorous way.
This book does not really have much of a structure to it. There are a lot of Top 10 lists, and other random features. Things that were played out in the original skits. There is only one brief mention of Cassandra. Beev is picked on a few times. Hilary and Madonna are lauded as babes (including an interview with Madonna where she confesses undying love for Wayne). Nothing in terms of Nancy, Sandra, Rick, Officer Wilson, Mr. Hemple, Terry, Glen, Phil, Del Preston (granted some of these characters would not debut until the following films were released theatrically). It works as more of a primer for fans in anticipation of the Wayne's World movie that debuted in February of 1992.
While I was still too young to fully appreciate the height of the Wayne's World phenomenon, I still appreciate a lot of things about it today in the modern world. It's a time relic piece that showcases young adult life in the late 1980's and early 1990's. I love that they got Aerosmith to play in the 2nd film, but if the rumors are true about them heavily courting Nirvana to feature in the film instead, I feel that the success would have given a much greater feeling to the film than what transpired. Still a classic comedy, just doesn't fully match up to the original in the way it could have.
If I could have just 4 things that do not exist in the world, it would be novelizations of the first two movies, a 4k Blu-Ray of all the Wayne's World skits ever produced, and of course, Wayne's World 3.
Here is what I learned:
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- The book is organized by alphabetical letters.
- Wayne has call-waiting.
- Wayne includes Greek artist Nana Mouskouri on his Top 10 albums list to cleanse the palate from all the 70’s & 80’s metal included on the list.
- Wayne considers Betty Rubble, Garth’s Mom, and Madonna to be amongst the Top Babes of All-Time.
- Beev Algar is Garth’s father, and a bit of an awkward nerdy type.
- Beev runs the Wishing Well Convenience Store.
- It is located on the corner of Main and Maple in downtown Aurora.
- They are open from 7:30a - 11:30p.
- There is a section dedicated to cable access around the world.
- Wayne believes The Graduate is the best film of all time.
- Wayne has a disliking for Beev and knocks him every chance he gets.
- Wayne talks about various ailments he and his friends have been diagnosed with.
- The book teaches the reader how to do the “Dream Sequence” from the movie.
- There are some oddball fillers in this book because books are printed in increments of 32, so there are 96 pages that needed to be filled in this book.
- The book teaches how to do the “Fished In” after suggesting a cash prize is on page 33.
- Wayne and Garth have been neighbors and best friends all their lives.
- Garth’s house is a Mock Tudor and smells great.
- Hilary Algar is Garth’s Mom.
- Wayne and Garth call each other “Gimps” when in a disagreement.
- Afterwards they make up by saying “Buds”.
- There is a page dedicated to Wayne’s World terminology.
- Wayne teaches readers how to play the guitar just like he does on the show.
- Wayne isn’t into “Devil Metal”.
- Wayne Gretzky is his biggest hero.
- Turkey contains tryptophan which is an amino acid that triggers the sleep mechanism.
- Tryptophan is also found in bananas.
- Wayne’s favorite holiday is Halloween. He would have said Thanksgiving, but the tryptophan leaves bad memories.
- Wayne’s birthday is said to be “September 31st”.
- Aurora, IL is a suburb located 38 miles west of Chicago.
- Wayne’s World aired Friday nights at 10:30pm on Cable 10.
- Cable 10 is a community-access channel.
- Wayne dislikes Toto and Disco music, considering them party-killers.
- Madonna works out for two and a half hours each day.
- She maintains a vegetarian diet.
- The book features a center pinup of the “perfect babe”. (Yes, she is wearing clothing).
- Wayne believes we should all live life like Bugs Bunny.
- Zemtar the Horrible is from the planet Gremlac.
- The Intergalactic Confederacy controls areas of the Andromeda Galaxy.
- The results of a contest are shown to replace the word “Sphincter”. The winner is “Rectum”.
- If Wayne ran the world he would redesign the White House in giant legos.
- Flood pants would be outlawed.
- A recipe is included for Kraft Macaroni & Cheese with cut up weiners.
- Wayne teachers readers how to “Schwing”.
- A shameless plug is found for the original Wayne’s World movie set for release in Spring 1992.
- A list is featured of the coolest original Star Trek episodes.
- Garth’s cousin Barry is a roadie for Aerosmith.
- Wayne eats Nut & Honey every morning in his breakfast nook.
- Wayne once had meningitis and had to go to the hospital.
- C&C Music Factory have a song called “Things That Make You Go Hmmm.”
- There are no people called Punics despite being existence of two Punic Wars.
- The Carthaginians temporarily used elephants to defeat the Romans.
- Green Acres, Petticoat Junction, and The Beverly Hillbillies all exist in the same reality.
- Arnold Ziffle once visited the Clampett Mansion.
- Wayne is looking for something to fill his "Z" category at the end of the book. He used a phone book and finds Zeek Zanzibar's phone number and does a brief interview with him.
- Zeek Zanzibar is allergic to pollen, mold, and shrimp.
- Garth has a habit of calling Wayne when he is on the phone with other people.
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