Chris Farley Tattoos

Chris Farley played so many memorable (and infinitely quotable) characters throughout his brief but brilliant career. My very first memory of Farley’s immense talent came from watching him as Matt Foley, Motivational Speaker on “Saturday Night Live.” His words were funny—who doesn’t love yelling about living in a van down by the river?—but what really got me was the subtle way he used his body to get a laugh. Yes, seeing him fall and crash through a table is an obviously hilarious physical stunt, but he did so many little things. The way he pulled up his pants. The stance he took. Even on mute, the skits would send me into hysterics.

Farley didn’t need to rip his shirt off and dance like a Chippendale to make you laugh (although he certainly did do that as well), he just needed to flash a sly smile or a grimace of frustration.

He was a master of playing a character becoming more and more frustrated before they eventually snap and lose all cool. The absolutely perfect example of this was in the Adam Sandler driven skit “The Herlihy Boy House-Sitting Service.”

From the second the camera first pans over to Farley you immediately know what’s coming up, but even when the end is predetermined, you want to be along for the entire ride.

It’s been almost 25 years since Farley passed, but I still can’t meet a person named Richard without crying out “Oh, Richaaaaaaaaard.” I can’t watch a Chicago Bears game without eating copious amounts of kielbasa and saying “da bearssss.” And I don’t know how many times I’ve screamed out, “For the love of GOD!” Judging by the amount of tattoo tributes to Farley, I’m far from the only one. The only tattoo we couldn’t find was a homemade tattoo of a van down by the river, but we can always hope to see one eventually.