Mike Myers, King of Catchphrase Comedy, Doesn’t Write Catchphrases Intentionally
“Remember ‘Get in my belly?’ That was improv. It wasn’t Ladies and gentleman, my next catchphrase!”
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When it comes to writing comedy, Mike Myers follows the vibe. “I think comedy is production design,” he said at his Vulture Honorary Degree ceremony. “I love being immersed in a comedic world.” Anyone who’s seen the opening dance sequence of an Austin Powers movie knows what he means: The world comes first, then the characters, then the catchphrase. “I’ve never designed a catchphrase. I just like how people talk,” Myers said. “Remember ‘Get in my belly?’ That was improv. It wasn’t Ladies and gentleman, my next catchphrase.”
Countless comedians have tried to start with a catchphrase and move backward through a joke, but it doesn’t work. Myers told a story about his Wayne’s World pal Dana Carvey pretending to be a catchphrase-first comedian in the Saturday Night Live writers room to intentionally piss off Lorne Michaels. One fake catchphrase was “I’ve gotta gotta gotta go!” Another was just counting change. “And then Lorne would go, ‘Fuck you!’”
Myers was actually introduced to Carvey via catchphrase. Myers didn’t watch SNL before he was cast on the show because it almost always overlapped with Toronto Maple Leafs games. One night, he was riding in a cab with Kids in the Hall star Dave Foley, “and in those days in Toronto, we had really hilarious cab dispatchers that you could hear in the backseat,” he said. One dispatcher ended a conversation with, “Isn’t that special?” — Carvey’s Church Lady catchphrase. “I turned to Dave Foley and I said, ‘What the fuck was that? That’s really funny.’ And Dave goes ‘That’s Dana Carvey.’” And a Wayne’s World friendship was born.
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