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I also liked it, not the greatest movie ever but had some laughs and was co-written (and directed) by Frank Sebastiano who co-wrote Dirty Work. Artie for all of his bullshit was able to make the movie he wanted which was a raunchy R rated film which you could never get made today.
I thought I had heard they had him on oxygen. Funny how after that show Lorne had it removed from reruns / syndication since back then Comedy Central used to play the 90s episodes every day just because of how bad Farley looked. I think he only removed a few from reruns (now available on streaming) but that was one of them.
There was a really short clip from it on the Farley Best Of SNL DVD, it’s in a montage of “fatty fall down” moments basically, he’s on a stationary bike (this was the sketch Norm didn’t want him to do) and you can tell it’s from this episode because he’s more bloated and red faced than in the others.
Dude it's such a tragic watch. He was dead less than 2 months later, so you're really catching him at the end when he's at his worst and most fucked up. Seeing things like the Foley bike sketch are insane, and makes you realize that the entire humor of the bit originally was the way how Farley would perform, and when that guy is on deaths door, the whole thing feels so embarrassing to watch. You can also see the tension amongst the other cast members; they clearly know that their friend is suffering and are also feeling naive/stupid for thinking that he was at all able to do this and also experiencing all of this on live television being watched by millions. Must've been brutal.
It's a pretty good skit. It's not when he hosted it last, but his problems with drugs/alcohol were well known at the time.I remember Artie talking about when he got cast for Dirty Work and him, Norm, and Saget went out to a bar and played pool and Artie was told by Saget he can’t be doing coke since they were obviously all warned about his behavior. That might Artie bought blow from some guy who met him at the bar. He got lucky with being a coke head and hiding it on Dirty Work since they were actually much moreworried about Farley’s drug use which killed him a few months later. Farley even had a drug bodyguard at the time but he was too distracted by actors and movie set to watch Farley who had people bringing him (and probably Artie) all kinds of shit for his short time on set.
Speaking of Farley, anyone ever see his last SNL hosted episode? It was like two months before he died and wow it’s hard to watch. The opening skit they make fun of him being an out of control addict then the rest of it he’s out of breath and sweating like crazy trying to perform. They had Chris Rock there to fill in at the last minute in case Farley couldn’t do it because of his bad health. He was only 33!
Imagine this.....but stretched out over the course of half a decade. That was Artie Lange's tenure on the Stern Show during the Sirius years essentially. He was high almost every single day. Overworked because of his standup appearances and other gigs. And was a hostile psychotic maniac who could not function for more than a few hours at best without getting a fix. Yet the bosses kept him going and his managers kept him working because the money was simply too good for them to pass up. And his 'friends' and family also kept him working rather than stop because their lifestyles depended on his income.
Pretty sure that Norm noticed and just didn’t care. I forget the actual story but I remember Artie saying he was drunk and made it really obvious.