The narrative of Chris Farley, beloved “Saturday Night Live” star taken too soon, sadly includes a struggle with personal demons. But it’s also about a remarkable performer, devoted to his friendships as much as his craft. His primary aim appeared to be making his friends laugh, which naturally extended to delighting audiences. This was particularly true when audiences had the chance to see Farley amusing his friends, even in moments when he wasn’t meant to.

Audiences love witnessing actors lose their composure, either during a live show like “SNL” or through movie bloopers and outtakes. Farley had an unmatched talent for making his fellow actors break character, and he took great pleasure in this ability. Numerous occurrences of his antics were captured by the “SNL” cameras, complemented by instances on the sets of the films he starred in. Here, we’ve compiled some of the finest examples of him inducing laughter among his peers.

Although Chris Farley’s closest friend and the colleague with whom he had the most chemistry was undeniably David Spade, Adam Sandler wasn’t far behind. Farley and Sandler clearly enjoyed every moment working together. While Spade often managed to keep a straight face despite Farley’s antics, Sandler found it much more challenging. It was rare to see Sandler without a grin when he shared the “SNL” spotlight with Farley.

Case in point, Sandler’s portrayal of the shy rookie waiter in this restaurant sketch, where he’s putting pepper on the dish of Farley’s character. Farley, in a bushy beard, has Sandler turning away from the camera almost immediately as he delivers his lines in an absolutely ridiculous and over-the-top manner. Sandler can only turn back just long enough to say his lines before he’s looking away again to hide his laughter.

When Adam Sandler got his first big movie following his breakthrough on “SNL,” he gave his pal Chris Farley a small part as the unhinged bus driver. Of course, Farley stole every “Billy Madison” scene he was in. But it’s later in the film, when he gets off the bus and shows up in a compromising position back at Madison Mansion, where he forces Sandler to break — a scene that made it into the finished film.

The moment is a callback to a study session with Billy and his teacher/girlfriend, where she would remove an article of clothing every time Billy got an answer right. Only this time, his right answer results in Farley’s seductively stating, “That is correct,” before removing his shirt and playfully putting his finger to his mouth. Sandler can be heard chuckling before the camera is even back on him.

A popular recurring segment during Chris Farley’s “SNL” era were the Gap Girls sketches, which usually consisted of Farley, Adam Sandler, and David Spade playing snobby Valley Girl types who worked at a Gap store at a mall. Other cast members and various hosts were often brought in as well, as they were for this clip that features Rob Schneider and Sara Gilbert as rival mall employees who work at the Donut Hut.

As the two groups of girls trade barbs, Farley tries to join in on the burn session with a poorly-constructed joke about riding a train. His awkward delivery of the nonsensical insult — bookended by shoving fries into his mouth — has everyone but Gilbert visibly laughing by the end of his diatribe.

Despite the large overlap of their respective “SNL” stints, beyond a few ensemble pieces, Chris Farley and Mike Myers weren’t in a ton of sketches together. And unfortunately, one of their rare direct team-ups resulted in one of the most cringy “SNL” sketches of all time, wherein Myers plays an offensive caricature of Japanese men — and things only get worse from there.

But there’s also this little-seen clip where Farley plays a one-off sidekick to Myers’s recurring Middle-Aged Man character, who shows up to help people slightly younger than him to navigate the perils of being between 40 and 55 years old. Farley is admittedly given little to do for much of it, but near the end, he follows Myers’ lead and makes an exaggerated exit from the scene, which causes the typically professional Jan Hooks to crack, ever so slightly.

While he didn’t get to make nearly as many films as he should’ve given his untimely passing, Chris Farley did manage to include a handful of classics among his small filmography. And there’s no denying that “Tommy Boy” is the best of his movies when ranking Farley’s filmography, at least among the movies that he has more than just a cameo in. 

Farley’s chemistry with David Spade is electric in every single second they are on screen together, and there is a lot of footage showing how much fun they had between takes as well. And some of that footage naturally includes Spade struggling to keep it together when Farley is in full Farley mode, such as this meltdown they have in a car. After finishing their joint freak-out, Farley has to one-up his co-star and take things just a bit too far — which is when Spade can’t help but crack a slight, exasperated smile. 

All of Chris Farley’s co-stars and directors have claimed that, while he was actually making movies, he was not only sober but seemed to be at his happiest. As long as he was buried in the work, the comiedian was healthy and having a blast. That belief seems to be confirmed when you watch the blooper reel from “Tommy Boy,” which shows example after example of a giddy Farley having the time of his life and reveling in making everyone else enjoy themselves just as much as he was.

In this clip, Farley can’t help but to make the easy fart joke after a take, which has his co-star Roy Lewis cracking up. In fact, the bulk of said blooper reel is exactly that – Farley goofing off to make a co-star or crew member laugh just before or immediately after a take.

Each Weekend Update anchor has brought their own approach to the gig, and Dennis Miller was no different. Though he wasn’t as openly silly as some of his predecessors, he didn’t necessarily go out of his way to play it super straight, either. That said, he generally didn’t give way to cutting loose with outbursts of laughter from behind the news desk. 

Not surprisingly, Chris Farley was keen on changing that. Through the first bit of Farley’s Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf impression, Miller managed to maintain a fairly neutral expression. But, eventually, Farley left him with no choice but to let loose a laugh, after which Miller didn’t even bother trying not hold back his smile for the remainder of Stormin’ Norman’s fiery speech.

Speaking of Weekend Update, Kevin Nealon — who was the longest-serving anchor during Chris Farley’s time on the show — decided to go the straight man route during his tenure behind the desk. He read every story with total seriousness, and it was generally an accident when he’d even so much as crack a smile.

So when Nealon broke out into full-on laughter as some wires meant to lift Chris Farley into the air got tangled on the set, it was a rare treat. The fact that Farley never broke character and rolled with the technical difficulties in typically hilarious fashion only served to make Nealon lose it even more.

While Kenan Thompson is the longest-serving “SNL” cast member in history, his tenure didn’t start until long after Farley had passed away, so the two never got to share the “SNL” stage. Fortunately for the younger actor, Farley guest-starred on an episode of Nickelodeon’s “All That,” Thompson’s first sketch show, so the pair did have the chance to work together at least once. 

Thompson has said he smirks as a way to avoid breaking character, a technique that he definitely put to use multiple times during this sketch. As Farley becomes increasingly unhinged as the ketchup-obsessed guest chef on a cooking show, Thompson can be seen smirking a number of times, stopping just short of fully breaking, though definitely getting very close. It’s not until the sketch’s final seconds that Thompson finally seems to lose the battle against letting out a legitimate laugh. 

“SNL” will sometimes fall back on the somewhat easy trope of just making a giant mess of the cast for laughs. It doesn’t always work, and even when it does at first, it gets old quickly — but, man, Chris Farley really knows how to sell being doused with water.

Castmate Janeane Garofalo seems to be cracking a bit in the moments when the water hits him as she’s turned to host George Clooney, though it could just be her way of staying in character and flirting with Clooney’s character. But there’s no denying that the various extras who were brought in to fill out the stands of the water park are legitimately laughing at Farley’s expert reactions to taking one deluge after another.

Named after Tim Herlihy, former “SNL” writer and close friend and collaborator of Adam Sandler, the recurring Herlihy Boy sketches saw Sandler play a sad sack trying to sell personal services such as dog walking and house sitting. Between his desperate, sometimes creepy pleas, the camera cuts to Chris Farley — whose role in the sketch is, brilliantly, never explained — as an older gentleman who berates the audience for not hiring “Herlihy.”

Each time the focus goes back on Sandler, he’s trying as hard as he can not to laugh at Farley while attempting to continue the scene. By the end of any given Herlihy Boy sketch, Farley is at a 10, and Sandler is barely hanging on.

Adam Sandler made a name for himself on “SNL” in part because of the funny songs he’d write and perform, a part of his act that became so popular that he launched a side career of making comedy albums and doing musical tours that he’s continued to maintain. He’d often cut loose with stripped-down acoustic performances at the Weekend Update desk, but he did put on a few full-blown musical performances — including this one for his song “Lunchlady Land.”

Playing the titular lunch lady, Chris Farley spends the performance dancing and mugging as only he can. He gets Sandler to chuckle a few times, but it’s when he gets in Sandler’s face to sing the song’s “sloppy joe” refrain that he nearly derails Sandler’s performance completely.

Chris Farley dressing like a woman and/or being physically affectionate towards Adam Sandler seems to be a particularly strong laugh trigger for the latter, and nowhere is that more evident than in the duo’s Zagat sketch. In it, Farley plays a wife who is excitedly reading restaurant recommendations from a Zagat pamphlet to Sandler’s perpetually cold and uninterested husband.

Sandler is basically smirking through the entire sketch, but when Farley gets especially excited about the romantic prospects of a date night at a particular restaurant — and then starts rubbing Sandler’s leg — Sandler’s smirk gives way to a full-on break.

Though he spent much of his career being a fringe and often divisive comedy figure, Norm MacDonald spent a few years being mainstream famous enough to not only have a self-titled sitcom but also star as the lead in a couple of Hollywood films. 1998’s “Dirty Work” was the only one he co-wrote, and, not surprisingly, it’s the one that went on to become a cult hit. Chris Farley has an uncredited cameo in “Dirty Work,” which would ultimately be his final released film. 

As it was released posthumously, closing out the movie’s end credit blooper reel with a fun moment where Farley and MacDonald break one another was a bittersweet send-off for Farley, essentially serving as his final farewell on the big screen. And after Norm MacDonald’s devastating death in 2021, it’s all the more special that this moment was immortalized. 

Adam Sandler’s Canteen Boy character was controversial from its inception, with the original sketch based around what was meant to be a young boy scout being aggressively seduced by his adult scoutmaster (Alec Baldwin). Remarkably, Canteen Boy wasn’t a one-and-done, and eventually Chris Farley had a chance to make his mark on the character’s legacy.

All Farley does in the sketch is play an old bully of Canteen Boy’s, promptly delivering him a comedically exaggerated wedgie for old times sake. Farley goes all in, of course, lifting and shaking Sandler and yelling taunts at him — which has Sandler not only laughing but having to brace himself on Farley to keep from falling over from all the jostling.

While this particular Matt Foley sketch might be the weakest of the bunch, it was never not funny seeing Farley play the character. And the people who were in the sketches with him apparently agreed, because one or more of them would inevitably break.

Once again, David Spade was here to struggle keeping a straight face, as was underrated cast member Melanie Hutsell. But it’s host Christian Slater who was forced to wrap his hand around the entire lower half of his face to hide the fact that Farley as Foley had him breaking hard. Remarkably, Slater mostly keeps it together later in the sketch when Farley picks up Spade and they both crash through the coffee table — but Hutsell does not.

Most Matt Foley sketches take some time to reveal themselves, which is part of the fun. But it was when Foley gave a motivational speech from inside a jail, with Martin Lawrence’s inmate motivational speaker as his warm-up, that involved the longest time Chris Farley ever took to show up as Foley.

Perhaps this is why, when he does finally come bursting into the room, it takes only moments before he’s got David Spade, Adam Sandler, Tim Meadows, Rob Schneider, and Jay Mohr all trying (and failing) not to laugh. It’s one thing to break one or two professional comedians — it’s another thing entirely to break an entire room full of them.

Chris Farley wasn’t immune to enjoying himself on stage, but he didn’t typically outright break. So during this sketch, where he plays Matt Foley taking on an international gig, and he breaks for a second, the audience ate it up. It also gave castmate Jay Mohr the chuckles, which only set Mohr up for a bigger break later.

As Farley delivers Foley’s horrible attempt at Spanish, he implies that the kids — played by Mohr and short-lived “SNL” cast member Morwenna Banks — have been indulging in various illicit substances. Between his bad Spanish and the ridiculous dance he performs, Mohr and Banks both lose it — which seems to at least be part of the point of a Matt Foley sketch. 

Sadly, Chris Farley’s final appearance on “SNL” was an inconsistent effort, one that, looking back, contains far too many reminders of the tragic direction he was heading in. But among the bright spots of the episode was, not surprisingly, a reprisal of the Matt Foley character.

While most of Farley’s old castmates had moved on, this gave him a chance to perform one more Matt Foley sketch with his old pal, Tim Meadows, one of the final stragglers from the early-’90s cast. And, sure enough, Meadows struggles to stay in character here, with his mostly straight face being betrayed by his visibly vibrating body to indicate his laughter. Naturally, Farley picks up on this and goes at Meadows to ensure he fully erupts into hysterics.

Not only is this the best Matt Foley sketch (and probably Chris Farley’s best sketch), but it’s a contender for best overall “SNL” sketch of all time, period. It’s got the perfect setup, a hilarious and fully-formed character, and the perfect foils for Farley to play off of. It also contains one of the show’s most legendary character-breaking moments, one that has made numerous “SNL” highlight reels over the years.

After Farley hilariously tells Phil Hartman’s dad character to shut his yapper, Farley moves across the room to the couch where David Spade and host Christina Applegate are sitting — and already falling apart. When Farley goes at them, it only gets worse for the pair. It’s an iconic moment in an iconic sketch and a perfect example of a legendary performer at his best.