The Relapse Guy was a one-time sketch in 1993. It starred Chris Farley as a man who was in and out of rehab, unable to stay sober. True to SNL fashion, it had its own theme tune and montage at the beginning (a la It's Pat!).
In addition to Farley, the sketch starred Shannen Doherty as his sister, Mike Myers as her husband, and Julia Sweeney and Phil Hartman as the parents. Tim Meadows was the rehab counselor, Rob Schneider played a surgeon, Ellen Cleghorne was a nurse, and Kevin Nealon was a hospital administrator.
Similarly to the Schiller's Reel Don't Look Back in Anger with John Belushi, watching this sketch now that Chris Farley has passed away is uncomfortable at best. Some jokes have been made that Farley was a natural due to his hard-drinking life, but many have considered the sketch eerie as it mirrored Farley too closely. Like the character, Chris Farley had treated rehab as a revolving door.
This sketch was written and aired during the three-year period of sobriety in Chris's career, and true to his usual fashion, he was fine with making fun of this part of his life. It had been part of Farley's ability to appear confident with himself and blur the line between being jocose and grave. One said example was when the cast and crew pretended to break the fourth wall when Steve Martin hosted, remarking how they will not do scripted, one joke sketches but return to the impromptu ideas of earlier days. Chris Farley broke into song about how he resolved to stop coming on stage drunk and that "I'm not gonna drink 'til Update is through/That's a promise to you, the viewer!/Yes, after the show/I'll drink 'til I spew/But for now I'm clear-headed for you!" (This particular bit was, however, prior to his going to rehab and beginning his three-year period of sobriety.) Although taken as Chris poking fun of himself along with the other cast resolving ridiculous ideas, in actuality there had been multiple occasions Farley had been intoxicated on duty.
Later on, he would do the same in the monologue and cold opening of the episode he hosted, though in that instance, things were flipped, and he was joking about being sober when he had in fact hit his last downward spiral.
After the death of Chris Farley in 1997, The Relapse Guy was censored from SNL archives and rebroadcasts, and omitted from a video collection SNL Presents the Best of Chris Farley. As a result, it remains one of the most hardest clips to find and the most obscure Chris Farley sketches.
Plot[]
Scott, played by Chris Farley, has just graduated from rehab.
Four months later his sister and brother-in-law are enjoying a quiet evening at home when Scott comes in drunk. His sister asked where he was, and Scott gives a convoluted story. He claims he was watching a ball game, but when it was not televised he says he was at the game. When told it was an away game, he says he was with his friend Doug. They tell him Doug just called, who has been looking for Scott all day, and Scott replies "cause I was watching the game." Scott's sister accuses him of drunken behavior, and Scott retorts she is judgmental; "I'm not drunk!" Scott loses his balance and falls onto the coffee table.
Later, Scott has graduated from his second trip to rehab. Three months later, he is shown with his father in a hospital. The administrator is reluctant to hire Scott, based on his past history, and a sober Scott says the job is important, but the hospital administrator says no need to appeal, Scott is hired, but remarks "This job is very important and could be a matter of life and death." Some time passes, and doctors are performing liver surgery. They wonder where is Scott, and a nurse says Scott called to say he is on his way, or at least that is what she thought, "because there was a lot of loud music and noise in the background." Scott enters the operating room and hands them a cooler with a calf's liver from the supermarket in it instead of a human liver. The doctor accuses him of being inebriated and selling the liver for drug money. Scott argues that he's sober and tries to prove this, but collapses on the operating table.
Again he is in rehab, and his family seem to have no more faith in him. His father gets up and hugs him, blaming himself, and the counselor says he's willing to stake his reputation on this time being the last time Scott has to come to rehab.
Scott's sister and her husband are shown on the beach relaxing, remarking that they're sure Scott is happy taking care of their three young children while they're so far away. Scott then bursts on the scene, calling to someone across the beach that they owe him a drink. His sister immediately asks where the children are. He replies, "They said they were with you," but his brother-in-law shouts back, "Where are the kids?!" Before they can get an answer, Scott collapses on their beach chairs and the end theme music plays.
Trivia[]
- In 2019, Lorne Michaels revealed that Chris Farley appreciated the sketch so much that he loved it and that he wished to do more sketches about the character. Such as doing a sequel by saying "Let's make another Relapse Guy". However, Farley's termination from SNL put this idea on hold, and it was pigeonholed when he returned to host. Chris Farley's 1997 death made any consideration of making "The Relapse Guy" more than a one-shot character and all ideas to do a sequel was scratched and discarded.
- Lorne Michaels also revealed that the sketch was to make Chris Farley go through getting clean of his sober problems before they get worse.
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