Pop Culture | Movies | 90s
10 Facts About 'The Waterboy' That Even Mama Boucher Can't Take Credit For
Back during the height of Adam Sandler's fame, The Waterboy was one of the absolute biggest movies of the 90s. If you were a kid back then, chances are you heard people quoting it every single day at school after it came out, and you weren't even mad because you were doing it too.
We still love the movie to this day, but we're willing to bet that its biggest fans might not know some of these facts!
It's the highest-grossing sports comedy of all time.
The second-highest is another Adam Sandler movie, The Longest Yard. It was the highest-grossing sports movie of all time until The Blind Side came out.
The Fonz plays the coach because of another Adam Sandler joke.
Sandler correctly refers to Henry Winkler as being Jewish in "The Chanukah Song," and Winkler enjoyed the shout-out so much that he offered to appear in the movie.
It's inspired by some of Sandler's other characters.
Specifically, it's a combination of his SNL character Cajun Man and his songs "The Lonesome Kicker" and "Canteen Boy."
Ticket sales got boosted because of a movie trailer.
The trailer for Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace premiered ahead of screenings of The Waterboy, leading to a swarm of people who would buy tickets for the movie, and then leave after the trailer.
Keep reading for more watery facts...
Kathy Bates took the role for a pretty simple reason.
Her niece was a huge fan of Adam Sandler and suggested she take the role.
The movie sparked a huge lawsuit.
Suzanne Lloyd Hanes, the granddaughter of silent film superstar Harold Lloyd, filed a lawsuit against the company for $50 million, claiming it was plagiarized from Lloyd's movie The Freshman. The court ruled against her in 2002.
It's the third movie where Sandler's love interest has a "V. V." name.
Vicki Vallencourt follows Veronica Vaughn from Billy Madison and Virginia Venit from Happy Gilmore.
Captain Insano is played by a real wrestler.
Paul "The Big Show" Wight was a legend of the WCW, before it was bought out by the WWE in 2001.
Vicki's tattoo has a hidden meaning.
It's the occult symbol for "water," and it's on her left side, which in that theology is associated with "love." Therefore, it translates to "love of water."
It's the first time Rob Schneider shows up in an Adam Sandler movie.
It would be far from the last.