Offering a peek into a faux local cable access show co-hosted by metalhead guitarist Wayne Campbell (Mike Myers) and his drumming best friend, Garth Algar (Dana Carvey), the first "Wayne's World" sketch debuted on "Saturday Night Live" on February 19, 1989. It became an instant fan favorite, and following several more appearances by Wayne and Garth, Myers and Carvey took the characters out of Wayne's parents' basement to the outside world for the "Wayne's World" movie in 1991.
The opening scene of "Wayne's World" struck an immediate chord with movie audiences. Picked up by Garth and the show's crew, Wayne immediately holds a cassette tape up and pops it into the deck, playing "Bohemian Rhapsody" as it picks up right at the operatic part. All of the car's occupants sing along, swerve, and bang their heads for the next three minutes until the tune's conclusion. According to Decider, "Bohemian Rhapsody" helped make the "Wayne's World" movie soundtrack a smash hit with 2 million units sold, and even better, resulted in "Bohemian Rhapsody" re-entering the Billboard Hot 100, where it peaked at No. 2.
The irony is that "SNL" producer Lorne Michaels, who also produced the "Wayne's World" movie, originally wanted to use a song from Guns N' Roses, Myers told Rolling Stone for the publication's oral history of the scene. However, the actor insisted that the car jam be done to the strains of "Bohemian Rhapsody," a tune that he and his friends rolled to when the actor was growing up in Canada.
No matter the soundtrack's sales or the comeback in popularity, the "Bohemian Rhapsody" scene in "Wayne's World" didn't truly become significant until it was viewed by the singer-songwriter who penned the song, to begin with.
