Chris Farley's "Explosively Funny" in SNL's "Matt Foley: Van Down by the River"
David Spade and Christina Applegate could barely hold it together during the iconic character's Season 18 debut.
In the weeks leading up to February 16's three-hour 50th anniversary celebration on NBC, the team behind Saturday Night Live has selected one sketch from every single season — 50 seasons in 50 days — to reflect the show's rich legacy across five decades. Presenting the sketch chosen to represent Season 18: "Matt Foley: Van Down by the River," starring Chris Farley, David Spade, Phil Hartman, Julia Sweeney, and Host Christina Applegate.
When Chris Farley first introduced Matt Foley to SNL viewers on May 8, 1993, he instantly crashed into fans' hearts. A motivational speaker hired by two frustrated parents (Season 18 cast members Phil Hartman and Julia Sweeney), it soon becomes clear that the wildly erratic Foley shouldn't be giving anyone life advice. Not least because he's "living in a van down by the river."
As soon as Farley's Foley bursts on the scene to try and scare two kids (David Spade and Christina Applegate) straight, both Spade and Applegate struggle to keep a straight face. And with Farley's energy practically crackling off the screen, no one could blame them.
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"Van Down By the River" was Matt Foley's first SNL appearance
Hartman's character introduces Matt Foley to his kids, after telling them "he's been down in the basement drinking coffee for about the last four hours" and asking them to hype him up, as "he's used to big groups."
"Now let's get started by letting me give you a scenario of what MY life is all about," Foley says, as Farley crouches down to get close to Spade (who avoids his gaze and covers his mouth to keep from laughing). "First off: I am 35 years old, I am divorced, and I live in a van down by the river."
When Foley asks Spade's character what he wants to do with his life, he and his parents share that he's an aspiring writer.
"Well, la-dee-freakin-da," Foley yells, compulsively adjusting his belt. By the time Farley makes his way back over from telling Hartman to "shut his big YAPPER," Applegate has to hide her face in her hands.
"I think we broke at the same time,” Applegate told Spade during an April 2024 visit to his Fly on the Wall podcast with Dana Carvey, adding that she "could feel both of us trying to hold it in as much as we could."
"And then I put my hair in front of my eyes because I knew I had a line coming up," she continued. "Like, my only funny line in the sketch, and I was like, ‘I’m going to say this freaking line.'"
But Applegate got it done. "Young lady, what do you want to do with your life?" Foley asks her character.
"I want to live in a van down by the river," she deadpans, effectively diffusing the unhinged motivational speaker — for just a moment, before he lifts Spade off the couch like a rag doll and full-on smashes the coffee table. On the upside, Matt Foley successfully motivates the family to rally together and make sure he doesn't move in.
Watch "Matt Foley: Van Down By the River" from Season 18, Episode 19 above, and stream every episode of SNL on Peacock anytime.
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Dana Carvey called Chris Farley's Matt Foley "one of the funniest and most powerful things ever done" on SNL
SNL alum Dana Carvey called Farley's performances "the most uniquely explosive" in SNL history during a January 2025 GQ interview.
"It wasn't like he had an eight year run with tons of multiple characters, but Farley doing 'In a Van Down By the River…” was the most explosively funny thing. You would never want your sketch to come on after that."
"Full Farley in the moment was an unstoppable force physically, verbally," Carvey told GQ. Of his Matt Foley character, he added, "When Chris was in that sketch, I thought, This is one of the funniest and most powerful things ever done in 8H."
Matt Foley writer Bob Odenkirk wanted Chris Farley to play him in a movie
Farley brought Matt Foley to SNL after performing as the character when he with the Second City comedy troupe in Chicago. But it was Farley's fellow Second City performer — and future SNL writer — Bob Odenkirk who first dreamed up the character with Farley.
Matt Foley appeared in eight SNL sketches, and there were even plans for a feature film before Farley died in 1997. "That would have been a great little movie," Odenkirk told the Chicago Tribune. "But only with Farley."
