Tommy Boy is a quintessential example of one of the many successful low-brow farces that came out in the mid to late nineties. These movies (Tommy Boy, Billy Madison, There's Something About Mary, etc.), in my opinion all share a common design that really took the movie world by storm during this period. All of these farces weren't afraid to focus on unintellectual humor that both children/teens and adults could enjoy. Before these movies, "low-brow" films were either strictly made with kid humor (think Spaceballs) or adult humor (think Raw). It was very rare to see a movie unapologetically combine humor for both age brackets. You could argue that Mel Brooks or team ZAZ made films for both, but their farces were so based in a non-reality world that the humor becomes cartoonish. This movement was so influential that, without these films, awesome shows like It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia and Eastbound and Down wouldn't exist.
There's something genius about Tommy Boy. Farley and Spade were a dynamic team. Farley's delivery is always bigger than life and effective, but the real key in making it work is Spade. He is the rare example of the straight man whose role isn't solely tempering the main comics jokes. Spade has many comedic moments of his own. He is willing to play it straight when necessary, but also gets to dabble in ridiculousness at other points. On top of this, it seems that Farley and Spade genuinely like each other throughout.
It's too bad that the movie doesn't get the reverence it deserves. People like to dismiss it (even though most people who have seen it will admit it is funny and have viewed it many times). To make matters worse, even Spade himself was willing to tarnish sacred areas (not to mention the death of Farley) by spoofing one of the film's scenes in a recent DirecTV ad.
If you haven't watched the movie in a while, give it another chance. I dare you not to laugh.
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