Motivational speaker
Winkletter • 9 Nov 2026 •
A few minutes ago I found myself wanting to watch one of the top replayed SNL skits, Van Down By The River where Chris Farley plays a motivational speaker and gives 110% to the role. I don’t why this popped into my head, but I pulled the video up, watched it and then rewatched. The watch graph on YouTube has a hump right at the beginning, so you know a lot of other people end up rewatching it.
Like most good skits it starts off low key. You get a few good jokes, but the first two minutes are mostly setting up the concept – a motivational speaker who has no right to be motivating anyone. He’s worse off than most people. So the opening is just setting up the rationale. Why would a family invite a motivational speaker into their home to talk to their kids?
The rest of the skit is Chris Farley capturing the voice of an over-the-top motivational speaker and pushing the role as far as it will go.
This is one of my all-time favorite SNL skits. I loved how the other actors tried to hold it together when he kept getting crazier and crazier.