Dana Carvey explains his ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ lyrical miscues on ‘The Late Late Show with James Corden’; Photo: CBS/YouTube
Dana Carvey, co-star of the 1992 movie Wayne’s World, recently revealed he didn’t know the lyrics to Queen‘s rock opera standard “Bohemian Rhapsody.”
While on The Late Late Show with James Corden, Carvey explained what it was like to shoot the famous scene from the movie. In the scene, the characters are driving and listening to the song, all head-banging simultaneously.
Carvey said shooting the scene was “pure torture.”
“We went out, some town east of LA, and we just started doing that and after the fifth hour, two vertebrates popped out of the back and hit Mike Myers in his eye,” he said.
All joking aside, he said what made it more difficult to shoot the scene was that he couldn’t even remember his (er Queen’s) lines.
“It was very, very, very painful,” he went on. “And also the fact that I had not memorized the lyrics of the song. I got away with it, but I could not remember the lyrics.”
Now that you have this knowledge, try watching that scene again (video below). See if you still experience the magic of it, or see if it’s ruined. You’ll notice Carve8y does a weird thing with his lips to help hide the fact that he’s faking it.
In July of this year, Wayne’s World fans celebrated the movie’s 25-year anniversary by reenacting that scene in epic proportion. The crowd, accompanied by an orchestra, broke the record for most headbangers doing their thing at the same time.
Around that same time, 65,000 fans awaiting Green Day‘s show at London’s Hyde Park broke out in “…Rhapsody” unprompted.
To say that the song, about a a poor boy becoming a man confessing to a murder, that also is purportedly a beautifully veiled allegory of Freddie Mercury‘s coming-out narrative, is a ubiquitous presence in singalong culture is an understatement.
Meanwhile, in other Wayne’s World fandom news, there’s a push to see a third film in the series made, this time set in 2047 with an elderly Wayne and Garth. One man even wrote the script and wants to make it happen. He even made a trailer for the movie.
But the question remains — how does a dude remember every lyric to “Choppin’ Broccoli” yet stumble on one of the most famous rock opera songs of all time?
Catch the full interview with Carvey on James Corden, followed by the timeless Wayne’s World scene below.