A little more salad and a little less coke would have been good: "Tommy Boy"

I honestly couldn't remember if I had seen the first leading role for jolly Chris Farley when "Tommy Boy" showed up on HBO recently. I know I had seen parts of it. But the carefully-constructed, intricate, Mametesque plot in its entirety? Not sure. But since I just read "Live from New York," the oral history of "Saturday Night Live," it seemed fitting to settle that question once and for all.

As you might know, Farley plays a bumbling idiot -- no! -- paired up with smarmy sidekick and fellow SNL alum David Spade. In this case, Farley is Tommy, the son of the head of an auto parts manufacturer. After a prolonged college experience, Farley comes home to be the heir apparent in his dad's company. Then dad dies, leaving Farley to save the company from enemies -- known and hidden. (Yes, Rob Lowe is involved.)

All this is mostly -- ah, hell, entirely -- an excuse for Farley to stumble, yell and flail away through one scene after another. Spade is around to be snide and snarky, and in addition to Lowe as Tommy's stepbrother we get Brian Dennehy as Tommy's dad and Bo Derek (NOT Raquel Welch as originally posted) as his stepmom.

Farley and Spade make an amusing enough duo, but the comedy here is -- brace yourself -- limited. I mean, I got enough of Farley falling on stuff, bellowing and wearing inappropriate clothes on SNL. When it comes to movies, small doses are much better. (See "Wayne's World" and "Billy Madison.") And from what I hear, "Black Sheep" didn't really provide any redemption.

Of course, this also could be a generational thing. I mean, I think stupid mid-'80s comedies like "Weird Science" and "Better Off Dead" are hilarious because I was in my early teens when they came out. When "Tommy Boy" hit theaters, I was finishing up college. My future was ahead of me, and I prayed that it didn't include a sweatly blob of a man falling all over my furniture. So far, so good.