Happy Gilmore is a 1996 sports comedy film starring Adam Sandler, Carl Weathers, Julie Bowen, Allen Covert, Frances Bay and Christopher McDonald. Bob Barker, Robert Smigel, Kevin Nealon, Joe Flaherty, Lee Trevino, Richard Kiel, and Ben Stiller (not credited) have cameos.

The movie was nominated for two MTV Movie Awards, Best Comedic Performance for Sandler and Best Fight for Barker and Sandler, the latter of which it won. In 2000, readers of Total Film magazine voted Happy Gilmore the 31st greatest comedy film of all time.

Main cast

• Adam Sandler – Happy Gilmore
• Christopher McDonald – Shooter McGavin
• Julie Bowen – Virginia Venit
• Frances Bay – Grandma Gilmore
• Carl Weathers – "Chubbs" Peterson
• Allen Covert – Otto
• Richard Kiel – Mr. Larson
• Dennis Dugan – Doug Thompson
• Bob Barker – Himself
• Kevin Nealon – Gary Potter

Description

Happy is a wannabe ice hockey player who masters a powerful slapshot with the help of his father. His slapshot isn't enough, though, as his aggression and poor skating ability on the ice gets him cut from every team he tries out for. His grandmother, whom he's lived with almost all his life, has not paid taxes on her home for several years. As such, she owes $270,000 to the IRS and the house that Happy's grandfather "built with his bare hands" is about to be reposessed. Happy searches for a way to help, but has few options. On a bet with the movers, who are chipping golf balls with Happy's grandfather's clubs, Happy takes a swing (so to speak) at trying to hit the ball farther than them. He drives the ball an estimated 400 yards in one shot (hitting unsuspecting neighbors down the street). The movers indicate how unbelievable this is and Happy discovers a new source of income to buy back his grandmother's home.

Happy goes to the local driving range to showcase his talent in exchange for cash, and he catches the eye of a washed-up-golf-pro-turned-teacher Chubbs Peterson (played by Carl Weathers), who lost his hand to an alligator. Chubbs thinks Happy can make big money as a golf tour player, and challenges him to enter an amateur tournament, the winner of which will be asked to play on the tour. Happy wins the tournament (his most impressive shot being a hole-in-one on a Par 4), catching the eye of tour PR head Virginia Venit (Julie Bowen) and tour veteran Shooter McGavin (Christopher McDonald).

Happy joins the pro tour, but comes in last place in the first round he participates in. In a bar after the game, Shooter mocks Happy, prompting Happy to make a nemesis of Shooter. Happy's passion for hockey spills over into his golf game and becomes an animate golfer the average viewer can identify with. Shooter finds his antics to be a disgrace to the game of golf and despises what Happy has done to his championship year. Both Happy and Shooter play hard for the gold jacket and the right to own Happy's Grandmother's home.

At the end of the tournament, crazed fans who need to see Happy's swing climb the TV tower, that collapses, right in between him and the hole. Having been familiarized with this rule before, Shooter reminds everyone that Happy must "play it as it lies". Happy then examines the TV tower, noticing that the parts of it are aligned exactly to where the golf ball needs to go. He swings, and it goes right along the many parts of the tower, going right into the hole. Upset, Shooter steals the Gold Jacket only to be pursued by rabid Happy Fans who beat him senseless. Happy, his caddy, his grandmother, and his girlfriend then return to Happy's grandmother's house, which once again belongs to her, to have a drink to Happy's success.

Notes

• The TV game show host Bob Barker credits his appearance in this movie for revitalizing interest in his show The Price is Right (with perhaps, the oft repeated retort "The price is wrong, bitch"). He thinks a younger generation of viewers saw his performance in the movie, in which he is paired up with Gilmore in a celebrity tournament and ends up winning a fist-fight against the exuberant player. His use of the phrases "looks like you've had enough" and "No? Now you've had enough." are oft-repeated in his game show, in a differing context, of course.
• Due to the success and enduring appeal of the film, talks of a sequel have occasionally cropped up. No firm plans or announcements have ever been made, however.
• Happy Gilmore was later released along with Billy Madison in a DVD boxset containing the two movies. Happy Madison, the combination of both film's titles, is the name of Adam Sandler's film production company.
• Chubbs Peterson (Carl Weathers) makes another appearance in the movie Little Nicky which also starred Adam Sandler. His part is an in-joke to fans of Happy Gilmore.
• Chubbs' wooden hand can sometimes be seen clearly as longer than his other hand, clarifying that he is clenching his fist, rather than holding on to the hand.
• Ben Stiller appears in the film as the orderly in the nursing home who mistreats Happy's grandma. To avoid having to pay SAG scale wages, Stiller is intentionally uncredited.
• The movie marks the first of many film collaborations between Sandler and Allen Covert.
• In Sandler's 1999 film Big Daddy, a Happy Gilmore reference is made when Sandler putts a golf ball into a hole on the roof of his apartment building, with co-star Jon Stewart's character warning him that the roof "banks to the left".
• Sandler refers to Happy Gilmore as if Gilmore were a real (and Jewish) person in his "Chanukah Song II":

"Guess who got bar-mitzvahed/On the PGA tour/No I'm not talking about Tiger Woods/I'm talkin' about Mr. Happy Gilmore."

• It is interesting to note that the love interest of Happy Gilmore in this film has the same initials of the love interest of Billy Madison (Billy Madison), Bobby Boucher (The Waterboy) and Nicky (Little Nicky). Virginia Venit is the love interest in this film whilst Veronica Vaughan is the love interest in Billy Madison, Vicki Vallencourt is Bobby Boucher's love interest in The Waterboy and Valerie Vera is Nicky's girlfriend in Little Nicky.

External links

1996 films | Adam Sandler films | Golf films | Golf media | American films | English-language films | Hockey films

Happy Gilmore | Happy Gilmore