There are probably a handful of people in my lifetime who have legitimately made me laugh out loud. One of those people is John Candy. He was one of those people who just could do the littlest thing, and I’d laugh. He was in some of my favorite films growing up and in my teen years. He played characters that were funny in a normal way. Guys, you met in your life or who you heard about. They were everyday normal characters that had a hilarious nature to them. He turned these characters into funny people.That was his gift to the world and me specifically as a kid growing up. He was a rarity in my life.

John was a good kid who enjoyed the company of his family growing up in and around Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He had an innate ability to entertain his siblings and those around him. He did school plays and comedy routines. He was the life of the party if you will. In school and out of it. He caught the eye of a comedy troupe in Canada that he started working with.This was a sketch comedy group called SCTV. They would eventually get morphed into Toronto’s version of The Second City, which was attached to the Chicago group. They competed with SNL in the late 70s and early 80s. His talent was undeniable, and he parlayed his comedic chops into a movie career.

When I was young watching the movies Stripes and Splash, I knew Candy was going to be a star. He had what it took to make me laugh, which was hard even at that age. I wasn’t an easy person to make laugh then or now. I just don’t find many things that are that funny. He turned the average guy into a funny man. He was given characters that he could make into his own and adlib to create funny situations. He was just so good at turning normal characters into hilarious ones. The everyday mundane situations we all come across in our lives were cannon fodder for Candy. He made everything he was involved in entertaining. I’d put him in the same category as Andy Kaufman, Jim Carrey, Jerry Lewis , Abbott & Costello. 

His collaboration with John Hughes was the best of his career, though. Hughes is the writer/director famous for 16 Candles, The Breakfast Club, and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. It wasn’t until he started working with Candy that he found his stride as a writer/director, though. Comedies like Home Alone, Plains, Trains and Automobiles, and Uncle Buck. In which he specifically wrote for Candy himself. His interactions on screen with Steve Martin, Cathrine O’Hara, and McCauley Calkin are legendary.  These were priceless scenes in his filmography. He specifically had a good relationship with Calkin as he himself has a couple of kids. He genuinely cared about this young actor. They had great chemistry on screen, though. 

Candy inspired a lot of people in his day by how much he cared about others. He had a big heart. He donated his money to various causes. He even helped his friends in Second City get jobs in films he was working on to help their careers. Even though he turned down an SNL invite, he became friends with a bunch of the members who did get jobs. Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray, Martin Short, Harold Ramos, and Gilda Radner all became close to him. Even Tom Hanks, who he worked on Splash with, admired him. Everybody who he touched in one way or another loved him. He was like a big cuddly teddy bear. That’s how he was described by people. Nobody ever had a bad thing to say about him.

This documentary is a lot like other documentaries in a way regarding the filmmaking style. Colin Hanks, the son of Tom Hanks, is the director, and he used popular tropes of many other documentaries. There were many talking heads from Candy’s children to his friends in Second City and SNL.There were a lot of people who wanted to share their stories about this man. All of them were good stories. Except for the ones involving his mental health. Which were sad stories and resulted in his untimely demise. Hanks also used quite a bit of archival footage from home videos, photos, and footage from the days when Candy was in Second City and his acting career. There was a lot to show the viewers from his extensive past. 

Two things the film touches on that were difficult for Candy to deal with in his life are his Wright and bigotry. He dealt with his weight his entire career. He thought it was a problem, but what Hollywood wanted was a big, loveable man they could market and have audiences laugh at. Some who weren’t on his dime used his weight as a way to stop him from getting jobs in Hollywood.  It was a two-sided sword in that way. People could relate to him because of his weight and personality, though. He himself didn’t like how big he was, and it bothered him quite a bit. Big is in now and accepted in Hollywood because of the diversity standards they are trying to achieve. 

John Candy: I Like Me is a fantastic documentary about one of the greatest comedic geniuses of the past 50 years. A man that endeared himself to everybody he knew. His talent was apparent to his family and members of the Second City and SNL sketch comedy troupe he worked with, as well as the directors/actors he worked with in all the movies he made. I am one of those people who loved him. Not in the same way as all of these men and women  but in a different way. He made me laugh during my childhood and teen years when I didn’t have a lot to laugh about. He was one of my favorites growing up, and I’ll forever remember him for all the great times I had watching his movies. He will forever be embedded in my mind as one of the funniest, most talented comedians I have ever seen. For that, I am grateful to this man.

4 ½

Dan Skip Allen