Matt Foley

Matt Foley is a fictional motivational speaker from the sketch comedy program Saturday Night Live performed by Chris Farley. The character was created by Bob Odenkirk, although Farley had performed the character in other comedy groups before being a cast member on Saturday Night Live. Essentially, Foley is the antithesis of a good motivational speaker: abrasive, clumsy, and down on his luck. Foley appears in eight Saturday Night Live sketches. Each sketch usually starts with Foley being brought into a specific situation by someone to speak to a group. In addition to appearing dishevelled, overweight, and unstylish, he yells, disparages, displays cynicism, and gives a clearly negative motivational message. Foley's trademark line is warning his audience that, like him, they could end up being "...35 years old, thrice divorced, and living in a van down by the river!" In most sketches, whenever a member of his audience responds with some statement of accomplishment, Foley responds with, "Well, la-dee-frickin-da!" or a similar remark. The sketches often include Foley giving wildly exaggerated gestures and falling (or jumping) onto a piece of furniture, destroying it while sometimes injuring himself in the process. At the end of each sketch, he is usually quickly herded out of his speaking location, where the people left behind huddle together and comment on him, usually bemused and fearful. Though his speeches always backfire, the end results are usually successful, in that the recipients do not want to be associated with Foley.