Aw, here it goes: 25 years ago, one of the more bizarre (and greasy) kids’ comedies made its way into theaters. 1997’s Good Burger, starring Kenan Thompson and Kel Mitchell, is a weird, celebratory love letter to the Nickelodeon generation. If the beloved teen movies of the '80s relied more heavily on archetypes i.e: The Breakfast Club, the '90s specifically celebrated weird kids on the fringe. And yeah, sometimes those weird kids were cool and worked at record stores, but sometimes those kids were slackers and geeks who worked at the local burger place, and Good Burger was our fun, wacky summer ride. 'Cause, you know, we're all dudes.
As history proves time and again, it’s always a tricky gambit to make a full-length feature based on a beloved television sketch. For every Wayne’s World, there’s an It’s Pat or A Night at the Roxbury. Good Burger was based on a classic sketch from the teen show, All That, about a strange cashier called Ed (Mitchell) who regularly bewilders and frustrates customers of the titular fast food restaurant. To Good Burger’s credit, the film’s set-up remains refreshingly simple: the neighborhood fast food stalwart Good Burger — home of the Good Burger — is being threatened by the grand opening of the new, massive, flashy Mondo Burger across the street. Meanwhile, “lazy” high school student Dexter (Thompson) needs to raise some cash fast after crashing into his teacher’s (Sinbad) car. After being fired from Mondo Burger pretty much immediately, Dexter begrudgingly joins the staff at Good Burger.
Good Burger is super weird, absolutely tapping into the 1990s kids’ counterculture vibe of Nickelodeon. Nick back in the day was never as polished or shiny as the content on, say, the Disney Channel. Nickelodeon wasn’t where you came for things to be neat and squeaky clean; you came to Nick to get slimed! Nickelodeon always captured the Freckle Juice by Judy Blume aspects of childhood: being a kid is fun, yeah, but it can also be strange and gross. Good Burger features scenes of Ed inside the milkshake machine, of Carmen Electra (doing legitimately delightful work as Mondo Burger’s resident femme fatale) getting smacked in the head with a golf ball, and of some truly horrifying chemical-induced ground meat explosions in the film’s finale. There’s a live band at the opening of a fast food burger place! The villains of Mondo Burger plot to take down their competition by putting shark poison into a condiment! Ed tackles an old lady!
Part of the weirdness of Good Burger is in how sincerely the main characters react to the absolute chaos around them. Sure, the customers of Good Burger might get irritated with Ed taking everything in an order so literally, but the rest of the staff is pretty chill and unfazed. Meanwhile, the intense fury of Kurt and the Mondo Burger team at being upstaged by Ed’s secret sauce is played super straight. This is not a tongue-in-cheek or ironic film. When Dexter and Ed get the opportunity to deliver a Good Burger to Shaquille O’Neal himself, the movie doesn’t make fun of the fact that, yeah, that would be an incredible, joyous experience for kids in 1997. There’s no wink to the camera for the adults in the audience to suggest, “Oh, isn’t this all kind of silly and small?” Good Burger is unabashedly for the kids who stayed up on Saturday nights to giggle at All That and, later, Kenan & Kel.
Author here: I was 100% a Nick kid growing up. To this day, I can’t imagine a better Saturday night than pizza delivery and the classic SNICK line-up. Kenan and Kel (the actors and the characters) had a vice grip on my heart. I definitely saw Good Burger in theaters as a kid, and then multiple times at home on one of those sweet orange VHS tapes. What struck me most about Good Burger upon this all grown up re-watch was the sweetness of it. Ed’s undeniably weird and different, but the movie never sets out to change him. Dexter is perpetually exasperated by Ed, of course; that was a key piece of Kenan and Kel’s comedy power. Kel was the odd one, and Kenan was loudly and humorously aggravated by it. Even before fiercely loyal co-worker Monique (Shar Jackson) calls Dexter out for taking financial advantage of Ed, the growing fondness between the characters is clear.
Good Burger never tries to explain Ed. He’s a guy who wakes up and showers in his uniform, rollerblades to work, and then gets into wacky mishaps pretty much all day. That’s the bit. But the movie still finds the heart of Ed, best demonstrated in a scene between Ed and Dexter sitting up on Good Burger’s roof. Dexter gets vulnerable about his problems: having been abandoned by his dad as a child, and subsequently moving around a lot. He even tells Ed about a special yo-yo his dad bought him before leaving. It’s a subtle way the movie calls out Dexter’s teacher’s earlier perception of him as a slacker, even though he does well on his tests. Dexter isn’t lazy. He’s bored, and he’s afraid of outwardly caring about anything, lest it abandon him again.
When Ed thanks Dexter for hanging out with him, Dexter answers, “It’s no problem. See you tomorrow, buddy.” Ed asks, “You mean it?” After asking for clarification, Ed explains, “I’m your buddy. You called me your buddy.” It’s a really nice moment. Kenan and Kel have an amazing chemistry even outside of comic hijincks, and Ed’s quiet happiness over someone considering him their “buddy” is resonant for any weird kid who’s ever struggled to make friends. When Ed shows up the next day with a new yo-yo for Dexter, Dexter is surprised but grateful. His friendship with Ed helps Dexter become more trusting and open. Meanwhile, Ed gets to be entirely himself, but maybe a little less lonely. Because Ed is funny, but he isn’t the joke.
Even the worst and weirdest summer jobs can be kind of fun when you’re working alongside the right people. Food service especially can be a strange liminal space where people of multiple backgrounds come and go. Where else but Good Burger would you be likely to find employees of Dexter’s age (16) working with employees like Otis (Abe Vigoda, 76 in 1997)? Good Burger doesn’t necessarily glorify the teen summer job, but it does capture the unexpected joy of making a great friend in an unlikely place. Moreover, it treats its weird main characters with sweetness and consideration. For the kids growing up on Doug and Ren & Stimpy, Good Burger delivered the message, “You deserve a friend, exactly as you are.”
Happy 25th birthday, Good Burger. I hope we’ve got enough pickles for your cake.