College football gets feisty when a championship program fires their stunted, long-tenured waterboy and he walks on as linebacker for a lesser school. Turns out the stuttering hayseed has a mean streak in him, one that’s informed and enhanced by his love of pro wrestling, and he immediately employs it in punishing the confused opposition. It’s like Happy Gilmore meets Cajun Man: physically unspectacular nobody takes the sporting world by storm with an unorthodox, brute force-driven method... in the Louisiana bayou.

As an Adam Sandler vehicle, written by frequent collaborator Tim Herlihy, _The Waterboy_ does very little to rock the boat. Like each of their preceding joints, this is an intentionally dumb, oddly charismatic production that bubbles and brims with Sandler-isms; the kind of character-driven comedy you can pick up and enjoy from just about any point. Perfect for cable TV. Sandler plays Bobby Boucher, a character no deeper than the ones he was crafting for cheeky, minute-long cameos on _Weekend Update_ a few years earlier, and clearly has a ball with the role. Bobby’s a sweet kid, softly spoken and non-confrontational, but full of caged frustrations. When a coach teaches him to direct and release that anger, he erupts into a font of simmering energy and spontaneous on-field violence that quickly elevates his new team into the national title picture.

All the non-sequiturs are fun, as usual, and Sandler is easy to pull for in the lead role, but the nature of his speech impediment means he needs frequent help from the supporting cast. He gets it. Kathy Bates is indispensable as Bobby’s lethally over-protective mother, while Henry Winkler leans way into his role as a spacey, sad sack coaching savant. Bates is so good, she often threatens to completely take over. I wonder if her part was originally intended to be so beefy, or if wily producers simply knew a good thing when they saw it and kept feeding her the ball.