Kenan Thompson celebrates ‘Heavyweights’ 30th anniversary

Kenan Thompson is celebrating the 30th anniversary of a beloved cult classic that helped launch his career: Heavyweights.

“The history books will say this squad instilled a level of fear not yet know to man, and certainly not to [Ben Stiller],” Thompson wrote on his Instagram on Wednesday, accompanied by a carousel of stills, posed shots, and behind-the-scenes photos from the 1995 comedy.

“THIRTY YEARS of [Heavyweights] and it still feels like just yesterday I was packing up for camp. What a time!!! Thanks [Judd Apatow] and thank you Steve Brill for a great summer in Hendersonville, NC!!! Never forget it!!” he concluded.

Though Thompson had already secured a major breakthrough in 1994 by securing a featured spot on the cast of All That, Heavyweights signed, sealed, and delivered his comedic promise to Hollywood. Only the second entry in the young Thompson’s filmography, Heavyweights tells the story of a group of enrollees at a weight loss camp who stage a coup against the tyrannical fitness enthusiasts who’ve recently seized power.

The film reunited Thompson with the director Steven Brill, who’d worked with him the year before on his debut, D2: The Mighty Ducks. It also marked the feature screenwriting debut of Judd Apatow, who would go on to some of the defining comedies of the next decade, including The 40-Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up.

Apatow celebrated the occasion with a commemoration of his own. “SNL 50th AND Heavyweights 30th anniversary! And [Kenan] is on both – so that must have been especially exciting for him!” he wrote in a Wednesday Instagram post, accompanied by a behind-the-scenes shots of the scribe with the young comedian.

Heavyweights also featured Thompson’s Mighty Ducks extended family member Aaron Schwartz, Ben Stiller in a dual role, Stiller’s father Jerry Stiller, another iconic comedy director in the making (Paul Feig), but this time in an acting role, Tim Blake Nelson, Anne Meara, Jeffrey Tambor, and more.

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Even though Heavyweights only barely cleared its modest budget at the box office and received mixed-to-polite reviews from critics, the film garnered cult classic status thanks to the era’s home rental market and licensing for TV reruns.

There’s clearly a lot of love still there among the cast and crew, as Stiller also shouted out the film’s 30th anniversary in a Tuesday post on X. “Somehow I don’t think this will be at the head of the Disney+ queue ever,” he wrote. “In fact I’m not sure they are aware they made it. But that was an incredibly fun summer in North Carolina 30 years ago.”