Before Kenan Thompson was the longest-tenured cast member in “Saturday Night Live” history, he was one of the breakout stars from another culturally vital sketch comedy series. Nickelodeon’s “All That,” a diverse and goofy show aiming to bring skits to the kiddos, originally ran from 1994 to 2005. (More specifically, from this millennial critic’s first grade to senior year of high school.) Thompson first found chemistry with Kel Mitchell, the other part of the duo that also starred in their own sitcom, “Kenan & Kel,” concurrently. But the 1997 film “Good Burger” has perhaps been the two men’s finest collaboration. Rewatching it in 2025 provides a charming time capsule of the mid-90s that holds up surprisingly well.
Like “Wayne’s World” and “A Night at the Roxbury” from SNL, “Good Burger” began as a recurring sketch on “All That.” Set inside Good Burger, a fast food restaurant, each sketch comprised a comical interaction between Ed (Mitchell) and various cast members who would each fill in as customers who just wanted to order lunch. Before the customer can receive the sustenance they so badly desire, they must endure a parade of absurdities as a result of Ed’s idiosyncrasies and uncanny ability to turn the simplest exchange of words into a never-ending hellscape for a hungry person who has made the mistake of thinking this could be a simple process. Most sketches felt like watching Bugs Bunny do minimum wage service work on quaaludes while unknowingly torturing John Q. Public for trying to order grub.
But the feature film version benefits from the expanded scale of a movie and the inclusion of Thompson as a foil for Ed. He plays Dexter, a scheming, devil-may-care teen forced to find a summer job after crashing his mother’s car on the first day of summer vacation. (In a collision with his teacher, played by Sinbad, no less! 90s!!) Initially, Dexter gets a gig at Mondo Burger, the corporatized, cartoonishly evil rival store that opens up across the street from Good Burger. When he doesn’t fit their high standards, Ed helps him get a gig with the competition, joining the Good Burger family.
All the hallmarks that made the sketch so popular appear, especially slapstick physical comedy and the cash register wordplay. (“A meat patty is something!” Ed insists, after handing an empty bun to a customer who wanted a burger with nothing on it.) The overarching narrative has much in common with similar movies of the era, like “The Mighty Ducks” and “Heavyweights,” which also prominently featured Thompson. It’s a big underdog story of the quirky, charming oddballs of Good Burger trying to fend off the other “team” in Mondo Burger. We all love seeing the little guy get a win armed with pluck and wholesome strangeness.
The relationship between Ed and Dexter proves to be the true core of the picture. Ed is just a sweet guy who wants a friend. But Dexter finds Ed irritating, blaming his chaotic energy for the car accident that got him in this mess in the first place. Dexter also finds Ed gullible, exploiting Ed’s naivete by convincing him to share the lion’s share of the royalties Good Burger starts paying him for use of the one thing winning their fast food war against Mondo Burger: Ed’s special sauce.
There’s a lot of hijinks around Kurt (Jan Schweiterman), the sociopathic head honcho at Mondo who speaks in the third person, who’s trying to get his hands on Ed’s sauce recipe; a simmering romantic subplot between Dexter and his work crush Monique (Shar Jackson); and a lot of fun cameos from other “All That” vets like Lori Beth Denberg and also for some reason veteran mob movie actor Abe Vigoda. But it’s all in service of Dexter learning a valuable lesson in human decency and forming a genuine bond with Ed, who we see is much shrewder and more intelligent than he often seems.
The comedy is reliably juvenile, but the peek at a bygone era makes watching it today such an entertaining prospect. Dabbling in what the youth of today find humorous can be daunting for anyone over thirty. Brain rot memes, complex lore from video game streamers, the byzantine way people become famous on the internet… it’s a lot to take in. So, seeing MTV-era celebs like Carmen Electra pop up as a honeypot operative sent to seduce Ed into sharing his sauce recipe? Catching the unmistakable shape of a Blockbuster logo in the background of a double date scene? Seeing the garish production design of Trapper Keepers and McDonald’s PlayPlace iconography at every turn? It’s all collectively a pleasant little time machine to a simpler, if wild-looking, moment in history.
It’s not entirely without its thorniness, however. Those who have seen “Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV” will no doubt bristle at the sight of Dan Schneider, one of the writers of “All That” who also appears as Ed’s boss. It can be difficult not to think about his many documented transgressions, particularly in the “strawberry jacuzzi” scene where Mitchell is submerged in pink goo while Ed tries to clean the milkshake machine.
Perhaps we can never truly go back in time. But even with its sordid backstage history, I’d rather watch Ed sing “We’re All Dudes” than have to know whatever Kai Cenat is up to this week.
“Good Burger” is currently streaming on Paramount+ but is also available to borrow on Hoopla using your library card until September 30.