In Billy Madison Sandler is a spoiled rich lay about (goofy loser) who has to repeat his entire academic career in order to save his father's company from the greedy clutches of some uptight, uncool, jerkweed who hates him (Bradley Whitford). After making a lot of funny faces and talking in a slew of funny voices, he graduates from high school, gets the hot chick (Bridgette Wilson) and foils the bad guy.

Happy Gilmore brings us Sandler playing a sweet but talentless guy (charming underdog) who sucks at hockey but who must figure out a way to raise enough money to save his gramma's house from demolition. He accidentally figures out that his wicked slapshot translates well on the golf course and, after having lots of funny outbursts (wherein many funny voices are used) and dressing inappropriately at upscale golf events, gains immense popularity, saves gramma's house, gets the girl (Julie Bowen) and leaves his uptight, uncool, jerkweed golfing competition (Chris McDonald) in the dust.

In The Wedding Singer, Sandler exploits the inherent goofiness of the 1980's by playing a good natured but heartbroken wedding singer (charming underdog) who, after wearing lots of funny clothes and sporting one seriously funny hairdon't, falls in love with the girl of his dreams (Drew Barrymore) and saves her from the uptight, uncool, jerkweed she was mistakenly about to marry (Matthew Glave).

The Waterboy is Sandler as a dim-witted but kind-hearted Bobby Boucher, a dumbass from the Bayou who talks funny, makes funny faces and dresses funny (goofy loser AND charming underdog) much to the mocking delight of everyone he encounters. Luckily, Boucher also has a lot of pent up rage and transforms himself from hard-working waterboy to hard-hitting football player, wins the respect of his peers, gets the girl (Fairuza Balk) and lays to rest the myriad of doubts his uptight, uncool, jerkweed mother (Kathy Bates) has about him pursuing a career in foosball.

In Big Daddy Sandler is cast as an immature 30-year-old (goofy loser) who adopts a kid in order to trick his girlfriend into thinking he's ready for responsibility and long term commitment. Although he appears to be a normal person with no obvious facial malformations, speech impediments or fashion foibles, he possesses the maturity level of a 7-year-old and teaches his young "son" all sorts of inappropriate yet amusing behavior. Eventually he learns to really love his kid, wins over the girl (Joey Lauren Adams) and proves himself a valuable human being to the uptight, uncool, jerkweed family court system who are convinced that Sandler is an irredeemable loser.

Sandler plays nothing less than the loser son of Satan himself in Little Nicky who talks funny, dresses funny and makes funny faces all at once and all the time (goofy loser AND charming underdog). His challenge this go round is to somehow stop his evil brothers from taking over the Earth and save his father from certain death. In the end (with a little help from Ozzy Osbourne) he saves his family, saves the planet, gets the girl (Patricia Arquette) and proves to his uptight, uncool, jerkweed brothers (Rhys Ifans and Tom "Tiny" Lister) that nice guys don't always finish last.

Sandler's most recent film, Mr. Deeds, is about a normal, nice guy living a normal, nice life who one day out of the blue inherits 7 billion dollars (charming underdog). Although his trade mark funny faces, voices and clothes are nowhere to be found, he is still playing the guy who nobody thought would make it, thrust into a situation where his down home trusting nature and sincerity runs counter to everyone else's big city intentions. And of course, by the end of the film, he's foiled the uptight, uncool, jerkweed CEO of his rich uncle's company (Peter Gallagher), won the girl (Winona Ryder) and saved the day.

So now that we've established that Sandler makes the same movie over and over again, the question to ask yourself when you view one of his films isn't: "Does this movie open my eyes to a new world of comedic possibilities and propel my sense of wonder and amazement of the movie making process into a new dimension?" The biggest and most relevant question you should concern yourself with is: "Does this movie make me laugh?" There are those who find Sandler's brand of humor entertaining and endearing and those who find it repulsive and annoying. You either think Sandler is tear-inducingly hilarious or you want to rip his eyes out and beat up his mother. If you think he's funny, you'll like his movies. If you wish you could slap him senseless, rent something else. If you've never seen an Adam Sandler movie and therefore aren't sure if you think he's funny, I recommend a double feature of The Wedding Singer and The Waterboy. Back to back they'll give you a broad idea of what we're talking about here and give you enough raw material to make your own informed Adam Sandler decision.

For the record, Adam Sandler makes me laugh - really hard - and always has. So although his movies vary in greatness and in overall entertainment value, by and large I find his films very funny, engrossing and dependable when I'm looking for something to laugh at that doesn't make me think too hard about WHY I'm laughing. I've heard all the arguments about why he shouldn't be popular and how his brand of funny is ruining the greatness of American cinema and contributing to the "dumbing down" of our youth. And although I appreciate the veracity and passion with which this opinion is usually slung about, I, personally, just ain't buyin' it. Being silly, being juvenile, talking in a funny, cartoon-like manner and making funny faces, acting a fool for the sheer sake of making people laugh, being dumb and over the top and screwball, all of that stuff is what good comedy is made of. Monty Python is held up as the greatest comedy team in the history of the world (and rightly damn so I might add). But while most everyone is comfortable admitting to the fact that The Holy Grail makes them pee with laughter, many of those same people will glare down their noses and contemptuously snivel that Adam Sandler is a stupid, talentless idiot. I don't get it. How is John Cleese's "outrageous French accent" in Grail all that different from Sandler's outrageous Cajun accent in The Waterboy? Are Mr. Newt (A Village Blacksmith Quite Interested in Burning Witches) and Mr. Duck (A Village Carpenter Who is Almost Keener Than Anyone Else to Burn Witches) that far a cry from Happy Gilmore who beats up Bob Barker and calls him a bitch? I say no. And while you'll never hear me say that Adam Sandler is AS FUNNY as Monty Python (is anyone as funny as Monty Python???), I do think there's some credibility in the idea that Sandler is THE SAME KIND OF FUNNY as Python. They went to the same clown college. Python graduated Suma Cum Laude. Sandler made it onto the Dean's List a couple of times and graduated with honors.

Here are a couple of other interesting tid-bits about Sandler movies.

Most of Sandler's character's love interests have names that start with the letter "v".

• Billy Madison - Veronica Vaughn
• Happy Gilmore - Virginia Venit
• The Waterboy - Vickie Vallencourt
• Little Nicki - Valerie
• In Mr. Deeds, Wynona Ryder's character is named Babe Bennett so perhaps having used up all the "v" names he can think of, Sandler has moved on to double "b" names instead.

All of Adam Sandler's movies are written (or co-written) by Tim Herlihy, Sandler's roommate from college.

Steve Buscemi has appeared in 4 of Sandlers films usually as a weird, random secondary character. They worked together for the first time on Airheads where they played members of the same rock band.

• Billy Madison - Danny McGrath (in an uncredited role as an obsessive gun-toting vigilante)
• The Wedding Singer - David Veltri (drunk loser brother of the groom and every parent's worst nightmare)
• Big Daddy - Homeless Guy (who likes to ride in red wagons very fast and run into things very hard)
• Mr. Deeds - Crazy Eyes (the name says it all).

There are a handful of other actors who have appeared in most or all of Sandler's films. They too usually play characters with telling similarities to one another.

Most prolific of these actors is Allen Covert who has appeared in the following films with Sandler. His trend is to look completely different in every film he costars in with Sandler to the point of usually being unrecognizable.

• Airheads (1994) - Covert's first appearance w/ Sandler. He played a cop in a small role.
• Happy Gilmore (1996) - long haired/long bearded homeless guy who Gilmore hires to be his caddy
• Bulletproof (1996) - again, played a cop in a small role in a film that wasn't really a "Sandler movie".
• The Wedding Singer (1998) - wore the infamous Michael Jackson zipper jacket and sported a mullet and a thick mustache
• The Waterboy (1998) - bucktoothed yayhoo fan sporting mutton chops and huntin' clothes.
• Big Daddy (1999) - looked totally normal as a lawyer in a suit and tie with short hair who loved to make out with his boyfriend.
• Little Nicky (2000) - gained 40 pounds and shaved the front part of his head to create a receding hairline
• Mr. Deeds (2002) - plays Winona Ryder's love struck co-worker. Sports a big head of dyed curly blond hair.
• Anger Management (currently in production) - so I haven't seen it, so I don't know who he's playing, so get off my back already.

Peter Dante first appeared in The Wedding Singer and has since appeared in every Sandler movie made since.

Jonathan Loughran first appeared with Sandler in Bulletproof and has gone on to appear in The Waterboy, Big Daddy, Little Nicky and the upcoming Anger Management. He's also credited as "assistant to Mr. Sandler" on The Wedding Singer, Big Daddy and The Animal (a movie produced by Sandler's production company).

Robert Smigel (aka: the voice behind Triumph the Insult Comic Dog and the creator of SNL's TV Funhouse segments) has appeared in tiny roles in each of the following Sandler films:

• Billy Madison - Mr. Oblaski
• Happy Gilmore - I.R.S Agent
• The Wedding Singer - Andre
• Little Nicky (voice only) - Mr. Beefy