The ‘80s Best Comedy Is Built On The Most Comforting Lie Of All

By Chris Snellgrove
| Published 1 hour ago

Like many aging nerds, I am constantly revisiting my favorite childhood movies. This is mostly driven by nostalgia, but I also enjoy looking at old films through fresh eyes. Most of the time, I discover a few things about these beloved movies that I never noticed before. On a really good day, studying these films helps me learn a thing or two about how they helped shape my childhood. Those insights can be more than a bit sobering at times, which is what happened when I recently revisited 1989’s Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, considered by many to be the best (or, at the very least, the silliest) ‘80s comedy of them all.

The movie is about the titular duo traveling back and forth through time, gathering famous figures so they can pass their history class. Should they fail, the future would fall apart because these two would-be rockers are inexplicably the key to transforming our dystopian world into a Star Trek-like utopia. The film never really explains how this is supposed to happen, which is part of the quirky charm I enjoyed so much as a child. As an adult, I realized that all of Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure’s hilarity is based on the comforting lie that parents have spent decades telling children: you can be anything you want when you grow up.

In case you’ve never seen it (bogus!), Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure focuses on two high school seniors in danger of failing a history class. The consequences of this (like Ted’s dad sending him to military school) would completely destroy their dreams of becoming a famous pair of rock’n’roll stars. Fortunately, they are given a time machine by a mentor from the future, allowing them to gather historical figures and deliver a history presentation good enough to save their grade. As for the time-traveling visitor, he is invested in Bill (Alex Winter) and Ted (Keanu Reeves) because their music has somehow transformed the future into a utopia where everyone is excellent to each other.

As a music-loving little kid, I loved the sheer simplicity of this premise: that the world is just one awesome song away from achieving global unity. War, famine, disease. What if all of it could be eliminated with a sweet tune and a few good vibes? Growing older, I realized the audacity of the premise, but I still enjoyed it as part of the film’s tongue-in-cheek humor. Once I became a parent, though, I realized that the narrative of the film rests firmly on a lie told to children by generations of parents. Namely, that kids can be anything they want to be when they grow up.

Party’s Over, Dudes

The parents telling children “you can be anything you want to be” are, of course, doing their best to avoid limiting their kids’ horizons. Youth is a time for curiosity and optimism, and this parental encouragement is an easy way to demonstrate both. Unfortunately, after watching movies like Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, many of these children end up on a collision course for failure. That’s because their parents and favorite films are preaching that their greatness is assured. Like Bill and Ted, these kiddos must have an awesome destiny that is nothing less than preordained. And like Bill and Ted, they don’t need to worry about how to make their happy future happen.

In case you think I’m just being a cranky old fart, research backs me up on this. For example, a 2017 study from Digital Third Coast and C+R Research found that even though most people end up in some kind of administrative or office job, 0 percent of teenagers surveyed said this was the kind of job they wanted to do. The sad disparity here is obvious: if nobody wants to do the most common job when they grow up, we can tell that many (if not most) teens are going to be disappointed by their future career, and they’ll most likely blame themselves.

As psychologist Juli Fraga wrote in 2025, telling kids they can accomplish anything they put their minds to actually does them a disservice. First, they are likely to initially blame themselves when things don’t work out, internalizing that it is somehow their fault (obviously, they should have wanted it more and didn’t apply themselves enough!). Second, they are likely to grow cynical over time when they realize that working hard does not always lead to success or happiness. Fraga concluded that children would be much better off if their parents were simply honest and realistic about children’s goals, how achievable they are, and how to prepare today for a more successful tomorrow. 

You Can Never Go Home Again

That’s not exactly what happens in Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure. While the biological parents are pretty terrible in this movie, Rufus (George Carlin) serves as the titular boys’ joint father figure, and he’s the one who convinces them they are destined for greatness. In a very literal way, these boys are supposed to save the world with their awesome music! But the film ends by showing us that Bill and Ted are still awful at playing, though Rufus comedically reassures the viewers that “they do get better.”

We don’t see that, of course. In fact, in the sequel, the two only get better off-screen, using time-travel to finally master their craft before traveling back to the big concert. Even the final film in the trilogy never explains, mechanically, how playing a song (even a really great one) will magically make the world a better place. That’s because this has never been the point of the franchise. The point is that these two can achieve greatness by simply wanting it badly enough, which never really works out. But hey, it makes for a comforting message for those of us secretly streaming the first movie from our office job! 

Whether you’re at work, at home, or maybe even getting ready to play with your own band, you can now stream Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure for free on Tubi. It might be powered by the biggest lie of your childhood, but the movie is still filled with awesome performances, hilarious jokes, and absolutely immaculate ‘80s vibes. Throw in the fact that it was the breakout role for John Wick star Keanu Reeves, and you’ve got a movie that might (just might) fill the empty void left by your unfulfilled childhood dreams.