One of the most beloved, yet controversial SNL castmembers of all time, Chris Farley was seemingly nothing more then the typical "fatass who falls down" John Belushi type of comedian. At the time of his death in late 1997, he was a fan-favorite with teenage boys and young adults alike. He had some potentially interesting projects in store such as the lead role in the animated film Shrek, as well as the titular character in the biopic of Fatty Arbuckle.
However, the reason why I'm asking about his career if he lived is because if you take several factors into consideration, Farley's death had a MASSIVE effect on the business and how several key projects turned out/affected the industry. Let me give you a few examples and you can figure it out with that:
* After Farley died in 1997, DreamWorks completely re-wrote and re-casted Shrek. Before his death, the well-known pop-culture references galore/Disney mocking rump was more of a straightforward story about an ogre who wanted to be nice to others, rather then scare them. The finished film was a massive success, making the most money of any animated film in 2001, as well as winning an Oscar and arguably changing the way animated films were made for quite some time. After Shrek's surprise success, practically EVERY animated film featured big-name actors and pop-culture references a-plenty, not to mention CGI became far more popular. If Farley survived and the more straightforward story ended up being the finished product, could you picture that altering anything?
* Many "clumsy fatass" comedian's careers started after or around Farley's death, such as Kevin James and Jack Black. If Kevin James' sitcom King of Queens ended up not being much of a success, perhaps due to Farley's survival, how do you feel that could alter television as we know it?