Fans of the movies of Adam Sandler may see the name Eric Lamonsoff appear in several Happy Madison productions. But who is Eric Lamonsoff? Well, the answer is a bit complicated.
Eric Lamonsoff is a real person who has appeared in Adam Sandler’s movies, but the name is also used in films for characters played by actors who are not Eric Lamonsoff.
Confusing? A little bit. Here is what you need to know about the Eric Lamonsoff and Adam Sandler connection.
Who is Eric Lamonsoff?
Adam Sandler has repeatedly referenced and acknowledged people in his past in his projects. Sometimes this is hiring old friends as assistants or giving them small parts, while other times, he provides them roles to play in his movies.
Eric Lamonsoff is an example of both. Multiple Happy Madison films have characters named Eric Lamonsoff, and a few of them even the actual Eric in minor roles.
Eric Lamonsoff is one of Adam Sandler’s longtime friends and a former college roommate. The real Eric Lamonsoff has only appeared in three of Adam Sandler’s films. He made his first on-screen appearance in 2008 in the comedy You Don’t Mess with the Zohan. He would later appear in 2011’s Jack and Jill. His most recent appearance is in the 2018 film The Week Of.
Which Adam Sandler movies did his name show up in?
The surname Lamonsoff, or the full name of Eric Lamonsoff, has been used for characters in at least six Adam Sandler movies.
For example, one of the first films where Eric Lamonsoff is mentioned in the comedy classic The Wedding Singer (1998). The gag was a reference to an unseen individual named Eric Lamonsoff, pulled from Adam Sandler’s past as an in-joke.
Other Lamonsoff-characters appear or are referenced in other movies, such as Click (2006), Pixels (2015), Grown Ups (2010), and Grown Ups 2 (2013).
Grown Ups and Grown Ups 2 are an interesting case in this Eric Lamonsoff joke. Kevin James plays a character named Eric Lamonsoff across both films, serving as a secondary lead to Adam Sandler.
Are Adam Sandler Movies Connected?
It may seem surprising and strange, but eagle-eyed fans have determined that many of Adam Sandler’s movies from Happy Madison productions may occupy a shared universe.
There isn’t a suggestion in the theory that this was intended from the start and planned out, but rather a series of repeated references and small connections established for jokes that continued to build.
Writer Alec Jackson claims in a 2021 article that the cinematic universe of Adam Sandler is a dozen times larger than that of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
It is a shocking idea, but it begins to make sense as connections are drawn. For example, the character of “Ten Second Tom,” less of a character and more of a gag, appears in David Spade and Chris Farley’s film Tommy Boy (1995) and Sandler’s own 50 First Dates (2004) and Blended (2014).
Another great series of examples from the WHS Digital article includes the following connection: the character of Chubbs Peterson falls to his death in Happy Gilmore (1996).
He is then seen in heaven in Little Nicky (2000). However, the character of Chubbs Peterson first appears in The Waterboy in 1998, a film that also introduces the character of Farmer Fred. Farmer Fred has a cameo in David Spade’s Joe Dirt (2001).
It seems now that Sandler may be aware of this and is now consciously seeding these connections into projects for the fans. However, for a seriously deep dive into the interconnectedness of Adam Sandler’s films, there is an informative YouTube video by Shawn Kohne titled, simply “The Sandlerverse.”
