“Suntan lotion is good for me, you protect me, tee hee hee. Oh the sun tries to burn me, but you won’t let it, will ya? Ultraviolet rays bad! Lotion good!”

These are words to live by, and I will never go out in the sun without my suntan lotion thanks to Adam Sandler’s little ditty in the opening credits of his 1995 film, Billy Madison.

I could write about some book or movie that made me cry or changed my perspective on life, but that didn’t seem fun.

Billy Madison was not only my first Adam Sandler film (doing a lot better then than he does now in his Chuck & Larry days), it was also the first memorable foray I had into PG-13 films.

My parents-well let’s be honest, my mom-were pretty strict when it came to what I watched for a good portion of my childhood. Something with naughty language and excessive sexual references was off limits. Billy Madison quenched my thirst for such dirty talk that I had only been able to get at school up to that point.

For those unfamiliar, Billy Madison is about a loser named Billy, the son of a multimillionaire hotel mogul. His dad, who is about to retire, decides to pass the company along to Eric Gordon (Bradley Whitford of The West Wing) instead of Billy. You see, Billy’s father basically had to bribe his teachers to get him through school. To prove his dad wrong, and to save the company along the way, Billy decides to go back to school, from grades 1-12 for two weeks each, trying to pass them the right way. This proves once and for all that what people learn in a year in school can be summarized in two weeks.

I am sure that many people who are now in college have a soft spot for this film (as well as its companion, the just-as-hilarious Sandler comedy, Happy Gilmore), and why not? It has everything you could want in a stupid comedy. Giant penguin? Check. Steve Buscemi? Check.

Throw in some robots or zombies and you’d have yourself the perfect movie.

I’ve spent most of my life since I first saw Billy Madison quoting it on a regular basis. “If peeing your pants is cool, consider me Miles Davis,” has become a regular part of my vernacular.

Without Billy Madison, my sense of humor today wouldn’t be what it is, for better or worse. This movie is single-handedly responsible for my love of comedy. Films such as Wedding Crashers, Austin Powers and Superbad wouldn’t be the same for me without Billy Madison. Back in the day, Sandler was a genius.

Maybe the movie isn’t really that profound, or maybe I’m just an idiot. Either way, I’ll never feel bad about peeing my pants, thanks to Billy Madison.