I know it might not exactly fit here, but what are your favorite "parody" ads, such as those featured on SNL?

From SNL, Season 1:

"Shimmer" - the floor wax that is also a dessert topping. I love it because it's absurd, yet somehow it almost makes sense. How many times have you looked at a household or grooming product and thought it looked as if it might be good to eat?

Plus I love it when Dan Aykroyd totally loses it and yells, "It's a dessert topping, you cow!"

That one was included in the SNL record album released in late 1976, so I've listened to it tons of times, as well as seen it on TV/tape. I can usually flawlessly recite that one all the way through. That was a perfect absurdist parody of advertising; a perfect early SNL commercial spoof.

As I mentioned in my (currently lonely) commercial references thread, there were very funny parodies on the Carol Burnett Show and Johnny Carson's Tonight Show, as well as SNL and SCTV. I always used to look foreward to their commercial blackout sketches a great deal (as much as Tim Conway's old man and Carnac). There were such iconically oddball ads in the '70s to mock - for all 4 shows, actually.

I still laugh when I think about a SNL ad for sanitary napkins (big and bulky with belts!) where the women wearing them were referred to by their boyfriends as hip because they were "retro" and "old-school". The women were wearing tight low-rise pants and other clothes that allowed these big bulges from the napkins to be completely visible, and the belts that held the napkins were visible too. This was when I knew that SNL had women comedy-writers at the helm.

Was that in the same vein as "Oops, I Crapped My Pants"?

Super Happy Fun Ball!

Do not taunt Super Happy Fun Ball.

(my apologies if I don't have the name right, that's what my friends & I call it.)

Many of the SNL parody ads over the years have been quite hilarious. But this one takes the cake (anyone remember it?)

Oh yeah, right down to Will Farrell's ridiculous Cat-In-The-Hat hat.

Some of the funniest bits on Chapelle's Show were the commercial parodies. Roca Pads (they keep your flow motherfucking tizzight!) and Wu Tang Financial are awesome, but my favorite is crackhead Tyrone Biggums for Red Balls (Red Balls gives you wings, baby!)


Along the same lines, SNL also had a commercial for thong baby diapers so that babies could be hip and cool.

Oh I LOVED Super Happy Fun Ball! In that episode, wasn't it made into a recurring gag? Like, new Super Happy Fun Ball commercials, each more absurd than the last, would be inserted in between skits? Or am I remembering incorrectly?

My favorite commercial parody was and will always be something someone mentioned around here a couple of years ago: COLON BLOW. It. Ruled. I wish there could be some way of jamming the TV airwaves with that commercial every time a Total cereal commercial airs because that would rule.

my favorite is the Sam Waterson one for Old Glory... "Robots are everywhere, and they eat old people's medicine for fuel" cracks my shit up every time.

That old SNL "Shimmer" ad is classic. Anyone else remember another one they did for car exhaust freshener?

How about the SNL ad for "Stevie Nicks' House of Fajitas"? It was great fun, made even better by the fact that whoever did Stevie managed to both look and sound like the original.

Yes. When Sam Waterson said, "And once they grab you with their claws, you can't escape. Because they're made of metal. And robots are strong." I nearly died. Just the way he delivered it, with that professional deadpan was brilliant.

I think the topper for the glorious perfection of the "Old Glory" ad is the printed anti-disclaimer at the end: "Those denying the existance of robots may be robots themselves." It's a paranoiac's dream!

Other SNL ad parodies I love are for Quarry cereal (which is essentially a box of gravel) and for the sporty yet economical compact vehicle, the Adobe ("the little car that's made out of clay!") No cupholder? No problem! Just smoosh your drink into the dashboard!

Oh yes, Wu-Tang Financial ("Cash rules everything around us. Cream, get the money, dollar dollar bill ya'll. That's why it's time to enter the 36 Chambers and step to the Wu."). You also forgot Samuel Jackson Beer ("It'll get ya drunk! Mmm, mmm, bitch!")

They also had the Big Brawn feminine napkins. "It's like a big, friendly lumberjack between your knees." Hee.

Mom Jeans was also great. Give her something that says, "I'm not a woman anymore. I'm a mom."

SNL also had Nutri-Quick, the meal-on-the-go suppository. I love how absurb that was.

All the talk about the Sopranos coming back reminded me of the parody commercial SNL did for them. It started off with the theme song and what were no doubt real quotes from critics flashing across the screen and quickly devolved into thing like, "The Sopranos are the single greatest thing to happen to the culture of Earth. Ever." and "If I had to choose between the Sopranos and air, I would choose the Sopranos."

Cracked me up because, while I like the show, critics tend to lose all perspective when it come to it. Calm down, people! It's a telelvision show!

Oh yeah! The only quote I remember was towards the end, probably the last one. Which was basically from a guy having an orgasm. "Uh... ahhh... urrghhlllahhSOPRANOOOS!!!"

My hubby bought some Orville Redenbacker popcorn popping oil labelled "Popping and Topping" since you can use it as oil then splurt some more on just before you eat it. I started babbling "it's a dessert topping" at him the second I laid my eyes on it.

Other favorite SNL ads - "Big Red", the viking sprinkler toy that sprayed blood red goo everywhere while 2 kids laughed happily about it. And "Le Shoe", a gawdawful looking rubber shoe that was European so it must be fashionable.

Oh, SNL owns this thread. I loved the one for Jewess Jeans- You'll have to remember that this came out at the very beginning of the designer jean era :
Jewess Jeans
they're skin-tight, they're out of sight
Jewess Jeans.

She's got a lifestyle uniquely hers
Europe, Nassau, wholesale furs.
She's read every best-selling book
She's a gourmet blender cook.
She's got that Jewess look.

Jewess Jeans
they're uptight, alright
Jewess Jeans.

She shops the sales for designer clothes
She's got designer nails and a designer nose.
She's an American princess and a disco queen.
She's the Jewess in Jewess Jeans.
She's the Jewess in Jewess Jeans.

Announcer: You don't have to be Jewish.

Rhonda Weiss: But it wouldn't hurt.

Announcer: Jewess Jeans. Guranteed to ride up.

Bass-O-Matic.

And . . .

The SNL parody ad where they performed a circumcision in the back of a car to prove how smooth the ride was.

My two all time favorites.

A classic for sure.

(From SNL transcripts):
Spokesman: How many times has this happened to you? You have a bass, and you're trying to find an exciting new way to prepare it for the dinner table. You could scale the bass, remove the bass' tail, head and bones, and serve the fish as you would any other fish dinner. But why bother, now that you can use Rovco's amazing new kitchen tool, the Super Bass-o-Matic '76. Yes, fish-eaters, the days of troublesome scaling, cutting and gutting are over, because Super Bass-o-Matic '76 is the tool that lets you use the bass with no fish waste, and without scaling, cutting or gutting.

Here's how it works: Catch a bass, remove the hook, and drop the bass - that's the whole bass - into the Super Bass-o-Matic '76. [ drops the bass into the blender ] Now, adjust the control dial so that the bass is blended just the way you like it. [ turns blender on and grinds it to a pulp ] Yes, it's that simple!


Bass-Drinker: [ drinks a glassful of bass ] Wow, that's terrific bass!

Spokesman: We've got fish here, fast and easy and ready to pour, mmm-mmm! Super Bass-o-Matic '76 comes with ten interchangeable rotors, a nine-month guarantee, and a booklet: 1,001 Ways to Harness Bass. Super Bass-o-Matic '76 works great on sunfish, perch, sole, and other small aquatic creatures. [ blends one of each ]

Super Bass-o-Matic '76 - it's clean, simple, and after five or ten fish, it gets to be quite a rush! Super Bass-o-Matic '76 - you'll never have to scale, cut or gut again!

What about the SNL ad for "Puppy Uppers" with the hyperactive spaniel and "Doggie Downers" with the same dog about as active as a throw pillow? Great acting, pooch!

Oh, yes, and what about "Placenta Helper"?

"Make a special occasion a special occasion!"

In the book of SNL scripts and whatnot published during the second season, they printed the script of the 'Placenta Helper' commercial, and when the husband says "Honey, let's have Placenta Helper again tomorrow!" the script specifies that 'they both laugh at his stupid mistake'.

Ah, good times!

Going to chime in with some MadTV love.

One word. Spishak.

Especially the Razor with the multiple blades that went deep into the very flesh.

The best Spishak commericals had Pat Kilbane as the spokesman. Josh Meyers is okay but he just doesn't have that wooden, Al-Gore-ness of Pat.

Who could forget the "JON Magazine" fake ads Daily Show would do before commercial breaks? And Stephen Colbert's voiceover would explain the features of this month's issue of JON:

"Ed Helms Freaks Out At The Burning Man Festival. Hear His Harrowing Tale Of Twirling Around With A Woman Named Greenbean "

[That's the only one I truly remember because I was ob-sessed with Ed Helms back then]

---
Do they still do those? I haven't watched TDS since like, August.

"Placenta Helper". One of the sketches that didn't get on air. In this case, I'm eternally grateful. Yeccchhh!

I've noticed in the Bass-o-matic sketch that the stuff in the glass Laraine Newman drinks has a different color than the actual pulped bass in Aykroyd's. At least she didn't have to actually drink the real deal.

What about Woomba? No love for Woomba?

"It's the little pink robot that cleans my business. My lady business."

Some of my fave MADtv commercial parodies...

John Madden's Quick Pop Pocorn Popper

Spishak's Oven For Kids

Spishak's Car For Kids

Spishak's Once A Year Maxi Pads

One of my favorites from the latest season is the iPad ... now with vaginal firewall!

Ahhh...Old Glory Insurance. Even better than I remembered!

ETA: They moved the link on me...ack!

Every year during cold season I think of the ad for the super-strength Nyquil type of product that Chris Farley was in -- it didn't actually cure your cold, it just knocked you unconscious for three straight months.

And then there's always "Mom Jeans."

I love the Ren and Stimpy commercial for "Log"- a take off on the Slinky commercials from back in the day- "It's Log, Log, it's big, it's heavy, it's wood./It's Log, Log, it's better than bad, it's good!"

I'd like to nominate MST3K's "Wild Rebels" Cereal bit. Pure hilarity. Here's part of the sketch:


I also love the Klack commercial announcement, but it's kinda long.

Thank you! I'd forgotten how funny that bit was.

When Crystal Pepsi came out this SNL gem was made:

Crystal Gravy

That was:

* Stevie Nicks' Fajita Roundup. *whipcrack*

* Lucy Lawless as Stevie.

o/~ Well there you go again, saying, you want burritos... o/~

Crystal Gravy. I totally remeber that! Good times.

Maybe it's because I work as a Medicare CSR, but the Medicare Prescription Drug Train made me laugh uncontrollably. How can I go wrong???

Two of my favorite fake SNL ads were for music.

Willie Nelson Sings The Pet Shop Boys

Tammy Wynette Sings the Classics, where every piece of classical music was sung with the words "Stand by your man". Absolutely priceless.

Goddamn, I wish I'd taped Lucy Lawless on SNL. I tried to describe that to my mom, but...it's not really something that can be described. Just so much hilarity.

One of my favorite running gags from The Fast Show (AKA Brilliant! when it ran on BBC america) was the series of ads for Cheesy Peas:

"Like cheese? Like peas? Then you'll love these! Cheesy Peas!"

The ads got more goofy over time...

"Like cheese? Like peas? Like Cheesey Peas? Then you'll love new Strawberry Squeezy Cheesy Peas! It's easy-peasy!"

You get the idea.

Speaking of SNL music ads...

McCain Sings Streisand

"I’ve been in politics for over 20 years. And for over 20 years, I’ve had Barbara Streisand trying to do my job. So I decided to try my hand at her job."

It's awesome, because he truly could not carry a tune in a bucket.

-I'm pretty sure there was only one "Happy Fun Ball" ad (no "Super")

-The thing that made the Bass-O-Matic commercial memorable was the fact that Dan Akroyd really did liquify a bass in a blender and then drink it. On that first season of SNL, they were *definitely* not being paid enough to do crap like that.

-For any of you who might know the SNL commercial where the Rabbi does the circumcision in the back of the luxury car from one of their occasional commercial parody clip show specials or something like that, but are too young to have seen it when it originally aired, it's actually a parody of a real commercial where a professional diamond cutter cuts a diamond in the back seat of a Lincoln Continental.

-Similarly, there was an ad parody for "Lake Erie Bottled Water" starring Bill Murrary where he opens the bottle and pours it into a glass, and not only is the water full of garbage, but it's as viscous as glue and slowly oozes into the glass while that old song "Anticipation" plays. They reran that old parody just a couple of years ago during a new show that Bill Murray was hosting, and I had to explain to my niece that it's a parody of a series of old Heinz ketchup ads from the '70's that used that very same song.

-Moving to this century, Old Glory Insurance truly is great, and one silly little detail I love is that the Robot in the ad is the very same one that Conan O'Brien uses for his "Robot On The Toilet" recurring character

-More fun mocking old people from the good folks at SNL: "Oops I Crapped My Pants" adult diapers ("Wow, that's a lot of dung!").

-And finally, I also liked that "Kotex Classic" maxi-pad commercial with the women kickin' it old school with that..., thing, sticking out from their low-cut jeans & whatnot. But I have a question about that one (and please understand I am definitely *not* looking for anyone to go into a whole lot of specific detail here), but in the back of my mind I've always kind of wondered; is that really an accurate representation of what feminine hygiene products used to be like, or is it some kind of exaggeration whipped up by the SNL prop department?

My husband and I were talking about this thread last night and he reminded me of his favorite -- Super Colon Blow.

Blue Owl -- Not an exaggeration (or at least not much of one). Before there was sticky tape (for lack of a better term) on that sort of product, women had to attach them to belts. Thank God that was long gone by the time I hit puberty.

One of my favorites from SNL is the Cookiedough sports drink. It does a good job mocking Gatorade commercials with athletes pouring the slow-moving raw dough over their heads to cool off and blobs of dough dropping into their mouths.



This skit was first on when I was in college. It still makes me choke with laughter. Lucy Lawless does such a great Stevie Nicks impression.

"And I saw my reflection in a big plate of nachos..."

No, that's pretty close to As It Used To Be.

And I've heard Dan Akroyd say in interviews that he did NOT have to drink a liquefied bass, and that it was actually a strawberry milkshake.

The best part is that there's a condom in it. Eeeeeww.

With "Love Hurts" playing in the background? Damn, that was hilarious.

My favorite SNL jean parody isn't the one for Mom Jeans, it's the one for three-leg jeans. The jingle goes, "A leg and a leg and a leg and a leg and a leg." I can't really do it justice here.

Another favorite is the one for some kind of fast food meal that's just shredded lettuce with a side of dressing and a glass of milk, and everybody's all excited and X-treme about it. But the best part is what comes with the Kids' Meal: How Stella Got Her Groove Back action figures. There's a little boy playing with the dolls, all, "Boy, I'm old enough to be your mother!" Cracks me up every time.

I don't think Aykroyd actually drank it at all. As I noted earlier, Laraine Newman drank it, and it makes sense that it was a stawberry shake because the color of the liquid in her glass was different from his (which was the liquified bass).

My favorite line in the McCain Sings Streisand ad spoof is, "Annoying, huh? Now you know how I feel." The second sentence of that has real cathartic effect, as any "Seinfeld" fan knows.

My dad's all-time favorite was one of the SNL old ads that parodied the Navy's recruiting ads of the time ("It's not just a job, it's an adventure") by showing guys on an aircraft carrier doing stuff like swabbing the deck, peeling potatoes, and all the decidedly non-glamorous stuff you actually DO in the military. And then it ended with the tagline "It's not just a job. It's $86.23 a week" (or whatever the amount was).

No love for Schmitt's Gay? Or the Budweiser ad ("bring out your best...") with Robin Williams and Joe Piscopo as hockey players just pummeling the crap out of each other?

Old Glory will never stop being funny.

There was that SNL informercial with Mike Myers and Heather Locklear. Heather was the hostess and Mike was selling a juicer or something and the hostess kept saying all these racial slurrs. The look on mike's face was so funny as he got shocked by those comments.

Then the disclaimer at the end cracked me up. It went something like:

"This is only a skit. The jokes expressed do not reflect the opinion of the actors. If you don't get that this was just a joke, then you are all a bunch of retards."

One of the funniest things I've ever seen on SNL: Uncle Jemima's Pure Mash Liquor.
Tracy Morgan as Aunt Jemima's (the pancake lady!) husband who asks "Do ya like drinkin'? Hell yeah you like drinkin'! Don't know nobody that don't..."
Watch it here or here.

ETA: The one for Homocil is pretty great too. "You can't control whether he is or isn't..."