There’s no doubt that Saturday Night Live is one of the greatest, most important comedy shows of all time, even if sometimes it leaves me sitting in front of the TV completely confused or muttering to myself about how something or other is the worst shit I’ve ever seen. But I suppose that’s one of the reasons it’s stuck around for so long. Humour is subjective, and SNL, most of the time, manages to have a little something for everyone. If I’m bored to tears one minute, the next I might see something that will have me talking about vans down by the river for the rest of my damn life.
That hardly makes me unique. I’m Pretty sure everyone I know has a similar relationship with the show. They have their favourite eras and everything else sucks ass. It’s been that way for 50 years, and I hope it never changes even though television as we know it is eventually going to die.
There are two aspects of SNL that I’ve always enjoyed no matter which decade I’m watching. Weekend Update and the fake commercials. So I’ve been having a good time with this Rolling Stone list of their 50 favourite parody ads. A lot of the classics are here. Bass-o-matic, Swill, Happy Fun Ball, Shimmer Floor Wax, and there are also some I’ve never seen, like this one for Almost Pizza.
And Wade Blasingame, dog suing attorney.
While we’re at it, they also did a list of the 50 best characters. It’s pretty fun too. What was that about a van down by the river?
By the way, if you’re using a screen reader, press enter on the photos at the start of each item in the commercials list if you want to watch the video. It’ll turn it into a YouTube player that will start automatically. Only downside is you’ll have to skip an ad or two each time, which sucks if you’re like me and pay for YouTube without the ads.