18
“A Nonexistent Problem with an Inadequate Solution”

SNL’s Commercial Parodies

One of Saturday Night Live’s many major contributions to the annals of American comedy is the commercial parody. In between the monologue, the comedy sketches, and the musical performances (and, in the early days, during Weekend Update), SNL features parodies of current commercials, phony ads for fictional products and services, and fake political campaign ads and PSAs. Some parodies, like the classic commercials for Super Bass-O-Matic ’76 (1.17) (see chapter 6) and Velvet Jones School of Technology (7.3), are performed live in Studio 8H, but most of them are shot on film or video in the style of actual commercials. That’s the reason why they can be easily mistaken for the real thing, particularly in the early years when they used writers and bit players as actors. Nowadays cast members appear in most ad parodies, and NBC insists on keeping its intrusive peacock logo on the bottom left of the screen throughout the show (in case you forget which network you are watching).

When SNL debuted in October 1975, critics singled out the commercials as one of the show’s highlights. Benjamin Stein of the Wall Street Journal felt they were “done with great imagination.” “It is possible,” he wrote, “that the reason the best parts are commercials is that commercials themselves come so close to self parody that they need only a small shove to push them into comedy.” In his review, Times-Picayune critic David Cuthbert admitted, “The best of these [commercials] were so close to the originals, it took several moments before you were aware they were parodies.” One television critic, the New York Times’ John O’Connor, was not amused. He found a commercial parody that used senior citizens’ pacemakers to demonstrate the longevity of the Try-Hard 1-11 Battery vs. other leading brands (1.2) “thoroughly tasteless and insensitive.” O’Connor also admitted it took some time to realize the next commercial for an antidiarrheal medication was a “genuine commercial.” “Going from the objectionable to the ridiculous in a matter of seconds,” observed O’Connor, “may be one of the unique experiences in watching television.”

Director James Signorelli would agree. Over the course of four decades (minus Lorne Michaels’s five-year absence), he was a film segment producer on SNL and the creative force behind the show’s filmed commercial parodies. In the early 1970s, Signorelli was a cinematographer on blaxploitation films (Super Fly [1972], Super Fly T.N.T. [1973]) and later directed feature films (Easy Money [1983], Elvira: Mistress of the Dark [1988]) and produced prime-time specials for SNL and Simon and Garfunkel: The Concert in Central Park (1982) for HBO. In the Directors Guild of America Quarterly, Signorelli explained to Tarvis Watson how the SNL commercial parodies developed over the years: “At first the parodies were casual and improvisational. As time went on, we tried to refine the parody commercial so that it really reflected the excesses of commercial production, and at the same time have at least four or five good laughs in them.” In a 1989 interview with Backstage, Signorelli emphasized the important role irony plays in a successful commercial parody: “We’re pretty hip to irony, and that’s a winner in real commercials, as well as here. We’re able to take the mock sincerity that you see in some real commercials and turn it into irony.” He also described the process of producing commercials for SNL “very collaborative,” beginning with working with the writers who, over a three-day period, create the product, storyline and ad copy. The commercial would be shot the following week at a budget 20–25 percent of a real commercial and be ready to air on the next show.

Signorelli would eventually transfer the skills he developed directing ad parodies to actual commercials, including spots for Ameritech and Budweiser. His director’s demo reel includes such classic SNL commercials as Little Chocolate Donuts (3.6) (see below), Swill (the mineral water “dredged from Lake Erie”) (3.2), Angora Bouquet (“Washes your brain, as well as your face.”) (3.3), and Jewess Jeans (5.11) (“Guaranteed to ride up.”).

According to Signorelli, what has stayed the same over the years is the philosophy behind SNL’s commercial parodies, which the director credits in Shoot magazine to longtime head writer Jim Downey, who “coined the idea that our joke spots are addressing a nonexistent problem with an inadequate solution. That’s been the thing we’ve sailed on ever since.”

“Live from New York: The Polaroid Deluxe SX-70 Camera”

Adding to viewers’ confusion surrounding ad parodies during season 1 was the inclusion of four actual, live, in-studio commercials for the new Polaroid Deluxe SX-70 Camera, two of which featured guest host Candice Bergen, who at the time was the company’s spokesperson.

Live commercials were hardly new to television. Big-name television hosts like Ed Sullivan, Jack Paar, and Johnny Carson often doubled as pitchmen for everything from Fab Detergent to Polaroid cameras to Jell-O pudding. But their shows didn’t include fake commercials, which is why adding an actual commercial for a real product into the mix no doubt confused members of SNL’s studio audience and viewers at home.

The first Polaroid commercial (1.4), which paired Bergen and Chevy Chase, is particularly awkward because it is preceded by a comedy bit in which Chase, dressed in Elizabethan garb, is playing Hamlet. Holding the skull of his court jester, Yorick, Chase recites a soliloquy mourning his death (“Alas, poor Yorick!”). The joke is that he has not memorized his lines, but is reading them off of Yorick’s skull. When Chase drops the skull, breaking it into little pieces, he tries to improvise his lines as he reads words off of the remaining fragments, which contain the segue to the commercial: “Looks like it’s time for a Polaroid commercial.” Bergen appears dressed as a Bee, and while Chase takes her picture, she points out the special features of the Polaroid Deluxe SX-70 Camera. As there is not enough time to wait for the Polaroid to develop, we are shown photos of Bergen taken earlier that evening. The remaining three commercials, which paired John Belushi (as Santa) and Bergen (dressed as a reindeer) (1.8), Belushi and Jane Curtin (1.18), and Garrett Morris and Gilda Radner (1.21), followed a similar script.

When Polaroid dropped the spots after the first season, SNL couldn’t resist parodying one of Bergen’s Polaroid commercials in which she shoots pictures at the Grand Canyon with the FX-70 Cheese Slicer, out of which comes a piece of cheese instead of a photo. “And I certainly heard from Polaroid on that one,” Bergen recalled in Saturday Night Live: The First Twenty Years. “They weren’t thrilled. I was their spokesperson. I wasn’t supposed to be shooting Velveeta out of their camera.”

SNL’s library contains over 450 commercial parodies, the best of which have been showcased in three specials: Saturday Night Live Goes Commercial (1991); Saturday Night Live: The Best of Commercial Parodies (2005), hosted by Will Ferrell; and Saturday Night Live: Just Commercials (2009). Here is a small sampling of the some of SNL’s most memorable commercial parodies.

Little Chocolate Donuts: “The Donuts of Champions” (3.6)

Before he became known as Kim Kardashian’s stepfather, Bruce Jenner was the “World’s Greatest Athlete”—winner of the gold medal in the decathlon at the 1976 Montreal Summer Olympics, where he set a new world record of 8,616 points. One of the many endorsements Jenner, with his All-American good looks, received in his post-Olympic career was for Wheaties cereal—“The Breakfast of Champions”—with his picture on the box.

Jenner’s Wheaties commercial begins with Olympic footage of Jenner throwing the shot put, doing the long jump, and waving an American flag as the announcer declares, “Bruce Jenner has won the Olympic decathlon and set a new world record!” We then cut to Jenner in his kitchen. He grabs milk from his fridge and sits down to enjoy a bowl of Wheaties, while telling us, “I really worked hard getting ready for that day. I put in a lot of years, and put away a lot of Wheaties, because a complete breakfast with Wheaties is good tasting and good for you.”

Apparently everyone did not believe that America’s golden boy actually “put away a lot of Wheaties.” In 1977, the San Francisco District Attorney’s office, which clearly had nothing better to do, charged Jenner and General Mills, the maker of Wheaties, with false and misleading advertising. According to the New York Times, Jenner held a news conference and confirmed that he does eat Wheaties. “I don’t like people thinking I don’t tell the truth,” Jenner explained. The athlete claimed he had Wheaties “maybe two or three times a week as a kid,” but also included them in his diet through the years. District Attorney Joseph Freitas withdrew the advertising suit, which he admitted was “a case of overzealousness” on the part of his staff.

SNL’s parody of Jenner’s Wheaties commercial begins with footage of decathlon champion John Belushi winning the high jump and a long-distance run, setting a new world record. Sports announcer Marv Albert shouts over a screaming crowd, “A spectacular time! A new world’s record! Unbelievable! What a day for John Belushi.” Cut to Belushi, with a burning cigarette in his hand, at his breakfast table with a bowl and a box of “Little Chocolate Donuts.” He testifies that they taste good, and give him the sugar he needs to get going in the morning—“That’s why Little Chocolate Donuts have been on my training table since I was a kid.”

The commercial was written by Al Franken and Tom Davis and directed by Signorelli, who recalled in Shales and Miller’s backstage history that Belushi, who was a high school athlete, really didn’t want to do the commercial. When he was practicing the jump, he acted as if he really hurt himself and wanted an ambulance to take him to the hospital—but he was okay, and they managed to finish the shoot. The end result was certainly one of the funniest moments in season 3 and one of the rare times that a cast member played himself in a commercial and, in this case, made fun of his own persona.

Over the years, hosts have also been in on the joke, making fun of themselves and celebrity endorsements in commercial parodies for products, some of which bear their name:

• Martin Sheen Hairspray (5.7): Afro Sheen was a hair product for African Americans formulated to make their hair softer and more manageable. In a personal testimonial, actress Jane Curtin uses “Martin Sheen Hairspray,” which is essentially the actor taking a sip of water and spitting into her hair.

• Steve Martin’s All-Natural Penis Beauty Cream (New Formula) (20.1): Martin is proud to put his name on a new beauty cream that will make your penis “looking smoother and softer, the way women like it.”

• Kelly Ripa for Tressant Suprême (29.4): At the time, Ripa was doing double-duty as cohost of Live! With Regis and Kelly (2001–2011) and the star of the ABC sitcom Hope & Faith (2003–2006). She was also a spokesperson for Pantene Shampoo. She explains in this parody that her active lifestyle is the reason why she uses Tressant Suprême hair coloring. It’s gentle on her hair, keeps it silky—and contains crack cocaine. That’s why she highlights her hair three or four times a day.

• Mary-Kate & Ashley Perfume (29.20): In 2003, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen introduced their own fragrance line, Mary-Kate & Ashley Perfume. When hosting SNL, the former child stars showed America they have a sense of humor by appearing in a commercial parody for their perfume designed for the “complex lady.” We’re told it’s one perfume, yet it’s “two fragrances, both completely unique, yet remarkably similar” because sometimes you’re an “Ashley” and other times you’re a “Mary-Kate.” The twins pose on a chaise lounge and listen to an unseen male announcer rattle off a list of things you might be in the mood for and a female voice respond with either “Ashley” or “Mary-Kate”: “A drive in a Rolls-Royce? Ashley. Or a Maserati? Mary-Kate.” But as the commercial goes on, the list gets more and more absurd (“Coal mining? Tornados? Spearfishing?”), while the wind machine blowing their hair gets stronger and stronger.

Sometimes the writers like to have fun with a guest host’s last name.

• Former power forward for the Houston Rockets Charles Barkley, whose name sounds like the British bank “Barclays,” advertises his own bank bearing his name, Barkley’s Bank (35.11). Barkley is a major gambler, so his bank makes a simple promise: “I’m either going to double it or lose it all. And that’s a promise.” Sports analyst Barkley also has his own app, the Charles Barkley’s Post Game Translator (37.11), which is recommended for sports fans while watching postgame interviews with coaches and athletes. Using real clips, he shows you there’s a difference between what they’re saying and what they really mean.

• Jon Hamm’s John Ham (34.6) looks like a toilet roll dispenser, but instead of tissue, it dispenses ham. Hamm also teams up with singer Michael Bublé to lend their last names to Hamm & Bublé (35.13), a restaurant that specializes in pork dishes and “bubbly” (champagne). Only Michael’s last name is not pronounced “Bubb-ly,” and he clearly only agreed to do the commercial because Hamm threatened him.

• In his monologue, the great Michael Jordan (17.1) agrees with critics who have called him out for doing one too many product endorsements. He then shares two commercials he shot that never aired. In the first, an ad for a female hygiene product, a teenager (Julia Sweeney) takes a walk with Mr. Jordan and confides in him that sometimes she gets that “not so fresh feeling” (“That’s why there’s Feminine Secret,” he assures). The second is for hardcore pornography videos that carry his name on the label because “It’s not really pornography unless it says ‘Michael Jordan.’”

• Athletes who have hosted have also done commercials for ethnic restaurants bearing their name, even if it’s a cultural mismatch, like Derek Jeter’s Taco Hole (27.7) and Tom Brady’s Falafel City (30.17).

Two of the cleverest—and funniest—commercials featuring athletes were a pair of PSAs, each of which starred one of the Manning brothers, Peyton and Eli. Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning is a spokesman for the NFL in a spot for the United Way (32.16), in which we see him volunteering his time to work with kids. Only Manning acts like a complete asshole, throwing the ball too hard and shaming and swearing at them when they don’t catch it. His mentoring skills are not limited to football. He also teaches them how to break into a car and get a tattoo (of the quarterback) on his arm. He even uses a little girl to help him pick up women.

When Peyton’s younger brother Eli, quarterback for the New York Giants, hosted five years later (37.20), he did a PSA on behalf of the “Little Brothers” program. “Our organization helps kids build confidence, reach their goals, and overcome their adversity—especially when that adversity is an older sibling.” He demonstrates how he helps little bros overcome adversity by helping them get revenge on their older siblings by using bullying tactics—like holding the older brother’s head over a toilet, giving him a wedgie, and chasing him with a bow and arrow.

Bad Idea Jeans: “Well, he’s an ex-freebase addict . . .” (16.1)

In 1987, Levi Strauss & Company ran a series of national commercials for Dockers, their new brand of khaki pants. The twenty-seven television spots featured a group of men sitting in a bar, office, and living room. The handheld camera moves so fast and the editing is so quick that you barely see their faces—just their pants. According to a 1997 article by Malcolm Gladwell published in The New Yorker about the campaign, the conversations between the men were not scripted. The producers asked a group of men to talk about certain topics and the conversations were taped. The footage was added later. As a result of the campaign, Dockers grew into a $600 million business for Levi Strauss. “It is no exaggeration,” Gladwell writes, “to call the original Dockers ad one of the most successful fashion-advertising campaigns in history.” The advertising and fashion worlds were especially surprised because no company had ever achieved that much success marketing fashion directly to male consumers.

The “Bad Idea Jeans” ad essentially uses the same concept. A group of men are sitting on bleachers throwing around a basketball, and the camera moves around freely with intermittent shots of the seat of their jeans and the “bad idea” tag. We hear snippets of their conversations; all of their statements sound like bad ideas: remodeling a house you’re renting, letting a former freebase addict stay with you, feeling safer with a gun in the house now that you have children, not using protection when having sex in Haiti. Between each statement, the words “Bad Idea” appear on the screen. At the very end, the all-white group goes to play a pickup game of basketball with a group of very tall African Americans.

Over the years, SNL has featured commercials for many different brands of jeans: Jewess Jeans (5.11), featuring Rhonda Weiss (Gilda Radner); Clovin Hind Jeans, a parody of Brooke Shield’s Calvin Klein commercials with Gail Matthius (6.4); Ronald Reagan Jeans (10.13), which incorporate real footage of the president on his ranch; Leevi’s 3 Legged Jeans (17.6); and Mom Jeans (28.19), which, with their nine-inch zipper and casual front pleats, say “I’m not a woman anymore, I’m a mom.” Then there’s Wrangler Open Fly Jeans (36.4) with spokesperson New York Jet Brett Favre, who was accused of sexting and sending inappropriate voice messages to an in-house sideline reporter, Jenn Sterger. He prefers jeans with no fly because “it’s always out and camera-ready.”

First CityWide Change Bank: “Our business is making change.” (14.1)

Banks love to sell themselves as people-friendly, service-oriented institutions that exist for one reason—to serve their customers. This idea is taken to the point of absurdity in a pair of ads for First CityWide Change Bank (14.1), which does only one thing—make change. In two separate spots, satisfied customers (Jan Hooks/Kevin Nealon, Nora Dunn/Phil Hartman) give testimonials of what happened when they needed change in a hurry. The “mock sincerity” of real commercials, as Signorelli explained, is turned into irony by the bank’s self-satisfied service representative Paul McElroy (writer Jim Downey), who talks about how they are willing to work with their customers in meeting their change needs. He begins to list the various combinations the bank can give if a customer needs change, which are punctuated by on-screen graphics (“We can give you fifty singles.” “We can give you twenty-five twos.”). Then, to show how it’s all about you, McElroy states that they will not give you change you don’t want (for a $100 bill, “we are not going to give you two thousand nickels”). His final statement says it all: “We will give you the change equal to the amount of money that you want change for! That’s what we do.”

Another commercial parody that puts a twist on the same idea is for a credit card company, Metrocard, that provides its customers with a twenty-four-hour helpline (16.13). A customer (Phil Hartman) provides a testimonial of how he called the helpline when he lost his card while traveling and attests to how helpful the customer rep was over the phone. His story is intercut with the operator’s (Roseanne) testimonial—and how she had no patience listening to this loser’s story and had no trouble telling him so.

Colon Blow: “How many bowls of your oat bran would it take . . . ?” (15.5)

In the 1980s, Total Cereal launched a campaign comparing its nutritional content with other leading brands of cereal. In one spot, comedian Richard Lewis is told by the disembodied voice of the male announcer he may have to eat four bowls of Grape-Nuts to get all the vitamins in Total. Sherman Hemsley, star of the sitcom The Jeffersons (1975–1985), is told four bowls of Post Raisin Bran equals one bowl of Total. Other commercials make a similar comparison between Total and All-Bran Cereal and Fruit & Fiber.

When Phil Hartman sits down to enjoy his bowl of oat bran cereal, an unseen announcer begins to question him about the fiber content of his cereal. He invites him to try Colon Blow and to take a guess: “How many bowls of your oat bran would it take to equal the fiber content of one bowl of Colon Blow?” Hartman’s guesses (“Two? . . . Five? . . . Nine?”) are not even close. “It would take 30,000 bowls!” Suddenly, a giant stack of cereal bowls appears underneath Hartman, lifting him high in the air. He goes even higher when the announcer tells him about Super Colon Blow (“It would take over two and a half million bowls of your oat bran.”).

Schmitt’s Gay: “If you’ve got a big thirst, and you’re gay . . .” (17.1)

This commercial is a smart reversal of all those fantasy ads that use scantily clad women to sell beer to a presumably heterosexual male consumer. Adam Sandler is house-sitting, but Chris Farley is not impressed by the dumpy house or the empty pool. But once Sandler turns on the water, the backyard pool turns into a gay paradise complete with muscular guys in skimpy bathing suits. Then there’s a montage of point-of-view shots as an excited Farley and Sandler ogle and react to the hunky men, looking at their crotches and butts, the way heterosexual men in beer commercials ogle women. Then we see Sandler horsing around with the guys in the water and Farley leading a conga around the pool. An announcer (Phil Hartman) says, “If you’ve got a big thirst, and you’re gay, reach for a cold, tall bottle of Schmitt’s Gay.”

Over the years, SNL has featured other commercials for alcoholic beverages:

• Buddweiser Light (9.12): A face-off between two hockey players (Joe Piscopo and Robin Williams) erupts into a full-out brawl, after which the two players sit together on the side of the rink and enjoy a cold Buddweiser Light. “The best. You found it inside. Now you’ll fit it in the beer you drink.”

• Coldcock Malt Liquor (17.4): At a fancy cocktail party, African Americans sing the praises of Coldcock Malt Liquor. Take a sip and an animated muscular arm and hand that appears on the can punches you in the face and knocks you unconscious. “Coldcock. You never see it coming.”

• A.M. Ale (21.1): Here is ale to help you take on the challenge of a brand new day. “Because you can’t wait until afternoon.”

Happy Fun Ball: “The toy sensation that’s sweeping the nation!” (16.13)

Three kids (Jan Hooks, Dana Carvey, and Mike Myers) are all excited about “Happy Fun Ball—the toy sensation that’s sweeping the nation!” While we see the happy tykes playing with their ball, the announcer reads a long list of warnings, including how prolonged exposure should be avoided by pregnant women, the elderly, and children under ten, especially to the liquid core if it ruptures. Like a warning on a pharmaceutical label, you are advised to discontinue use if any of the following occur: itching, vertigo, temporary blindness, etc. The warnings get even more outrageous. The ball contains substance that fell to earth and is being used by our warplanes to drop on Iraq. But hey, it’s fun.

“Oops! I Crapped My Pants”: “Just visit your pharmacy and say ‘Oops! I crapped my pants.’” (24.1)

There is nothing more depressing than commercials targeting senior citizens. Whether it’s for an alert system in case they fall and can’t get up, or a laxative to relieve “irregularity,” their tone is often condescending, treating older consumers like helpless children. This commercial for adult diapers (“Depends” is the brand name that comes to mind) is funny because instead of talking around the issue, as most commercials do, it uses explicit language.

Grandma wants to play tennis with her granddaughter, but she changes her mind. Grandpa knows why (“You still having control problems, aren’t you?”). Grandpa lets her in on a little secret—Oops! I Crapped My Pants. If the name of the product is not explicit enough, it’s his demonstration. While most commercials cut to someone in a lab coat who can demonstrate the product, Grandpa takes it upon himself to pour a pitcher of iced tea into a pair to show their absorbency (“Imagine the pitcher of tea is really a gallon of your feces”). She’s impressed (“Oops! I Crapped My Pants can hold a lot of dung.”). But having these sweet, old, lovable old folks using words like “dung” and “feces” wasn’t enough. Grandpa admits “he just did” (crap in his pants), and Grandma is later seen playing tennis carrying what is obviously a major load under her tennis skirt.

Chantix: “Chantix. Just keep smoking.” (37.11)

Once upon a time pharmaceutical companies only marketed their products to physicians through mail order and the occasional visit from the company sales rep (the person you see in your doctor’s waiting room with a suitcase full of brochures and free samples). Sales reps are still making the rounds, but pharmaceutical companies have found a more lucrative way to sell their wares to potential patients: direct-to-consumer drug advertising, which started with print ads in magazines and newspapers and expanded to include radio and television commercials, billboards, the Internet, and direct mailings. According to a 2011 article by C. Lee Ventola published in the Pharmacy and Therapeutics Journal, the shift from print ads to broadcast media occurred due to changes in the Food and Drug Administration’s policies that now require pharmaceutical companies to include only “major risks” in their ads and direct viewers to a place where they can access a “brief summary” of information (a toll-free number, a website, etc.). In 2011, the New York Times reported that drug companies were spending nearly $5 billion a year on television ads.

As with ads for any product, drug ads promise consumers they will live a happier, more fulfilling life if they buy their product. But unlike other commercials, they also have to list the downsides to using their product, namely the possible side effects, the severity of which range from mild to life threatening.

A commercial for Chantix features a testimonial from a husband and wife (Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig) who explain that she had to quit smoking for her son and her husband because it wasn’t a habit, but an addiction. The voice of the unseen announcer tells consumers that they need to talk to their doctor about any history of depression or other mental health problems, which can get worse while using Chantix. More specifically, there may be behavioral changes, such as hostility, depression, and “a powerful, overwhelming desire to kill the person you love most.” The husband looks worried, and although the wife assures him it’s not the case, she starts to exhibit the list of symptoms, which grows increasingly more absurd (droopy lip, jazz hands, Robert De Niro face, Incredible Hulk strength, etc.). In the end, the wife chases the husband out of the room, and the announcer says: “Chantix. Just keep smoking.”

SNL has also featured commercials for pharmaceuticals, which are either parodies of existing drug commercials or ads for drugs for conditions that don’t exist or can’t be treated by taking a pill.

Homicil: “Until you come around. Because it’s your problem, not theirs.” (26.12)

In this “gay-friendly” commercial, moms and dads suffering from “Parental Anxiety Disorder” due to certain behaviors exhibited by their son indicating he might be gay (like making a fabulous dress or crème brûlée or twirling a baton) can dramatically decrease their anxiety by taking Homocil.

Gaystrogen: “Get back to your old self.” (29.3)

When the sons of the parents who take Homocil become adults themselves and begin to notice some changes in their tastes and mood, there’s Gaystrogen, which works “to replenish your natural gayness and boost your fabu.”

Dr. Porkenheimer’s Boner Juice: “A thicker, longer sexual experience.” (30.1)

Ads for erectile dysfunction (ED) medication usually go for the soft sell by depicting couples sharing a romantic moment that the commercial implies is a prelude to something that can’t be shown on television—like hot and heavy sex. Like its name, Dr. Porkenheimer’s Boner Juice uses the more direct approach by basically stating exactly what you have to gain by taking it—“Bigger, and stronger, and more meaty . . . It’s boners when you feel right. Giant ones that are thick and sturdy.”

Annuale: “Annuale. Once a year. Period.” (33.5)

There’s a new female hygiene product on the market that alters a woman’s menstrual cycle so she will only have her period once a year. When it’s that time of the year, watch out—hold on to your f–kin’ hat! We see a woman swinging an axe at her coworkers, destroying a kid’s birthday cake, and slugging her husband in the crotch.

The commercial is one of those brilliant feminist-infused parodies, which have advertised such products as Chess for Girls (23.8); Woomba (30.8), the first completely robotic feminine hygiene product (“It’s a robot and it cleans my business, my lady business. And I like that.”); and Lil Poundcake (37.2), the doll that has a needle in one hand that gives little girls a shot for the HPV (human papilloma virus). The latter was in response to Texas governor Rick Perry’s mandating that little girls receive the vaccine against a sexual transmitted virus that can cause cervical cancer. The Texas legislature overturned the mandate, which Perry admitted was a mistake.