TV commercials are fairly easy to satirize. If you think about it, advertising is sort of ridiculous in the first place (a TV show is interrupted to ask you to buy toilet paper and gum?), so they're a natural for parody. There have been a lot of great parodies over the years, from shows such as Saturday Night Live and SCTV, and now Nerve has picked the 50 that they consider to be the best.
There are a lot of great choices, from SNL's "Colon Blow," "Schmitt's Gay Beer," and "Compulsion by Calvin Klein" to the Zoloft ad from Mad TV. One of my favorites is SNL's "Happy Fun Ball" spot, which was written by Jack Handey and included in his new book of essays What I'd Say To The Martians. It's a good list all around, though it's also one that I feel is missing a bunch of good ones, only I can't put my finger on which ones are missing at the moment.
The one they pick as number one is undoubtedly a classic, though I think it's overrated. I've always loved the one after the jump.










Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
5-05-2008 @ 2:32PM
Michael said...
I have always enjoyed JD's 'The More You Know' fantasy from Scrubs. I laugh hard everytime I see it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CU3m4N9iOQI
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5-05-2008 @ 2:55PM
David Woods said...
My favorite of all time was
"Philadelphia the Movie" Action Figures
featuring
Gay Attorney Andrew Beckett
Defense Attorney Joe Miller, with jetpack and laser cannon
and
Miguel - Andrew's long-time companion
If anyone can find this online, please post it.
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5-05-2008 @ 3:01PM
Brian said...
I was a big fan of Old Glory robot insurance. Sam Waterston could not have sounded more serious, and its numerous lines designed to scare the seasond citizens made it great satire.
Happy Fun Ball, Eric(k?) The Red and Colon Blow were all great... but Old Glory just shines above.
Which reminds me. I have to go hide my pills... the metal ones are coming.
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5-05-2008 @ 4:28PM
Matt said...
The State had an awesome beer commercial, and another one for Snuggle Soft-type fabric softener that I loved
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5-05-2008 @ 9:20PM
Diego M said...
too many SNL commercials it should've been the top SNL commercials instead.
MadTV had better commercial parodies.
madden's popcorn popper, real estate secrets, and the informercials about natural cures just to name a few
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