Parody Commercial: Difference between revisions

{{quote|''"Any outdoorsman will tell you the most frustrating part of hunting is when a deer simply FALLS DOWN when shot, and doesn't [[Blown Across the Room|FLY BACKWARD]] into the forest. Those days are over. Anything hit by this baby better PACK A LUNCH, 'cause it is going for a ride!"''|''[[Team Fortress 2]]'', advertising the Scout's new weapon.}}

 

 

When done as part of a [[Sketch Comedy]] show, the product can be pretty much anything. When done as part of a more typical comedy, the mock product usually ties into the plot of the show in some fashion. In both cases, the commercial itself is a practical field guide to various [[Advertising Tropes]], although this tends to be more pronounced in the case of a [[Sketch Comedy]].

 

== [[Comedy]] ==

* [[Tim Wilson]]'s ''Hillbilly Homeboy'' album ends with a fake commercial advertising an album called "Love Songs for Losers".

 

* ''[[Stay Tuned]]'', about a couple [[Trapped in TV Land]], naturally features several of these, such as one for the non-alcoholic children's drink "Yogi Beer" and "MaxHell" cassette tapes in a direct parody of Maxell's "Blown Away Guy" campaign.

* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysYsFqwSJ7k&feature=related This infomercial] for [[Steampunk]] rayguns from Weta Workshops.

 

== [[Live Action TV]] ==

* Both ''[[Mad TV]]'' and ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'' have employed this concept for years, advertising bogus products in order to make fun of various [[Advertising Tropes]] or make fun of a current event (such as the cold opening on the Jonah Hill episode from season 33 where disgraced governor Eliot Spitzer [Bill Hader] advertises a new law firm that deals with sexual court cases, such as injuries from faulty vibrators, U.S. customs seizing German porn, and slip and falls in gay bath houses). For SNL, "[[Happy Fun Ball]]" is probably the best-known; ''[[Mad TV]]'', meanwhile, featured a plush toy called "Tickle Me Emo", an angsty, stereotypically emo version of Elmo from Sesame Street ("You don't understand what I'm going through!"). Other sketch shows, like ''Fridays'', ''[[In Living Color]]'', ''WB's Hype'', and ''[[SCTV]]'' have done fake commercials, though it can be safe to say ''SNL'' and ''[[Mad TV]]'' have the most memorable parodies.

** "Hi, I'm Sam Waterson... [http://www.hulu.com/watch/2340/saturday-night-live-old-glory Robots are everywhere...]"

** Inverted by the rare spoof commercial to spawn a ''real'' product. A 1990 SNL spot pitched the "Chia Head," a sort of Chia Pet treatment to replace lost hair. Five years later, Joseph Enterprises, the novelty's maker, began selling ''actual'' Chia Heads modeled after various cartoon characters... and later a version in "tribute" to [[Barack Obama]].

*** When Gillette razors invented the dual blade razors, SNL spoofed them with their ad for triple bladed razors, ''because you'll buy anything!'' Twenty years later, real razors now offer ''[[Up to Eleven|five bladed models]].''

** "Get a Nike(y) Turkey, and PUMP IT!"

** The TBS show ''Tush'', which was modeled loosely on ''SNL'', routinely did a parody commercial or three per show.

* ''[[Monty Python's Flying Circus]]'' had memorable parody commercials for such products as Whizzo Butter (now with 10% more less, and completely indistinguishable from a dead crab) and American Defense [[Commercial Switcheroo|or]] Crelm Toothpaste (with the miracle ingredient Fraudulin!).

* Jasper Carrott's BBC show ''Canned Carrott'' had a fake "End of Part One/Two" section and spoof ads. Being a BBC show, with no "real" paid advertisements, the director had free rein to cut up real commercials and splice spoof sections in (like Jasper borrowing a friend's new Renault and taking it rallying, with predicable consequences), without any conflict of interest.

** Buy new low suds Mold...or we send the boys 'round.

** Harvest Moon, the scent that lingers. Buy some, or we'll break your fingers.

** A shot of a car and a voice-over saying "We put a gallon of economy petrol in this car. Let's see how far it goes." The camera followed the car driving around for a little bit, before it reached a banner saying 'TWENTY MILES'. The car was just about to drive through...and then crashed into the banner. "[[Commercial Switcheroo|For strong paper, buy from us!]]"

* That last one was a parody of an actual petrol advert from the time, which showed a car breaking through paper banners every ten miles. ''[[Morecambe and Wise]]'' also spoofed this ad: in their version the car was shown traveling some outlandish distance in the tens of thousands of miles on a single gallon. When it finally stopped, presenter Ernie waxed lyrical about it, ignoring driver Eric's complaints that the engine of his car was completely worn out.

* [[Stan Freberg]] did both parody commercials and real ones.

* ''[[Bill Nye the Science Guy]]'' has one every now and then. Pass the plankton, please!

* The sitcom ''[[Better Off Ted]]'': Each episode included a fake commercial for the fictitious Veridian Dynamics company, the workplace setting for the show.

* The ''[[30 Rock]]'' episode "Gavin Volure" has one. Gavin Volure (Steven Martin) tries to justify creating a fake corporation by saying that the commercial never said what the company does. Indeed it's just a random assortment of footage and words.

* ''[[The Gruen Transfer]]'''s segment "The Pitch", in which two advertising agencies compete to "sell the unsellable", making commercials for things such as whale meat and holidays to Baghdad.

** Sometimes subverted, however, in that while ''most'' agencies approach The Pitch with a parody ad, not all do; some are actually [[Dumbass Has a Point|pretty damn convincing]]. Twice now, a political party has approached the ABC to buy an ad originally aired on the pitch. (The Australian Democrats and The Greens.) Both times the ABC said no. In another example, an advert promoting mandatory euthanasia was so convincing that an actual Australian right-to-die organisation approached the agency to do a real ad on the issue; the next week, the panel discussed it and almost unanimously agreed that the 'parody' ad was more convincing than the real one.

* One of [[The Chaser's War on Everything|the Chaser's]] favourites is the mock commercial. Often, they're shown next to each other, for a fake ad break. [[Rule of Funny|The network the show aired on doesn't have commercial breaks.]]

* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBfi8OEz0rA House Hippo!!]

{{quote|'''Webb:''' Once you cressp, you just can't splessp!

'''Mitchell:''' That doesn't ''make any sense''! }}

* ''[[The Rick Mercer Report]]'' always has one or two an episode, often riffing on current political or business situations.

* The first episode of ''[[Six Feet Under]]'' included some parody adverts for mortuary products.

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

** ''[[GTA 2]]'' also has parody ads on the radio: "You might be surprised to learn than 93% of investments are ethical, eco-friendly, and wide open to market collapse. A crash can strike without warning, wiping clean a lifetime of work and saving to destroy your future, and the future of your family. The people at Third World Bank have different ideas, capturing the earning potential of underdeveloped countries and spreading your money across a wide range of tobacco, defense, and pharmaceutical investments. Third World, keeping your money safe no matter the cost."

** The ''[[Saints Row]]'' series [[Follow the Leader|also]] featured parody radio commercials, including those for "Freckle Bitch's" fast food restaurants.

* The trivia computer game ''[[You Don't Know Jack]]'' played parody commercials at the end of each game. These were so popular that one of the games in the series even included an audio CD of some of the more memorable parodies.

* ''[[Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines|Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines]]'' had radio commercials for, among other things, a restaurant called Frickin' Chicken ("That's some f***ing good chicken!") and a sitcom about a banker whose late wife comes back as an ATM. These were also advertised in billboards around town.

* Relatively obscure ''[[Mario Party]]''-esque 3DO game ''Twisted!'' was done up like a game show and features (extremely short) fake commercials every few rounds. Some of the minigames have the same fake commercials appear on miniature TVs. Needless to say, most of the products being advertised are ridiculous beyond reason ("It's both a shoe polish ''and'' a toothpaste!")

** Note that the advertised product ''[[Never Needs Sharpening|has]]'' [[Exact Words|perfection]] in every cup. In that [http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20070620 a good gulp] makes people, indeed, clearly perceive perfection. [http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20070625 With all senses. In everything.] For hours non-stop.

* [http://www.egscomics.com/backgrounds.page Wallpaper collection] of ''[[El Goonish Shive]]'' includes "Shrink Soda" ads (note that [[The Nudifier|the clothes are unaffected]]). In somehow related DES comics, [[Mad Artist|Tori Vector]] once [http://danshive.deviantart.com/art/Some-Comic-of-Mine-009-81483916 advertised] one of [[Mad Scientist|Amanda]]'s [[Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot|inventions]] (just don't show [[Everything's Better with Dinosaurs|this]] to [[Xkcd|Randall Munroe]]).

* ''[[Sinfest]]'' [http://www.sinfest.net/archive_page.php?comicID=3730 reproduces] more shameless trends.

* ''[[mezzacotta]]'' has a set of fake ads. Such as: "Visit Finländ. [[Understatement|Sömetimes is snöws]]."

* Ursula Vernon got a section in her gallery for this stuff. Behold "[http://www.redwombatstudio.com/wpg2?g2_itemId=233 Red Wombat Tea Co.]".

* The '''Powerthirst''' series of commercials, now [[Defictionalized]].

* ''[[Tobuscus]]'' does a lot of parodies of various commercial and commercial themes, from coffee ("Eight O'Clock Coffee") to clothing ("You're Not a Bottle, Boot") to pistachios ("Trapped in a Pistachio Ad") to Axe body spray ("How To Get Women"). Many of these are [[Product Placement|sponsored by the companies themselves]].

* ''[[Frilly Shirt]]'' includes a number of parody vintage commercials, particularly for the author's own [[Snake Oil Salesman|Patented Leopard Oil]].

[[Category:Advertising Tropes]]

[[Category:Parody Tropes]]