Customer Reviews

Saturday Night Live: The Best of Commercial Parodies

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Swill, Schmitt's Gay, and countless others from the 70s through early 90s are inexplicably missing. You do get "Happy Fun Ball," "Hibernol," "Oops I Crapped My Pants" and overall a satisfying watch. However I could've done without the Will Ferrell host sketches and the overabundance of parodies from the last few years. Overall if you're a fan of their parodies, you need this, if for nothing other than Sam Waterston of Law & Order fame selling robot attack insurance to seniors. Hopefully a second volume will come out and rectify the lack of the old classics.

As mentioned by other reviewers, this collection could have been better, and in my opinion really shouldn't be called a "Best Of" collection due to the inclusion of a fair number of mediocre parodies.

Missing are several of my favorites including Jane Curtain's "Quarry" Breakfast Cereal, Shimmer Floor Wax/Dessert Topping, and Mel's CharBroil Palace (although that one is on the Dan Aykroyd DVD).

To be fair, many classics are included including John Belushi's Donuts ad(Also included on the John Belushi DVD), Eddie Murphy's Buckwheat Sings ad, and Gilda Radner's "Hey You" cologne ad(Also included on the Gilda Radner DVD). Could have been MUCH better if this is all they are releasing, but as stated by another reviewer, perhaps they are considering a volume 2.

The exclusion of Shimmer is enough to drop a star on it's own! That was definitely the best of the ads.

If you're an SNL fan, it'll be a must have anyway just to see these again. For everyone else, you might wanna wait for the "REALLY Best of Golden Age of Commerical Parodies Set" DVD that I'm betting is in the works.

This is a good compilation with a lot of great commercial parodies. Some of my favourites are the Bassomatic, Bad Idea Jeans, Colon Blow and Robot Insurance.

But it's too heavy on the newer skits. I'd say at least half of them come from 1995 and newer, when the show started to turn. The Jessica Simpson "Tuna of the Dirt" is funny at first, but goes on way too long and becomes very tedious. There were however some great newer ones I'd never seen like Mom Jeans, Gaystrogen and Eych.

What makes this worse is that way too many classics are missing. There's no Yard-a-Pult (one of my favourites), Crystal Gravy, Swill, Quarry, or Schmitt's Gay Beer. You'll get no Adobe (the first car to break the $200 barrier!), Chameleon, Shimmer, or Hell (the beer commercial with Anthony Michael Hall). It's also missing Wilson Trap Doors, the anti-bacterial meat product, and the home headache test.

Worst of all are the short skits with Will Farrell. At first they're not a big deal, but they become annoying by the end.

All in all, they did a fair job, but I think a second volume with more classics should be made.

I absolutely LOVED SNL Goes Commercial, which aired in the late 80s/early 90s. So, I figured this would be similar, but with DVD quality. Boy, was I wrong. As others have said, the majority of the commercials are from the last 10 years or so. All the brilliant commercials of the 70s and 80s are missing. The ones that are included from that time are not ones that I'd term "best of." What a disappointment. I'll stick to my VHS of "SNL Goes Commercial."

This set is being criticized for what it's missing more than for what it has. It's still pretty darn good. This collection was broadcast on SNL in the fall of 2005, with a few notable exceptions. I'm not sure where "Schmitt's Gay," "Trump's House of Wings," "McCain Sings Streisand," "Huggies Thongs" or "Smoke Alarm 3000" went, but they were replaced instead with commercials like "Hibernol," Tylenol BM," "Black Eyed Peas," "Tuna of the Dirt," "Mary Kate & Ashley Perfume," "Nikey Turkey," and "The Love Toilet," to name a few. But did we need to see "Taco Town" and "Baby Toupees" one more time?

Yes, it's heavy on the Will Farrell and after eras. You will find precious few that are pre-1990. Didn't Dana Carvey do any commercials at all? Jon Lovitz, where are you? The only four commercials from the 70's are "Bass-o-matic," "Hey You," "Little Chocolate Donuts," and the "79 Roadster." Still, overall, what is on here will make you laugh a lot! I'm hoping for a second volume, but for now, what's here is funny stuff.

I agree wholeheartedly with Mr. Sleeman and S. Strasser-- where's the good stuff? I haven't watched SNL in years, but I'm old enough to remember the beginning, and the real classics. While there were definite moments (including the great Colon Blow), they were too few and far between--- and VERY heavily weighted to more recent years. The inclusion of Bassamatic is enough to earn its stars, but the Best of Aykroyd has Bassamatic; the Best of Radner has Hey You perfume; the Best of Murphy has Buckwheat Sings; and the Best of Belushi has Little Chocolate Donuts. The bris in the car was a forgotten classic included in this disc, but I agree: the exclusion of Shimmer Floor Wax/Dessert Topping is a tragedy. In the first few years, the ad parodies were brilliant--- so where are they? I was dearly hoping that they would also include the "Weekend Update-brought to you by" one-liners of the first couple of years, but no dice. (Nothing, but NOTHING will ever top Don Pardo saying "Weekend Update: brought to you by Pussywhip, the first dessert topping for cats.") They also can do without Will Ferrell's weak ad agency inserts. Just show the good stuff, which means they need to go back to the old days (I'll take Jewess Jeans any day over Mom Jeans). Those were innovative, clever, and really funny. Too many of the skits included here just weren't. This disc was a real disappointment (I'm glad I rented it and didn't buy it). Mr. Michaels, if you read the reviews and listen to the fans, you can easily produce another DVD that would earn 5 stars and lots of money.

I'm so tired of being conned out of ten or twenty bucks. When I saw what this DVD was titled, I didn't hesitate to get it. I watched it and laughed, but it is far from what it should be. It lacks so many of the truly "best" parodies, that titling it in this manner is deceptive. It could, and should have been loaded with so many more of the greats. Until we demand quality, I guess all we'll get is the mediocre.

There's some great stuff here and it's nice to have it on DVD.

But they left so much great material off. Notably Schmitt's Gay and Big Red. There was no excuse for this especially considering so many of the ads featured in the meager extras section are sub par.

Well, at least they are continuing the tradition of releasing half baked SNL best of DVD's. Congratulations Lorne, you did it again.

I too had the VHS copy so I was psyched when the DVD version came out. I thought the funniest parody was the one with Roseanne and Phil Hartman. Phil's character loses his credit card and his hotel tells him to call the customer service dept. He gets Roseanne and she's not in a good mood! I howled when I first saw it! I was so disappointed that it's not included in this compilation. Hopefully if there is another volume of commercial parodies, this one will be on it!!!!

Totally disappointing. Too much of the recent cast, no: Puppy uppers and Doggie Downers, Calvin Kleen, How to be a Ho Handbook, It's a floor wax, no its a dessert topping,Union Label, or the Martin Sheen, Quarry, Pre-chew Charlies,Saccharin, Schlitz Gay. This is a total waste, if you are looking for funny, this isn't it. Too many of the classics are missing.
It's also pretty ridiculous that there is a Best of Jimmy Fallon , but I have yet to see a Best of Jan Hooks, or Nora Dunn.