This weekend, "Saturday Night Live" cast members pulled off the show's second remote broadcast.
Most of the skits highlighted some aspect of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, but a hilarious commercial parody about shopping in grocery stores these days is really hitting home with plenty of consumers.
In the fake ad, which racked up over 1 million views by Monday, Kate McKinnon and Aidy Bryant play "grocer women" Kathy and Suzanna-Anne-Helen from the fictional Bartenson's market. At the top of the skit, the duo plead with customers to "buy what they have" because they're all out of the food most people actually want or need.
"As you know, staples like chicken, milk and bread have been flying off the shelves," says Bryant in character, as we see a stock photo of barren supermarket shelves.
"We wanted to alert you to some items that despite the pandemic, we have in absolute abundance," says McKinnon.
From there, the grocer women show us what they do have in stock. At first, some familiar — yet divisive — items pop up on the screen, like frozen Hawaiian pizza topped with pinapple, "a little bag of dry, hard beans," margarine and cauliflower pasta.
Then the items veer off into hilarity: mint Pringles, wine from Missouri (maybe this is a real thing?), Boy Scout Cookies and a host of other fake delicacies.
While many stores have moved to limit customer purchases of bottled water, the grocer women still have plenty of Dasani water available (the brand has been the subject of jokes on social media over its sodium content).
"What's wrong with it? It's water!" Bryant asks.
"I don't know, I like it!" says McKinnon.
The grocer women then let us know about more items that are "extremely" in stock, like oat milk pizza, Pepsi crab and Mario Batali pasta sauce, which has been rebranded as "Fat Italian Ponytail Pasta Sauce," taking a dig at the chef and former Food Network star who was accused of sexual misconduct in 2017.
Throughout the skit, McKinnon and Bryant give each other socially distant handshakes and awkward high-fives.
Since many grocery stores are considering online-only shopping, customers have become all too familiar with the frustrations of trying to get a time slot for delivery and then, when the order does arrive, not actually getting what was ordered. Sadly, Bartenson's grocery item substitutions don't seem to be that far off from what some people have received.
"You asked for pasta sauce," McKinnon says in a robotic-sounding voice. "Do you want salsa?"
"You asked for toilet paper," she continues. "Do you want a DVD of 'Van Helsing'?"
Related
The commercial goes on to say that there are some items the store will "never not have" including Pepto Bismol Oreos, Peeps soup and "Dasani water ... now vegetarian!"
"Consider adding these new favorites to your shopping list," says Bryant.
"We want to give you what you want," says McKinnon, "but first, we need you to buy what we have!"
The skit was part of a show that also featured a song about quarantining with your family from Pete Davidson and Adam Sandler, plus a very notable appearance by Brad Pitt playing Dr. Anthony Fauci during the cold open.
