Iconic Comedy Roles That Have Been Reprised For Super Bowl Commercials
This weekend is the Super Bowl, the annual event when major corporations spend billions of dollars in ad money hiring famous actors to squeeze into decades-old costumes in the hopes that nostalgia will further bilk us all out of our hard-earned money — oh, and there’s some kind of game (soccer?) being played in between commercials as well.
This year, we’ve got Alicia Silverstone reprising her role as Cher Horowitz from Clueless to promote some app that we don’t totally understand, to be honest. And apparently, Cher is still dressing the same as she did in 1995 and giving high school presentations, despite being a little too “old.”
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But this is hardly the first time that classic comedy characters were exhumed from their pop-culture tombs and forced to hawk some unnecessary products. For instance, there was also…
Phil Connors, ‘Groundhog Day’
Bill Murray recreated the events of Groundhog Day for a 2020 ad — but this time, instead of bettering himself as a human being by expanding his consciousness and working to help others, Phil just decides to embrace the time loop and spend his days selfishly tooling around in a brand new Jeep and presumably running over Ned Ryerson.
Ferris Bueller, ‘Ferris Bueller’s Day Off’
Technically, Matthew Broderick was playing himself, but he went through the familiar Ferris Bueller beats for a 2012 ad, fraudulently calling in sick, attending a ballgame and interrupting a parade — all in the service of promoting the new Honda CRV. In retrospect, hiring Broderick to anchor a high-profile car campaign was… a choice.
Crocodile Dundee, ‘Crocodile Dundee’ (Duh)
Even though the original has aged like eggnog stored in a boiler room, they made a Crocodile Dundee reboot — sorta. While a fake trailer indicated that Danny McBride and Chris Hemsworth were set to star in a genuine follow-up to the hit comedy, it all turned out to be a giant lie/tourism ad for Australia. The creators even somehow managed to convince Paul Hogan to re-don his classic costume — either that, or he has never once removed it from his body since 1986.
The Dude, ‘The Big Lebowski’ and Carrie Bradshaw, ‘Sex and the City’
The most bizarre/saddest example of this trend is probably the time Jeffrey “The Dude” Lebowski appeared in a commercial for Stella Artois — despite the fact that his drink of choice in The Big Lebowski was famously a White Russian (which he rejects in the commercial for no goddamn reason). Even weirder, they randomly threw Carrie Bradshaw from Sex and the City into the mix, having her betray her loyalty to crushing cosmos.
The Cable Guy, ‘The Cable Guy’
Jim Carrey reprised his most underrated character, the Cable Guy, for an ad touting the benefits of Verizon. An odd pick because, putting aside his stalking, blackmailing and general creepiness, the Cable Guy arguably has way better customer service than Verizon.
Dr. Evil, ‘Austin Powers’
Last year, Mike Myers revived his Lorne Michaels Dr. Evil character for an ad promoting General Motors’ line of eco-friendly electric cars and was joined by Scott (Seth Green), Number Two (Rob Lowe) and Frau Farbissina (Mindy Sterling). The ad was either made because those at GM are huge Austin Powers fans or because now, when you Google “General Motors” and “Evil,” you get this ad and not reports about how the company deliberately misled the public about the dangers of climate change.
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