5 WTF Commercials Starring Great Comedians
Telling jokes doesn’t always pay the bills, which is presumably why most comedians can’t afford to wear anything nicer than an old hoodie and a pair of faded jeans. So in order to supplement their incomes and/or pay off debts, child support and to keep their legs unbroken, a lot of comedy legends have decided to sell their creative souls by appearing in TV commercials. And because not every ad exec reaches Don Draper-levels of whiskey-soaked genius, some of those commercials are pretty strange, such as the spots in which…
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Rodney Dangerfield Clones Invade Earth to Sell Beer
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In 1987, Miller Lite reasoned that the best way to sell their so-called “beer” was with a commercial featuring a giant flying saucer descending upon a group of unsuspecting cowboys (one of which is unconvincingly played by real/fictional Major League Baseball commentator Bob Uecker). When the spacecraft opens its doors, instead of Close Encounters of the Third Kind-like space aliens, hundreds of Rodney Dangerfield clones emerge. Presumably, this made more sense if you were alive in the 1980s — and drunk.
Patton Oswalt Went Full Marilyn Monroe to Hawk Sierra Mist
The Sharknado to Sprite’s Jaws, Sierra Mist released a 2003 commercial starring a young Patton Oswalt as a bagpipe-playing Scotsman who ditches a parade to let his junk get blasted by cool air from a nearby grate. The air, naturally, lifts the comedian’s kilt in an homage to Marilyn Monroe’s iconic scene from The Seven Year Itch — while also erroneously implying that Sierra Mist will somehow give you near-orgasmic crotch-freshening relief.
Mary Tyler Moore’s First Role Was as a Dancing Elf for a Dishwasher Company
Legendary comic actress Mary Tyler Moore’s very first TV role wasn’t as Laura Petrie on The Dick Van Dyke Show. It was as Happy Hotpoint, the elf mascot of the appliance company Hotpoint. Yes, Moore proved that dancing around in a demonic leotard amongst a black void of nothingness while disembodied voices sing about dishwashers can be a pathway to greatness (and cleaner dishes).
Don Rickles Dressed Up Like a Carpet One Time
Iconic insult comic Don Rickles doesn’t seem like the kind of guy people could typically walk all over, but he once played a sentient carpet in a surreal 1987 commercial. Rickles had his face exposed via a small hole as assorted dogs and children trod all over him. Seemingly one of the lowest points in his career — literally.
Norm Macdonald Voiced a Pissed-Off Hardee’s Star
Norm Macdonald portraying Col. Sanders in a series of commercials isn’t a fever dream you had one time after falling asleep to Dirty Work while eating a bucket of extra crispy; it actually happened:
But amazingly, that’s not the only fast-food commercial Macdonald made. Arguably even stranger was the occasion when he voiced the Hardee’s Star. With Macdonald’s voice, the star quickly becomes irritated and belligerent after being continually poked by the hand of an unseen child before ultimately threatening to “break that finger,” like some kind of rage-filled Pillsbury Doughboy.
All of this makes us question how the idiots over at McDonald’s never cashed in on Norm’s love of fast-food money for the easiest layup in advertising.
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