Michael Bublé Says His Super Bowl Commercial Ripped Off ‘SNL’
Michael Bublé is most famous for his laidback retro crooning career, but amongst a certain sect of comedy fans, his greatest achievement will always be “Hamm & Bublé.”
In 2010, Bublé was Saturday Night Live’s musical guest, for an episode hosted by Jon Hamm. The singer also appeared in a memorable sketch playing himself alongside a crazed Jon Hamm, who is forcing Bublé to promote a new restaurant that exclusively serves pork products and fine champagnes: Hamm & Bublé.
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Bublé protests that his name isn’t actually pronounced “bubbly,” but his drunken captor insists that “‘Bublé’ doesn’t work, so now it’s pronounced ‘Bubbly.’” In a just world, Jon Hamm would have won an Emmy for this, not Mad Men.
Of course, this sketch wasn’t the first time that SNL played Hamm’s meaty name for laughs, lest we forget when he hawked “Jon Hamm’s John Ham”: a salted pork dispenser for bathroom stalls.
Not surprisingly both “Hamm & Bublé” and “Jon Hamm’s John Ham” were written by the same guy: Seth Meyers. So when Bublé appeared on Late Night this week, naturally the subject of the pun-filled sketch came up. Meyers noted that it was one of his “favorite” sketches that he’s ever written, and Bublé was similarly enthusiastic. “I was so excited when I read it,” Bublé told the host. “I was like, this is so funny.”
Bublé also claimed that “Hamm & Bublé” changed his life. How could a dumb sketch about meat and booze have so much impact on someone? Bublé recalled that years after the SNL appearance, he was contacted about appearing in a 2019 Super Bowl commercial for Pepsi’s line of Bubly sodas. Bublé was eager to participate, but when he found out that the concept involved playing on the Bubly-Bublé pronunciation, it all seemed a little too familiar.
“My first thought was ‘you stole this from Seth!’” Bublé revealed.
“That was my first reaction too,” Meyers agreed.
Even back in 2019, Bublé told interviewers that the hook of the commercials wasn’t unlike the SNL bit, crediting Meyers for first cracking the pun. The Bubly spot proved to be quite popular, so much so that Bublé still does commercials for the company. And, as far as we know, Pepsi hasn’t kidnapped him, Jon Hamm-style.
You’d think that after Bubly’s success, more corporations would try to mine Meyers’ old sketches for advertising ideas. Like, we went through a whole pandemic, and no one thought of actually selling the “Peter Saarsgard SARS Guard,” the only face mask endorsed by “critically acknowledged actor” Peter Saarsgard?
Although we probably won’t be getting a Super Bowl commercial in which Don Draper shovels fecal particle-encrusted deli meats into his mouth any time soon.
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