I was almost certain this was a real ad, until they brought on the robots. This Old Glory bit definitely did the trick, spotlighting the dead-on deadpan intonation of Law & Order's Sam Waterston. In a time when many celebrities (Alex Trebek, Wilford Brimley) were out there hawking insurance, it was tough not to poke fun at the incredibly somber and humorless tone of their paid spokesperson delivery. Here are just a few of the satirical gems that entertained us between sketches: If nothing else, this trip down SNL memory line is enough to make you miss Phil Hartman's unique skill at incredibly effective deadpan. There were countless fake commercials throughout the years, but the 90s gave us many of our most memorable. I highly doubt 'Oops I Crapped My Pants' would sell well on real store shelves, but SNL does an impressive job of making it seem almost plausible.
So many of these fake commercials were so spot-on that they became indistinguishable from actual commercials. True to SNL tradition, the era featured an abundance of parody commercials, spoofs featuring the cast actors that closely resembled and not-so-subtly mocked real television ad spots. The 90s may not have been the golden age of Saturday Night Live but it was certainly a consistently funny time for the show, featuring a versatile and talented cast willing to do almost anything for a laugh.
