While in many ways, the joke of Saturday Night Lives’s 1991 parody beer commercial, Schmitts Gay, is that classic SNL bros Adam Sandler and Chris Farley turn out to be the kind of beer-swilling horndogs who dig dudes, there’s something about the sketch that has always been a bit more welcoming than its era would suggest. Rather than direct the audience to laugh at Sandler and Farley’s gayness, the sketch served to make the predominantly straight audience laugh at what the typical horny beer commercials would look like with scantily clad men instead of women. And it had the courage to stand by the parody and make the men genuinely sexy.
While there are higher quality copies of this SNL parody beer spot out there, this is the original broadcast version which includes Van Halen‘s Beautiful Girls, something that really makes the spot happen IMHO. I’m guessing that licensing issues forced the updated version with a generic rock track to come about, but just watch both, and you’ll see why a touch of VH makes all the difference.
