Any montage of Adam Sandler's or Chris Farley's best work on Saturday Night Live needs to include the "Schmitts Gay" commercial parody. But comedy duo weren't the first choice for the now-classic SNL sketch.
Saturday Night Live brought commercial parodies to the mainstream right from the jump. For 50 years, SNL has been mocking real commercials or inventing their own off-the-wall ads for every imaginable product.
Perhaps the most famous SNL commercial parody is 1991's "Schmitts Gay" written by Robert Smigel. In an interview with The Ringer, Smigel explained the inspiration behind the beer ad.
"There were so many commercials at that time that were populated by bros," Smigel said. "And it was just such a stupid, embarrassing way to sell beer. It just cracked me up."
Smigel wanted a way to call out the sexism and homophobia he saw in beer commercials of the late '80s and early '90s. Head writer Jim Downey was on board with the "Schmitts Gay" idea, and so much so, he wanted it as the first commercial parody of that season.
So Smigel wrote it for Kevin Nealon and Dana Carvey to star in the parody. But the two SNL vets weren't going to be in New York City at the start of the season. So Downey told Smigel to cast Adam Sandler and Chris Farley, and the rest is SNL history.
"Farley had, at least, done 'Chippendales' by then, and everybody knew how explosively funny Farley was, and Adam was more sneaky funny. I even remember Adam expressing a little bit of nervousness on the set, like, 'Oh, f***ing Farley’s so funny, Bob. Farley’s so fucking funny. I don’t know. I don’t know.' And [I said], 'You’re perfect for this. It’s going to be great.' And, of course, he was."Robert Smigel
Smigel went on to praise the execution of the commercial and how it handled the portrayal of gay characters. The comedy writer said the gay actors were not caricatures, but instead treated the same way women were often depicted in beer ads of that era.
At the same time, Smigel admitted the parody may not go over so well now without proper context. He argued that the gay humor of the early '90s was actually widely-accepted mockery. His goal with "Schmitts Gay" was to avoid that and instead flip the concept of the macho beer commercial on its head.
Smigel considers it "mission accomplished." Much of the credit goes to Sandler and Farley. That's not to say Nealon and Carvey couldn't have done the sketch. But giving the two younger cast members a shot at such a big-swinging sketch paid off.