Ahead of the Super Bowl, we learned that some current and former Saturday Night Live cast members would be involved in commercials. We got to see Bowen Yang’s, as it was released on YouTube ahead of the event, but there were others we just knew about and had to wait until the night to see it.
Then there were some surprise additions to the night. Not all of the commercials worked or really needed the SNL cast members, but it made for an entertaining night spotting the people we didn’t expect to be included.
The Saturday Night Live cast members we knew about
We’d already known that Kenan Thompson and former SNL cast member Ana Gasteyer would be involved in the Wegovy commercial. Did it make sense? To be honest, it seemed like just a way to boost the chances of the commercial being watched to see what the celebrities would get up to, but this was one of the most forgettable commercials of the whole night.
Bowen Yang’s Ritz Crackers commercial was cute, but it was one that was released ahead of time. To be honest, I’d rather just wait for the night for the commercials, but here we are with the world of the internet.
We also knew Mikey Day was going to be involved, doing a riff of Is It Cake?, which he hosts on Netflix. The commercial itself was for eos Body Mist, which has a pistachio-scented body mist.
Then there was Andy Samberg’s Hellmann’s commercial that we knew was going to happen. We just didn’t know too much about it, except that he would do a riff of Neil Diamond. This was a fun commercial, for sure.
Finally, there was Tim Robinson, who we knew would do a commercial for Rippling, but we didn’t know the capacity. The downside is the commercial wasn’t all that memorable.
The SNL cast members we didn’t know about in Super Bowl commercials
There were some great commercials that included current and former Saturday Night Live cast members that we didn’t know were happening. Marcello Hernández stood out in the Wells Fargo commercial, which focused on helping people save money. It didn’t really need him, but we’ll take an SNL takeover any day!
Heidi Gardner appeared in the Homes.com and Apartments.com commercial, which wasn’t all that surprising. We should have expected one of these commercials, and Gardner is the Homes.com spokesperson, so of course she was going to be in it. It was fun to see her team up with Jeff Goldblum and find homes in all the craziest of places.
Ben Stiller was certainly a surprise in the Instacart commercial. This one certainly fit his personality for many of his movies of the past, and it was one of the best commercials of the night.
Finally, Colin Jost and Michael Che surprised us with a DraftKings commercial, that was the best of the SNL appearances. They are always perfect together, and we got a brilliant moment with dubbing and greenscreening. It felt exactly like something the two would do on their Weekend Update!
Saturday Night Live returns with new episodes on Saturday, Feb. 28 on NBC.