‘Ask Your Doctor About Covid!’ SNL Lampoons Post-Booster Covid With Prescription Ad Parody

Saturday Night Live sent up the less severe triple-boosted Covid with an ad parody in which the disease is now a treatment for — and vacation from — the stress of everyday life.

Like the cold open and Weekend Update, parodies of television commercials have been a staple of Saturday Night Live since the very first episode — on October 11, 1975 — of a new show that was then called simply NBC’s Saturday Night.

The ad spoofs have provided some  of the show’s most iconic moments, such as Dan Aykroyd’s handy Bass-O-Matic, or the late legendary Phil Hartman’s ad for fiber-rich breakfast cereal Colon Blow, the deceptively-named Happy Fun Ball, or Triopenin, the impossible-to-open pain reliever advertised during the first episode’s Weekend Update segment.

In the show’s early days, some of the commercial parodies were filmed ahead of time while others were performed live.

But the modern iteration of the spoofs are almost entirely filmed in advance, with convincing sets, graphics, and visual cues. One early running gag featured the announcer, Don Pardo, doing an on-air promo for the fictional Blaine Hotel (“Guests of NBC Saturday Night stay at the fabulous Blaine Hotel in midtown Manhatten. The Blaine, a tradition for more than half a century.”) — following a news item reporting some horrific crime at the hotel.

On this week’s edition of Saturday Night Live — HOST ETC — the sketch show put together a provocative ad parody that begins by asking “Are you feeling tired and worn down? Sick of the endless grind at work? Exhausted by your family, desperate for some peace and quiet?”

“Daniel, your kids want you!”

“Then ask your doctor about covid. As soon as getting covid, you’re guaranteed a five and sometimes even ten-day vacation from all of life’s problems,” the narrator instructs, and takes you through a tour of the benefits and still risks of modern boosted Covid.

Watch above via NBC’s Saturday Night Live.