"Hold on to your f**&@ing hat!"

I'm sure you've all seen those ads on television for this medication and that. Usually (while trying to mind warp and fleece us), and depending on the drug being hawked, generically attractive young, middle aged and/or elderly people, unrealistically mind you (particularly the geriatric generic), are seen running through meadows, rock climbing, looking depressed, awaking in crisp white sheets with crisp white curtains blowing lightly in the breeze and... well, you get the idea. At close of the commercial there's always a rolling set of possible side effects, a scroll as long as the cast and crew credits of any Hollywood blockbuster. This laundry list of horrors seems always, at least to me, much, much worse a fate than the condition the medication is prescribed for.

As if these all aren't bad enough, I personally find the ones targeted specifically at "women's issues" and "feminine hygiene," etc., even more grating and ridiculous. The ones where (at least in the US) the women are all very gentle and softspoken - the kind of voice used only if you were completely Stepford, drugged up to the eyeballs, or trying to placate a nutjob who is brandishing a gun at a WaMu (that name change still doesn't make them 'cool' by the way) - so annoying and patronizing. What the #%@* do they take us for?

Well, last night I was watching SNL (Saturday Night Live) - it was the first show back since the WGA went on strike, so my tuning in was a combination, I'm sure, of extreme lack of new telly material and the fact that Tina Fey was hosting - reunited once again with her pal and comedy cohort, Amy Poehler.

Now, I love Tina Fey and I love her show "30 Rock." And Poehler never ceases to crack me up ("Blades of Glory" anyone?), so I had to at least check it out. Anyway, just as my age started to reveal itself and I was starting to fade, the following skit came on:



I don't know whether I was just severely lacking and in need of a good giggle, or should be prescribed some of that there Stepford medication, but I absolutely rolled. Their dead-on parody was lulling me, as it was meant to do - between the wig, the use of pink on black and white and the gormless music and hopped up tones and expressions of the women - until around .40 seconds and then kapow! When I saw the... ah well, if you haven't seen it, I don't want to spoil it for you. Just take a look.

I'm so glad this ended up on youtube.

(Wonder if she found that hatchet at one of those 'provide for the needy' outfits. Yes, I'm still grumbling)

(and if the fascist bastids remove the above, try here: http://youtube.com/watch?v=fQL2q-wjAsg )

P.S. Her Clinton/Obama bit was really hilarious too.

ETA: For anyone with an interest in political satire (and Female Power! Ha! I'm talking more about Tina in this instance), here it is: