North Face Ad Is IMPOSSIBLE to Parody

This is not meant to be a criticism of comedian Tyler Fischer since I am a big fan of his stuff. However, he should have skipped trying to do a parody of the recent North Face commercial. Why? Because it is IMPOSSIBLE to parody since it is so over the top that any attempt to parody it falls flat in comparison. The best material for parody is taking absurd situations in which someone attempts to be serious. A great example was the ad for Viagra that Bob Dole did in 1998. Somehow there is something inherently HILARIOUS about a prominent Republican senator who was a former presidential candidate to talk about erectile dysfunction (ED). At the time I put together a bit about a very tired Dole taking a Viagra and, suddenly invigorated, rushes over to his bedroom door and while banging on it yells, "OH LIDDY, YOUR BOBBY BOY IS BAAAAACK!"Show more

It wasn't hard to parody the Bob Dole ad because of the absurdity of the situation (I also speculated as to the reaction of Dwight D. Eisenhower in retirement also being asked to do a Viagra commercial.) However in these side by side comparisons of the North Face ad with its attempted parody you can see why it is impossible to parody something that is already a parody. Any attempt to parody such a commercial is doomed to fall flat in comparison.