The right is starting to get better at comedy and it's making lefties nervous

Shane Gillis has been deemed a polarizing figure. He was supposed to be added to the Saturday Night Live cast in 2019, but was pulled after just a few days when a bunch of old podcast content, some of it pretty questionable, came to light. Now that we're in the "post-woke" era, he's been allowed to host the show several times, including an appearance just this past weekend which, to the casual viewer, only seemed to provide yet more justification for why he got fired from the show in the first place.

But hey, comedy is all about "pushing boundaries." Right?

This is an ad that first ran during the 2025 Super Bowl. I'm writing about it now not just because Gillis' questionable sense of humor is timely, but also because this ad airs constantly on the gas pumps at the station I go to regularly. (America in 2026: While you're spending $5 a gallon a gas, be sure to also pay attention to this message from your corporate overlords.)

So, this was a Super Bowl ad, and it still airs regularly (at least on gas pumps). And it stars one of America's foremost boundary-pushing comedians! So it must be pretty hilarious, right? Right?

Post Malone: "You wanna go fishing tomorrow?"
Shane Gillis: "I got a colonoscopy tomorrow."

Off to a rip-roaring start. The idea of a colonoscopy, of course, is inherently funny. Can you, a man, imagine something going into your butt? That's not supposed to happen!!!

Ted: "Fellas, I accidentally threw a lame party."
Gillis: "Okay, Ted."

Ted: "They're on their way."

[Gillis smashes through a fence on a riding mower. Malone holds up two leaf blowers. The graphic says "Big Men on Cul-de-Sac." Huey Lewis and The News' "The Power of Love" starts playing, because reasons.]

Ted: "They're here."

All of the main characters in this commercial are at a level of line delivery I would say rates just slightly above "actual corpse." Presumably this is part of "the gag," although I will be damned if I have any idea what said gag is really supposed to be. This is an ad for Bud Light. The premise is that Bud Light makes a great party. And the execution involves a bunch of people standing around sounding like they would rather be literally anywhere else. Makes sense?

Gillis: "You call this a party? Cul-de-sac party!"

[He and Malone fire cans of Bud Light out of the leaf blowers.]

Gillis [to camera]: "These beers are a metaphor for an invitation."

Is that a metaphor for a joke?

Ted: "Is that our leaf blower?"

We saw Post Malone arrive carrying two leaf blowers, so presumably it is not your leaf blower, Ted. Also, welcome to yet another "theoretical punchline" in this commercial. Is this line supposed to be funny? Probably! Is it? No. Not even slightly.

[Cans of Bud Light land in a number of places, and neighbors run down to Ted's house.]

Ted [exact same delivery as every other line]: "This is incredible."

I mean, it sounds like it.

Ted's wife: "Your mower smokes meat?"

Gillis: "No, our smoker cuts grass."

Ted: "Hell yeah."

Gillis: "I spent most of my money on this."

Once again, every line is delivered at the exact same level. Honestly, even if there was an honest-to-goodness joke anywhere in this commercial - and don't worry, there isn't - I don't know how you expect them to land when they're being delivered in a tone that makes Steven Wright sound like Sam Kinison.

Peyton Manning: "New rig?"

Malone: "Fully custom."

Manning: "How many Bud Lights can you fit in that puppy?"

Gillis: "As many Bud Lights as it takes."

Manning: "That's a lot of Bud Lights."

Thank God, another non-actor has showed up to rescue us. When Peyton Manning is leading your ad in inflection, that's probably a bad sign. Also, this exchange doesn't really make sense. "As many Bud Lights as it takes" is a lot of Bud Lights? That actually implies that Bud Lights are shitty for throwing a party, not great at it.

Manning: "This cul-de-sac's poppin'!"

Manning continues to be the only one of our main characters who can almost deliver a line. But this is also not a joke.

[Some guy is up on a boat as the crowd cheers.]

Gillis: "Bill, get off the boat, the HOA's already breathing down my neck."

This is the line we go out on. Is this a joke? No. Is it delivered in a particularly funny way so that you might at least confuse it for a joke? Also no. (I suppose you have to give Gillis a modicum of credit for raising his voice slightly to deliver it, though.) You would think, in an ad starring a stand-up comedian, that you would want the final line to be some sort of punchline. This feels more like they accidentally cut off the ad in the middle.

Honestly. What is this ad? Wikipedia describes it as "an attempt by Anheuser-Busch to win back its traditionally masculine audience" but it feels like they tried to do that by asking a large language model for tips. You have "main characters are conservative (or at least conservative-coded) white men" and "ad is set in a conservative (or at least conservative-coded) setting"... and that's about it, really. ("Fishing mentioned," I guess?) To whatever extent Gillis' "edgy" comedy is appealing to white men, he's certainly not allowed to do any of it here. Really, what was the point of having anyone famous in this commercial, other than Super Bowl ads are basically required to be stocked with faces people will recognize no matter how flimsy the justification? It's not like it would have taken a lot here. You could have had the party feature Gillis telling jokes or Post Malone doing a song, either one to the delight of the crowd. You could have had Peyton Manning throwing beer cans. But you didn't do any of that - instead, you centered your commercial on the line delivery of three not-really-actors and then gave them lines to deliver that aren't really even trying to be jokes. It's not like Bud Light ads have ever been that great, but there are at least a few from decades ago that still stick in my mind. This one doesn't have a single memorable thing in it.

We close with the Bud Light slogan "Easy to drink, easy to enjoy." Whatever you think of that as a description for the beer itself, this ad is certainly not easy to enjoy. But it's pretty easy to ignore while pumping gas. I'll give it that.