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U.S. Ads: 10 of the Funniest Commercials on TV

Here is a list of some of the funniest commercials ever to appear on U.S. television

gPhoto by Glenn Carstens-Peters on Unsplash

America’s attention span is worse than ever. Young people today more and more opt for short reels and YouTube videos than longer television shows and movies.

In a world of streaming and skipping ads, advertisers have had to figure out a way to capture the attention of the viewers.

Humor has always been a good way to get people to pay attention. Many, but not all, of the commercials are the list were created to be first watched during the Super Bowl. That is a time when advertisers bring out their best work.

Here is a list of ten advertisements from U.S. television that wonderfully use humor to sell their products. I have ranked them by which I thought were the funniest.

10. Pepsi Zero (2023)

The ad opens with Ben Stiller fighting aliens on a distance planet, making friends with a robot, and getting kicked in the face while proposing to a woman.

He tells us, “Acting is the art of making you believe what you see is real.” He then tries a Pepsi Zero and genuinely seems to like it. But he deadpans the camera and asks, “Was that acting?”

The funniest part of the short commercial is at the end when he pours the beverage all over his head, showing that he really loves the stuff.

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9. T-Mobile (2023)

The T-Mobile 2023 Super Bowl ad was counting on nostalgia for its viewers. They brought back the best friends from the TV show Scrubs, Zac Braff and Donald Faison. They also brought in Grease’s John Travolta.

The trio sang a parody of “Summer Lights” More than funny, this commercial was silly. But it still made us laugh.

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8. Lays (2022)

Nostalgia sells and can be hilarious.

Two of the funniest actors popular today, Seth Rogan and Paul Rudd, helped Lays sell potato chips during the 2022 Super Bowl.

The two are sharing a bag of chips and reminiscing of their experiences together, which includes a gang war, an air disaster, ghosts, and being kidnapped.

The scenes are exciting and humorous. To up the nostalgic factor, the ad slogan is “Stay Golden,” perhaps a nod to the popular 80s novel and movie Outsiders.

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7. BIC EZ Reach Lighters (2022)

The pairing up of Martha Stewart and Snoop Dogg is the oddest duo in television history.

But it works and it is hilarious. BIC decided to take advantage of Snoop Dogg’s reputation to create an very funny advertisement.

In the commercial Snoop Dogg asks Stewart to pass the lighter and the bowl. Of course, he wants the lighter to light a candle, and the bowl is a bowl of strawberries.

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6. Tubi (2023)

This was one of the funniest Super Bowl ads ever, but we didn’t think it was funny as it was happening. It was more of a prank on the viewing audience.

The streaming service Tubi made their screen look like a home page from a smart TV and suddenly opened a Tubi app to play Mr. and Mrs. Smith.

Households across the United States started looking for their remotes, convinced that someone had accidentally sat on them and launched the app.

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5. Volkswagen (2010)

Nothing is safer than buying a car from an old lady who only drove it to church on Sundays.

That is what the buyer of this used Volkswagen was thinking in this 2010 Volkswagen commercial. He shows up to a sweet old lady’s house, and she meekly stands there as he goes over the car.

As he walks around the car looking at it, we are given flashbacks of the lady hot-rodding the car all over town, jumping it over and bridge, and spinning it to a sudden stop.

Confident that it was only driven by the nice old lady, the guy buys the car.

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4. PopCorners (2023)

Who would expect to see the characters from Breaking Bad with a popcorn snack? But that is exactly what PopCorners did in 2023.

Stars of the popular Netflix drama about a teacher who turns drug dealer appeared in this hilarious Super Bowl ad. Bryan Cranston, as Walter White, and Jesse are in the RV in the desert but instead of meth, they are making PopCorners.

When they meet a shady character to sell their product, Walter brings back a derivation of a line from the popular series, “Say…their…name!”

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3. Pepsi Max (2013)

A man goes in for a job interview while at least a dozen other applicants are also waiting to being interviewed.

While in the room alone with the interviewer, the man being interviewed suddenly and inexplicably goes crazy, accuser the interviewer of hitting him. He makes all kinds of noise, knocks things off the shelves, and throws himself out of the office.

All but one of the waiting applicants got scared and left without being interviewed. It turns out that one remaining applicant was his friend and they staged the whole thing. They celebrate with a Pepsi Max.

This is one of my favorite advertisements of all time.

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2. Amazon Alexa (2022)

This is one of the funnier ads from the last few years.

We are in the home of the A-list couple Colin Jost and Scarlett Johansson. Colin is showing how the Amazon Alexa device can shut the blinds and turn on the TV for the game.

Scarlett says, “It’s almost like Alexa can read your mind,” and we are taking inside their heads as we see an Alexa revealing their true inner thoughts throughout the day.

The result is funny and good for a laugh.

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1. Snickers (2010)

This is the start of the Snickers’ campaign, “You are not you when you are hungry. Snickers satisfies.”

At the beginning of the commercial, we see an 88-year-old Betty White being blocked, hit and tackled in a heated football game between friends.

His friend yells, “Mike, you are playing like Betty White out there.”

Someone from the sidelines gives “Betty White” a Snickers, and Mike is suddenly a young man.

At the end we see an 88-year-old Abe Vigoda getting tackled behind the line of scrimmage. This is one of the funniest concepts for a television commercial of all time.

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There are so many more funny commercials that are not on this list. I only looked back fifteen years, but there were lots of funny ads before the ones on this list.

Also, commercials not made in the U.S. are sometimes a little edgier which can make for some hilarious advertisements.

What are your favorite funny ads? Feel free to add your thoughts in the comments.

As always, thanks for reading!

If you like my listicles, you can find the complete list of them here, organized by subject: The Unabridged List of All of my Listicles

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