A Saturday Night Live skit parodying an ad for a company that replaces cracked car windshields earned a rebuke from the company on Monday.
The hit NBC variety show aired a pre-recorded sketch in which a Safelite AutoGlass technician is depicted as a creepy would-be pedophile who hits on a customer’s 17-year-old daughter.
The skit is a spoof of an original commercial in which a suburban mother summons a Safelite technician to her car in a high school parking lot while she watches her daughter play for the basketball team.
In the ad, the technician fixes the woman’s windshield while she cheers on her daughter in the high school gymnasium.
After the game, the mother and her daughter return to their car. They are greeted in the parking lot by the technician, who asks: ‘How did you do?’
‘We won,’ the young girl enthusiastically replies before high-fiving the technician.
A Saturday Night Live skit parodying an ad for a company that replaces cracked car windshields earned a rebuke from the company, it was reported on Monday. SNL cast member Beck Bennett is seen above portraying a Safelite AutoGlass technician
The skit also features Aidy Bryant (left) as a suburban mother and fellow cast member Melissa Villasenor, who plays her daughter who is competing in a high school basketball game
After the sketch aired, the real-life Safelite AutoGlass responded to comments on social media from people who believed that the company approved the skit
The SNL skit takes the concept and exaggerates the technician’s friendliness toward his customers.
‘At Safelite, we know how busy life can be,’ says Ken the ‘technician’, played by cast member Beck Bennett.
Ken goes on to describe how a working mother was driving her daughter to a high school championship basketball game.
The mother, played by Aidy Bryant, has Ken fix her windshield while she watches her daughter, played by fellow cast member Melissa Villasenor, compete in the basketball game.
Afterward, Ken greets the mother and daughter in the parking lot.
Bryant’s character orders a Safelite technician after seeing her cracked windshield
Bennett’s character arrives and fixes the windshield while creepily hitting on Villasenor’s character
‘How did the game go?’ he asks.
‘We won,’ Villasenor’s character replies.
The mother compliments Ken for replacing the windshield before departing.
In the next frame of the skit, the scene repeats itself, though it quickly became apparent that Ken was intentionally cracking the windshield and replacing it as a way to pursue the young girl.
After Ken asks the girl how the game went, she replied: ‘We destroyed them.’
He then proceeds to stare awkwardly at Villasenor’s character.
‘Your daughter must be tall for her age,’ he tells the mother.
‘She’s 17,’ she says.
The ad is a spoof of an original commercial in which a suburban mother summons a Safelite technician to her car in a high school parking lot while she watches her daughter play for the basketball team
After the game, the mother and her daughter return to their car. They are greeted in the parking lot by the technician, who asks: ‘How did you do?’ ‘We won,’ the young girl enthusiastically replies before high-fiving the technician
‘So, basically a full woman,’ the technician says.
In the final scene, the mother finds a tool that Ken has been using to crack the windshield on purpose.
When Ken expresses interest in both the mother and the daughter, the mother slams him against the car door in disgust.
After the sketch aired, the real-life Safelite AutoGlass responded to comments on social media from people who believed that the company approved the skit.
‘We weren’t involved in creating it and we’re really disappointed in [SNL] for airing it,’ the company’s Twitter handle posted.
In another tweet, the company wrote: ‘We were surprised by this. Our techs work hard to help our customers. The skit SNL showed was disappointing.’
Addressing SNL on Twitter, the company posted: ‘Thanks for the skit. Although we can take a joke, this one was a step too far. Our techs are our heroes.’
The company added the hashtag #notcool.