Kool-Aid Man Gets Held Accountable for His Actions in 'Saturday Night Live' Parody

Times have changed a great deal since the Kool-Aid man first burst through the wall to bring thirsty kids a cool refreshing drink and now the iconic character is being held accountable for his destructive ways in a new Saturday Night Live parody.

The sketch, which aired last night, features the Kool-Aid man doing what he does best by bursting through walls with his jug of cherry Kool-Aid, shouting his catchphrase "Oh yeah!" while adoring young boys watch, declaring that they want to be just like the exuberant jug-shaped character.

However, this isn't just a feel-good commercial. Slowly the adoring young men are shown growing up to be men emulating the Kool-Aid Man's destructive ways and generally making a menace of themselves -- actions that are no longer celebrated. "Something finally changed," the narrator somberly announces, and the "message" of the faux ad is revealed: the Kool-Aid men of today have to do better because future Kool-Aid men are watching.

The whole sketch is a clever parody of Gillette's recent "We Believe" ad. In that ad, the 117-year-old razor company takes its 30-year-old slogan, "The Best a Man Can Get", and turns it into a question and asks the audience if negative behavior among men -- bullying, sexism, sexual misconduct, and other deeds that can be wrapped into the concept of toxic masculinity -- is truly fitting with that phrase. The ad utilizes scenes of young men emulating the bad behavior they witness adult males engaging in and suggests that men need to be held accountable because young men are watching and that they can do better than the harmful behaviors that have become shorthand for what it means to be a man.

The Gillette ad has stirred a lot of controversy since it's released with many responding online that the ad is an attack on men while others have defended the ad with the counterargument that it suggests that being a man is more than, in the absolutely most basic possible terms, being mean. Saturday Night Live's Kool-Aid Man parody doesn't quite take on the controversy, but it does borrow from the Gillette ad in tone and in one part in visuals as well. The scene in which a news anchor is reporting on Kool-Aid Man controversies contains several of the exact same pieces of footage from the Gillette ad.

Saturday Night Live's Kool-Aid Man parody sketch is just the latest pop culture parody for the long-running NBC series. The series regularly takes a shot at things making headlines or stirring the cultural consciousness. In December, the show took on the Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer bullying controversy while last fall, the series poked fun at the popularity of Fortnite in a hilarious skit starring Star Wars star Adam Driver.

What do you think about Saturday Night Live's Kool-Aid Man parody? Let us know in the comments below.