“Spirit Halloween” reacts sharply to “Saturday Night Live” parody

Spirit Halloween gave a surprising answer Saturday Night Liveis a skit parodying the popular seasonal Superstore in last weekend's Season 50 premiere.

The sketch in question is pretty routine SNL commercial parody that positions Spirit as a Habitat for Humanity-like organization that invades devastated American cities to stimulate the economy… but only for six weeks a year.

“When others leave, we come,” says a Spirit employee in a voiceover. “We don’t see a dead-end city. We don't see any abandoned K-Mart. We see a ghost, a ghost Halloween,” the ad continues. “Thanks to us, what was once a disused AutoZone where a murder occurred is once again a thriving business…where a murder occurred.”

Accordingly SNLSpirit Halloween provides “vulnerable communities with the things they need most: rash-inducing wigs, disposable fog machines, and famous character costumes customized just enough to avoid a lawsuit.”

Surprisingly, Spirit issued an incredibly astute response to the parody, calling the venerable sketch show “irrelevant.” The company retweeted the skit with the caption, “We're great at raising things from the dead, @nbcsnl,” along with a hastily photoshopped image of an “Irrelevant 50-Year-Old TV Show” costume. The packaging reads: “Contains outdated references, unknown actors, declining ratings.”

What particularly upset Spirit about the commercial parody is unclear, as it's fairly harmless SNL Standards. Neither the show nor NBC have responded to Spirit's comments. Although it's worth nothing that the store's response follows a tired meme format that produces parody costumes using its branding.

A temporary Halloween store calling everything “irrelevant” is certainly bold, but the brand couldn't have picked a worse time to jump on it Saturday Night Live. In addition to the excitement surrounding the milestone anniversary, the debut of the 50th season recorded the series' highest ratings for a premiere episode since 2020. Jason Reitman's film also contributes to the series' cultural moment Saturday eveninga well-reviewed biopic about the assembly of SNLis the pilot episode from 1975. It premiered to great acclaim in New York and Los Angeles last weekend and opens nationwide on October 11th.

SNL The series also draws particularly large viewers in election years, and this season's revolving door of guest stars guarantees a lively run for at least the next five weeks – about seven days after “Spirit” packs up and leaves town.