Christopher Guest's bizarre PetSmart commercials are funnier than most sitcoms

By Fusion Staff  |  February 23, 2015 | 9:01pm
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Christopher Guest, the filmmaker who brought you This Is Spinal Tap, Waiting for Guffman, and Best in Show, has directed a PetSmart campaign about obsessed-to-the-point-of-mental-illness dog parents. These mockumentary-style TV spots are artfully deadpan and seemingly improv-heavy; a lost Busy Bee would definitely not feel out of place here.

Two of these commercials debuted during the Oscars ceremony last night, one starring Anna Faris and the other Jennifer Coolidge — Guest ensemble regular, Stifler’s mom, and all-around American treasure.

Faris invites friends (some human, some canine) over to celebrate her terrier Stanley’s fifth birthday and trade humblebrags.

Coolidge plays a sublimely spacy mother-in-law intent on renaming her grandpuppies. (“I’m going to call the yellow one Expressway. I’m going to call the other one Gary.”)

You can watch more Guest-directed ads on PetSmart’s YouTube channel: in one, a woman considers nursing her Pomeranian, and in another, a man sleeps in the bathtub so his Yorkie can enjoy his bed.

Molly Fitzpatrick is senior editor of Fusion’s Pop & Culture section. Her interests include movies about movies, TV shows about TV shows, and movies about TV shows, but not so much TV shows about movies.

 
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