Comedian Cole Escola’s orange juice commercial has a dark twist

The fact that the leading brand of orange juice is shockingly high in sugar proves altogether too much for one innocuous-looking suburban mother in “Mom Commercial,” a sketch by New York comedian Cole Escola. The ad parody begins normally enough, with Escola’s plaid-clad domestic doyenne delivering the usual direct-to-camera testimony about the everyday hassles of motherhood, such as “packing lunches and rides to soccer practice.” But then, the ad takes an unsignaled left turn into darkly comedic territory, when the mother confesses to abandoning her family for several months, during which she immersed herself in a world of drugs, death metal, and dog fighting. There may have been a murder or two in there as well, but she doesn’t feel comfortable discussing it. Having endangered her own children with the likes of Minute Maid and Tropicana, this mother began to doubt whether she should even be allowed to care for children and thus went on a scary, self-destructive bender. Fortunately, she came to her senses, returned home, and started giving her kids the less sugary, more nutritious Happy Orange brand juice.