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Schiller Visions: Hidden Camera Commercials
SKETCH-O-VISION
A VERY GOOD USE OF YOUR TIME.
The setup
Watch on YouTube
Watch onYouTube
The premise
Here’s the bit.
A Swedish television correspondent introduces a report on the American craze for hidden camera commercials. In the polished version, a restaurant diner is told he has been drinking decaffeinated instant coffee and cheerfully admits it tastes just like the real thing. The correspondent then shows an unused take in which the same reveal sends the diner into a purple-faced fury: he curses the crew, wrecks the dining room and ends up buried under a pile of waiters. A satellite hookup with the bandaged victim, asked how he feels, supplies the deadpan closer.
The funny people
Meet the cast. 2
Say it with us
Highly quotable.
Are you aware, sir, that you are drinking Colombian decaffeinated coffee crystals?
It took 264 hidden camera customers before that reaction was obtained.
Angry.
Behind the scenes
The people who made it.
A little extra
Notes from the archive.
This film from Tom Schiller aired in the November 16, 1991 episode hosted by Linda Hamilton, with Mariah Carey as musical guest.
Script
Automatically generated script; wording may contain errors. Speaker labels are inferred.
- 00:02
Knorben Knussen
From Sweden, Shiller Visions. Tonight, hidden camera commercials. What are they hiding?
- 00:09
Are you aware, sir, that you are drinking Colombian decaffeinated coffee crystals?
- 00:13
Michael Huff
Am I? Why, it's delicious. It tastes like rich-bodied regular coffee.
- 00:18
Knorben Knussen
It took 264 hidden camera customers before that reaction was obtained. I am Knorben Knusen for Swedish Television One, and tonight we are going to examine the American craze of hidden camera commercials, particularly what doesn't make it to your home television set. Watch this unused camera take.
- 00:38
Sir, do you realize that you are not drinking regular coffee, but Colombian decaffeinated coffee crystals?
- 00:44
Michael Huff
What?
- 00:45
I said you're drinking Colombian decaf coffee crystals.
- 00:58
Michael Huff
What? You son of a bitch! You no good And shit! Son of a bitch! No! No! No, no, no! You lied to me! You lied to me! You told me this was good!
- 01:20
Just do it!
- 01:33
Michael Huff
get you! I'll kill you all! I'll kill you all! God is my witness! God is my witness! I'll kill you all! As God is my witness!
- 01:59
Knorben Knussen
now live from Shreveport, Louisiana, via International Satellite Hookup, the victim of that hidden camera commercial, Michael Hough. Mr. Hough, how do you feel about your experience on hidden camera?
- 02:13
Michael Huff
Angry.
- 02:15
Knorben Knussen
Thank you. And thank you from Swedish Television. Good night. This has been a presentation of Swedish Television One.
The rabbit hole continues
One more couldn’t hurt.
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