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Arby's
The setup
The funny people
Meet the cast. 5
Say it with us
Highly quotable.
It's five heaping piles of tender roast beef for only ten measly dollars.
Arby's, we have the meats.
How many sandwiches do you get from one cow?
The premise
Here’s the bit.
A fake Arby's ad promotes five stacked roast beef sandwiches for ten dollars, but the customers brought in to praise the deal cannot stop doing the math. They question how any restaurant could sell that much meat for so little, press the reps on where it comes from and what animal it is, and get sidetracked when a voice sells them Taco Bell's five-dollar box and Wendy's four-for-four. When they realize the announcer is Ving Rhames, he insists he is physically present in every Arby's, and the ad ends by pivoting to a pricier three-sandwich offer they can finally believe.
A little extra
Notes from the archive.
The sketch riffs on real fast-food value deals of the time, including Arby's five-for-ten roast beef offer and Taco Bell's $5 Box.
Script
Automatically generated script; wording may contain errors. Speaker labels are inferred.
- 00:00
Ving Rhames
It's back, the Arby's 5 for 10. That's right, you get five Arby's roast beef sandwiches for only $10. That's five stacked, juicy roast beef sandwiches for just $10. What do you have to say about that?
- 00:17
Bowen Yang
I guess all I have to say is, how?
- 00:22
Cecily Strong
Yeah, yeah, that just seems like a lot of roast beef sandwiches for $10.
- 00:27
Ving Rhames
it's five heaping piles of tender roast beef for only ten measly dollars can you even believe it
- 00:37
Keke Palmer
Honestly, no
- 00:39
Mikey Day
yeah we're struggling to understand the physics of how this much roast beef is ten dollars
- 00:46
Keke Palmer
because isn't one roast beef sandwich normally at least five dollars
- 00:50
Ving Rhames
i bet you never thought ten $10 could get you five mountains of roast beef.
- 00:58
Mikey Day
No, that's exactly what we're saying. We don't think it's possible.
- 01:02
Keke Palmer
I just googled roast beef at the grocery store, and it sells for $11 a pound. But you're saying...
- 01:09
Ving Rhames
We're giving you pound after pound of roast beef for just $10?
- 01:14
Mikey Day
Yeah, see, that's what's throwing us off. Because if roast beef is $11 a pound, I mean, I know bread is super cheap, but it's not negative dollars.
- 01:22
Keke Palmer
Like, Arby's is a for-profit business, right? Like, your goal is to make money?
- 01:29
Mikey Day
Because I can make five roast beef sandwiches at home for $10. I don't think I can make five roast beef sandwiches for less than $30.
- 01:37
Keke Palmer
So I guess we're wondering, where are you getting all this roast beef?
- 01:43
Ving Rhames
Arby's. We have the meats.
- 01:46
Cecily Strong
No, no, no. That doesn't answer his question. We know you have the meats, But where are you getting the meats?
- 01:53
Bowen Yang
Yeah. Also, what kind of meats?
- 01:57
Ving Rhames
And over at Taco Bell, don't miss the new $5 box.
- 02:02
Bowen Yang
Wait, what?
- 02:04
Ving Rhames
You get a Chalupa Supreme, a beefy five-layer burrito, cinnamon twists, nacho cheese and chips, and a 20-ounce soda for only $5.
- 02:16
Cecily Strong
Oh, my God. Is that real?
- 02:19
Ving Rhames
Look it up. It's the $5 box, only at Taco Bell.
- 02:24
Bowen Yang
OK, OK, I don't like that you changed the subject to Taco Bell, because now I have a lot of questions about this $5 box. You get multiple burritos, and cinnamon twists, and chips with nacho cheese, and a giant soda for $5? How can that physically happen? That means each full burrito is like $0.70.
- 02:45
Ving Rhames
So Arby's is looking pretty good by comparison, right?
- 02:49
Cecily Strong
no no this all sounds horrible and I thought the four-for-four menu at Wendy's was insane
- 02:57
Bowen Yang
Ooh, what's that?
- 02:58
Ving Rhames
Oh, that's a full cheeseburger an order of chicken tenders fries and a soda for $4
- 03:05
Bowen Yang
mmm sounds suspicious
- 03:08
Cecily Strong
hold on Ving Rhames you do the voiceover in the store
- 03:13
Ving Rhames
that's right I'm physically present at every Arby's location. Arby's. We have the meats. I'm sorry.
- 03:21
Cecily Strong
And you think the Wendy's deal sounds suspicious?
- 03:25
Bowen Yang
You're the ones offering five giant...
- 03:27
Ving Rhames
Towers.
- 03:28
Bowen Yang
...of roast beef for $10.
- 03:32
Cecily Strong
How many sandwiches do you get from one cow?
- 03:35
Ving Rhames
Oh, I don't know. A million?
- 03:38
Cecily Strong
But we'd honestly rather pay more and get less roast beef. then we wouldn't be worried so much about where it came from
- 03:45
Ving Rhames
okay so how much for how much
- 03:47
Bowen Yang
okay i don't know i guess two roast beef sandwiches for 12 dollars i think three for 15.
- 03:54
Cecily Strong
you're gonna eat three roast beef sandwiches
- 03:56
Ving Rhames
hey oh you do not shame me not in my debut arby's commercial Arby's. New three for 15 you'll pay a little more but at least you'll understand how it could physically be possible
The rabbit hole continues
One more couldn’t hurt.
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