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Arby's

Saturday Night LiveSNL
SKETCH-O-VISION
A VERY GOOD USE OF YOUR TIME.

The setup

An Arby's roast beef deal sounds so good that its own customers refuse to believe it.

Community rating

– / 10

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.

ScriptEnglish · 42 turns

Automatically generated script; wording may contain errors. Speaker labels are inferred.

  1. 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?

  2. 00:17

    Bowen Yang

    I guess all I have to say is, how?

  3. 00:22

    Cecily Strong

    Yeah, yeah, that just seems like a lot of roast beef sandwiches for $10.

  4. 00:27

    Ving Rhames

    it's five heaping piles of tender roast beef for only ten measly dollars can you even believe it

  5. 00:37

    Keke Palmer

    Honestly, no

  6. 00:39

    Mikey Day

    yeah we're struggling to understand the physics of how this much roast beef is ten dollars

  7. 00:46

    Keke Palmer

    because isn't one roast beef sandwich normally at least five dollars

  8. 00:50

    Ving Rhames

    i bet you never thought ten $10 could get you five mountains of roast beef.

  9. 00:58

    Mikey Day

    No, that's exactly what we're saying. We don't think it's possible.

  10. 01:02

    Keke Palmer

    I just googled roast beef at the grocery store, and it sells for $11 a pound. But you're saying...

  11. 01:09

    Ving Rhames

    We're giving you pound after pound of roast beef for just $10?

  12. 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.

  13. 01:22

    Keke Palmer

    Like, Arby's is a for-profit business, right? Like, your goal is to make money?

  14. 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.

  15. 01:37

    Keke Palmer

    So I guess we're wondering, where are you getting all this roast beef?

  16. 01:43

    Ving Rhames

    Arby's. We have the meats.

  17. 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?

  18. 01:53

    Bowen Yang

    Yeah. Also, what kind of meats?

  19. 01:57

    Ving Rhames

    And over at Taco Bell, don't miss the new $5 box.

  20. 02:02

    Bowen Yang

    Wait, what?

  21. 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.

  22. 02:16

    Cecily Strong

    Oh, my God. Is that real?

  23. 02:19

    Ving Rhames

    Look it up. It's the $5 box, only at Taco Bell.

  24. 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.

  25. 02:45

    Ving Rhames

    So Arby's is looking pretty good by comparison, right?

  26. 02:49

    Cecily Strong

    no no this all sounds horrible and I thought the four-for-four menu at Wendy's was insane

  27. 02:57

    Bowen Yang

    Ooh, what's that?

  28. 02:58

    Ving Rhames

    Oh, that's a full cheeseburger an order of chicken tenders fries and a soda for $4

  29. 03:05

    Bowen Yang

    mmm sounds suspicious

  30. 03:08

    Cecily Strong

    hold on Ving Rhames you do the voiceover in the store

  31. 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.

  32. 03:21

    Cecily Strong

    And you think the Wendy's deal sounds suspicious?

  33. 03:25

    Bowen Yang

    You're the ones offering five giant...

  34. 03:27

    Ving Rhames

    Towers.

  35. 03:28

    Bowen Yang

    ...of roast beef for $10.

  36. 03:32

    Cecily Strong

    How many sandwiches do you get from one cow?

  37. 03:35

    Ving Rhames

    Oh, I don't know. A million?

  38. 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

  39. 03:45

    Ving Rhames

    okay so how much for how much

  40. 03:47

    Bowen Yang

    okay i don't know i guess two roast beef sandwiches for 12 dollars i think three for 15.

  41. 03:54

    Cecily Strong

    you're gonna eat three roast beef sandwiches

  42. 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

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