A screen shot of the parody commercial.

With the coronavirus preventing the late night talk shows and entertainment shows to take place (other than low-resolution videos from home), one professionally made sketch stole the show with laughs.

It was a parody commercial for items you can get during the pandemic at the Tyler-based Brookshire’s Food & Grocery. The show used “Bartenson’s Grocery Store” with the font, red and green colors and logo with the signature leaf exactly the same as Brookshire’s.

The video, which aired on NBC, was viewed almost 2 million times on the SNL Facebook page.

It also featured one of the biggest names in comedy, Kate McKinnon, who has appeared in six major movies. Since joining SNL in 2012, she has entertained audiences with her impersonations of Hillary Clinton and Attorney General Jeff Sessions, and has gone as far as portraying Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Robert Mueller, Rudy Giuliani, Sen. Lindsey Graham, Ruth Bader Ginsberg and others. She is also known for playing Justin Bieber and Ellen DeGeneres.

Playing alongside of McKinnon in the 2 minute and 28 second sketch was Aidy Bryant. The duo have been nominated for an Emmy Award.

The “commercial” starts with the two saying chicken, milk, eggs, soap and bread might be “flying off the shelves,” but customers might want to buy some items that were “extremely in stock” so much that “we can’t get rid of them.”

They showed a few items like frozen Hawaiian pizza you can get, then showed fake products like mint Pringles, fluoride bananas, Boy Scout cookies, oat milk pizza, crab flavored Pepsi and Pepto Bismol Oreo’s.

They did say the store is dependable and added “we want to give you what you want, but first you have to buy what we have!”

On Tuesday, Brookshire’s CEO Brad Brookshire and Chief Operating Officer Trent Brookshire dressed up the same as McKinnon and Bryant and posed like the comedy duo in three photos. They posted on the Brookshire’s Facebook and Instagram pages.

With the photos came the caption from the Brookshire’s, “From your friends at Brookshire’s grocery store (not to be confused with Saturday Night Live’s Bartenson’s Grocery Store), we wanted to let you all know that we are out of stock of Mint Pringles, Dasani Clorox wipes, Pepto Bismal Oreos and Peeps Soup. But don’t worry, we have substitutes!”

The response on social media was positive.

On Instagram, amyrica said “We watched this and immediately knew they were spoofing Brookshire’s! (Though I’ve never seen anything even remotely close to those products for sale.) We LOVE our small town grocery store and are so thankful for y’all! FYI, we are in Comanche, TX, and they deserve lots of love!!! ❤️”

Here are the comments from Facebook:

David Dobbs, “Great job Brad and Trent. So thankful for all you do for this community!!”

Karen Franklin, “I wish I had watched SNL that night. My son works for Brookshires in Longview. All associates have worked so hard keeping up with all this craziness. Love yall!”

Pam Lisner, “It’s great that with everything going on, you can still have some fun! Thanks for what you do for our community!”

Amy Guice Bartley, “Son and dad team! Love it”

Jesi Mckenzie, “This is adorable!! Great work you guys!!”

Steven Bennett, “Love working for BGC!! Great job!”

Deanna Jezior Holmes, “Love Brookshires and Super One. Don’t get like others stores . That’s why I shop you guys.”

Linda Thomas Tinsley, “I saw that on SNL and noticed the similarity. I love Brookshires and have been ordering groceries when I can’t go in to shop.”

Penny Nelson, “Love it! Trent Brookshire…you haven’t changed a bit since you were my store director in Forney, Tx like 10 years ago!”

It has been a busy week for Brookshire’s. Over 15,000 masks are available for employees and the store announced other measures to keep customers and employees safe. There was a story on the front page of the Tyler Morning Telegraph Wednesday showing what was being done for safety and the stocking of items customers are looking for.

But the most popular story was the announcement of bonuses for employees and six weeks of pay increases.

Brookshire Grocery Co. was founded in 1928, by Wood T. Brookshire. While many people were surprised to see a local, family-owned grocery store featured on a national program, there is a reason.

Brookshire’s now has 180 stores in three states, Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas.